The end credits of Sam Mendes’ multiple Oscar-winning American Beauty are crowned with Because, Smith’s cover of The Beatles’ eerie/sweet, electric harpsichord-led cut from Abbey Road (reportedly both Paul McCartney and George Harrison’s favourite track on the 1969 album). Here’s the hypnotism scene, and after it (in terrible quality, sorry) is Justin’s bewilderment. And that is because, you see, Justin’s super spiritual dentist Keanu Reeves hypnotised him.
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Three of his songs – one original and two covers – are still included, with the (excellent) remainder composed and recorded by Tim DeLaughter and The Polyphonic Spree. Smith wrote Let’s Get Lost especially for the film, and Mills uses it to accompany 17-year-old Justin’s (Lou Pucci) confusion when his normally effective comfort-habit of sucking his thumb doesn’t seem to work anymore.
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Needle in the Hay is from Smith’s self-titled 1995 album.Įlliott Smith was initially supposed to create the entire soundtrack for Mike Mills’ low-budget, star-studded indie comedy/drama Thumbsucker, but he died before he completed the project. But the song is absolutely beautiful, and Anderson includes this tiny but shockingly effective pause in its crescendo at the exact moment Dudley walks into the bathroom.
Good will hunting elliott smith movie#
Warning: this clip contains probably one of the most awful moments in a Wes Anderson movie I can think of. Needle in the Hay in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) If you really want to call the waahmbulance, rewind the clip to see the preceding scene, which puts the simple nostalgic joy of this one into a different (heart-squishing) context. Up in the Air director Jason Reitman chose it to go with the scene in which Ryan and Alex (George Clooney and Vera Farmiga) break in to Ryan’s old high school. Meanwhile in the Rick and Morty episode Big Trouble in Little Sanchez (s02e07), Summer forces Tiny Rick to listen to the track in an attempt to remind him of his mortality, and get the little bastard back into his old body.Īngel in the Snow in Up in the Air (2009)Īngel in the Snow is the very first track on posthumous compilation New Moon (2007) all 24 of New Moon’s tracks were previously unreleased.
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Between the Bars is from Smith’s 1997 album, Either/Or. But director Josh Boone (who also helmed 2014’s The Fault in Our Stars, if you want proof of how emotionally manipulative he can be) chose the diegetic route, having Lou (Logan Lerman) actually play the song on his car stereo in an effort to woo Sam (Collins). There are plenty of bittersweet, Smith-ready scenes in 2012 indie comedy/drama Stuck in Love – starring Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, and Lily Collins. So, 19-year-old spoiler alert for the clip below.īetween The Bars in Stuck in Love (2013) and Rick and Morty (2015)
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You have to wait until the end of the film to hear the track, as it plays over the very final scene and closing credits. This particular song Smith wrote especially for the movie he was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar, but lost out to My Heart Will Go On from that year’s Best Picture winner Titanic. Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting will pop up a couple more times on this list, as the fellow Portland resident and filmmaker used several of Smith’s tracks in his Best Original Screenplay Oscar-winning film. In celebration of Smith’s birthday, life and legacy, here are 10 times – both during his life and posthumously – that his beautiful music elevated iconic film scenes. Smith’s haunting, candid, low-fi songs made him not only a (reluctant) dean of the ’90s indie crowd, but a repository of perfectly-spun gems for filmmakers to mine and use with their most emotive scenes. August 6 would have been the 48th birthday of singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, had he not tragically taken his own life in 2003, at the age of 34.