Picking on the soundtrack A common theme I've seen from most reviewers of this film is the "authenticity" of the soundtrack and how it's virtually the only thing nostalgic about it. For me, that's patently false.
Overall, the soundtrack was very disappointing. Even some songs that appear that kind of make sense as to why they're in the movie, it just seems like director Leigh Janiak threw them in as a way to say, "and here's another song from the time period that was popular" rather than trying to play something that captured the mood of the scene.
As a 16/17-year-old kid who remembers 1994 like it was yesterday, music was a huge part of my adolescent years, like it is for any teenager growing up. And if the soundtrack is the aspect of this movie that a lot of folks here are hanging their hat on, then they either didn't grow up in the '90's or just didn't listen to a lot of mainstream radio.
I'm going to assume that this flick is supposed to take place in the fall of '94 given that football players and cheerleaders are the focal point at the beginning. Granted, I wouldn't doubt if it actually takes place in the spring and Janiak added the football aspect because football players and cheerleaders are typically the most popular sects of kids in virtually every high school across the country and having them as your "main" character types (aside from THE lead character being in the band) would be a cool thing to have in the movie.
But I momentarily digress, back to the soundtrack.
Garbage's "Only Happy When It Rains" (1995), White Zombie's "More Human Than Human" (1995), Prodigy's "Firestarter" (1996) and White Town's "Your Woman" (1997) hadn't been released yet.
Pixies' "Hey" (1987) and Cowboy Junkies' remake of "Sweet Jane" (1988) certainly didn't receive any airplay in '94 to warrant being considered a song that speaks to the year. And if they did get some airtime, it was VERY few and far between and were definitely not songs I can recall hearing on the radio or seeing on TV.
Roberta Flack's 1973 version of "Killing Me Softly With His Song"? That was definitely not heard on the radio in 1994 and only got re-recognized when the Fugees did their take on it in '96.
"Thursday" by 99 Tales?? Even though it's a cool, grungy tune and sounds like something that would've been popular back then, to this day I've never even heard of this song nor this band and couldn't find anything on them despite an extensive Google search.
There were a couple of songs that Janiak kind of got right like Cypress Hill's "Insane In The Brain", Snoop's "G'z and Hustlas", Radiohead's "Creep" and even Sophie B. Hawkins' "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover".
Even though the latter two came out in '92 and the former two came out in '93, you could still watch the videos on The Box or hear someone bumping them from their car stereo. (Except Hawkins. I don't remember hearing anyone loudly pump her jams while cruising through town.)
Portishead's "Sour Times" was mildly popular at the time and was released in August of that year so I'm willing to give Janiak a pass on it. Even though it's definitely not a song I vividly recall being a major staple of 1994.
And then there is Soundgarden's "The Day I Tried To Live". Indeed, they were a band that was ALL OVER the radio at that time. When they came out with Superunknown, there wasn't an hour that went by that you didn't hear "Spoonman", "Black Hole Sun" or "Fell On Black Days" being cranked out. But "The Day I Tried To Live"? Even though it was a single released from the album, it's probably the lowest-ranking single released. I get that Janiak was simply trying to capture the mood of the scene (one of the few times she does in the movie) but it's still not the song I'd pick for being the ONLY grunge song in the movie as well as one from SG. Don't get me wrong, it's a great song and one I incorporate with that time period but if you're going to use a Soundgarden song, pick one of the aforementioned three rather than this one. Those other three ring truer to me for 1994 than that one. I know, I know, now I'm just being nit-picky.
The ONE song, however, that Janiak ABSOLUTELY nailed on the head and one that was an insane smash hit was Nine Inch Nails' "Closer". As soon as I heard it in the very beginning of the movie, it immediately took me back to the beginning of my senior year and going to a party where that was being played. That song definitely speaks to 1994.
Aside from Soundgarden, though, where was the rest of the grunge?? It was the style that dominated the airwaves, music charts and MTV at the time. Although it wasn't the ONLY musical style out there (rap was really picking up steam and even country was highly dominant with the likes of Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Alan Jackson) but grunge was still the most popular music at the time. Where was the Nirvana, Pearl Jam, STP, Alice In Chains and Green Day?? If you're going to make a movie about 1994, you've got to play a vast majority of grunge, not the jumbled mess Janiak incorporated.
And the soundtrack wasn't the only reason why I gave this movie 1 star but was certainly a huge catalyst for me. The overall vibe of this being in 1994 just isn't there. AOL was a thing but if folks who actually grew up in the dial-up age can remember, incoming calls would kick offline whomever was on because your internet was plugged into the phone jack in the wall. So the scene where little bro is on the cpu and big sis receives a call and he continues to type is an inconsistency.
And the part where little bro is talking about people trading "life hacks online" was NEVER a thing back then. In fact, I don't remember calling it being "online" until several years after '94. At that point, it was being on the "Information Super Highway" or the "World Wide Web".
Seeing as how Janiak was born in 1980, she would've primarily been 14 at the time so I'm sure she can remember this year fairly well. Which is surprising as to how badly she missed the mark.