Yesterday’s entry of A Kiss After Supper coincides with evidence that soundtracks are settling somewhat from their bloated Judgement Night and fatuous Batman Forever days, becoming a less intrusive addition to the films they score. Not only do they maintain their cachet among the cognoscenti, they’re also introducing new generations (as well as those older folks relegated to the coma-inducing Top 40 and other such radio formats) to interesting music.

Jon Brion, responsible for the carbonated I Heart Huckabees soundtrack, has gotten a lot of press lately with Tom Moon’s thoughful write-up in the Philadelphia Inquirer as well as a review on Pitchfork. Have we entered a new era of film scoring for hip, artistic, and small pictures? Will Brion and Mark Mothersbaugh ultimately usurp the terrain formerly held by Ennio Morricone? Will composers, while scoring a battle sequences, never ask themselves, “What would John Williams do?” again? Or will this all be forgotten when auteurs like Wes Anderson, David O. Russell, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze and Sophia Coppola get swallowed up by the mass-market Leviathan? Is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou the beginning of the end?