2 out of 5

Label: Jellybean Recordings

Produced by: Various

There’s an uncited mention on the wikipedia page for The Red Button – Dummy’s main composer Mike Ruekberg’s band – that mentions the film as being an “indie cult classic.” While I’m not the arbiter of determining indie cult films, I’ll admit to being skeptical of that claim; I bring it up because it feels somewhat similar to the overall quality of the score, with music that often sounds like that college radio act you keep telling yourself is huge, but only a few people actually know. This isn’t meant to be as insulting as it sounds, as certainly bands / music of that caliber can be great. But I think it’s rather contextual. Perhaps that’s baked into the definition of something being a cult classic, though I think I’m more getting at that neither one of those terms necessarily apply in those situations: it’s more that you like something.

Dummy – the film, the movie – has that same earnest vibe: someone else telling you “hey, you might like this, it’s really good,” but it doesn’t necessarily click for you. Ruekberg has a career in bands besides The Red Button; other featured acts on here – Karmadelic, Botanica – had their runs (though moreso the latter, in that case); but by and large this is very much “sounds like” music that probably rocks if they’re from your hometown, and otherwise can be swapped out for more notable acts in the scene. Which, again, isn’t to suggest that these tracks aren’t catchy, or the musicians without talent, but they are pulling from music that was popular at the time or slightly before – Ruekberg’s works have a very Shins-y twee vibe; Botanica swaps through some 00s alt-rock styles, sounding like Firewater at one point; Karmadelic have a shimmery, female-led dance pop vibe – and not really adding any standout elements to that. This, again, rather aligns with the movie, which is charming enough but also entirely inoffensive, and has a mellifluous tonal quality of partial cringe, partial romcom, that can be mapped to the way the score kind of adapts those different indie-rock-at-the-time styles.

This doesn’t give the score much identity, alas (even if the individual acts might produce more standout work on their own), meaning that there are no real singles, nor a strong emotional / narrative / tonal vibe from the totality.

Some late-in-the-game bias: I’d bought this score for Milla Jovovich’s appearance (also why I saw the movie), and though my obsession with her is faded, I still find her tracks to be the highlights.