Movies on Satellite TV You Watch for the Soundtracks

Sometimes a movie is all about the music. Many directors are not only great story tellers, they also have a great ear for music, and they pack their movies with the most hypnotic and unforgettable tunes. Sometimes this does backfire and you end up with a mediocre movie but a killer soundtrack. Sometimes the movie simply ends up being an entertaining music video. Here’s a look at some movies that are nothing without the beats and tunes playing in the background. Check them out on satellite TV.

Young Adam: This relatively low key British flick didn’t really hit it big in any sense. It came and went. Despite starring Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton and Peter Mullan, ‘Adam’ didn’t make a lasting cinematic dent. It did have great, lush HD worthy visuals though, and more importantly, the soundtrack was scored by David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame. Byrnes’ compositions pitch dark violins against throaty double basses and you get a somewhat moody, dreamlike soundscape. The last song you hear is Great Western Road, which simply sings despair—it’s big and dramatic and subtle all at once, the perfect end to a movie based on an old existential novel.

Lost in Translation: While this movie won all sorts of accolades and Oscar nods, the truth is that some people love it while others hate it. It is remarkably well shot—it looks great, and you can’t not watch it on some large flat screen HD TV and sigh at all its loveliness; but even if you’re not such a fan of the film itself, you can’t help but fall in love with the soundtrack. It’s hip and pleasant. It’s like aural candy. It’s filled with shoegazing tunes that make Tokyo look like a brilliant indie kid’s dream. Great for putting on your iPod.

Lost Highway: This is a David Lynch film which does its best to cloud your head with visions of dark and odd things. The movie is surreal and odd and discomfiting. The soundtrack though, is palatable and likeable. It really just works. Watch the movie in HD and enjoy the music on high fi speakers.

Empire Records: This was a film that really tries to be cool and it’s somewhat hard to believe in it; but it’s got a really catching soundtrack with tunes that will get inside your head like some nefariously darling ohrworm.

Vanilla Sky: Cameron Crowe’s remake of the remarkably good Spanish film wasn’t spectacular—the original was, for many, better left untouched. But Crowe, who used to work for Rolling Stone does have a keen ear. In his version Abre los Ojos, Crowe packs in a little bit of Buckley, some Good Vibrations, Sigur Ros and some Radiohead. It’s a good little mix of atmospheric rock and straight up pop.

Trainspotting: Danny Boyle managed to make a great cultish film with a great soundtrack as well. The movie, starring a young Ewan McGregor, was about a group of heroin addicts living in London in the nineties. It was very zeitgeisty as were all the tunes. As a whole, it worked out well. The music fits the movie.