Soundtracks are great and all, but there’s something about a music-centric scene that captures the imagination and gets the heart racing. We’ve collected 11 of the year’s best music-in-film moments for you to revist below. Get the popcorn ready!
11. Zac Efron and his fraternity brothers incorporate Creed into their secret oath (Neighbors).
When Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne's characters move in next to a frat house, they immediately hop on a dangerous love/hate roller coaster with Efron and Dave Franco, the president and vice president, respectively, of Delta Psi.
Skip to 9:52 on the video below to get your Scott Stapp fix.
10. Tegan and Sara help a bunch of LEGO characters celebrate their Orwellian existence (The LEGO Movie).
This film took critics by surprise in January, and received pretty much universal acclaim for its tale of individualism and self-worth. Set in a weird dystopia called Bricksburg, the flick kicks off with the tongue-in-cheek tune “Everything Is Awesome.”
9. Jennifer Lawrence scores a Top 100 hit with “The Hanging Tree” (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Pt. 1).
J-Law is admittedly not much of a singer, but she scored an international hit with this tune from the latest Hunger Games release.
8. Keira Knightley gets a sonic makeover from Mark Ruffalo (Begin Again).
Knightley, a recently dumped UK transplant, reluctantly plays an original song at a New York bar, where down-on-his-luck Ruffalo uses his imagination to turn it into an alt-songwriter hit.
7. Bill Murray sings Bob Dylan’s “Shelter From the Storm” while sneaking a cigarette (St. Vincent).
A one-shot wonder, it’s tough to look away from this scene, which features Murray in all of his sloppy glory.
6. Young girls sing “…Baby One More Time” and “We’re All In This Together” six years apart (Boyhood).
The movie of the year also features one of the best soundtracks, with filmmaker Richard Linklater using a variety of excellent background choices to put viewers in the moment, whether it be 2002 or 2014. Linklater also shot two parallel scenes featuring daughter Lorelei Linklater and an unnamed cast member singing their hearts out to Britney Spears and High School Musical.
“I was not actually a fan of Britney Spears!” Linklater's daughter told Dazed. “We actually had to learn that song. We did several songs actually, but I was more into show tunes at that age.”
[Note: The scenes we’re talking about aren’t online, but you can check out an interesting featurette on the film below.]
5. Chris Pratt celebrates some galactic alone time with “Come and Get Your Love” (Guardians of the Galaxy).
This flick plays on a lot of space adventure tropes, and audiences get a big clue as to its silly nature when Pratt (dressed in full mask and costume as “Star Lord”) sheds his evil attire and grooves to his Walkman in the opening scene.
4. Miles Teller gets slapped by J.K. Simmons for dragging… or was it rushing? (Whiplash)
It feels like every scene of this movie has its audience on edge – even the ones with the abusive Simmons. Picking one clip to represent the film is tough, but this one does a great job of detailing Teller’s personal hell.
3. Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader lip sync the hell out of “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (The Skeleton Twins).
Two suicidal twins link up after years apart, and chaos ensues. While it doesn’t follow the straight-laughs formula you might expect from a flick featuring SNL alums Wiig and Hader, The Skeleton Twins has plenty of gut-busting moments. The premier one comes when Hader tries to cheer up Wiig in a seemingly futile Starship lip sync. We won’t ruin the payoff.
2. Neil Patrick Harris rubs his dancing ability and elegant mustache in Seth MacFarlane’s face (A Million Ways to Die in the West).
After the success of Ted, this western comedy was a critical disappointment. However, it provided the stupidly catchy “If You’ve Only Got a Mustache,” during which Harris gets to flaunt his extravagant douchebaggery.
1. Michael Fassbender brings himself to tears with the reunion gig of a lifetime (Frank).
Out of context, this scene might not mean much. But after the two-hour joyride that is Frank, we get a tearjerking performance from Fassbender, a mentally ill Kansas man whose notable creative abilities earn him international respect. When everything crashes and burns, the band rises anew, and we leave them how we found them.
