Modest Mouse - Dashboard
Ian Hunter - Cleveland Rocks
LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations, North American Scum
The Hold Steady - absolutely anything
Radiohead - Paranoid Android
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
musings
He liked when the professor made jokes so that he could see the girl in the hoodie smile.
He thought that she created a light-vacuum, where every beam, every photon clung to her, desperate for the honor to illumine her visage.
He knew she'd find that pretty creepy.
He mentally went over his to-do list for the long weekend:
Fix headphones with electrical tape.
See Cloverfield?
He didn't end up seeing Cloverfield.
He thought that she created a light-vacuum, where every beam, every photon clung to her, desperate for the honor to illumine her visage.
He knew she'd find that pretty creepy.
He mentally went over his to-do list for the long weekend:
Fix headphones with electrical tape.
See Cloverfield?
He didn't end up seeing Cloverfield.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
you know, that 2007 indie flick that's not juno
Wes Anderson's underappreciated The Darjeeling Limited is coming to DVD February 26, 2008 and I just wanted to include a few comments on my blog so that its sizable readership can become aware of these things.
There's a unique style in everything that Wes Anderson creates. From a craft standpoint, his passion for beauty on the movie screen is totally evident. Between painstakingly building and detailing all the cars on the title train and setting up some glorious wide angle shots of Indian cities and the countryside, it'll be hard to find a movie of last year that can top this one for pure visual pleasure. (The fact that this movie doesn't have a high-definition release planned is a big disappointment.) The auteur's trademark dusty-dry humor is kicked into high gear, never particularly drawing big laughs but instead weaving subtlety and a sharp script and a brilliant cast into lines that are darkly hilarious, in a way where you really wonder how he does it. His British Invasion soundtracks and memorable slow-motion scenes are unmistakable. At all these things Wes Anderson is at the top of his game.
The rub is that all these things often fail to produce a film that is commercially viable or even accessible to a lot of people, resulting in fairly empty theaters even when it's only showing on one or two screens in the city. I think Daddy Day Camp actually did better.
Which brings me to the point of my review: more people really oughta see this. Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman (aside from being the three worst noses ever to be in the same frame) really make their parts glow with all the minutia and detail of a strained siblinghood. As far as realistic and believable character development go, you'd be hard pressed to find anything that does it better. And it's all set to a gorgeous backdrop: Anderson crams in every little bit of gorgeous detail onto the screen, with masterful framing used throughout; one could capture almost any image from this film and it would be worthy of a magazine cover.
The Darjeeling Limited also offers plenty to fans of the director's previous work. One big throwback to Rushmore plays a pivotal role in the plot, and of course the cast is riddled with Wes Anderson alumni. The Kinks and the Rolling Stones selections are par for the course with his soundtracks, though this time there are primarily tracks from the scores of Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
I do think Wes Anderson could stand with getting some new material, though. Let's be honest here, his last three movies could have been called Family Issues, Family Issues II: They're On A Boat This Time, and Family Issues The Reckoning: Train Edition. The interesting thing is that anyone who's seen Rushmore knows that he's capable of crafting power films that aren't all about daddy issues. In fact, Max Fischer is probably one of the most compelling characters he's ever done, and his personality isn't really enhanced much by the loss of his mother. But I digress a little.
The Darjeeling Limited is a unique cinematic triumph in its technique, characters, and subtlety, while failing by being a real love-it-or-hate-it kind of deal. The nuanced, quiet sort of humor is certainly to my liking, but it probably won't make you laugh out loud. In the end, it's a real grower, it's flawed, and it's beautiful, not unlike most of our own sibiling relationships. So what's the verdict? If comedies more subtle than Superbad are lost on you, this probably won't be your cup of tea. If you've a Wes Anderson fan, you've probably already seen it. And if you're looking for something just a little bit different and a little deeper than your typical summer comedy, give this underappreciated gem your consideration.
There's a unique style in everything that Wes Anderson creates. From a craft standpoint, his passion for beauty on the movie screen is totally evident. Between painstakingly building and detailing all the cars on the title train and setting up some glorious wide angle shots of Indian cities and the countryside, it'll be hard to find a movie of last year that can top this one for pure visual pleasure. (The fact that this movie doesn't have a high-definition release planned is a big disappointment.) The auteur's trademark dusty-dry humor is kicked into high gear, never particularly drawing big laughs but instead weaving subtlety and a sharp script and a brilliant cast into lines that are darkly hilarious, in a way where you really wonder how he does it. His British Invasion soundtracks and memorable slow-motion scenes are unmistakable. At all these things Wes Anderson is at the top of his game.
The rub is that all these things often fail to produce a film that is commercially viable or even accessible to a lot of people, resulting in fairly empty theaters even when it's only showing on one or two screens in the city. I think Daddy Day Camp actually did better.
Which brings me to the point of my review: more people really oughta see this. Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman (aside from being the three worst noses ever to be in the same frame) really make their parts glow with all the minutia and detail of a strained siblinghood. As far as realistic and believable character development go, you'd be hard pressed to find anything that does it better. And it's all set to a gorgeous backdrop: Anderson crams in every little bit of gorgeous detail onto the screen, with masterful framing used throughout; one could capture almost any image from this film and it would be worthy of a magazine cover.
The Darjeeling Limited also offers plenty to fans of the director's previous work. One big throwback to Rushmore plays a pivotal role in the plot, and of course the cast is riddled with Wes Anderson alumni. The Kinks and the Rolling Stones selections are par for the course with his soundtracks, though this time there are primarily tracks from the scores of Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
I do think Wes Anderson could stand with getting some new material, though. Let's be honest here, his last three movies could have been called Family Issues, Family Issues II: They're On A Boat This Time, and Family Issues The Reckoning: Train Edition. The interesting thing is that anyone who's seen Rushmore knows that he's capable of crafting power films that aren't all about daddy issues. In fact, Max Fischer is probably one of the most compelling characters he's ever done, and his personality isn't really enhanced much by the loss of his mother. But I digress a little.
The Darjeeling Limited is a unique cinematic triumph in its technique, characters, and subtlety, while failing by being a real love-it-or-hate-it kind of deal. The nuanced, quiet sort of humor is certainly to my liking, but it probably won't make you laugh out loud. In the end, it's a real grower, it's flawed, and it's beautiful, not unlike most of our own sibiling relationships. So what's the verdict? If comedies more subtle than Superbad are lost on you, this probably won't be your cup of tea. If you've a Wes Anderson fan, you've probably already seen it. And if you're looking for something just a little bit different and a little deeper than your typical summer comedy, give this underappreciated gem your consideration.
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