Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort star as two teenagers who meet at a cancer support group in the movie based on John Green’s bestselling young-adult novel. The film is a feelgood romantic comedy, so the soundtrack wisely features uplifting indie-rock. There’s plenty of young British acts, from Birdy to Jake Bugg, and highlights include “All of the Stars” by English hitmaker Ed Sheeran and “All I Want” by Ireland’s Coldplay-like Kodaline. But two of the best songs come from U.S. bands: Grouplove’s rousing “Let Me In” and STRFKR’s catchy “While I’m Alive.” The 15-track collection is strong enough to stand of its own, even without the movie.

The film about four Aboriginal girls who find fame singing for U.S. troops in Vietnam is a feelgood hit, fueled by its cast belting out soul classics like “What a Man” and “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.” Especially strong is new star Jessica Mauboy, the outback’s answer to Aretha Franklin.

Music always rules in Quentin Tarantino movies—remember John Travolta and Uma Thurman dancing to Chuck Berry in Pulp Fiction? The director’s latest is no exception, featuring funk from James Brown, a soulful duet between Anthony Hamilton and Elayna Boynton and an evocative score from spaghetti Western legend Ennio Morricone.

Few cases have galvanized Hollywood and the music community more than the story of three teenage boys wrongfully convicted for the murder of three Cub Scouts. The Memphis Three’s release, following 18 years of imprisonment, came after fundraising efforts by director Peter Jackson, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines. Says actor Johnny Depp, another supporter: “I was instantly struck by how heinous a crime [it was], but also the wave of injustice that followed it.” The soundtrack to a documentary about the case captures the passion of those voices and includes Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams and Johnny’s band Tonto’s Giant Nuts delivering a dark version of Mumford & Sons’ ...

The Jack Kerouac novel’s movie adaptation, starring Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley and Kristen Stewart, captures the story’s beatnik spirit with a cool soundtrack of late-’40s jazz and blues. Along with songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, the collection includes Slim Gaillard’s finger-snapping classic “Hit That Jive Jack.”