The soundtrack for
Tabloid, acclaimed filmmaker Errol Morris' documentary about a beauty queen (Miss Wyoming, Joyce McKinney) and her strange abduction of her Mormon missionary boyfriend in the late 1970s, was scored by television, film, and commercial composer
John Kusiak. Alternately stoic and whimsical,
Kusiak's choice to treat the subject matter with such regality (much of the work is built on a foundation of strings and harp-led chamber music) is to be commended, as it lends the already odd tale an air of
David Lynch-ian, left-field grandiosity. Elsewhere, electric guitar, marimba, accordion, and celeste provide knowing moments of self-awareness that echo
Yann Tiersen's work on
Amelie. ~ James Christopher Monger