<\/p>\n
About a month ago, my editor reached out and essentially ordered me to sign up for a press junket for a new movie that finally came out in theaters last week. It\u2019s called Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma<\/em>, and it\u2019s a knowingly campy and often quite perceptive horror\/comedy written and directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw The TV Glow<\/em>, We\u2019re All Going To The World\u2019s Fair<\/em>). The film\u2019s meta-narrative concerns an acclaimed maker of horror films (Hannah Einbinder) who is hired to reboot an \u201980s slasher franchise centered on a mad killer named Little Death, and the reclusive starlet (Gillian Anderson) she\u2019s trying to recruit for the movie. Though the actual point of Teenage Sex<\/em>, it seems, is exploring the ways that even the junkiest pop culture we consume as kids continues to inform, shape, and (yes) warp our minds well into adulthood. <\/p>\n My editor did not insist that I write about this film for any of those attributes, however. Instead, he immediately sent me an urgent Slack message because of one scene that takes place at roughly the film\u2019s midpoint. Now, to discuss this scene in detail would mean spoiling what is the flashiest set piece, so I\u2019ll only divulge exactly two pieces of information. One is not specific at all, especially since we\u2019re talking about a \u201chorror\/comedy\u201d here. The other is more specific, and might be considered a spoiler, but it pertains to a needle drop so incongruous that it should compel the average viewer to see this movie more<\/em> rather than less<\/em>, just to witness how the hell they pull this one off<\/em>. <\/p>\n Okay, here goes: It\u2019s a murder scene \u2014\u00a0a deliriously gory mass<\/em> murder scene \u2014\u00a0set to \u201cA Long December\u201d by Counting Crows. <\/p>\n As perhaps the most prolific \u201ctalker about Counting Crows-related ephemera, but especially \u2018A Long December\u2019\u201d in modern music criticism, I understood perfectly why my editor wanted me to go on this junket and ask the writer\/director why they used this song, and why they used it in this way<\/em>, and what (if anything) might Adam Duritz have to say about any of this. <\/p>\n So far, I\u2019ve tried to not be spoiler-y about the scene, but the interview explores how the song is used in the film so please stop reading if you haven\u2019t seen the film or want to see the movie without any prior knowledge. <\/p>\n Hi Jane. I have very specific questions for my time. I\u2019m only asking about \u201cA Long December.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Sure.<\/p>\n For starters: Why this song? And why use it this way?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, the first thing about Counting Crows is that I have a second cousin, Doug, who was their guitar tech in the \u201990s. So when I was like 12 years old, I got to go see them. And I went backstage and I met them. They were such a gateway band for me. I loved that music. Their first two albums and their live album that they put out around the same time, they were constantly in rotation. And so much of the music that I still love, I feel like owes such a spiritual debt to those records. The sort of confessional singer-songwriter, happy\/sadness of those songs, it\u2019s eternal. I went through a breakup in 2024 and I was just clinging to Recovering the Satellites<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n I had written \u201cNightswimming\u201d [by R.E.M.] into the script for that sequence. I was like, \u201cIt\u2019s such a queer anthem. They can\u2019t see me naked swimming at night.\u201d I was like, \u201cThis is the perfect song for a killing spree.\u201d And then somewhere along listening over and over again to Recovering the Satellites<\/em>, I was like, \u201cWait a second. Is it \u2018A Long December\u2019?\u201d I think the first thing that tickled me was the Hollywood repetition. And I was like, \u201cOh my God, Little Death can chop someone\u2019s head off every time Adam Duritz says Hollywood.\u201d But also the song\u2019s tone is the movie\u2019s tone, I think. Sort of like, it\u2019s been a long year and it\u2019s kind of sucked, but next year is going to be a little bit better. That kind of hard-won, resilient triumph. Without that feeling, the scene is meaningless. You\u2019re just watching someone kill people. <\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting that you considered a different \u201990s alt-rock piano ballad for that scene.<\/strong><\/p>\n It was really a Sophie\u2019s Choice for me between the two. I was texting with Lindsey from Snail Mail, who is a friend. And I was like, \u201cAll right, Lindsey, completely theoretical question: If you were going to watch a four-minute one shot killing spree set to a \u201990s piano ballad, would it be \u2018A Long December\u2019 or \u2018Nightswimming\u2019 for you?\u201d And she voted \u201cLong December,\u201d and that did kind of tip it for me. I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s what my heart is telling me and I think I got to make this change.\u201d <\/p>\n In terms of the lyrical content, \u201cNightswimming\u201d has always spoken to me in terms of the shyness, the coming out of one\u2019s own shell, the kind of bashfulness around one\u2019s own body. Just the romance, the instant nostalgia of nighttime in the summer by the water. Obviously, there\u2019s something of that in the slasher movie also, so that felt like a natural fit. But with \u201cA Long December,\u201d it has some kind of transcendence. When it hits its \u201cna-na-nas,\u201d it really hits it.<\/p>\n Some people are going to see that scene and view it as purely ironic. But it\u2019s clear that you love the song. <\/strong><\/p>\n I think that in general, so many great needle drops are unexpected or they\u2019re tonally, not clashing, but adding a really unexpected spice to the dish. Obviously, that is going on here. But I\u2019ve loved Counting Crows since I was 12 years old. I could go deep on it. I love those records and I think he\u2019s a brilliant songwriter and performer. I remember I was doing \u201cA Long December\u201d in karaoke a few years ago, and my friend Gracie was like, \u201cI think that was the pinnacle moment of pop rock radio being great.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s just like, what a great song to have been very popular on the radio. It\u2019s just a perfect fucking song. It\u2019s so good. I\u2019ve listened to it hundreds of times, obviously over the last couple of years working on the movie and I don\u2019t get tired of it. I just think it\u2019s a standard. It\u2019s funny, I saw MJ Lenderman was covering it right after we shot the movie. <\/p>\n Has Adam Duritz seen the movie and if so what does he think?<\/strong><\/p>\n We texted a little bit and he told me he was stoked to have \u201cA Long December\u201d be part of a one shot. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s seen it yet. I saw him on the RSVP list for tonight. I don\u2019t know if that was fake or not though. I can\u2019t wait for him to see it. I hope he loves it. I think he\u2019ll like it.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About a month ago, my editor reached out and essentially ordered me to sign up for a press junket for a new movie that finally came out in theaters last week. It\u2019s called Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and it\u2019s a knowingly campy and often quite perceptive horror\/comedy written and directed by the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}