I Love You, Beth Cooper

注目学園ラヴコメのサウンドトラックがこれだ!何を思ったか冴えない男子高校生、Denis Coovermanが学園で1番セクシーで人気がある"Beth Copper"に卒業式で大胆告白!?彼のスピーチが吉と出るか、凶と出るか?深夜、Denis宅を訪れたBethは彼に人生最高の一夜を体験させることを決心するが・・・。主演はPaul Rust(TVドラマ等の出演、脚本を手掛け若い世代に人気の俳優、28歳)、Hayden Panettiere(TVドラマ・シリーズ、『ヒーローズ』等の出演で注目される女優、19歳)、監督はChris Columbus(『ハリー・ポッターと秘密の部屋』(2002年)、『レント』(2005年)他)、脚本、原作はLarry Doyle("The Simpson"、"Beavis and Butt-Head"他)。サウンドトラック収録アーティストはThe Hives、The Kooks、Gym Class Heroes、OK Go、Alice Cooper他!(2009年7月10日公開映画)

The high-school romantic comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper, directed by Chris Columbus, has a screenplay by Larry Doyle, who adapted his novel, and it sounds like the person or people who assembled the soundtrack album of pop songs (Patrick Houlihan is credited as music supervisor) wanted to split the difference between tracks that a high-school student of 2009 actually might be listening to and songs that Doyle, who graduated from high school in 1976, was listening to around then. Actually, this doesn't work out as badly as it might seem, perhaps because of the choices, perhaps because basic rock & roll music hasn't really changed that much in 30-plus years. For example, Australian band Airbourne's "Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast" is a sound-alike for any number of songs by an Australian predecessor, AC/DC. Then, too, the old songs are sequenced toward the end, separated from the newer, earlier tracks by some of Christophe Beck's scoring. Beck's main suite uses music that sounds like it belongs in one of Columbus' more adventurous pictures, one of his Harry Potter epics, say. Also adding diversity is the acoustic performance of Eleni Mandell's "Forget Me" up front, performed here and in the film by 15-year-old Violet Columbus, who just happens to have the same last name as the director. It introduces a Juno-like tone that thankfully is not carried through on the rest of the album. Mandell's own rock version closes things out. ~ William Ruhlmann|