more music movies

I don’t like the idea of posting about movies I’ve not seen, and I don’t want to lead this blog down the Ain’t It Cool News road, but considering the recent posts about music documentaries, I thought some here might be interested in some upcoming music related films.

I just picked up the LA Film Festival schedule and there’s a few interesting ones mentioned.
Be Here To Love Me is about Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. Townes alway struck me a bit as the Harry Nillson of country. Others had hits with his songs, and he was loved by the best in the biz, but that’s often not enough. Continue reading more music movies

Riding Giants

Crikey.

First of all, I should have gone to see this in a theater. No excuse. I’ve made a decision not to spend $11 on whatever Nicolas Cage craps out anymore, but I should go see and support independent films and documentaries in theaters when I can, and I’m sorry I missed this one.

I am not even a fan of surfing; it’s not a great spectator sport to be honest, and I don’t do it myself, so this should have been just marginally interesting. But this film is SO GOOD. The history, the interviews, the fantastic old home movies that Stacy Peralta tracked down are wonderful.

His story arc tracing this bohemian post-war lifestyle to the jet-ski aided extreme sport it is today seems to happen gradually, and Peralta doesn’t dwell on whether this is a good or bad thing – it just is.

It’s not deep. It’s just very sweet. Peralta’s respect for the sport and its pioneers comes through all the time. And it is completely captivating. We started watching this movie late at night, and I didn’t glance at a clock once, or even get up.

I can’t say enough for the quality of this film. I honestly can’t think of another film I’ve seen in the past year or two that was as enjoyable and transporting as this one.

Elephant

Gus Van Sant – Well, he does have a style of his own, though it got watered down in Good Will Hunting and – I’m not even sure what he’s made since then…

But against what I’d have thought, that “detactched youth” look works well here: Random teens getting through their day at school, interacting or terribly lonely, with long, long takes, sometimes of the same scene from different points of view. The only difference in this day is that two of the teens have made a plan to blow up the school and shoot as many students as they can. Continue reading Elephant

zombies

Am currently reading Max Brooks (Mel’s son) very serious book called the “Zombie Survival Guide.” It contains fewer blatant attempts at humor than the average Army Survival Manual, and comes across like a mix of the Anarchist’s Cookbook and the serious writings of a disturbed 18 year old. Having said that, it is of course very funny, and I had never realized how dangerous zombies underwater could be until now.

Ahh, zombies. I’m almost always disappointed by the zombie movies. Night of the Comet, even Romero’s many attempts at the genre. Continue reading zombies

Fat Girl

This is a well made, well acted film that I would recommend to most poeple on here, though it would likely offend some of the more moralistic types, like the late Bruns. I watched this more than a week ago, and have been thinking about it since, but I dont know that I have much to say about it. The point of view is through the eyes of a fat 13 year old girl, watching (being dragged along like a dog sometimes) by her beautiful, slightly older sister.

The director has taken a lot of heat for her films over the years – I remember “Romance” being pretty well loathed, but after enjoying Fat Girl, I will look for more of her stuff. If anyone else has seen Fat Girl, and has thoughts on it, I’d like to hear them. Also, it contains a small, but strong performance by Atom Egoyan’s wife, Arsinée Khanjian, whom I always love to see. Continue reading Fat Girl

Guarded Stare

Garden State A FILM ABOUT TROUBLED YOUNG PEOPLE… WITH NO TROUBLES.

Is Zach Braff just not good enough – or confident enough – to let certain things remain unsaid? Or is the audience that dense that we need to have every little thing spelled out for us? Braff lets his cast off very easy in this film, particularly himself and Portman. Blinding headaches? Oh, they just go away halfway through the film. Been on lithium, Zoloft, Paxil for ten years and decide to take yourself off all at once? Well, the worst thing that will happen to you is that you’ll joyously shout while standing in the rain! Continue reading Guarded Stare

The Wicker Man / Spirited Away

Just watched The Wicker Man and Spirited Away by Miyazaki

Several here would have a field day using Wicker Man as text: Comparative religion, worker exploitation through religion, cultural imperialism, and as a great example of the post-hippie New Age rise in paganism and anti-authority to which the time period (early 70s) gave rise.

One of my favorite scenes in the film shows the police officer, a devout Christian, watching in horror as a teacher instructs a group of children about pagan rites. This fascinates me in light of the current Darwinism / creationism debate going on in red states school boards across the country. I would imagine either side could identify with both the teacher and the officer; the pure outrage of teaching young people something so clearly erroneous and idiotic as creationism…or Darwinism.
Continue reading The Wicker Man / Spirited Away

Does anyone still watch TV?

Someone here said that Lost is good. And I suppose that there might just be a chance that there is a good hour-long thriller out there, but I didn’t want to waste the hour to take a chance on Lost; the odds were very much against it because TV SUCKS.

The networks and cable; comedies, dramas, reality shows; game shows, talk shows, sports; those purveyors of our horrors that are MTV, E!, BET, A&E… I honestly have given up on something good showing up on TV. Am I wrong? I might be, but I can’t stand to do more than flip channels for an hour each night. Continue reading Does anyone still watch TV?