Michael Penn on AllMovie

Like fellow Angeleno Randy Newman, singer/songwriter Michael Penn may have a future beyond the pop charts in film scoring. pop maestro Penn's bits of music in Hard Eight and Boogie Nights were extremely well-crafted (no surprise -- he's a great songwriter) and somber, in keeping with the movies' dark content (remember the scary tolling of the bells in both?). It makes perfect sense -- his birthright has found him immersed in film culture his whole life.