• Gonzo director Alex Gibney talks about what makes him feel like Gandalf, and the search for the American Dream.
• Gerard Depardieu goes to the dungeon.
• Dragging the Hitchcock out of Mad Men.
• LAFF: Heaven Wants Out, Trinidad and Thing With No Name
• Metropolis edges towards a landmark restoration.
• Plot songs: classic style, Will Smith style.
• Who needs critics when we’ve got the producer of 88 Minutes?
• John Waters has a new “anarchist” muse.
• Videos: Quantum of Solace trailer, Hellboy goes Inside the Actors Studio; New Miyazaki, Muppets love America, too.
• Lists: 10 Best Superheroes Created For The Screen
• I always feel like, YouTube is watching me!
• IsThe Wackness Juno for boys? Or is it just a mirror of the ultra-boyish segment of the movie blogosphere?
• Related: 10 movies that definee New York in the 90s.
• On FilmCouch: Inside the YouTube screening room, and Wall-E.
• There are an awful lot of unauthorized ways to produce a Harvey Weinstein expose, apparently.
• War, Inc isn’t coming to DVD … yet.
• Peter Greenaway brings laser light show aesthetics to The Last Supper.
• Girls and boys can’t share Hollywood porn.
• Anti-strike activism from Temp X.
• Finally, a special July 4th treat: Nick Dawson points us to the website for Proud American, a film described thusly by its official synopsis, “While showing the nation’s spectacular landmarks and engineering marvels, historical sites and natural wonders, Proud American is really about the American people.” And it’s “presented by” Coca-Cola, MasterCard and Wal-Mart, so you know it has to be good!

This is it, the day we’ve been waiting for two full decades (or, at least, since we first heard it was happening back in December): the Huey Lewis plot song written specifically for the David Gordon Green-driected, Judd Apatow-produced stoner comedy Pineapple Express has hit the web! The Playlist first posted a clip of the song last night; today, Whitney at Pop Candy points to the full thing, available for streaming or download on MySpace.

It’s very much in classic Huey Lewis plot song mode, complete with gratuitous hand claps and sax solo. It’s not as directly narrative as, say, “Back in Time” (above), but it’s slightly more literally connected to the film than, like, “The Power of Love.” A sample from the chorus: “How did we get into this mess? Pineapple Express! Can’t deal with this stress! Totally gone, cause we’re on, Pineapple Express!” It is the best, and it is also totally the worst.

As we’ve discussed before, plot songs take the science of the source cue to a new level. After the jump, a brief, video-guided journey through plot song history. Let us know what we’ve left out.

…Read more

My post on Huey Lewis’ two, questionably classic contributions to the Back to the Future soundtrack garnered some impassioned responses. Ryan Stewart wrote in to defend the track that I called the lesser of the two, Back in Time:

Cassette? Um, I own the LP. Back in Time is the best example ever of a plot-song. It’s that 1/1,000 that actually work, and work really awesomely, and the kind of thing they’d never have the guts to do these days.

Oh yeah? Well, never underestimated the guts of David Gordon Green. A friend of Spout pointed me to this Stereogum item from Monday, in which Seth Rogen, writer and star of Gordon Green’s Summer 2008 comedy The Pineapple Express, confirms that none other than Huey Lewis was commissioned to write “a track reminiscent of Power Of Love” for the movie. My source says he’s heard the song, and he confirms that it incorporates “lyrics that tell the plot of the movie, with ‘Pineapple Express’ in the chorus.”

So is the plot song ready for its comeback? Are YOU ready for the plot song’s comeback? Can you even name the last film that featured a full-on plot song? I can’t. While you’re pondering all of that, watch the above clip from The Pineapple Express. I’ve heard one or two whispers that the film could very well show up at Harry Knowles’ Butt-Numb-A-Thon this weekend (which, sadly, I’m not going to be able to attend), so we might get a full review of Huey’s contribution sooner rather than later.