40. “Inception” (2010) – Hans Zimmer
So influential that we had not one but several debates on how many ‘a’s to use when writing “BRAAAM!” (we settled on just the 3), the most famous motif from the “Inception” soundtrack was put together by Zack Hemsey for the trailer, using elements of Zimmer’s score. His music for Christopher Nolan‘s trippy triumph is a lot more than just that one Fart of God noise —a glitchy, tense, propulsive masterclass in tension-building that seems to glide and skim off the action beats of the thiller-ish, dream-weaving narrative when it’s not actively urging it forward. Don’t believe us? Stick on “Mombasa” and enjoy your instant anxiety attack.
39. “Ghost Dog” (2000) – The RZA
Perhaps the most striking element of Jim Jarmusch’s inspired and droll ninja assassin dramedy is the groundbreaking use of hip-hop employed to juxtapose the sleek and enigmatic presence of the title character (a superb Forest Whitaker). Composed by the RZA, abbot of The Wu-Tang Clan, the innovative, minimalistic score —dark, shadowy beats with evocative Shaolin-like samples and traditional Chinese instrumentation— is hypnotic and goes down well with puffs of weed and the ninth reading of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.” Exotic and mysterious, if this music feels ever so slightly dated by 2016, it’s only because its moody boom bap was so damn ahead of its time back in the day
38. “The Hateful Eight” (2015) – Ennio Morricone
Quentin Tarantino’s most recent pastiche —an Agatha Christie whodunit, a twitchy chamber drama and snowy Western— is an unmerciful, often nasty picture. Naturally, Ennio Morricone, the king of Spaghetti Westerns, delivers his all: vintage dusty symphonies and cinemascope-powered musical overtures, but also elegiac and sinister suspense. Like a stagecoach fatefully on the way to its wintry hell, the operatic threat of violence slowly builds, and this is where ominous notes of horror being to unthaw. Both intimate and epic in scale, Morricone does QT’s 70mm grandeur justice and gives life to brutal characters. Along the way, his eerie chimes signal the composer’s endgame: a haunting requiem for a massacre.
37. “Enemy” (2014) – Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans
Indie composers Bensi and Jurriaans have scored roughly 5,500 movies in the last three years. Ok, that’s a baldfaced lie, but the highly sought-after, often dissonantly-inclined musicians have become the go-to-guys for myriad directors hoping to imbue their films with a sense of psychic vertigo. Which makes for a perfect team-up with Denis Villeneuve on his head swirling, Kafka-esque doppelganger film “Enemy.” Atonal and enigmatic, like the film it complements, the duo’s score is a summary lesson in minimalist unease. Both anti-melodic and strangely lush, their discordant drones make for a single-minded eeriness. Much like the characters in the movie fighting for their identities, the haunting score cleaves you in two.
36. “Brooklyn” (2015) – Michael Brook
Despite its title, director John Crowley’s “Brooklyn” is not achingly hip, (or gentrified and past its prime): it’s genuinely intimate and earnest in a way not many modern movies allow themselves to be. It’s a lovely little film and much credit is due to its gorgeous, unshowy score. A coming of age movie about identity and grieving for the fragments of our former lives gone by, the music of “Brooklyn” is truly heartbreaking: a lyrical goodbye to an innocence lost. Tender, like an embrace from someone you once loved but had to leave, this is humbly bittersweet like the story it tells: extraordinary in the way it does full, heartswelling justice to the stories of ordinary lives.
35. “Inherent Vice” (2014) – Jonny Greenwood
So symbiotic it’s hard to tell who is doing whom the favor, director Paul Thomas Anderson and composer/Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood have gone four for four on indelible soundtracks. But dizzy though the heights of “Junun” and “The Master” are, Greenwood’s work on “Inherent Vice” just pips them – mainly for unexpectedness. Knitting together the song choices (it’s also on our Best Soundtracks list) this score is a smorgasbord from sunny acoustic folk to paranoiac analog-electronica to traditional noir to bendy philharmonic jags like an orchestra’s being forced at gunpoint to detune. We knew Greenwood could do mood and mystery but the goofiness is a delightful surprise.
34. “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” (2013) – Daniel Hart
What David Lowery‘s under-seen lovers-on-the-lam movie may lack in storytelling dynamism, it makes up for in wonderful, cared-for craft, from its impressive central performances from Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster, to its evocative, sun-dappled cinematography, to its lovely score by Daniel Hart (who also scores Lowery’s gorgeous 2016 title “Pete’s Dragon“). Luxuriant washes of strings – violins and cellos – underlie upper registers of bluegrass-inspired banjo-esque mandolin, and are buttressed by rhythmic hand-clapping percussion. It creates a unique and hypnotic sound: folksy but also grand; full of slightly magical lilts but also lived-in and worn-down, ground to dust that blows away on warm prairie winds.
33. “Trouble Every Day” (2001) – Tindersticks
Claire Denis’ collaborations with Tindersticks are always special, the problem was which one to choose. There are lighter, more melodic options like the “Nenette et Boni” score, and there is the heavy-breathing minimalism of 2013’s “Bastards.” Ultimately we opted for “Trouble Every Day,” which lies somewhere between those poles. It may be one of the less stand-alone scores on this list, but it runs the gamut from austere, tension-building strings to the broad, melodic hummability of the opening title track. That opener is simply a great Tindersticks song: romantic and lugubrious in equal measure, like pausing to marvel at the beauty of a devastating oncoming storm
32. “The Virgin Suicides” (2000) – Air
As close to a blockbuster score as early 00s indie cinema yielded, Air’s music for Sofia Coppola’s debut is worth another listen in the context of their previous, breakthrough album. It was Moon Safari that inspired Coppola to approach them, but the score they turned in is a lot less lounge-lizard, electropop cool, and a lot darker and stranger. Tracks like “Clouds Up,” “Playground Love” (sung by Phoenix’s Thomas Mars) and “Dirty Trip,” (which is all melodic basslines, ominous sound effects, analog synths and funeral, heavy rock organ), that this is kind of their Dark Side of the Moon, and it plays off the retro track selection in ways that border, like the film, on the mystical.
31.“Fright Night Lights” (2004)— Explosions In The Sky
Having spawned an enormously popular TV show, it’s easy to have forgotten the movie “Friday Night Lights” which feels like a little indie compared to the longtail cultural influence of the beloved series. Similarly, it’s easy to forget how forward thinking it was to hire a gloriously anthemic post-rock band to score a movie. Tapping Austin based orchestral rockers, Explosions In The Sky, the melodramatic name says it all; sonorous guitar squalls, lilting echoes that sound like the moments before dawn and crashing crescendo waves perfect for slow motion football victory. Explosions’ soaring, slowly building musical peaks are quintessentially cinematic.