REM x Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr Review – Classic Comedy Gets a New Alternative Rock Soundtrack | film

WWe all like to complain that the film industry does nothing but recycle old bits of intellectual property, but sometimes that can be a good thing, even noble in a way. This gathering is an example of that. Josh Frank, who worked as a writer, producer, director and composer and now runs the Blue Starlite Mini-Urban Drive-In Movie Theater in Austin, Texas, has assembled Buster Keaton’s timeless 1924 comedy “Sherlock Jr.” with some clips from REM’s mid-’90s albums Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi. It’s all part of Frank’s ongoing Silents Synced project, which previously mixed the OG version of 1922’s Nosferatu with Radiohead.

Since Sherlock Jr is only about 45 minutes long, Frank co-starred in The Balloonatic, a 22-minute feature directed by Keaton, with a soundtrack composed by Brazilian composer Amon Tobin. Neither musical choice particularly enhances the accompanying films, or even feels appropriate to the stories, but neither is particularly offensive. Supposedly, the primary goal of Silents Synced was to draw people into movie theaters to experience the movies, turning viewers into some of the best cinematic auteurs of the silent era and some rock dinosaurs as well. It’s not the most original idea ever, but some real legal ingenuity must have gone into clearing the rights so this film could tour theaters around the world.

In addition, a few tricks were applied to the films, such as colorizing objects on the screen and adding effects. There’s debate as to whether Keaton himself would have approved of these additions, but as much as his reputation rests on his stunning stunts, which are well displayed in both films here, he clearly loved tinkering with what could be done with camera effects, as seen in the wonderful scene where he falls across a variety of landscapes thanks to the magic of editing. This package provides a great opportunity to appreciate just how innovative Sherlock Jr. was for its time, as showrunner Keaton falls asleep at work and dreams of his own film: a work of cinema about cinema, before that was even a feature in its own right.