Search - Various Artists :: Secretary [Music from the Motion Picture]

The Special Jury Prize winner at the 2002 Sundance Festival, director Steven Shainberg's film deftly turned a particularly tweaked boss-employee relationship into a warm, sometimes amusing meditation on sadomasochism. And while composer Angelo Badalamenti's creepy, neo-gothic soundscapes for longtime collaborator David Lynch have generally milked humanity for every last drop of perverse behavior, here his delicate, evocative instrumental underscore does precisely the opposite. Ever atmospheric, Badalamenti's electro-acoustic work--perfectly set up by Leonard Cohen's smoky "I'm Your Man"--creates a sense of both mystery and adventure, a gentle musical portrait of the troubled, longing souls beneath the overt S&M trappings. If its occasionally tinkly interplay between piano and guitar sometimes seem a tad New-Agey in scope, it also seems a telling metaphor for the story's elusive boundary between emotional darkness and light. Lizzie West's alt-folk "Chariot's Rise" neatly bookends Badalamenti and Cohen with an upbeat irony that also parallels the film's undercurrent of interpersonal fantasy. --Jerry McCulley