Culture Crash: The Composing Genius Of Trent Reznor And Atticus Ross

Since 1989, Trent Reznor has been one of the most exciting voices in music. His band Nine Inch Nails was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has sold more than 20 million records, and that alone would be enough to make him a music legend. But in 2010, Reznor and collaborator Atticus Ross joined the shortlist of the elite movie score composers with their music for David Fincher’s The Social Network, which won them an Academy Award.

Since then Reznor and Ross have composed a number of awesome scores- they made the music for HBO’s Watchmen miniseries and won a second Oscar with the Pixar movie Soul. But my favorite of their scores comes from the new movie from director Luca Guadanino, Challengers.

Challengers stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor as a trio of star-crossed tennis-playing lovers. The movie puts the sexuality of Guadanino’s film Call Me By Your Name into the sturdy structure of a contemporary sports movie. The film is terrific, and the string that holds the whole thing together is the score from Reznor and Ross. A bass-thumping, dance house-inspired techno score, Reznor and Ross’s work adds energy and excitement to both the sports aspect and the charged relationships of the film, and the results are magic. It’s often accompanied by exquisitely shot images in super slow motion, and the combination had me absolutely enthralled whenever they came together over the film’s 2 hours and 11 minutes.

As with all great scores, the music from Challengers is an absolutely great listen on its own, too. I’ve listened to it while I’m working and while I’m out on a run. No  matter what you’re doing, one sure way to make it feel a whole lot more exciting is to throw on the Challengers score.