Singer-songwriter Eef Barzelay, the main creative force and former frontman of sarcastic and wry country rockers Clem Snide, is making his first venture into feature films, with his score for the quirky, coming-of-age high school film, “Rocket Science.”
Directed by Jeffery Blitz (the director of the Academy Award nominated spelling bee doc, “Spellbound“), Barzelay’s score is folky, orchestral and naturally quirky and wacky in moments (“Rocket Science” looks a little like “Rushmore” if thrown through the patented Sundance filter of indie-awkwardness and lovable eccentricity, i.e., “quirky”).
Blitz was a longtime Clem Snide fan and contacted Barzelay directly with an invitation to score the music for the film which he glady accepted (thrilling story, right?)
According to the film’s synopsis, “Rocket Science” is a “a wry comedy of adolescent angst” about a “teenager [that] tackles the mysteries of life, love [and] public speaking.” The characters inhibit “a world where everyone, regardless of age is befuddled by desire and the longing for human connection.”
Ahh, the loving clichés of “longing for human connection.” Perhaps the film won’t be as predicatable. The trailer is amusing, if familiar in that “offbeat” way these types of comedy are soon to becom their own fanciful genre (if they aren’t already).
Barzelay told Daytrotter, “It’s about a shleppy kid with a bad stutter making his way in the rough and tumble world of policy debating in central NJ. It was a great gig for me, I actually found having to cater to someone else’s vision very liberating [that someone being the director Jeff Blitz]. He was very cool and encouraged me to get freaky with it. I ended up using an open tuned ukulele and kazoo for much of it, along with accordion and trombone. I didn’t really know what I was doing but it worked out great in the end.”
The soundtrack features 21 tracks, mostly Barzelay compositions plus two Violent Femmes songs (“Blister In The Sun” is featured prominently in the trailer). The entire tracklist is available on the movie’s myspace page.
The soundtrack album is due August 7 and the film hits theaters August 10.
Watch: “Rocket Science” trailer
*This story was originally reported 7.27.07 at 10:39 a.m. , but we wanted to give it some more love, now that we’re a little closer to the film’s release.
