Review: Randy Newman Makes Irony Great Again on 'Dark Matter'

Randy Newman is so busy as a film composer (most recently with Cars 3) that we get new albums from him only about once a decade. But the guy's got pretty good timing: Just as 2008's excellent Harps and Angels served as a sardonic send-off to the Bush era, Dark Matter greets #MAGA America with his signature brutal comic irony and heartbreaking grandeur. The nine-minute "The Great Debate" is a Broadway-scale throwdown between religion and reason that's so nuanced Newman himself even comes on trial