Kentucker Audley is a filmmaker, film programmer, actor and (former) Movies hat salesman. His debut album, Old Amateur, is now out. His latest film, Strawberry Mansion (co-directed with Albert Birney), premiered at Sundance 2021. His previous directorial effort, Sylvio (also co-directed with Albert Birney), debuted at SXSW and was named one of the Best 10 Movies of the Year by The New Yorker. As an actor, he’s starred in indie films such as Christmas, Again and Sun Don’t Shine. He also founded NoBudge and Movies Brand.
The 1998 movie Rushmore is a good flick as is, but it could have attracted a much bigger audience using the pop hits of the day for its soundtrack instead of some random old songs. With this in mind, I thought I would go ahead and demonstrate. You see, barely anyone has ever heard of songs by Unit 4 + 2 or the Faces. Have you ever heard of a band called the Creation? Me neither. But you’ve heard of Smash Mouth so that’s gonna be better to hear on the soundtrack without a doubt. This is a great rule to go by for young filmmakers when making musical decisions about their movie. Make sure everyone knows the songs you put in by listening to the top radio stations. Some of the best songs of the 1990’s were expertly catalogued in a series of invaluable mix CDs called Now That’s What I Call Music! Luckily, they are still making them today (I just picked up #63 at Best Buy) so that takes out a lot of the guess work for you. Just use any of those songs because they are guaranteed to be the hottest tracks of the day. Look no further than how much hotter these tunes make Wes Anderson’s Rushmore.
