I finally got around to seeing Cosmopolis last night and I have to give David Cronenberg credit -- he was willing to stay unmercifully faithful to the story's source material. I've already raved about Don DeLillo's 2003 novel that spawned the movie; I thought it was a prophetic near-masterwork the first time I read it and I still think so. Cronenberg kept intact most of DeLillo's powerful and poetic but at times frustratingly indecipherable dialog and the result is a movie that's definitely not for everyone.
One of my favorite things about the film was the decision to create a collaboration between long-time Cronenberg scorer Howard Shore and Metric for the soundtrack. Basically, Shore composed most of the music and Metric "translated" it into actual musical pieces. The outcome is something truly interesting and unexpected: subtle orchestration transformed into often eerie electronic and steely propulsions that befit the film's tale of technology descending into absolute nihilistic chaos.
Here's the movie's closing theme, which is the only really pronounced track used in the film that you can hear Metric frontwoman Emily Haines singing on.
This is Long To Live.
