Rating: NNNN
Considering Martin Scorsese’s deep love for old jazz and blues, it’s no shocker that the beetle-browed auteur has assembled a period-perfect soundtrack for his Howard Hughes biopic. The film focuses on Hughes’s early(ish) years, so you get some great swingy jazz from the Original Memphis Five, Bing Crosby’s croontastic take on Thanks, Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade (the stock song in any pre-WWII flick that features slow dancing) and Leadbelly’s killer Howard Hughes, from the Alan Lomax collection. Also on board is bandleader Vince Giordano – who apprenticed with 20s-era icon William Challis – to serve up some new spins on old standards, and three (!) members of the Wainwright family belting their hearts out. While laconic Loudon comes off as a more tuneful Randy Newman, Rufus is quite cozy with the Gershwins, and Martha’s swooning version of I’ll Be Seeing You is stunning.
