20. “8 Mile” (2002)
The 1990s was the era of the great hip-hop soundtrack: whether it was “Boyz In The Hood,” “Friday” or “Ghost Dog,” the CD shelves in record stores (hey kids, CDs were plastic circles that stored music, record stores were physical places where you could buy them) were full of great compilations. They’ve disappointingly tailed off these days —the best you get now is a “Fast & Furious” movie, and that’s not great— but the release for Curtis Hanson’s “8 Mile” was one of the last of the era. “Lose Yourself,” Eminem’s theme tune and one of the best Oscar-winning songs ever, was the headliner, but the quality goes beyond that. As a time capsule of a certain kind of early ’00s hip-hop, there’s little that can compete with the line-up here —50 Cent just before he blew up, Obie Trice, Xzibit, Nas and Jay-Z on the same album at the height of their feud!— and while not every song’s a winner, there’s way more killer than filler, especially when you include movie-only tracks.
19. “Guardians Of The Galaxy” (2014)
We live in some ways in a post-album age today, which makes it harder for a film soundtrack to have the kind of culture-shifting impact that a “Bodyguard,” “Dirty Dancing” or “Top Gun” had. The closest we’ve come of late (aside from the mega-selling “Frozen” soundtrack, perhaps) is James Gunn’s “Guardians Of The Galaxy” and its unexpectedly joyous collection of MOR soft rock and soul. Featuring cleverly directly into the plot —the tape is the only thing that Chris Pratt’s Starlord has to remind him of his mother— the mixtape takes in wedding/disco faves like “Spirit In The Sky,” Rupert Holmes’ “Pina Colada Song” and Elvin Bishop‘s “Fooled Around And Fell In Love,” along with a few more credible cuts from David Bowie and The Runaways. But the goofy populism of the picks is part of the joy —out of context, they might be goofy, but Gunn uses them to put his stamp on the film, and it’s a principal reason that the film feels much more distinctive than almost anything in the MCU.
18. “The Dreamers” (2003)
The spirit of Paris in May ’68 and the revolutionary ideals it embodied continues to haunt Gallic filmmakers from Philippe Garrel to Olivier Assayas. But it was the Italian Bernardo Bertolucci who delivered one of the most evocative portraits of that period with “The Dreamers,” the story of a love triangle between American student Michael Pitt and sibling pair Louis Garrel and Eva Green. And part of the reason it succeeds as such is the music, curated in part by musician Julien Civange (though presumably with Bertolucci, who was 27 at the time of the riots, guiding his hand). It’s a mix of heady Summer Of Love psych-rock from The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, and more easy-listening-style French pop from Edith Piaf, Françoise Hardy and Michel Polnareff (with the occasional New Wave homage, with cuts from the scores of “The 400 Blows” and “Pierrot Le Fou”). As a continuation of the film’s depiction of Franco-American relations and the changing of the guard from old to new, it works beautifully.
17. “Snatch” (2000)
Plenty of Quentin Tarantino imitators emerged during the 1990s, and while Guy Ritchie is certainly among them, he imitated better than most, capturing a filmmaking flair and raucous energy that came closer to QT than most. This is true of his soundtracks too, at least early on: the formula of some semi-obscure classic ’60s/’70s cuts interspersed with the more quotable lines from the film was nicked wholesale from the American director, but Ritchie’s choices were at least eminently listenable, and “Snatch” is his best as such. Funk cuts from Maceo And The Macks and Bobby Byrd could have come straight from the “Jackie Brown” soundtrack, but Ritchie gives things an appropriately British spin, with some reggae and ska from 10CC and The Specials, nods to trip-hop and rave culture from Massive Attack, The Herbaliser and Mirwais. Even tracks from Oasis and Ritchie’s then-partner Madonna are used memorably, and not many filmmakers know how to deploy their music properly.
16. “Eden” (2015)
If you’re making a movie about a DJ, you’d better make sure that your soundtrack is a banger. Fortunately, “Eden,” Mia Hansen-Løve’s tremendous coming-of-middle-age film set over two decades in the “french touch” scene, has a phenomenal collection of music behind it. The director’s brother Sven, who co-wrote the script with her, was himself a reasonably well-known DJ like the film’s main character, functioning as a sort of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern figure to Daft Punk’s Hamlet, and the deep knowledge of the house/disco/electronica scene over twenty years pays off with an expansive and extensive soundtrack that covers the obvious bases (Daft Punk’s “Da Funk,” Frankie Knuckles, The Orb, etc.), but also deeper cuts, smartly evolving with the musical form over time. The songs (nearly 50 in total) cover both the dizzying molly highs and the thundering comedown, and some impeccable sound design integrates the tracks into the movie whether they’re being spun on the decks or not.
