by Chris Feil

Jonathan Demme’s career was populated with a musical sensibility that bordered on spirituality, more obviously so in his many music documentaries and the definitive Stop Making Sense. His narrative films could stealthily incorporate a hum of music integral to the world he was presenting, as keenly observed as his character details. From Something Wild to Philadelphia to even Ricki and the Flash, Demme would use music to make his stories come alive in authentic ways. Rachel Getting Married, his late career masterpiece, has a musical language all its own, one that represents the film’s simmering grief and provides its necessary catharsis.