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Here’s why Pulp Fiction is totally overrated (Photo Credit – Prime Video)

It’s been 25 years, and let’s be honest: Pulp Fiction might not be the game-changer we once thought it was. Sure, Tarantino’s flick dropped jaws with its non-linear structure, killer dialogue, and mix of violence and humor. But looking back, does it still hold up, or was it just a flashy trick that’s been done a thousand times since?

The whole non-linear storytelling thing was cool back then. Tarantino threw out the rulebook, freshly connecting disconnected stories. But now? It’s not precisely mind-blowing anymore. Every indie filmmaker’s done something like that since.

And let’s talk about that violent humor combo. You’d go from a brutal shootout to a laugh-out-loud joke. Tarantino pulled it off like a pro, but it feels more like a tired formula than a wild innovation today. Shock value isn’t new anymore.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary on Oct. 14, “Pulp Fiction” has left a massive footprint on moviemaking.

Originally conceived as an anthology by writer-director Quentin Tarantino and his longtime friend, collaborator and Video Archives coworker Roger Avary, the film evolved into a funny, violent, endlessly inventive, non-linear odyssey. In addition to reviving the career of John Travolta, minting a star in Samuel L. Jackson and spawning a still-thriving cottage industry of knockoffs and imitation films, “Pulp” earned the 1994 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or, seven Academy Award nominations and one win (for Tarantino and Avary’s screenplay), while its commercial success ($213 million off of an $8.5 million budget) forever changed the economics of independent cinema.

To commemorate the legacy and impact of “Pulp Fiction,” Variety spoke with more than 20 members of the film’s cast and crew to solicit their experiences and recollections. Armed with more than 100 pages of interviews, we’ve elected...

The 1994 follow-up to Reservoir Dogs is a remarkable act of alchemy, winning over both arthouse and multiplex audiences like nothing else before it

Opening Pulp Fiction with the literal two-part definition of “pulp” is a wink and a nudge on the writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s part, funny in retrospect when the first definition aptly describes the pieces of brain and skull that are accidentally splattered across the back of a 1974 Chevy Nova. Perhaps Tarantino felt some need to offer the audience a formal introduction to the type of low-down genre trash that had always existed outside the mainstream, in lurid dimestore paperbacks or filthy grindhouse theaters. This was not going to be a typical contender for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival, let alone the actual winner.

Yet there’s a swagger to Pulp Fiction that makes you believe Tarantino, a true moviemaking savant, could see the...

Thirty years ago, it was a given that if you saw Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in theaters, you eventually bought the soundtrack. From the music to the dialogue snippets to Uma Thurman’s seductive pose on the cover, the triple platinum-selling soundtrack was a cool, take-home companion piece, something...

Big Machine Records and Surfdog Records have announced a reimagining of the late Glenn Campbell’s 2011 album, Ghost on the Canvas, out on April 19th.

Titled Glen Campbell Duets – Ghost on the Canvas Sessions, the star-studded project pairs the Rhinestone Cowboy’s original vocals with newly recorded contributions from the likes of Brian Wilson, Carole King, Dolly Parton, Elton John, and Dave Stewart. Also featured on the album are Hope Sandoval, Linda Perry, Sting, Brian Setzer, Daryl Hall, Eric Church, and Eric Clapton. Pre-orders are ongoing.

As a preview of the record, you can hear the reworkings of “Hold on Hope” with Church and “Nothing But the Whole Wide World” with Clapton below.

At the time of its release, the original Ghost on the Canvas was billed as Campbell’s farewell album. It saw the country legend teaming with a younger generation of songwriters, including Paul Westerberg, Guided by Voice’s Bob Pollard,...

This article contains spoilers for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” season 2 of “Yellowjackets” and “Beef.”

2023 has been a year saddled with head-thumpingly obvious needle drops.

Excited to see robots scuffle in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”? A key fight scene will be soundtracked to LL Cool J’s 1991 hit, “Mama Said Knock You Out.” During the trailers beforehand, a spot for the Dracula movie “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” features a remix of Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” in which Billy Corgan sings, “The world is a vampire / Sent to drain.” Chilling out after the movie to watch the new episode of “The Idol”? Prepare for star The Weeknd’s new song “Take Me Back,” which literally describes the toxic relationship between the two lead characters

Why are so many blockbuster films and some of television’s most adventurous shows addicted to cringey song choices? The unlikely...

Queens of the Stone mastermind Josh Homme has taken the band’s dusty hard rock from generator-powered shows in Palm Desert all the way to mainstream festival stages. The group’s early revolving door of members solidified into a core quintet that pushed their fuzz rock into weird new places and, eventually, something akin to pop respectability on albums like 2017’s Villains. Regardless of how one feels about Qotsa’s musical development, though, no one could accuse them of repeating themselves. At least not until In Times New Roman….

While the desert rockers’ eighth album abandons the glossy dance-rock of its predecessor, it doesn’t do so in favor of exploring new styles, sounds, or textures. The subtle slapback guitar that opens the album’s first track, “Obscenery,” immediately recalls the retro-futurism of 2007’s Era Vulgaris. The sputtering garage-rock song hops along in a characteristic stop-start staccato, as spacey synths hover ominously.

Movie soundtracks can elevate ordinary stories, adding depth and resonance to beloved films. The lasting impact of these soundtracks is evident in the instantly recognizable songs that continue to endure. Sometimes, the music becomes a movie’s highlight, compensating for weaker storylines or characters.

Classic movie musicals like West Side Story have stood the test of time, while films like The Bodyguard provided a platform for legendary artists to showcase their talents. The longevity of these soundtracks is often measured by their chart performance, reflecting their profound influence on generations.

The intertwining of music and cinema is a magical combination. The closing notes of The Breakfast Club, the era-defining mix of Dazed and Confused, and the genius of Prince in Purple Rain are just a few examples of the powerful synergy between sound and vision.

It is impossible to imagine certain movies without their iconic musical moments. Radio Raheem‘s...

People have strong opinions, both good and bad, about films directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Regardless of your opinion on the filmmaker, though there’s no denying his new releases demand to be seen – if only in order in order to debate whether they rank up there with Pulp Fiction (1994) or way down with The Hateful Eight (2017).

Even if viewers don't like a particular Tarantino film, there'll probably be a small part they do like, thanks to his knack for creating fantastic characters – not to mention casting the perfect people in those roles.

It's no surprise that actors including Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman and Leonardo DiCaprio rush to be in his films – all three of whom have delivered some of their best performances in Tarantino films.

Following news of Tarantino’s next film, which is expected to be the last before his retirement, we have ranked the director’s 30 greatest characters.

Quentin Tarantino’s classic crime drama, Pulp Fiction, has an iconic soundtrack that is full of nostalgic and upbeat songs, which give the film a powerful momentum from start to finish. The soundtrack is filled with energy and vibrancy, bringing every scene to life and elevating the entire project way beyond the words written on the page. Not a single moment of Pulp Fiction would be the same without Tarantino’s entertaining music choice, making it one of the most valuable assets in the film’s arsenal. There’s a wide range of styles and genres that play throughout the story, allowing each scene to feel distinct and new.

Although nobody can agree upon which of Tarantino’s several movies is his best, Pulp Fiction is his certainly one of his most iconic. It practically reinvented the entire genre, proving that crime films don’t need to be sad and...

Documentary Luku Ngarra has won Adelaide Film Festival’s (Aff) Change Award, while Are You Really The Universe took home the Flinders University Short Film Prize. Australian films also dominated the festival’s audience awards, with the Feature Fiction prize going to Dick Dale’s Ribspreader, while Nathaniel Schmidt and Brenda Matthews’ The Last Daughter won the Audience […]

The post ‘Luku Ngarra’, ‘Are You Really the Universe’ win Adelaide Film Festival prizes appeared first on If Magazine.

End Of The Road is a festival that keeps its promises. The cultured leftfield shindig – where croquet tournaments break out in forest glades and peacocks roam the trimmed lawns of Dorset’s Larmer Tree Gardens, unbothered by the experimental folk, rock, rap and electronic tomfoolery floating across the site – has been promising a weekend headlined by indie giants Pixies and Bright Eyes since 2020. Covid scuppered that event, and post-pandemic travel issues forced the 2021 bill to become more UK-based. But this year, Eotr puts its music where its mouth is at last, with plenty more curveballs thrown in to keep this crowd of discerning alternative music fans pleasingly off-balance.

The opening Thursday night bill is a brain-rattling case in point. On the main Woods Stage, LA’s Sudan Archives sets out to invent jig-hop, interspersing psychosexual ambient raps with ruined snippets of Irish folk played on the fiddle she brandishes throughout.

In 1971, the Cannes Film Festival opened with a screening of Gimme Shelter by Albert and David Maysles, an immersive, vérité depiction of two weeks in the touring life of the Rolling Stones. If that was all it did, it might have been forgotten by now. But by a terrible freak of chance, the filmmakers followed the band to the most notorious concert of their entire career — the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in Livermore, CA, where the Stones, along with Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, were set to perform a free concert for 300,000 people on Dec. 6, 1969. “We didn’t know what it was going to be,” Albert said later. “We just had a childish faith that having seen the Stones and getting along with them, there might be a feature film there.”

At the apparent suggestion of Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead (who...

What do the Bride, Jackie Brown, Django, Mia Wallace, Hans Landa, Cottonmouth, Stuntman Mike McKay, Mr. Pink, Charles Manson and the Gimp all have in common? For one thing, that they’re all characters in a stage musical now playing at the Bourbon Room in Hollywood.

But its creators would rather that you not call “Tarantino Live” a musical per se, or at least not boil it down strictly to that term. For one thing, its “book” — largely an amalgam of dialogue from Quentin Tarantino’s movies — is a sort of loose fantasia tying characters and themes from the films together into a surreal, seriocomic knot, more than any traditional, straight stage narrative. For another thing, the 50-plus songs from the filmmaker’s soundtracks are being licensed for an immersive concert nightclub experience, not a theatrical production… although a transfer to the legit stage is something that’s hoped for down the road.

Twenty-year-old guitar virtuoso Marcin, a.k.a. Marcin Patrzalek, has released a searing rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.”

Standing inside a parking garage, the Polish percussive fingerstyle guitarist ripped through the Physical Graffiti epic, thumping his hands across the guitar while playing Jimmy Page’s riffs. Tom Morello and Paul Stanley even praised the video, with Morello writing:”Some people are just really talented.”

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A post shared by Marcin (@marcin.music)

In 2019, Marcin appeared on the 14th season of America’s Got Talent, making it to the semi-finals.

‘When Pomegranates Howl’.

Adelaide Film Festival has revealed its full program for 2020, including the world premieres of local titles When Pomegranates Howl, Yer Old Father, This is Port Adelaide, ShoPaapaa, and more, as well as a special strand dedicated to Australian indies.

Overall, the biennial festival – due to be an entirely physical event thanks to dedicated Covid-Safe plans – has snared a total of 54 features from more than 40 countries, including 22 world premieres and 27 Australian premieres.

As previously announced, the festival will open with Seth Larney’s sci-fi thriller 2067, starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ryan Kwanten and Deborah Mailman, and will close out with the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award winner, Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari.

Stephen Johnson’s High Ground, which bowed in Berlinale, will vie in the festival’s official competition, up against Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round; Christos Nikou’s Apples, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning, Yolqin Tuychiev’s 2000 Songs of Farida,...

It makes sense that Ryan Kattner of Man Man would release his best album to date during a pandemic. His band persona, Honus Honus, is perpetually down on his luck — bizarre and lovelorn, lonely and insane — haunted. In short, he’s all of us right now.

Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between starts with a fake-out, a gorgeous instrumental called “Dreamers” that would fit perfectly in a Fifties Disney movie: a tune for Peter Pan to chase his shadow to. That segues into the cacophonous intro to “Cloud...

Tobin Sprout’s new song is kind of a downer — in the best possible way. From 1987 to 1997, when Sprout was a songwriter for Guided by Voices, his simple writing stood in contrast to frontman Robert Pollard’s bombast. That same distinctive style is on full display on “The Man I Used to Know,” his new solo single. While Pollard weaves larger than life tales of carnival barkers and otherworldly creatures, Sprout is decidedly terrestrial. His mournful, soft voice intones, “The man I used to know/He’s falling downward/Calling on the world/Goodbye/Goodbye,...

Earlier this month, guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani announced his 18th studio album, Shapeshifting. It was the latest announcement in a big year that includes the guitarist’s induction into the Metal Hall of Fame and a world tour.

Thursday, Satriani announced more details on the album, his latest in a prolific run that includes 2018’s What Happens Next, a soul album that included collaborations with drummer Chad Smith and Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes. Shapeshifting will come out on April 10th, and was co-produced by Satriani and Jim Scott (Foo Fighters,...

Recordings from Elton John, Public Enemy, Joni Mitchell, the Police and the Allman Brothers Band are among the 26 titles added to the Grammy Hall of Fame this year.

The new inductees include John’s 1972 classic “Tiny Dancer,” Mitchell’s 1969 album Clouds, Public Enemy’s 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, The Police’s 1983 hit “Every Breath You Take” and the Allman Brothers’ 1972 record, Eat a Peach.

Each year, the Grammy Hall of Fame inducts a select mix of singles and albums that are at least...

The man inside the yellow Big Bird suit; TV’s Rhoda; and a “Beverly Hills 90210” heartthrob are just a few of the beloved entertainment figures who died in 2019. Here are some of the unforgettable stars and creators of movies, TV and music who we lost this year.

Movies

Several notable directors died in 2019, including pioneering French New Wave director Agnes Varda, who died March 29 at 90. “Singin’ in the Rain” director Stanley Donen died Feb. 21 at 94, while cult movie director Larry Cohen, who helmed “It’s Alive,” died March 23 at 77. “Boyz N the Hood” director John Singleton suffered a stroke and died April 29 at 51, and renowned documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, who made “Don’t Look Back,” died Aug. 1 at 94. “Romeo and Juliet” director Franco Zeffirelli died June 15 at 96. The colorful studio executive and producer of “Chinatown” and many other films, Robert Evans, died Oct. 26 at 89.

Movie stars who died in 2019 included Doris Day,...

Griz is bursting with energy, smiling ear to ear with eyes wide as saucers when he sits down with Rolling Stone in the Bonnaroo press compound on Friday. Forty-five minutes earlier the relentlessly ebullient singer, Mc, saxophone player and all around entertainer (real name Grant Kwiecinski) was getting as turnt up as the tens-of-thousands-strong crowd watching his golden-hour sundown set at the sold-out festival. The performance was a redemption moment for Kwiecinski, whose set on the same stage at Bonnaroo 2016 was a bit of a shit show.

“We played in...

Darkness is exposed and characters depart in this week's fun episode of Riverdale Season 3.

This Riverdale review contains spoilers.

Riverdale Season 3 Episode 19

"Now do you see why I need to get the hell out of this town?"

Back in the 1990s when he was the enfant terrible of pop culture, Quentin Tarantino directed a fondly remembered episode of ER. This effort gave him the opportunity to bring his sensibilities to television with memorable results. Since then, TV has only gotten more cinematic. While Tarantino hasn't done any work for the small screen since a 2005 CSI outing, our era of prestige television has his stylish fingerprints all over it -- be it the skillful panache of Russian Doll or, well, the valentine to his work that is tonight's episode of Riverdale. Yep, you read that right.

And hooboy, this was something.

The episode not only gave us a diner hold-up scored...

Rising country crooner Logan Ledger recently released the first two singles from his eponymous debut album, produced by T Bone Burnett and due in October. “Starlight” and “Imagining Raindrops” form a resounding introduction for the California native, who works in an aesthetic best described as “Country Noir.”

“Starlight,” with its cosmic country meets Bakersfield vibe, straddles the line between Buck Owens and Dick Dale, while “Imagining Raindrops” is a wistful, classic ballad full of sorrow and warbling pedal steel. Ledger sings both like a modern George Jones with an appreciation for Chris Isaak’s stylish,...

Guitarist and pioneer of the “surf rock” genre, Dick Dale, known famously for recording the hit song “Misirlou,” which appeared as the opening song for the film Pulp Fiction, has died at 81. Dick Dale, known as the "King of Surf Guitar," has died at age 81, former bandmate confirms. https://t.co/OLYJkKWHi0 pic.twitter.com/2RQaP0FZyV — ABC News […]...

Like many of my generation, I first got hip to “Miserlou” via Agent Orange’s punked-up cover of it on their iconic 1981 Orange County punk LP Living in Darkness. I bought the record to hear their classic “Bloodstains,” but the Dick Dale cover became my favorite track on the album. And, like every human who encounters Dale’s electrified interpretation of the Eastern Mediterranean folk melody for the first time, I had my mind blown when I heard the 1962 original

By the 1980s, Dick Dale remained cult-famous — not only for...

Tony Sokol Mar 18, 2019

The King of the Surf Guitar knew his axe from the bottom up. Dick Dale elevated the instrument.

Rock and roll pioneer guitarist Dick Dale, "King of the surf guitar," died at the age of 81, according to Variety. The news was confirmed by drummer Dusty Watson. The cause and location of Dale's death have not been released.

Dick Dale was one of the original shredders of rock music. He was fast and loud enough to be called the father of Heavy Metal and he told Fender how to give their amps juice. But his aggressive staccato shredded strings and picks, just ripped through them during performance. He didn't do it out of rage, he loved his guitar, which he called The Beast, and wanted to be everywhere on it at all times when he was plugged in. He learned the instrument from the bottom up. Dale, born...

Jack White penned a tribute to Dick Dale following the King of the Surf Guitar’s death Sunday. Like a generation of guitarists before him, White was inspired by Dale’s pioneering style. “I spent many moments learning his massive reverbed guitar licks in my bedroom, and still enjoy playing his song ‘Nitro‘ whenever I can,” White wrote on the Third Man Records Instagram. “Sadly, I never got to meet him.”

In addition to developing the surf rock genre, Dale also help mold the modern electric guitar thanks to his close relationship with Leo Fender,...

Wearing his trademark headband and a leather jacket, Dick Dale played a thrilling rendition of his hit “Miserlou” — the theme music for Pulp Fiction — on the U.K. music variety show Jools’ Annual Hootenanny in 1995. The guitarist, who died on Sunday, shakes his ponytail, he hollers and he grits his teeth as he commands the tune’s breakneck tempo up until its bluesy final notes.

The song is best known as kicking in as Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer rob a diner and Plummer holds up her gun and threatens,...

Dick Dale, whose jangly, reverb-heavy surf guitar style was the soundtrack on numerous film and TV productions, died on Saturday. No cause was given, but Dale had been in ill health for a number of years, even as he kept up a crowded touring schedule.

Dale’s music was a featured attraction in such films as Pulp Fiction, Escape From L.A., Space Jam, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and Garfield 2, among many others. He was equally prolific in TV music, and even had a few acting stints, including an uncredited role in Elvis Presley’s Let’s Make Love in 1960.

But it was as a musician that Dale made an indelible mark. His versions of “Pipeline” and “Misirlou“ (the theme from Pulp Fiction) are considered rock ‘n roll classics, and Dale branded the unique surf sound on several generations of fans. He continued to tour despite a host of health problems,...

Dick Dale -- one of the most influential guitarists and rock and roll artists of all time -- has died ... TMZ has learned. Dick passed away Saturday, according to Sam Bolle, Dick's live bassist. Sam tells TMZ, "He was an original, he always did things the way he wanted to do them ... his own way. Long before punk rock, he was doing that." A pioneer in music who was known as the "King of Surf Guitar,...

Dick Dale, “the King of the Surf Guitar,” has died at the age of 81.

California Rocker first reported that Dale died Sunday. His bassist Sam Bolle confirmed Dale’s death to the Guardian. No cause of death was revealed, but the guitarist suffered from health issues in recent years. In 2010, Dale said he was battling rectal cancer, and in an interview that went viral, Dale said in 2015 that “I can’t stop touring because I will die” due to medical expenses stemming from cancer treatment, diabetes and renal failure. “I...

A feature doc about Lion and Beautiful Boy writer Luke Davies, a film about a recording studio on a remote island in the Caribbean built by Sir George Martin and a tale about underground horror filmmaker Dick Dale are some of the docs to have received funding from Screen Australia.

The Australian government-backed body has awarded A$3.5M (Us$2.5M) for 18 docs as part of its latest funding giveaway.

Milkman: The Story of Luke Davies tells the story of the author, who wrote the Australian feature Lion, which starred Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman, and Steve Carrell and Timothee Chalamet-fronted Beautiful Boy. Davies is currently working on George Clooney’s Hulu drama Catch 22. The project is directed by Davies and Eddie Martin.

Under the Volcano explores Air studios Montserrat, a state-of-the-art recording facility tucked away on a remote island in the Caribbean. Built by Beatles producer Sir George Martin, the...

Australia’s premier genre film festival, Monster Fest returns for its seventh year this November 23rd to 26th at Melbourne’s Lido Cinemas with a mix of World, Australian & Victorian Premieres! The 2017 chapter of Monster Fest, takes on a very Australian flavour – the first wave announcement includes not one, but Six(!) brand new Australian feature films, most of which will be enjoying their World Premieres at the festival.

Opening the festival is one of 2018’s most anticipated new horror flicks, Christopher Sun’s creature-feature, Boar. Now we’re huge fans of Sun here at Nerdly, especially his films Daddy’s Little Girl (a film that should have got the plaudits the more recent Hounds of Love received) and Charlie’s Farm. Sun is not the only filmmaker returning with a new film at this years Monster Fest, joining him are Daniel Armstrong (Murderdrome) with his film Tarnation; and Nerdly favourites...

Monster Fest returns for its sixth edition November 24-27 at the Lido Cinemas in Melbourne, with support from Screen Australia and Film Victoria..

Writer and programmer Kier-La Janisse joins the team as festival director alongside festival co-founder and head of Monster Pictures acquisitions Neil Foley.

They're joined on the programming team by longtime programmer for the American Cinematheque, Chris D; scholar and author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (Rape Revenge Films: A Critical History); pulp expert Andrew Nette (Beat Girls, Love Tribes and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture from the 1950s to the 1980s); film scholar and archivist Dean Brandum (Technicolor Yawn); curator Hussein Khoder (ex-Melbourne Underground Film Festival); media researcher Catherine Seccombe (ABC) and Trasharama programmer Dick Dale..

.I.m really excited about having someone of Chris D.s stature join the team this year,. said Janisse..

.He.s got exquisite taste and brings a wealth of experience to the festival.

He’s been a Hollywood star since his teens, when he starred in Class, Sixteen Candles and The Sure Thing, but thankfully John Cusack was never like the characters in David Cronenberg’s Maps To The Stars. A brutal satire about the players, wannabes and has-beens of Hollywood, Cusack plays Stafford Weiss, a self-help guru who peddles his therapies to the weak-minded. Father to the foul Benjie (Evan Bird), a rehab-hopping teen star of the ‘Bad Babysitter’ franchise, Stafford is just one of the soulless ghouls that haunts the Hollywood Hills in what is the Canadian Cronenberg’s first real foray into Tinseltown terrain.

For Cusack, it represents yet another impressive notch in a career that’s seen him work with Stephen Frears (The Grifters, High Fidelity), Woody Allen (Shadows and Fog, Bullets Over Broadway), Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich), Terence Malick (The Thin Red Line) and Clint Eastwood (Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil...

An early detail in Pulp Fiction quietly testifies to the film’s legacy. During the opening credits, after the prologue that features robbers Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) planning a diner score that will come to have great reverberations on the story that follows, there’s an audible song switch on the soundtrack. Dick Dale’s surfer cover of “Miserlou”, which serves to prime audiences for the epic, unruly party that’s to follow, transitions into Kool and the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie,” and we can hear a player halted as if to switch records to set up that second song. That’s the key part. Movies before and after Pulp Fiction have long traded in elaborate soundtracks that serve to trigger nostalgia in viewers, but director Quentin Tarantino intentionally and bluntly highlights the manipulation to great, self-aggrandizing effect>> - Chuck Bowen...

An early detail in Pulp Fiction quietly testifies to the film’s legacy. During the opening credits, after the prologue that features robbers Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) planning a diner score that will come to have great reverberations on the story that follows, there’s an audible song switch on the soundtrack. Dick Dale’s surfer cover of “Miserlou”, which serves to prime audiences for the epic, unruly party that’s to follow, transitions into Kool and the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie,” and we can hear a player halted as if to switch records to set up that second song. That’s the key part. Movies before and after Pulp Fiction have long traded in elaborate soundtracks that serve to trigger nostalgia in viewers, but director Quentin Tarantino intentionally and bluntly highlights the manipulation to great, self-aggrandizing effect>> - Chuck Bowen...

In the frenzy of news following this past weekend's premiere of Paul Thomas Anderson's "Inherent Vice" at the New York Film Festival, some eager-beavers spotted what they believed was a new Radiohead song, "Spooks," in the film's soundtrack (check it out here). But that wasn't quite accurate. An instrumental jam described as cross between The B52s and Dick Dale, the tune has been a part of the band's live set since 2006, and for fans holding out for a brand new song from Radiohead, this update might be a bit of a disappointment. Responding to word circulating around the web, Radiohead guitarist and "Inherent Vice" composer Jonny Greenwood took to Twitter to clear the air. “I rewrote ['Spooks'] and got Supergrass to play it,” he posted. “It’s good, but not very [Radiohead]!” Later clarifying that it's “only 2/3 supergrass,” Greenwood also said “it’s really a half idea we never made work live.

Update: In a tweet to Pitchfork, Jonny Greenwood has clarified Radiohead's involvement in the new song on Inherent Vice. "Except it's really a half idea we never made work live," wrote the Radiohead guitarist. "I rewrote it and got Supergrass to play it. It's good, but not very rh!"

Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice is already one of the most anticipated films of 2014, and now there's even more reason to look forward to the first big screen adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel: According to reports, an unreleased...

Every movie has to have its signature song and that certainly goes for the action-oriented males in film that are fortunate to have these finger-snapping tunes represent them on the big screen. The movie theme song indulges the audience and delivers a whole new kind of intrigue and feeling that we invest in the roguish ruffians on the big screen that some men would like to emulate and the ladies would love to cozy up to intimately.

There are music selections that do bring to mind the euphoria of the male action-packed characters we regard highly despite their moral compass. Maybe one can get excitable when hearing Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” tune for the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name? Perhaps any of the musical themes for the countless James Bond films tickle your fancy? (there are two included in this article incidentally). Your preference might be in...

Twenty years ago today, Quentin Tarantino and Harvey Weinstein unveiled the filmmaker’s sophomore movie — an ambitious anthology of crime stories, all interconnected and metatextualized — at a late Saturday night screening at the Cannes Film Festival. A little over three hours later, as the crowd staggered out of the Palais des Festivals, they knew they had an audience favorite on their hands. Soon, they would be able to add Palme d’Or winner, Best Picture Oscar nominee, the first indie film to break the $100 million mark, a gamechanger and a modern classic to the list.

The story goes that when The Beatles landed stateside in 1964, they killed surf music. But one lone surf act escaped Americans’ selective amnesia of what they had been spinning just months before: They were called The Beach Boys, and if you ask most anyone today, chances are they’ll equate the genre with the band.

Talk to a few surf music purists, however, and they’ll throw you a curveball: When The Beach Boys took over our consciousness as the official purveyors of the “sound of summer,” they killed surf music.

How does surf music kill surf music? Let’s backtrack. The Beach Boys, and similar-minded bands like Jan and Dean, were part of a school of surf rock that played up vocals and four-part harmonies. Their pop-friendly style was present in the American International Pictures beach party films of the early 1960s -- think "Beach Party" and "Beach Blanket Bingo.

The moment the guitar on Dick Dale's "Misirlou" struck on the soundtrack of "Pulp Fiction" and those giant titles slowly, methodically crawl up the screen, we knew we were in the hands of a master. And indeed, Quentin Tarantino had already established a unique ear for the songscape of his work two years prior in "Reservoir Dogs." How about the fact that no one will ever use The Meters' "Cissy Strut" better than he did in "Jackie Brown?" Or how effectively the march of Ennio Morricone's "Rabbia E Tarantella" closes out "Inglourious Basterds?" What about Elle Driver's eerie whistling of Bernard...

Quentin Tarantino has done a great deal for cinema in his twenty year career. He's helped rejuvenate and reinvent the crime genre and created an amazing bridge between art house and mainstream, but there's another big thing he's had an incredible influence on: movie soundtracks. With each new project the writer/director does, fans anticipate his selection of songs just as much as what he puts on the screen. Without Tarantino we would look at songs like "Miserlou" by Dick Dale & The Del-Tones and "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel completely differently. And so with Django Unchained due out at the end of the month we are excited to see the soundtrack that the director has assembled - and now the track listing has been revealed. Just like every other record that Tarantino has made - from Reservoir Dogs onward - there will be tracks of dialogue...

Quentin Tarantino’s movies are often defined by their soundtracks.

The moments stick with you. From Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle With You” in the brutal cop mutilation scene of Reservoir Dogs, and the surfer rock of Pulp Fiction embodied by Dick Dale & His Del-Tones’ ”Miserlou” to the anachronistic but ethereal and effective version of David Bowie’s “Cat People (Putting Out Fire)” in Inglourious Basterds as Shosanna puts on her war makeup, the man knows how to use a song.

Now we know the soundtrack to his latest, Django Unchained, a western about a slave-turned bounty hunter...

Surf guitar legend Dick Dale's son and ex-wife just got into a bit of trouble with the law. Jill and James Monsour were arrested early Monday morning on suspicion of possessing an explosive device in public after they allegedly blew up a propane tank near Dale's home in Wonder Valley, Calif., according to the Washington Post.  Investigators said the mother-son duo placed a 5-gallon tank of propane on top of a burning woodpile, which caused it to explode. The 75-year-old surf guitarist, whose guitar sounds can be heard on Pulp Fiction's theme song "Misirlou," said he was shocked when a neighbor told him about the arrests, according to the paper. Dale reportedly said he...

What films do you think have the most memorable, best conceived soundtracks? Plus, your reviews of the latest releases

Are there any films that you'd happily listen to without watching the images? Quentin Tarantino has been widely praised for his carefully assembled soundtracks – particularly those to Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction which, in the late 90s, saw Little Green Bag by the George Baker Selection and Dick Dale's Misirlou elevated to the status of meme, popping up all over the place.

What other film-makers have had such a successful handle on the music they use? Are there any songs you love which you wouldn't know about had they not been used in a movie? Have you ever bought a film soundtrack? Let us know in the thread below.

We're also keen to hear about new films you've been watching. Here's what some @guardianfilm followers had to say about movies...

Lie To Me and Reservoir Dogs Star Gets New Show

Television continues to get its act together for the forthcoming Fall 2012 schedule, and today a doozy has been announced for all avowed crime-heads. Tim Roth, star of such films as Reservoir Dogs and such TV shows as Fox’s Lie to Me, has worked a development deal with the FX network, home of our beloved Justified, to bring us a bank robber show.

A bank robber show!

Details are slim, but here’s the story according to Deadline: Roth and his co-creator on this as-yet untitled project, Homeland co-exec Alexander Cary, have received a script commitment from FX for this drama, which will star Roth, about “addiction, bank robbery, and an extremely volatile family dynamic.”

Good. I want it now. Please.

It’s a fairly vague synopsis, as one would expect at this early stage, but my finely-honed instincts are...

There's a reason you've recently had the urge to bust out your plaid shirts, Celine Dion albums and dial-up modems, as this week sees the release of two relics of the 1990s: "Titanic 3D" and "American Reunion."

Since both of these movies make us think back to a more innocent time when Monica Lewinsky was an eager young White House intern, our money wasn't on fire and Twittering was a weird body tic, we're reminiscing about that decade's most influential and essential cinematic treasures for future generations. It wasn't easy to narrow down the list (next time, "Problem Child 2," next time ...) but if we were to preserve only 25 flicks from the '90s in a time capsule, they would be these (listed in alphabetical order).

1. 'American Pie' (1999)

Losing your virginity on prom night is a rite of passage as American as … well, you know. Jim, Stifler and...