Why 'jeen-yuhs' is a masterclass in documentary filmmaking and what makes a good movie soundtrack
Welcome back!
This past week on the podcast, we talked about all things Kanye. From his stem player to his upcoming album to his Instagram harassment of his family, and the new Netflix documentary, jeen-yuhs. There was so much Kanye in the news, that we had to dedicate a whole episode to covering it all.
Continuing that thread we’re talking all about films and music!
This week in the newsletter:
Noah on why jeen-yuhs is a good example of what a documentary should be
Avery writes about what makes a good movie soundtrack
Happy reading!
Ep. 79: For the love of Kanye
Y’all hear about this?
André 3000, Mitski, and Moses Sumney, and More Feature on Soundtrack to New A24 Movie Everything Everywhere All at Once
Why ‘jeen-yuhs’ is the perfect example of how documentary filmmaking should be done.
Noah, @noahamcgee
Like everyone else, I’ve enjoyed the Kanye West documentary jeen-yuhs. It’s obviously been enlightening on Ye and his rise as a superstar, genius and trailblazer in the music industry. But it also shows Coodie’s Journey with Ye and how he grew along with him. But, it almost did not turn out that way.
Remember when Ye said he wanted to have a look at Coodie and Chike’s footage before the documentary was released? Although, Coodie said he denied that request and kept the footage he wanted to use. But lately, more often than not, when a documentary is done on an athlete, musician, artist or anybody of significance, they are directly involved in the making of it.
Which in some cases can be good, but I would argue that in most, it is a detriment to the final product.
I mean how many documentaries in the last year or so have you seen from celebrities where they are the producer for the project. Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, Tom Brady. While they can still be entertaining and enjoyable, in these cases these celebrities will do their best to show themselves in a positive light, even if the documentary may not call for it.
It’s something about a filmmaker wanting to create a documentary genuinely and creatively that gives a sense of transparency and honesty to those watching.
This is what makes jeen-yuhs special, while this version of Kanye is easy to root for because there is still doubt on how successful he will be, he is in no way perfect or without flaw. Coodie was able to find the perfect balance of storytelling in his own unique way, but still, be true to Kanye’s story.
Something not all filmmakers have the ability to do
Now on the 97 Demo Mix:
Songs from: Ye, Kendrick Lamar, Freddie Gibbs, Silk Sonic and more
What makes a good movie soundtrack
Avery, @AveryDalal
This past weekend I saw the film The Worst Person in the World by Joachim Trier, starring Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielson Lie and Herbert Nordrum. It’s a wonderful movie about a young woman navigating her way through relationships and careers, and how the two things inform each other, and the rest of her life. If you haven’t, you should definitely see it, it’s an incredibly beautiful movie.
Plenty of aspects of the movie has stuck with me like the visuals, pieces of dialogue, the themes, and especially the soundtrack.
To be clear, I am not writing about a score that a composer like John Williams or Ennio Morricone would make, I am talking about a soundtrack full of music that has already been made that is chosen to accompany a movie.
There’s a moment at the end of the film, where our main character, who has been impulsive and indecisive throughout the movie, finally feels at ease with her choices seeing something that confirms what we’ve known to be true. The song that plays under this is a Paul Simon cover of “Waters of March.” It’s a bossa nova song originally by Antônio Carlos Jobim, about the cycles of life and nature and existence. A beautiful song that soundtracked a beautiful moment in this movie.
At its very best, a good soundtrack matches the tone of the movie you’re watching, and at least the scene that it is playing under at that moment. To me, a good soundtrack should take you back to those moments in a film when you hear that song again. I think of The Pixies’ Where is my mind? playing at the end of Fight Club, The Crystals’ Then He Kissed Me playing while Henry and takes Karen to the nightclub in Goodfellas, and the Electric Light Orchestra’s Mr. Blue Sky playing as Groot dances at the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy 2. This movie I saw this week, had multiple scenes like this, making me feel the moment even more than if there was something generic there. I can listen to this soundtrack and remember each scene in the movie as I get through it.
A soundtrack should never be intrusive either, it should always compliment what is happening on screen and never detract from it. You should be able to enjoy both things together as one cohesive element, rather than one dominating the other. I see it as a jigsaw puzzle, where usually there is only one song that would perfectly accompany that moment. If you saw that scene with a different song, it just wouldn’t hit the same because if Russell, Penny Lane and the rest of Stillwater were singing anything other than Tiny Dancer by Elton John in Almost Famous on that bus, it just really would not have had the same effect.
Lastly, to be simple, it should be able to stand on its own! You should be able to listen to a soundtrack and feel those emotions again if you so choose to do so. You should be able to go home, sit with it for a couple of days and decide that you want to listen to it again because you’re in the mood. You could think of it as an intricately cured playlist that should make you feel something. My favorite soundtrack of all time is from Garden State by Zach Braff. It won a Grammy after all. To this day, I can’t listen to Don’t Panic by Coldplay without thinking about the brilliant opening scene of this movie. Even if I haven’t watched the movie in a while, I can go back to this soundtrack and listen to it if I’m just in the mood to feel melancholy and solitary.
It’s hard to pull off a good soundtrack, but when it’s done right it’s a really beautiful thing to witness. Some of my favorite pieces of trivia are knowing that writers and directors have the soundtrack of a movie in mind as they write how the story will play out, as is the case with The Worst Person in the World. What are some of your favorite soundtracks?
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