Marcelo Zarvos' smoky, sultry
Hollywoodland summons the lurid mythology of postwar Tinseltown with deadly accuracy -- its low-key jazz-inspired themes draw on the vocabulary of film noir to both channel from and comment upon the music of the movies' golden age.
Zarvos evokes Hollywood greats like
Herrmann and
Rózsa but never lifts directly from the templates they established, instead creating a sense of mystery and danger steeped in postmodern sensibilities -- the music suggests more than it reveals, and while taken on its own terms the score's a little too subtle for its own good, onscreen it complements the narrative with style and eloquence. ~ Jason Ankeny