Customer Reviews

Punch Drunk Love (Score)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Strange... Cartoon-sounding... Eerie... Beautiful...

Those are the words that come to mind when I listen to the score to one of my new favorite films, "Punch-Drunk Love." Composed by Jon Brion, this beautifully haunting score gets in your head and stays there (just like the movie). You pretty much feel a party of emotions when you pop this baby in.

While it can be very melodic and soothing at times, it can also get tense and rapid. A lot of the tunes on the score appear to be influenced by the song "he needs me," which was originally from the "Popeye" movie and was performed by Shelly Duvall. (The original song appears on the soundtrack as well). And you really get the feeling that you're watching some sort of cartoon when you play the CD. How strange I'd like something like this, but that's thanks to loving the movie so much.

My favorite tracks are "overture," "tabla," "punch-drunk melody," "he needs me," "hands & feet," "blossoms & blood," "here we go," "le petit chateau," hospital," and "third floor hallway." That's the majority of the album, but those are the songs I listen to the most. I really love Jon Brion's "here we go;" the lyrics really seem to hit home with me. All 17 tracks are a complete joy to listen to.

If you're a big fan of the film and you love a good film score, put "Punch-Drunk Love" on your list. This is a score that I can never get tired of. I'm glad that I have it in my CD collection and it is a frequent visitor in my stereo, I must admit.

This is another great collaboration between director Paul Thomas Anderson and musician Jon Brion. First, this is a great movie, and then an equally great soundtrack/score by Jon Brion, with the film and soundtrack working perfectly together. The disc is mostly instrumental songs, but also includes the songs "He Needs Me" "Waikiki" & "Danny (Lonely Boy Blue)" which are prominent in the film. This score is great on its own, which makes me recommend it more than the "Magnolia" score (again by the PT/Brion duo). These two are really able to team up and make the music perfectly complement the film.
Also, if you like this soundtrack, especially "Here We Go", go find Jon Brion's album "meaningless"

captures the essence of the film perfectly...you get the Shelley Duvall song and Waikiki and much more.
It comes enhanced with film footage playing Jon Brion's Here We Go. This song is as much important to this film as Aimee Mann's Save Me was for Magnolia.
Unfortunately, I didn't hear it in the film. But I really love this cd.

Jon Brion is an excellent arranger, who has produced albums with Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, the Eels and Rufus Wainright (among others). For the soundtrack to PUNCH DRUNK LOVE, Brion plunges into Davy Jones' Locker for an orchestral rediscovery of the Beatles' YELLOW SUBMARINE soundtrack album, side-two (composed and arranged by George Martin). The overture to Brion's PUNCH DRUNK LOVE soundtrack, in its waltz time, feels like it was plucked right from the brilliant second half of Martin's "Sea of Time." This soundtrack shifts back and forth between delectible orchestral pop, experimental instrumentals, incongruous vocal tracks and sweeping soundtrack melodies. These days, fans of George Martin's side of the YELLOW SUBMARINE album are few and far between. But for those of us out there, consider this a follow-up... cut from the same cloth... and not one to miss. File Under -- Pop Psychedelia.

I love this movie but admit I purchased the soundtrack on the basis of the quirky ballad "He Needs Me" by Shelley Duvall, love that song! Luckily the entire soundtrack is just delightful, and "Punch Drunk Melody" will be enjoyed by any fans of the music from D'Armacord and the Bellini films. Superbly gorgeous soundtrack, a great for collectors.

This is another great collaboration between director Paul Thomas Anderson and musician Jon Brion. First, this is a great movie, and then an equally great soundtrack/score by Jon Brion, with the film and soundtrack working perfectly together. The disc is mostly instrumental songs and includes "He Needs Me" "Waikiki" which are prominent in the film. This score is great on its own, which makes me recommend it more than the "Magnolia" score (again by the PT/Brion duo). These two are really able to team up and make the music perfectly complement the film.
Also, if you like this soundtrack, especially "Here We Go", go check out jonbrion dot com and his album meaningless. It is not yet available on Amazon.

The soundtrack for Punch Drunk Love is pretty good, but nothing truly noteworthy. It's one of those soundtracks that does its job and does it good enough but honestly, without the actual movie being followed with the soundtrack, it feels pretty flat, out of place and well, *boring*.

Now for the storyline of the film-

Punch Drunk Love is a very strange movie, and what makes it even weirder is the fact that it stars Adam Sandler and it's *not* a comedy. Well, perhaps some people might refer to it as a dark comedy, since sometimes it's funny for reasons that are probably inappropriate.

It's about a man (Sandler's character) with a VERY short fuse. He's also secluded and prefers to be by himself more often than not. There's no telling WHEN his outrageous little temper problem with be unleashed upon his little world around him, with Sandler going absolutely insane kicking and puching everything in sight. He tries to get some much needed help but that aspect of the storytelling never really comes to fruition.

The main part of the storyline is... well, perhaps a combination of two things. One, his sister comes to his workplace one day and fixes him up with a girlfriend, and a relationship soon develops. Not what I'd call an ordinary way to fall in love by any means, haha. You have to see it to understand what I mean- it's... very interesting to say the least.

The other, bigger aspect of the storyline is when Sandler calls up a "naughty" girl one night using one of those hot lines, and it turns out all the information Adam Sandler's character was giving to her over the phone was a HUGE mistake because the girl eventually threatens Sandler to hand over his money or she'd take it anyway (using his credit cards and personal information). This eventually leads to some interesting segments later on, some of which are violent. I don't want to spoil what happens though.

Overall, it's a pretty good movie, but it's definitely a bit strange, and won't appeal to everyone who watches it.

I'm a PTA fan, and this movie is great. The music itself is creative and interesting, yet totally distracting, annoying, and ultimately very diminishing of the filmic experience. It seems to function more as an art piece and not backdrop to a narrative. My understanding of how film music functions best is to be background, not foreground. This soundtrack failed.

I will be the first person to admit that Punch-Drunk Love is a highly flawed movie. Its director, Paul Thomas Anderson couldn't quite assess its numerous highly creative ideas with the same brilliant sweep that he did with with his previous Magnolia. That said, Punch-Drunk Love is also a wildly funny and charming film with beautiful performances by Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, and an offbeat reverence to 1940's musicals that can only be described as a stroke of conceptual genius.

The score mirrors this film in many ways. It's often brilliant, inspired, AND inspiring, but it's also a bit slight and the people involved have done better work.

Jon Brion, the uberproducer behind Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainwright, Aimee Mann is back after scoring Magnolia. Like always, the multi-instrumentalist/producer/composer/vocalist is the album's main star attraction.

His "Punch-Drunk Melody" occurs throughout, played in various different style, one Hawaiian, one grand and orchestral, and one played by a French-style accordian. Despite the various angles from which Brion interprets his own music, his Beatles-esque knack for a hook is still there. This isn't a boring run-of-the-mill score in the least. Yet it's sufficiently intricate as to not get sticky in pop simplicity...T
Other songs are more percussive and sparse. "Tabla's" sonic beeps accentuate the bareness of the snare and bass drum. A song this minimal shouldn't work, yet it does. Call it the Brion touch.

"Here We Go" attempts to get at the pathos of the story...How truly sad and pathetic the character of Barry Egan is, with no jokes to make us feel okay about his torment. Jon Brion himself sings the tune, and a remorseful edge enters the soundscape which the film tried to get at but never quite could. Though a little too slight to work completely, the song, with its ringing clarinet and sad-eyed string arrangment, captures something tender and passionate and beautifully sympathetic.

It's too bad then that other songs are just plain ugly. The novelty of Shelley Duvall's "He Needs Me" from Popeye grows old quickly, as it does on the Hawaiian songs as well: "Wakki" and "Moana Chimes." Instead of recalling the appeal of 1940's kitsch, they sound just creepy.

Despite a few botched efforts, this soundtrack needs to be heard. Its uniqueness and creativity is too much of a scarcity today...And Jon Brion further proves his validity as a score composer after the brilliant Magnolia. Though a bit of a step down for both Paul Thomas Anderson and Jon Brion after Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, the movie and soundtrack contain beautiful material on them...that everyone, in these artistically vacant days, needs to pay attention to.

Anyone who says Punch-Drunk Love (the movie or the soundtrack) isn't absolutely wonderful should be ...well, something bad should happen to them. This soundtrack and movie are delightful.
Jon Brion's taken the hint from Bjork's Dancer in the Dark soundtrack and made full use of the wide world of sound. This is most apparent on the track Hands & Feet where sounds of brushes and window blinds complete the percussion. I only wish there were more tracks devoted to making music from non-traditional instruments.
The CD is only 44 minutes long, but it's compiled well and the tracks are lengthy enough to leave you fulfilled. If you didn't love the movie, you probably won't like the soundtrack, but if you didn't like the movie, why are you reading this review?