because today required this movie and its music

Since it’s almost the new year — when people start making resolutions that they will inevitably break by Jan. 15 — I thought instead, we could focus on what we can do TODAY to start living the life we deserve.

As Eleanor Roosevelt said (and we have on the homepage here): “Do one thing every day that scares you.” It’s something I’ve really been thinking about a lot lately, and embracing as much as I can.

So here’s my question to you: Are you holding back doing something you’ve always wanted to do?

My challenge to us: Let’s make a collective effort to stop being afraid to do things simply because we feel we’re not “smart” enough, “thin” enough, “pretty” enough, “funny” enough, “brave” enough, “strong” enough …

Because you ARE enough. Exactly as you are.

Part of my recovery journey the past year and a half has been about just that: self-acceptance … flaws, challenges and all.

It’s meant taking risks, putting myself out there, and opening myself up for rejection and criticism from people I care about.

It’s meant placing myself in uncomfortable situations, and it’s meant being quite vulnerable — trying to find my footing while hundreds of readers a day watch (the overwhelming support has been indescribable).

Yet ultimately, I think that this learned fearlessness (because it’s not innate to me) has made me a better, stronger person. I’ve learned that sometimes we find strength out of necessity.

Anyway, one of my absolute favorite movies is Zach Braff’s genius brainchild, Garden State. As a native Jersey girl, I know all about the terrible stereotypes about my home state.

I also know they’re not all true — and this movie is, like bagels, the shore, malls, Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi — part of New Jersey’s pride and joy.

Anyway, one of the songs from the film that haunts me in the most delicious way is about risk-taking. You might know it — “Let Go,” by Frou Frou. (I embedded a video clip in this post for anyone interested).

Here are all the lyrics. I bolded the chorus, my favorite part. I think it speaks volumes.

“let go,” by frou frou

drink up, baby down
mmm, are you in or are you out
leave your things behind
’cause it’s all going off without you
excuse me, too busy you’re writing your tragedy
these mishaps
you bubble wrap
when you’ve no idea what you’re like

so let go, jump in
oh well, whatcha waiting for
it’s alright
’cause there’s beauty in the breakdown
so let go, just get in
oh, it’s so amazing here
it’s alright
’cause there’s beauty in the breakdown

it gains the more it gives
and then it rises with the fall
so hand me that remote
can’t you see that all that stuff’s a sideshow

such boundless pleasure
we’ve no time for later now
you can’t await your own arrival
you’ve 20 seconds to comply

so let go, jump in
oh well, whatcha waiting for
it’s alright
’cause there’s beauty in the breakdown
so let go, just get in
oh, it’s so amazing here
it’s alright
’cause there’s beauty in the breakdown

I can’t hear that song without wanting to challenge myself to try something new; to put my fears aside and jump right in — to whatever that may be at the moment.

Because as the song notes, “it’s all goin off without you” — whether you are sitting on the sidelines or on the field.

So you might as well get up to bat. You might not know what kind of curve-ball life will throw at you, but you have far more to lose sitting out than stepping up to the plate.

How about you? Is there something you’ve been holding back on doing, that you’ve vowed to change? Can you take that risk today, or take the first steps needed to achieve your goal?

Starting today and continuing through New Year’s Eve, Something Offensive will be unveiling its official TOP 50 MOVIES OF THE DECADE list.  (Referring to the 2000s here, McFly.)  We’ll provide our brief, individual explanations for each selection as they’re posted.  Readers are encouraged to comment on the films, ask questions about why we chose what we did or ask questions about the films themselves, and finally, to offer up their own suggestions for great films released these last 10 years.  And once we’ve revealed our five favorite stories of The Oughts, we’ll post the entire list for your perusal.

The list was composed by way of an overly complex voting process not even Taos or I comprehend.  All we know for sure is that these are movies we endorse  with hooker moneys.

Before we break any cineastes’ hearts, know it skews more toward populist fare.  Also:  all foreign films require subtitles + the original language audio track. Don’t even bother if you’re unwilling to go this route.  We’re linking a trailer with each entry; be forgiving of the non-American ones as their international trailers are often terrible.  One final caveat:  the list was conceived and completed prior to Avatar.  Cameron’s pic is a stunning experience that should be seen by everyone, but it simply couldn’t be included at this time.  But fret not.  After the holiday cheer begins to subside, there’ll be a subsequent list featuring the 3-D Na’vi and other excellent works that didn’t make this first cut for whichever of a variety of mysterious reasons.

So then, let us begin…

—

(trailer)

David: I think what makes Assassination so powerful is all that it suggests.  Poetry in pictures and song, of menace and tragedy.  Grueling suspense wrapped up tightly in the hungry stares of its distressingly rummaging actors.  Though its pace and narration may seem double-edged, the presentation nevertheless lingers cautiously, treading through a memory haunted and forgotten.

Taos: A delectable character study. Enhanced significantly by Nick Cave’s enchanting soundtrack. Do I need to mention Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt too???

—

(trailer)

Taos: Probably more symbolic of a younger psyche. Still, its impact on my quarter-life self is more than enough to receive a nod. One of my favorite non-scored soundtracks.

David: I think Taos and I are in agreement here. While the film has and continues to endure a not fully warranted backlash (I’m guessing thanks to the pandering, middling tide of Searchlight-esque labels arguably setting back the American independent movement), it has its obvious limitations. But placing all the bullshit aside, Garden State spoke to me at just the right moment in my life.  It sent me looking for better movies and considering a career making them, too.  I am left grateful.  Also:  Natalie Portman!  Natalie Portman, Natalie Portman, Natalie Portman.
…
Natalie Portman.

—

(trailer)

David: The discovery of Park Chan-wook, transitioning here from a skilled filmmaker into a full-blown artist.  (Does that sound cheap?  Forgive me.)  The frame is knicked in spots; a regrettable flaw fleetingly mars its end.  But Park finds, or more accurately, shares with us for the first time his voice beyond an EP.  Shocking to most, the director excavates something primal, both within us and in our classical literary roots.  And yet something new protrudes.  Old versus new, East/West, comedy/tragedy, right & wrong–therein lies Park’s cunning: the tension of conflicts.

Taos: Just your straight-up revenge fare here. Severely overshadowed by Oldboy, and I find that good.

—

(trailer)

Taos: This is what Scorsese won on? Aside from Jack’s overacting, it was good, but Aviator was so much more deserving.

David: Scorcese and writer William Monahan make fresh an already exciting concept in redrawing The Departed’s appreciable if less knowing predecessor (Infernal Affairs; but let’s not distract ourselves with a trite Venn diagram dispute).  I do think its irreverence ultimately gets in the way of its staying power, but Scorcese and crew’s execution is formidable.  More movies should feature Vera Farmiga.

—

(trailer)

David: My second Hirokazu (following the delightful After Life), the director approaches his material with honest restraint while still finding wonder in life’s most overlooked of places.  Along with the effort of a terrific child cast, more immediately, Nobody Knows conveys a human quality often forgotten in the politics of adulthood, something that will deeply affect those with little ones close to their hearts.

Taos: I too do not know. Have not seen it.

—

Be sure to come back tomorrow to check out part 2!

The idea that a cultural movement begins or ends with the flip of a calendar is, of course, fallacious. ”60s Music” is an identifier of a specific strain of popular music that really refers to the time period, between 1965 (mid-career Beatles) and 1976 (The Sex Pistols). What we think of as the Golden Era of 70s movies began, arguably, with The Graduate in 1967 (or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the year before) and ended with Raging Bull in 1980.

For now anyway, the 2000s can be called The Netflix Decade, a time when, in theory, more movies were more accessible to more people than ever before. That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone took advantage of this opportunity. Still, the idea that a movie, even one from say, Romania about abortion, can have a second life on video is encouraging. If you’re a stickler for lists, consider this the 90 (or so) best movies of the last ten years. What this era in film will ultimately be called is anyone’s guess, but, many films in this list, particularly those made in the US, reflect life in the Age of Terror, where the country was led by a man whose ambition far exceeded his abilities.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days – Over the last ten years there has been a rush, in relative terms anyway, of films from countries that were formerly behind the Iron Curtain. The best of these was a heartbreakingly frank film about the moral and practical dilemmas of abortion while Eastern Europe crumbled in the late 1980s. A movie of unflinching honesty. (2007)

8 Mile – Don’t laugh. Yes, Eminem played himself, but great movies put the viewer in a time and place and Curtis Hanson’s impeccable direction gives life to the hopelessness of Eminem’s Detroit ring of despair. The performances of Kim Basinger and Mekhi Phifer are first-rate.  The movie looks even more authentic now that Eminem has faded from the limelight. (2002)

21 Grams – The title refers to the amount of weight we lose after we die. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s follow-up to Amores Perros brought together a math professor (Sean Penn), a grieving housewife (Naomi Watts) and a re-born convict (Benicio Del Toro). The story isn’t arranged chronologically and the morality of what’s taking place is apparent before the full impact of the plot.

The 25^th Hour – Spike Lee’s least bombastic work. Three men (Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper) one of whom is preparing for a prison stint, re-assess their lives in New York City while terrorist occupied planes still echo in the background. The request made late in the film by Norton will make you gasp, but then nod in agreement with his logic. (2002)

About Schmidt – When Jack Nicholson’s wife dies he decides to rent an RV and drive around trying to avoid the realization that he’s a selfish creep. Alexander Payne’s portrait of aging shines even brighter when compared to the emptiness of another Nicholson film about old age released several years later—The Bucket List. Hope Davis is brilliant as Nicholson’s estranged daughter. (2002)

Almost Famous – The best fictional account of the rock and roll life this side of Spinal Tap. Billy Crudup hits every note as an ambivalent guitar hero. Philip Seymour Hoffman is hysterical as rock critic Lester Bangs. Cameron Crowe’s movie also launched the career of Kate Hudson, who plays a groupie. Don’t hold that against it. The “Tiny Dancer” sequence on the tour bus is sure to put a lump in your throat. (2000)

Amelie  – Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fable starring Audrey Tautou is certain to become a beloved classic if it hasn’t achieved that status already. Jeunet and Tautou occupy a world that looks much like our own yet is eminently more just, hopeful and full of love. Engaging from any number of perspectives. (2001)

Amores Perros – The three-pronged story about how lives have been irreversibly altered by a car accident can only be described as awe-inspiring. It introduced the world to the massive talents of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gael Garcia Bernal and the progenitors of Latin American Cinema. Much as Amores Perros is a child of Pulp Fiction, it is also the father to the acclaimed City of God. (2001)

Away From Her – This tiny movie about a woman (Julie Christie) coming to grips with Alzheimer’s raises challenging questions about the true nature of love, honesty and companionship. That Sarah Polley was only 27 when she directed this counts as a miracle. (2007)

Babel – Whereas Amores Perros’ and 21 Grams’ centerpiece were a singular event, Innaritu’s Babel centers on a singular feeling brought on by a digital, wireless age. It’s one of mutedness. We can speak to more people in more places than ever before, yet we still have no clue what to say. The characters’ eyes tell us everything we need to know about their hollowed-out existences. In Babel, continents are little more than land masses that separate people trying to cope with this new world. Brad Pitt has never been better. (2006)

The Beat That My Heart Skipped – Romain Duris dreams of becoming a concert pianist conflict with his father’s desire that he follow his footsteps into a life of low-level street thuggery. Director Jacques Audiard brings together the disparate physical and emotional universes that Duris occupies. Paris, probably the most-filmed movie locale in the world after New York, is presented in a new, fresh way. (2005)

Before Sunset – Nine years after Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy fell in love on a single night in Vienna they meet again. Except now they’re in Paris. But time has passed and things have changed. Or have they? A great idea executed to perfection by director Richard Linklater and the two leads. (2004)

Black Hawk Down – Mark Bowden’s searing chronicle of the US Army’s disaster in Somalia. Ridley Scott and a strong ensemble cast capture the frantic efforts of well-intentioned men in one impossible situation after another. (2001)

Bigger Faster Stronger* – A straightforward documentary about steroids and American culture by a first time director and former devotee of the weightlifting/bodybuilding scene. (2008)

Bloody Sunday – Made prior to United 93 and The Bourne movies, Paul Greengrass’ re-creation of the events of January 30, 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland seethes with anger. (2002)

Borat – Far and away the best comedy in recent years. Although it dutifully serves its  function as a biting social satire, it’s the bar which other comedies strive for: “Yeah, (title) was pretty funny. But it’s no Borat.” (2006)

Bowling for Columbine – With the school shootings still fresh in the public mind Michael Moore’s film about America’s obsession with guns is a tour de force of filmmaking. It’s become the template for countless other issue-driven documentaries, but the original is still the best. Who could forget Moore emerging from a bank, gun in hand as gratitude for opening a new bank account? (2002)

Capote – I tend to resist portrayals of historical figures little more than overwrought imitations, but there are some performances that just throw you back in your seat. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s depiction of the caustic, gifted, tortured Truman Capote is such a performance. (2005)

The Dark Knight – One of the major secular features of Bush Era was rampant self-involvement. Facebook has turned the personal into the global scale. In a landscape where fame goes to those who are willing only to be more extreme than their predecessor, Heath Ledger, as the sadistic Joker tapped perfectly into this pathos while living up to unprecedented pre-release hype. Everything, onscreen and off, about The Dark Knight reflected the culture of entitlement. Mostly though, The Dark Knight delivered on all its promise.  The movie has flaws; Christian Bale’s smoky (or is it gravelly?) voice is an unneeded prop and the stunt make-up of Aaron Eckhart’s character is unnecessary. That said, it performs the near impossible—a summer blockbuster whose story and message stays with you for days, if not weeks. (2008)

Darwin’s Nightmare – A documentary about the perch in Lake Victoria that shows the social and political effects of an ecological nightmare. While An Inconvenient Truth was the environmental movie that bagged the awards and attention, Hubert Sauper’s movie chilled and moved. (2005)

Eastern Promises –  David Cronenberg re-emerged with A History of Violence, but its follow-up was far more entertaining. Naomi Watts’ London midwife stumbles across the Russian mob, as personified by Viggo Mortensen, cultures clash, mayhem ensues–including a grisly fight in a steam bath. (2007)

Edge of Heaven – The best movies of the decade made outside the US addressed the blurring of boundaries among class, race, ethnicity or sexuality. Fatih Akin’s film about a German Turk who moves to Istanbul in order to find his half-sister makes you wonder if maybe boundaries aren’t such a bad thing. (2008)

Elephant – Gus Van Sant’s take on school violence is haunting. The impending carnage looms over the characters to such a degree that, as an audience member, you want to shake them by the shoulders and tell them to run before the bullets start flying. (2003)

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room – The best of its type. A traditional talking-heads documentary that harnesses the national outrage of the Enron collapse and the subsequent dominoes that fell. Names are named and we’re given plenty of reason to hold those mentioned in absolute contempt. (2005)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – I resisted this as too gimmicky at first and I don’t buy Jim Carrey doing anything serious, but on a second viewing it struck me as a thoughtful consideration of how memory relates to romantic longing, especially considering it’s a major studio release. The rare instance of  when a blend of a potentially toxic mix of artists–Carrey, Kate Winslet, Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman results in a coherent final product.  (2004)

The Fall – A suicidal stunt man, an eight year old Eastern European immigrant girl who speaks accented English, Charles Darwin, Alexander the Great and many, many others people populate Tarsem Singh’s follow up to The Cell. Reportedly made without CGI, it’s unlike any film ever made. (2008)

Finding Nemo – A father clown fish loses track of his son clown fish. In desperate need of help in finding him, he is assisted by a pang fish with short-term memory. That the movie somehow takes a parent’s worst nightmare and turns it into something cute is a testament to its many charms. Edged Ratatouille and Up for a spot behind WALL-E on this list. (2003)

Garden State – While it’s easy to dismiss the movie as a tool for Zach Braff’s navel-gazing, Garden State appealed to people of a certain age, pre mid-life, who wondered, “What’s it all for?” It owes massive debts to The Graduate and the work of Wes Anderson but it’s a movie of and about its time. (2004)

George Washington – David Gordon Green’s somber sketch on poor black children in North Carolina plays like a Miles Davis number. The movie is all mood, but by the end, you feel like you know the kids in this movie intimately. (2000)

Gone Baby Gone – This may be a blasphemy in some quarters, but Ben Affleck’s directorial debut does Clint Eastwood better than Eastwood himself. It confronts many of the same issues as Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River the difference is the performance of Amy Ryan, as the world’s worst mother. (2007)

Good Night and Good Luck – George Clooney’s paean to an era gone by was meant to be a body blow to the modern media, where rumor and innuendo flourish. More than David Straitharn’s uncanny impersonation of Edward R Murrow, most the high points are the elegant singing of Dianne Reeves that served as a bridge scenes of increasing tension. (2005)

Goodbye Solo – Souleymane Sy Savane is  Solo, a Senegalese cab-driver in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (the Tar Heel State is a new hot spot for American Indie Cinema). He picks up a weary, southern man who asks that a few days from now Solo take him to Blowing Rock National Park, no questions asked. Ramin Bahrani’s movie is so loaded with symbolism it’s easy to overlook what an assured, confident piece of filmmaking it is. If there’s any justice, Savane will pick up an Oscar nomination this year. (2009)

Happy-Go-Lucky – How far does attitude go in life? At first glance Sally Hawkins’ Poppy is gratingly optimistic, but as Mike Leigh’s small masterpiece unfolds we see that Poppy is far more sophisticated than we’ve given her credit for. Furthermore, I can think of no film of this or an era that so lovingly presents a friendship between two women—Hawkins and Alexis Zegerman. They’re co-workers and have each other’s backs in ways that the girls from Sex and the City would never understand. (2008)

The House of Flying Daggers  – Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon set a standard that Zhang Yimou’s exhilarating epic set in the Tang Dynasty surpassed. That’s Ninth Century kids. Two police officers, with differing motives, force a gorgeous dancer to go undercover and infiltrate The House of Flying Daggers, a group of militants who steal from the rich and give to the poor. There’s a sequence where…ok forget that, watch it and you’ll instantly recognize why this movie is on a “Best of” list. (2004)

In America – After WALL-E this was the movie that stole my heart. Jim Sheridan directed a script he wrote with his daughters about a family a lot like their own. It’s the magical story of a family overcoming the loss of the youngest child through great sacrifice and a move to Hell’s Kitchen. Sarah and Emma Bolger, who play the precocious daughters, will steal your heart too. (2003)

In the Bedroom  – Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek have a son (Nick Stahl) who gets involved with an older woman (Marisa Tomei) estranged from her husband. When Stahl gets killed by the husband in a jealous fit Wilkinson must face his own thoughts of revenge in this wrenching drama directed by Todd Field. (2001)

In the Mood for Love – It’s 1962 Hong Kong and Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are neighbors who suspect their spouses of infidelity. Wong Kar-Wai’s film is in the grand tradition of a love story set against a society in upheaval, but simmers with a lust and eroticism all its own. Runner-up to Y Tu Mama Tambien for sexiest film of the decade. (2001)

In the Valley of Elah  – When Tommy Lee Jones’ son goes missing shortly after returning from a tour in Iraq, he sets out to find him. In the course of his quest he’s aided by Charlize Theron and the movie becomes a layered treatise about the war in Iraq, the military and family. In his best roles, Jones face says far more than any word could and that’s certainly the case in this movie, which takes its title from the site of David’s biblical battle with Goliath. (2007)

Into the Wild  – After graduating from Emory University in Atlanta, Chris McCandless, the child of well-to-do parents, gave away all his possessions and hitchhiked across America en route To Alaska. A wonderful companion to Jon Krakauer’s elegiac account of McCandless, Sean Penn’s movie brings together sweeping natural panoramas, marvelous supporting characters (Hal Holbrook especially) and a pitch-perfect score from Eddie Vedder. (2007)

Junebug – So many films about the clash between urban and rural ways of life resort to easy stereotypes, but Phil Morrison’s movie strikes just the right tone. Now living in Chicago, a son brings his art gallery-owning wife (the stunning Embeth Davidtz) to meet his parents in rural North Carolina. He re-acquaints himself with his brother whose wife (played by Amy Adams in the breakthrough performance of the decade) is pregnant. New conflicts arise as old wounds are re-opened. Celia Weston is delightful as the family matriarch. (2005)

Katyn – The legendary director Andrzej Wajda may have made his best film in his 80’s. It’s the heretofore untold story of the slaughter of thousands of Polish soldiers at the beginning of World War II by the Russian Red Army. Wajda focusses on how the Russians lies about the massacre left a permanent stain on the Polish psyche. The final twenty minutes of Katyn put your heart in your throat. (2008)

Kontroll  – Nimrod Antal’s film about life in the Budapest subway system defies easy description. Every scene and piece of dialogue seems loaded with literal and metaphorical interpretations. And the metaphor can apply just as easily to the main characters as to life in Hungary after the fall of the Soviet Empire. (2005)

 Lilya 4-ever – Abandoned by her mother, 16 year-old Lilya must fend for herself in bleak, gray Estonia. She meets a young man different from the abusive thugs in her neighborhood. He is kind to her and promises to pull her out of her dire circumstances. Hopeful and desperate, she trusts him. Thinking they will run off to a slice of heaven, Lilya is instead lowered into a kind of Hell that can only be borne from the minds of the truly evil. Lukas Moodyson’s film muscles its way into the pit of your stomach and stays there for days.

Little Children  – The decade’s best movie about suburban dystopia and arguably Kate Winslet’s best performance. She plays an educated mother whose marriage is passionless. She begins an affair with Patrick Wilson –The Prom King, as he’s dubbed by the neighborhood mothers—whose marriage is  deteriorating while he attempts to pas the bar exam. Most memorable, however, is Jackie Earle Haley, a sex offender trying to start a new life while under the watchful eye of self-appointed moralist. (2006)

The Lives of Others – An engrossing film about the horrors of life on the front lines of the Cold War. Ulrich Muhe is a member of the Stasi in 1984 who listens in on the conversations of a playwright and his lover. His own life being one of boredom he becomes increasingly engrossed in those of his subject. Florian Heckel von Donnersmarck crafted a film of personal destruction while addressing contemporary issues of privacy in a time of unparalleled freedom. (2006)

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – It will be hard to explain to future generations the impact that this series of films had on a populace put on perpetual edge in the age of terrorism. Thousands of people lined up to watch the entire trilogy, nine hours in total. It did not take much imagination to see the similarities between Peter Jackson’s sprawling epics and the state of world affairs. The stories of honor, mysticism, fellowship and duty in the face of an indefatigable enemy bent on an engineering an apocalypse resonated with millions of people who had never even heard of JRR Tolkien. (2001-2003)

Memento  – How Christopher Nolan began the decade. The taut Guy Pearce is covered from head to toe with tattoos. He’s also written himself hundreds of notes. The ink on both the paper and his skin is critical because he has no short term memory. In normal circumstances this would be quite the conundrum, but it’s worse because Pearce’s wife has been murdered and he’s trying to figure if he did it or if someone else did. Memento was that rare, visceral movie that left the audience in their seats after the house lights came up, catching their collective breaths. (2001)

Michael Clayton  – Where Good Night and Good Luck was a clarion call to a lazy media elite, George Clooney got back in front of the camera in this tightly written drama about corporate malfeasance. He’s a fixer who keeps small problems from becoming big ones. He must prevent an old friend gone crazy (a manic Tom Wilkinson) from jeopardizing a billion-dollar project while keeping the company lawyer (a scathing Tilda Swinton) at bay. Tony Gilroy’s movie recalls 70s classics like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor. (2007)

Minority Report - The back end (after Artificial Intelligence: AI) of a Steven Spielberg double-dip on the dire possibilities of the near future, blisters with energy. Tom Cruise plays a pre-crime officer—criminals are arrested before they commit their crimes—who finds himself caught up in agency politics that have far-reaching implications. Watch it again just to see how prescient it is, based on a Philip K. Dick novel. (2002)

Monster’s Ball  – An extremely graphic sex scene featuring Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton (ick) generated buzz, but Marc Forster’s depiction of troubled lives in the south is harrowing. Heath Ledger, Sean Combs and Peter Boyle are excellent in support of Berry’s raw performance. (2001)

The Motorcycle Diaries – Before he became a face on a t-shirt, Ernesto Guevera was called “Fuser” by his friends. As a student, he and a buddy traveled through South America on a beat up Norton 500. Gael Garcia Bernal is Che in Walter Salles’ exquisite travelogue about idealism colliding with reality. The Machu Picchu sequence is breathtaking. (2004)

Moulin Rouge! – Unapologetically over the top, Baz Luhrman’s was the best musical of the past ten years. A courtesan (Nicole Kidman) falls in love with a would-be poet (Ewan McGregor) much to the chagrin of a duke. This triangle is resolved in a splash of song, color and double-entendres. Jim Broadbent won an Oscar the following year in Iris, but he deserved it for his role as the ringmaster here. (2001)

The New World – Terrence Malick’s lyrical, contemplative rendering of the affair between John Smith (Colin Farrell) and Pocahantas sweeps you up and carries you off to a place that only he seems to be able to construct. When the duties of colonization become too much, the stability of their relationship is threatened. (2005)

The Notebook – The moment you say, “Oh, come on! That would never happen!” you’ve missed the point. Every character in the movie is of a type and that very broadness is what makes the film such a timeless love story. (2004)

No Country for Old Men – Javier Bardem’s Anton Chigurh immediately joined the pantheon of cinematic psychos but Tommy Lee Jones is outstanding as sheriff trying to make sense of killer whose weapon of choice is a cattle prong. Josh Brolin is up to Jones’ lofty standards as Chigurh’s main target. Kelly MacDonald turns a potentially forgettable role as Brolin’s wife into the moral center of the film. While the movie may have caught fans of the Coen Brothers off-guard, it fits nicely in the canon of the makers of Miller’s Crossing, Fargo and Blood Simple. (2007)

Once  – Set in modern day Dublin, Glen Hansard is a Hoover repair man and Marketa Irglova is an immigrant caring for her mother and daughter. They are both amateur musicians and gradually they write songs together that reflect their growing feelings for each other. A small treasure. (2007)

Pan’s Labyrinth – In order to escape her sadistic stepfather in Franco’s Spain, a ten year-old girl imagines a secret world where she must perform three tasks to prove that she is, in fact, a princess. Fashioned by Guillermo Del Toro, who spent the decade creating worlds that exist just beyond the reach of our own. (2006)

Requiem for a Dream — Four disparate characters succumb to drug abuse. Most frightening in Darren Aronofsky’s film is the descent into madness of a woman collecting social security played by Ellen Burstyn. Far from a lecture, the movie shows in explicit detail how different people become addicted for different reasons.  (2000)

Sideways - In celebration of his philandering pal’s upcoming nuptials, Paul Giamatti takes him on a tour of California wine country. Like any good road movie, Alexander Payne’s film contrives one scenario after another in order to reveal something about the characters. What made Sideways different was the intensity of Giamatti’s portrayal of a man consumed by his own self-loathing. (2004)

The Station Agent – A thoughtful independent film from Thomas McCarthy about a dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who inherits an abandoned train station after his best friend dies. He’s subsequently harangued into friendship by a chatty hot dog vendor (Bobby Cannavale). The unlikely friends then encounter a woman (Patricia Clarkson) who is in mourning. Well-deserving of the many awards it picked up on the festival circuit. (2003)

Taxi to the Dark Side – Of the many righteously indignant documentaries criticizing the Bush Administration Alex Gibney’s was the best. It’s the story of an innocent Afghan cab driver who was tortured and killed while in US custody. He’s not a casualty of the madness of war, but rather, the victim of carefully vetted policy.  (2007)

There Will Be Blood  – P. T. Anderson’s sprawling epic of greed, oil and religion has a problematic ending but who could forget the opening scene, where Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview, without saying a word, grunts his way into our psyche. He plunges one hole after another into the ground through the force of his personality, creating to a fortune but and future that will, most certainly, be bloody. An instant American classic. (2007)

Traffic  – The War on Drugs from the peripatetic camera of Steven Soderbergh. In his most complete film, he inspects many, if not all, aspects of the struggle and concludes that the effort has been a colossal failure. Sturdy performances by Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid, Don Cheadle and Michael Douglas anchor a somewhat chaotic enterprise. (2000)

Waking Life – Richard Linklater’s mind-massaging meditation on truth, reality, dreams and just about everything else washes over you like a hot shower. The fact that it merges animates live action characters pushes it to the stuff of legend. An exponentially better “alternative reality” film than Mulholland Drive. (2001)

WALL-E – The other major secular strain brought on by the reign of error that was the Bush presidency was conspicuous consumption. Remember that he suggested we go shopping in the weeks after planes were crashed into the financial and political capitols of the country. And we did. Boy did we spend. The magicians at Pixar presented the down side of this approach to calming our collective nerves, while telling a tender love story. If you didn’t go “awwwww” at least once while watching WALL-E may God have mercy on your soul. (2008)

Waltz With Bashir  – Perhaps the first and last of its kind. An animated documentary about an Israeli soldier’s memories of a battle that occurred some twenty years earlier. Ari Folman’s autobiographical story of The Lebanese War had the unique distinction of reminding you of several other films while still being thoroughly original. (2008)

Y Tu Mama Tambien – The sexiest movie of the decade. Maribel Verdu joins Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna on a road trip from Mexico City to a mysterious beach with no strings attached. Much steaminess follows. (2002)

You Can Count on Me  – Before starring in Kenneth Lonergan’s movie Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo had minor roles in minor movies. They play a brother and sister who are connected by a tragic event from their past. Each day is a struggle as they to overcome their flaws and make something out of their shiftless lives. Linney was nominated for an Oscar as a single mother trying to build a life out of perpetual setbacks. The soundtrack features several songs from Steve Earle, who knows a thing or two about turmoil. (2000)

Zodiac  – David Fincher’s story of the serial killer that spooked the Bay Area in the 1970s. Jake Gyllenhaal is a newspaper cartoonist who starts out trying to decode the murderer’s cryptic messages and ends up more obsessed with finding the killer than the police officer (Mark Ruffalo) assigned to the case. Fincher gets the grisliness out of the way early and delivers an unsparing crime procedural; the inclusion of Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man on the soundtrack is inspired. (2007)

They barely missed the cut: High Fidelity, Oldboy, Adaptation and Up

Best Releases Three or Four Decades Late

Army of Shadows – Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic of The French Resistance, released in Europe in the late 1960s made going underground heroic and cool. It ushered in a much-deserved reassessment of Melville’s place in The French New Wave. (2006)

Killer of Sheep – the life of a Los Angeles slaughterhouse worker in black and white with one of the best scores in film history. Charles Burnett’s film sat in a vault at UCLA for 30 years until it was released on video by Milestone/New Yorker Video. (2007)

Underrated, Forgotten or Worth a Second Look

24-Hour Party People – Steve Coogan nails it as the riotously self-possessed Tony Wilson, the television host who sired the Manchester music scene in the late 1970s. Michael Winterbottom adeptly recalls a flowering cultural moment that was both depressing and inspirational. (2002)

The Bridge – Eric Steel’s documentary about why the Golden Gate Bridge has become Ground Zero for suicides. More than that though, it’s about those left behind and trying to make sense of the profoundly tragic. (2006)

The Cell – The acting isn’t much (Jennifer Lopez playing a psychologist and Vince Vaughn playing it straight) and the plot machinations are absurd but Tarsem Singh’s movie about the subconscious of a serial killer is loaded with visual explosions from start to finish. (2000)

The Claim – When you sell off your wife and baby daughter for a gold mine it’s just a matter of time before it comes back to bite you, even in the pre-Information Age. There’s no escaping karma on that one. Michael Winterbottom’s version of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge is unforgettable. The icy turn-of-the-century Canadian landscape is the ideal backdrop for this morality tale. (2000)

The Dish – What role did Australia play in the first moon landing? Well, the country put up a satellite interface in a remote desert. Sam Neill plays one of the technicians who helps the locals prepare for and cope with their day in the, uhh, sun. Patrick Warburton is winning as the American liaison. (2001)

Everything is Illuminated – The movie based on what might be the best novel of the decade barely registered at the box office. Eugene Hutz steals the movie as Elijah Wood’s linguistically-challenged guide and Liev Schreiber’s debut behind the camera is extremely faithful to Jonathan Safran Foer’s source material. (2005)

Heaven – It came and went in the blink of an eye, but Cate Blanchett is a bald vigilante aided and abetted by police-officer Giovanni Ribisi. Impossible to categorize as an action pic for the art house crowd (or is it vice versa?), Tom Tykwer’s movie merits another consideration. (2002)

Idiocracy – Mike Judge’s futuristic comedy about what happens to a society that spends decades rewarding impulse and hubris over intellect and honesty. Sound familiar? (2005)

The Illusionist – In pre-World War I Vienna Edward Norton plays a magician who astonishes and taunts royalty (Rufus Sewell) and law enforcement (Paul Giamatti). It was overshadowed by The Prestige which was released the same year, but it is better shot, better acted and without the cop-out ending of Christopher Nolan’s film. (2006)

Innocence – After his wife dies a man looks up his lost love from over forty years ago. She has married and is living a comfortable life. Now in their 70s, they try to pick up where they left off. Paul Cox’s film of hope, death, loss, regret and risk tugs at your heart and never lets go. (2001)

Last Orders – A London butcher (Michael Caine) instructed his best friends (Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings and Bob Hoskins) to throw his ashes into the water at Margate beach. His son (Ray Winstone) joins them as they make the journey, recollecting about what was and what might have been. The type of small, touching film that big stars don’t seem to make anymore. (2001)

LIE – Paul Dano, in a pre-There Will Be Blood role plays a teenager who sits on a bridge above the Long Island Expressway. He has nothing, so when a dubious character, the slimy Brian Cox, offers him some semblance of normalcy, he takes it. (2001)

Made – Jon Favreau’s comedy is a follow up to Swingers which again features him and Vince Vaughan. This time they’re playing wanna-be mafiosos hired by Peter Falk to cut a deal with Sean Combs. The repoire of the castcast is terrific and the movie is even funnier with the audio commentary on (by Favreau and Vaughn). (2001)

Our Daily Bread – A dialogue-free documentary about the mechanized, industrialized nature of food production. Make sure you eat before viewing. (2006)

The Proposition – Set in late 19^th century Australia, the underappreciated Ray Winstone is magnetic as a frontier lawman determined to bring peace to his town. A group of four brothers has terrorized the locals and Winstone urges two of them to turn in the oldest, who is the ringleader. This sounds like a traditional Western but Nick Cave’s bloody and depraved script is accompanied by a setting that invites comparisons to Antonioni. (2006)

Reign Over Me – Almost all of Adam Sandler’s comedic characters are emotionally-stunted man-boys. His character in Mike Binder’s film is also a shell of a man, mumbling his way around New York City on a scooter, donning headphones to keep the outside world away. Don Cheadle is his usual superb self playing a dentist, trying to find out what’s gone wrong with Sandler, his old college roommate. In the course of reaching out to Sandler, Cheadle must face problems in his own life. (2007)

Sweet Land – In 1920s Minnesota a beautiful German woman arrives to marry a Norwegian farmer. He speaks little English and she speaks none. This is the least of their troubles as her ethnicity, in light of World War I, gives the rest of the community pause. Ali Selim’s feature debut is quiet, elegant and assured. (2006)

The Widow of St. Pierre – Patrice Leconte’s tale of redemption set in the (then) French colony of Newfoundland in the 1850s. Emir Kusterica plays a drunk sentenced to death for a murder. But time passes before the guillotine can arrive from France. Slowly, the community, represented by Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, comes to see the murderer in a different light. (2001)

The Yards – James Gray’s story of corruption in the Queens rail yards was unjustly ignored by audiences on its release. Perhaps it was because the star, Mark Wahlberg, was an unproven quantity as a dramatic actor (Ok, some might say he still is), but he more than holds his own among James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Charlize Theron and Joaquin Phoenix. (2000)

A Double Feature About Women Living on the Margins

Frozen River and Wendy and Lucy -  Melisso Leo and Michelle Williams try to save their son and dog, respectively, while staring some hard truths in the face. (Both released in 2008)

Actors of the Decade—Gael Garcia Bernal and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actresses of the Decade – Cate Blanchett, Laura Linney and Kate Winslet

Directors of the Decade – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Christopher Nolan

Overrated

Brokeback Mountain – A movie more concerned with its message than advancing the story in a cinematic way. The script is clunky (saved by Heath Ledger’s performance) and for a movie intended to bust stereotypes, it’s comprised of supporting characters who are exactly that.

Knocked Up – Where The 40-Year-Old Virgin was a sweet, bromance about the complexities of dating, this was self-indulgent. A stoner who lives with other porn-living potheads hooks up with a successful television producer? That’s a shaky premise to begin with and impossible to ignore whenever the two leads start talking about child rearing. Why weren’t women insulted by this movie?

Lost in Translation – Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are displaced Americans in Tokyo. It’s a Jim Jarmusch movie done by Sofia Coppola. One Jarmusch is plenty thank you very much.

Mulholland Drive – What’s this movie about? No, really somebody tell me.

Movie that’s aged the worst – Crash. Only five years old and the tale of race and circumstance in Los Angeles already feels quaint.

And what of Wes Anderson? – His four films (three live-action and one animated) are entertaining, but they’re all riffs on a similar theme—highly stylized portraits of fractured families done to great soundtracks. They all made my best of the year list when released, but Anderson, so far anyway, has been content to have his characters talk about their struggles rather than show them.

Television (Still a vast wasteland)

The conversation begins and ends with The Wire. If you haven’t seen it you have deprived yourself of storytelling on par with Charles Dickens, but more visual. There’s no point in spilling more cyber-ink on it as countless others have extolled its virtues. So watch it. Now. You’re welcome.

The two best documentaries of the past ten years originally aired on television. Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home revealed every available side of Bob Dylan including a few that Mr. Zimmerman would rather have kept under wraps. Scorsese seemed to talk to everyone who ever had anything to do with Dylan.

The other great doc was Spike Lee’s agonizing, thorough, poetic story of the debacle and failure of our government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. It’s not hyperbolic to call When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts an act of public service.

OK…if I must choose…a baker’s dozen…(I actually already tipped my hand above by adding a clip after the summary)

WALL-E, Amelie, The Dark Knight, Memento, Amores Perros, In America, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Moulin Rouge! There Will Be Blood, The Lives of Others, Waking Life, You Can Count on Me and Lilya 4-ever.

Yesterday, the Judiciary Committee of the New Jersey State Senate voted 7-6  in favor of marriage equality, allowing for the bill to move forward to the full Senate to vote this coming Thursday. New Jersey already has a civil unions law for same-sex couples, and many wonder why this is not good enough. These couples are getting their equal rights, while not trampling on the “traditional” definition of marriage, right? Wrong. Civil unions are essentially a “separate but equal” tactic, one that NAACP Chairman Julian Bond affirmed before the Judiciary Committee yesterday has not worked in the past, and does not work today. Civil unions still allow for discrimination, which would not be acceptable if the same word – marriage – were applied for same-sex couples as it is for opposite-sex couples.

I was looking at the website of Garden State Equality this morning, and found no better argument for marriage as opposed to civil unions than this:

Today, same-sex couples in New Jersey can enter into a “civil union.” People often define civil unions as providing all the state rights, benefits and responsibilities of marriage but without the name “marriage.” But in the real world, civil unions do no such thing.

Since New Jersey’s civil union law took effect in February 2007, many employers across New Jersey have refused to recognize civil unions as equal to marriage, and therefore do not grant equal health benefits to partners of employees. Employers and hospitals say that if the legislature intended for the civil union law to be the same as marriage, the legislature would have used the same name.

Because these employers and hospitals don’t recognize civil unions as they would marriage, many same-sex couples go without adequate health insurance – a horror in this economy. And because of the real-world disparity between civil unions and marriage, some hospitals do not allow civil union partners to make medical decisions for one another, or even to visit one another in the emergency room.

If New Jersey’s civil union law were a person, it would be arrested for committing fraud.

To be clear, civil unions will never achieve the acceptance and equality of marriage. Look at Vermont, which enacted the country’s first civil union law in 2000 and invented the term “civil union.” For nine years, Vermont waited for civil unions to grow into the equal of marriage, but it never happened. That’s why Vermont changed its civil union law to a marriage equality in 2009, and why every U.S. state that first enacted a civil union law has changed its law to a marriage equality law. As Beth Robinson, a prominent Vermont attorney and civil rights leader, testified before the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission: “Based on the Vermont experience, I can tell you that it’s just not true that if enough time passes, civil unions will achieve parity with marriage. Time does not fully mend the inequality inherent in two separate institutions.”

One New Jersey worker told the Commission that her union said no when she asked for benefits for her partner under New Jersey’s civil union law. But later, when she happened to tell the union that she and her partner had also gotten married in Massachusetts – the one state where same-sex couples can marry – the labor union, based right in New Jersey, immediately changed its mind and granted the benefits. The word “marriage” made the difference.

The failure of New Jersey’s civil union law is having devastating real-world consequences. Take the heartbreaking case of a civil-union couple in Central Jersey, Louise and Marsha. They have raised two children with profound special needs –one child with Asperger’s and the other child with severe mental and physical developmental disabilities – in addition to their two other children. Louise and Marsha needed all the health care they could get to take care of their family.

But when Louise was looking for jobs, one prospective employer after another told her: We don’t provide health benefits to couples in civil unions. Louise and Marsha wound up going into hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to take care of their children. Last year, one of their children passed away.

“We’ve been together for 20 years,” Louise points out. “We’ve raised four children, and in circumstances where most people would have separated or divorced. I don’t know what a marriage is if it’s not what we have, and I want that legal recognition.

Indeed, our society should be celebrating Louise and Marsha. But because of a civil union law that falls short of marriage equality, they and their children are denied equal protection under the law.

Civil unions also pose psychological harm to children. Across New Jersey, children of civil union couples are stigmatized by their parents’ having a lesser label than of opposite-sex married couples. Some children are coming home in tears. How ironic in New Jersey, the national pioneer in allowing same-sex couples to adopt.

As our campaign has progressed, clergy have become some of the most impassioned supporters of marriage equality. In fact, clergy across New Jersey from 18 different religions, denominations, movements and faith traditions favor marriage equality. They believe that preventing same-sex couples from marrying under State law is an intrusion into their religious practice. Without a marriage equality law, New Jersey has taken away their sacred right as clergy, and the right of their various faiths, to decide for themselves whom they want to marry under State law.

And clergy understand that the marriage law as it stands in the State of New Jersey is not religiously neutral. The current law reflects the religious beliefs of those who oppose allowing same-gender couples to marry, which are not the beliefs of every faith community. A religiously neutral law would leave it up to every religion and every clergy member to marry legally whichever couples they want or don’t want to marry.

The bill before the New Jersey legislature actually strengthens the freedom of religion with language that underscores the First Amendment guarantee that religions and clergy will never be forced to perform ceremonies that contradict their beliefs.

Clergy understand, as a majority of all New Jerseyans understand, that if New Jersey defers equality, more families like Louise, Marsha and their children will get hurt.

That’s why we reject the notion that good things come to those who wait.

At Garden State Equality, we believe good things come to those who seek equality today.

If you live in New Jersey, I urge you to contact your Senator and tell him or her to vote YES on marriage equality on Thursday. As we saw in New York, many Senators who voted no  said that they were swayed by the calls and emails that came from their district – even though we know that civil rights should not be subject to “popular opinion.”  If civil rights for African-Americans were left up to popular opinion in the 60s, who knows where we would be today? Even if you don’t live in New Jersey, it can’t hurt to tell their Senators why you support it, or to tell your personal stories. Every voice counts.

This past weekend, I revisited one of my favorite movies of all time, Garden State (2004) with Zach Braff and Natalie Portman. This little independent flick reminded me of the difficult journey creative leaders live. True inspiration is about merging the pain of our past with the passion of our future. Life is so messy. Sometimes the best we can do is embrace the chaos and just move forward. Check out Garden State and/or watch this clip from the ending of the movie. It’s a great reminder that life is less about having answers and more about finding the right questions.

The latest film from director Jim Sheridan (Get Rich or Die Trying) returns to the screen with “Brothers” starring Jake Gyllenhall (Brokeback Mountain), Toby Maguire (Spider-man) and Natlie Portman (Garden State). Is the film a strong thriller or a cliched love triangle?

The Good: The premise is simple. Sam (Maguire) goes to war. Grace (Portman) struggles while he is away and learns that Sam is dead. Enter Tommy (Gyllenhall), Sam’s younger brother who kisses Grace. Sam is not dead, and returns home a changed man.

The good news is that this does not play out as a melodrama, thanks to the performances by the three leads. Maguire shows his acting chops as Sam, and is down right scary in the latter parts of the films. Portman has always been one of my favorite actresses and shows once again why she is one of the bright young talents of today.

Although the love triangle set up could have lead to a disaster, the film really is a first-rate thriller. The second half of the film is tense, keeps you on the edge of your seat, and is a very good commentary on how soldiers are never truly the same after seeing the horrors of war.

Also, Grace’s two children provide some much needed humor in the film, and are down right adorable. Shepard ups the intensity to perfection, and the ending of the film doesn’t cop out with just another “hollywood” ending.

The Bad: That being said, this film is far from perfect. The first half the film plays out almost like a romantic comedy, something that it should not have. It made the film seem like two different movies, with the first half really detracting from the second half.

While the plot may not be a surprise to anyone who has seen the trailer, I did not like the predictability. I could guess what was going to happen almost to the exact words in some scenes and although the film was very intense, the film seemed almost…two cliched. You have the father who believes one son is better than the other but grows to love both. You have the guy who gets out of prison and changes his life, the soldier who returns home a changed man, every character was just straight out of a normal Hollywood cliche.

The Final Word: The film is cliched, but its at least a well made cliche. The strong performances by the three leads are almost enough to save the film. However, this film, although worth renting, isn’t worth paying for the cliched characters and story.

Lukas Eggen

I’m happy to introduce a new feature on this little Armpit of America blog. As you can see above, this new feature is called “The Best of New Jersey.” In these entries, I’m going to put aside some (but not all) of the snark you’ve come to expect from me and just talk positively about something in New Jersey that makes life in the Armpit of America somewhat better.

The first place I’m writing about is Delicious Orchards on Route 34 in Colts Neck. For those who don’t know what it is, Delicious Orchards is a country store selling a wide variety of produce, a huge selection of baked goods, and a whole bunch of other good, high-quality stuff. Since this meager description probably doesn’t due the store any justice or let you see what’s so special about it, allow me to walk you through, section by section.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera. To make up for it, here's a picture of a bag!

Upon entering, you are greeted by a thousand different scents, each one more intoxicating than the next. Okay, maybe that’s a little too flowery, but I’ll go on. The first section you encounter when walking in is the baked goods section. You will be surrounded by shelves and shelves stocked full of cookies and donuts. As long as I can remember, no trip to Delicious Orchards was complete without picking up a package of their plain apple cider donuts and their sugar cookies. To this day, I still can’t go to the store without buying these two items. Their mere scents immediately soften my bitter 26-year-old soul and bring me back to my slightly less bitter childhood.

Anyway, after passing through the welcoming gate of cookies and donuts, you’ll walk past some more baked goods – breads, cakes, and pies – all made on the premises. Once past the bakery, you’ll end up in the cheese section, where the aromas of thousands of cheeses from all over the world fill up your nostrils. The cheese section then leads logically to the meat section. Delicious Orchards offers all kinds of meat, from the standard chicken and beef to goose liver pate and gourmet sausages.

While the store is already impressive, it’s not until you get to the produce that you are really in awe. With a name like Delicious Orchards, it’s obvious what their specialty is. The site of mountains upon mountains of fresh fruit and vegetables is truly breathtaking. The store’s selection of over 20 different types of apples will put any supermarket to shame. In addition to its wide selection of the most common types of produce, Delicious Orchards has plenty of unique items I haven’t seen anywhere else. If someone can tell me where else in New Jersey you can find pomelos, black turnips, and patty pan squash year round, please let me know. Not that I actually buy these things, I’m just trying to prove a point.

I hope you can now see why this humble little farm store represents the best of New Jersey. Though many people like to joke about how the Garden State is such an inappropriate nickname for New Jersey, one visit to Delicious Orchards will clear any doubts about the worthiness of that moniker. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go finish this bag of sugar cookies…

Compare this to the ingredient list of a box of Oreos and tell me which sounds better.

English

Check out our most recent releases of Istmo Music and Itzamna Recordings on Beatport now!

Español

Busca ya en Beatport nuestro lanzamientos mas recientes de Istmo Music e Itzamna Recordings!

English

We’ve been very busy releasing the finest music from around the globe to fans of different genre contrasts, from trance to techno, to minimal techno.

Check out DJ Eco pres. Badlands – Garden State REMIXED, released on Istmo Music, with amazing remixes from Jorge Nava, Ben Nicky and James Kitcher who managed to complete this outstanding EP, full of hypnotic and euphoric synths, yet dirty and banging for those who love to ride on a trip with the finest trance sounds! Supported by the number 1 DJ in the world mr. Armin van Buuren!

Also we have a great techno and minimal techno compilation of 10 outstanding tracks on Itzamna Recordings, “Itzamna’s Techno Bombs Volume 1.” Castillo, Brian Knarfield and Revnoise, who will give you a blast of techno sounds in this upcoming Istmo Xtra Fest, are the ones in charge to give you this impeccable journey into a deep ocean of dark, surrounding techno sounds.

Get these releases now on Beatport!

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Hemos estado con las manos llenas lanzando la mejor música de al rededor del globo y en especial, en la region de nuestro Istmo, para los fans que de diferentes contrastes en generos, desde trance, techno hasta minimal techno.

Tenemos ya DJ Eco pres. Badlands – Garden State REMIXED, lanzado en Istmo Music, con remixes impresionantes de Jorge Nava y Ben Nicky con James Kitcher quienes se encargaron de completar este increible EP, llenándolo de synthes hipnóticos y eufóricos, manteniendo siempre ese toque fuerte y explosivo para aquellos que les gusta viajar con los mejores sonidos del trance! Este track ya recibio el apoyo del DJ número 1 del mundo, el señor Armin van Buuren!

También tenemos un buen compilation con 10 rolotas de techno y minimal techno en Itzamna Recordings llamdo “Itzamna’s Techno Bombs Volume 1“. Castillo, Brian Knarfield y Revnoise, (quien tirará una ráfaga de sonidos techno para este Istmo Xtra Fest a por venir), son los encargados de llevarte en un viaje profundo y oscuro de sonidos technosos. Chequealo ya!

Busca ya estos releases en Beatport!

I have a secret. I saw the first Twilight movie.

I didn’t mean to! I was at a girl’s house and didn’t really have a choice. I wasn’t prepared with a believable excuse. Anyway, It wasn’t all terrible. The main thing that surprised me about the film was the soundtrack. Every time a song started playing, I found myself saying, ‘wait, isn’t this Iron & Wine? Isn’t this Mutemath?’ I thought the movie was for fourteen-year-old girls. What was it doing with a grown-up soundtrack? I was expecting Ashlee Simpson and Avril Lavigne. You know—commercially approved suppliers of teen angst.

The new Twilight movie (which I haven’t seen) has the same thing going on—real music. It features tracks by Bon Iver, Lykke Li, Grizzly Bear and Sea Wolf  to name a few. Clearly some music supervisor working on Twilight has pretty good taste. This much is clear. But what they might not realize is the consequences of their actions. I’m going to call the result of soundtracks like this the Garden State effect.

Remember Garden State? After its release in 2004, bands like The Shins and Zero 7 made their way onto the iPods of people whose libraries were primarily composed of Brittany Spears and U2. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with indie bands getting bigger exposure and more money, they deserve it. But there are definitely some side-effects. The concert experience suffers a bit when you’re surrounded by shrieking 14-year-old birthday parties with parent chaperones. I imagine Shins concerts before Garden State had a very different feel than the ones after the movie came out.

The same thing is happening with the New Moon soundtrack. There are definitely some good songs on it, but I think the net effect is negative. What’s going to happen to Bon Iver and Grizzly Bear now? What will Top-40 air-time do to them? Will there be new demographics at their shows?

I guess as someone who spends a lot of time with music, things like the Garden State effect keep you on your toes. You always have to be on the lookout for new stuff because you never know when the music you like is going to end up in a mega-teen hit that grosses 141 million dollars on opening weekend.

Oh well—on to new things.

I’m not going to do an album review of the New Moon soundtrack, but here are a few of the more interesting songs:

Hurricane Bells — Monsters (stream)

Bon Iver & St. Vincent — Rosyln (stream)

The Killers — A White Demon Love Song (stream) <–actually the best killers song i’ve heard in a while

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – allegedly. If I had written that song, I think the lyrics would have been more along the lines of ‘it’s the most anticipated commercial event of the year, which will inevitably end up in a fight over the christmas lunch‘. Some might argue those lyrics are missing a certain je ne sais quoi, but I’m betting that those are the kind of people who put up christmas decorations in November and go carol singing, i.e. people who are hated by society and therefore aren’t entitled to a critical opinion of my song lyrics.

Christmas is a time for family, a time for giving, and a time for musicians to quickly cobble together a half-arsed song, throw some sleigh bells on it and cash in on the whole circus. It takes a certain panache to do it to a standard that I find acceptable  – as a hint to anyone who’s hoping to make this list next year, I staunchly believe the more sleigh bells, the better – so here’s this week’s anticipated laurawire blog post of the week: my top five christmas songs. I jest of couse: no one’s anticipating this. You lot only seem to care about posts where I lay into Muse’s management. But I’m carrying on regardless dammit.

Top three christmas carols:
There’s no write up for each individual song. I just think they all sound quite nice when they’re sung well on the one day a year that I go to church to celebrate the birth of someone who didn’t exist. And I’m usually drunk, which helps. If you don’t know any of these songs and you are the religious type, you should be ashamed that the alcoholic atheist is more familiar with your songs of praise than you are. If you don’t know any of these but you’re not religious, you’re off the hook. Have a look on YouTube.

5. Good King Wenceslas
4. Away In A Manger
3. Once in Royal David’s City
2. O Little Town of Bethlehem
1. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Exciting stuff. On to the slightly less traditional tracks now:

5. I Wanna Kiss You So (Christmas In A Nutshell) – Girls Aloud

There’s no video with this song on it on the entire internet. What the hell is that about? We7 is here to save the day though – if you’re dying to hear the best christmas song by Girls Aloud, you can do so here. They released a bonus CD of christmas songs with the ‘Chemistry’ album a few years ago. On the whole, it was crap. Their rendition of ‘White Christmas’ is as soulless as Britney’s last album and that’s saying something. This one song saved my purchase being a complete write off: it’s bubblegum pop at its finest. I love it because it is so tacky and fun. And the best part is that they’re completely aware of this fact as well. I think you have to be when you start singing lyrics that actually go “bish, bash, bong, WOO”. Amazing.

4. It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Andy Williams

I definitely think that generations prior to mine generally did christmas music better than we do. Maybe it’s because they did it all with proper orchestras – there’s none of this bleepy electro nonsense going on (Lady GaGa, I’m looking at you). It just has this indescribeable quality that isn’t quite matched up to by its modern-day counterparts. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule (see below) but they are few and far between. J’adore Andy Williams, and this song is just lovely. It sums up everything I love about this season.

3. All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey

I can hear the collective eye roll from here. You should just be grateful that I picked this over Steps’ take on ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ or Britney Spears’ ‘My Only Wish This Year’. You’ve got off lightly, believe me.
This song is a stone cold classic. It resurfaces in the chart every year for a good reason – copious amouts of sleigh bells. I don’t think any of the traditional christmas pop-song-by-numbers have lived up to this track, and I can’t put my finger on the reason for it. I can’t believe I’m about to admit this, but I listen to this song all year round. I was actually asked to leave a bar in central London in May last year because a friend and I were dancing on a table singing this. It’s not as good as the first time you hear it in winter, but it’ll do when you need a festive hit, as I so often do.

2. Don’t Shoot Me, Santa – The Killers

No matter what your feelings are towards this band, they do christmas songs very well. They’ve released one every year for the last four years in aid of the RED campaign on December 1 which is today, fact fans. I could have quite easily made four songs of this top five their complete christmas catalogue, but that wouldn’t be very interesting to read. One might argue this isn’t interesting either but I’m going to overlook that and go back to raving about the song.
This song is like the ultimate anti-christmas song. It’s such a novel take on christmas. It beats yet another song about the snow, or sitting by the fire. Everyone paints Father Christmas as this jolly old gentleman, and in the space of four and a half minutes, Brandon Flowers has completely destroyed that image and created this psychopathic murderer with whatever is left. I love it. And I really adore the video for this. It’s one of my all time favourite music videos. Brandon’s face at 3:16 makes me smile every time I see it. I really am infatuated (read: obsessed) with him.

1. Somewhere in my Memory – John Williams

If you don’t know this, you’re dead to me. This is the signature tune from Home Alone (which is actually my favourite film of all time, but I tell people it’s Garden State so they don’t judge me. I love Garden State too, but nothing can match up to Home Alone) and I can’t hear this and not feel completely saturated with love for everyone and everything. It’s just the perfect christmas song. I love John Williams’ work anyway – the only reason I went to see the first three Harry Potter films was because he did the scoring for them. I think he’s a genius. I’d love for him to work with Muse on a song one day. In fact, that is what I’d like for christmas. If someone can get on the case please, that would be fantastic.

Expect more festivity on this blog over the coming weeks. I’m not sure what form it will take, but it will definitely happen.

A movie’s soundtrack can have an impact on how it is perceived. It can enhance the atmosphere of the movie whether it be romance, action, suspense or whatever. It can work the opposite way too. Adam, for example, is a nice film but the use of sentimental music obviously tries to create a strong emotional reaction. Then sometimes you watch a great movie and love it that much more because of its soundtrack. Here are some of my top pairing for great movie/music.

Garden State

~ Large’s Ark

The Film:

Written, directed and starring Scrubs‘ Zach Braff, Garden State follows the television semi-famous actor Andrew Largeman (Braff) and his return to his home and estranged family for his mother’s funeral. Andrew goes through life in a lithium-induced state as a result of his psychiatrist father, Gideon Largeman (Ian Holme), who blames Andrew for putting his mother in a wheelchair when he was a child. Soon after his arrival, Andrew meets Sam (Natalie Portman) and the two strike up an unusual friendship. Sam is a happy, quirky, emotional and compulsive liar who counterbalances Andrew’s somewhat monotonous self. Taking inspiration from her, Andrew decides to give up taking his medicine (i.e. lithium). Along the way he reconnects with old friends and acquaintances. One such friend, gravedigger Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), then takes Andrew and Sam along on a journey to find an elusive object of great interest to Andrew. It’s a great story with excellent characters and actors.

The Soundtrack

Zac Braff wrote the majority of the movie while still in college. What’s interesting in this movie is that he also wrote the music into script. When he sent the script to people he also sent a CD containing the songs that would be in the movie in the order that they appeared. This careful planning is evident in the way the music flows well into the narrative. It includes songs by The Shins, Zero 7, Coldplay, Nick Drake and Frou Frou amongst others.

*Spoiler* And here’s the final scene, which is also a great use of music to aid the narrative.

~~~

Rushmore

~ She was my Rushmore

The Film:

Directed by Wes Anderson, Rushmore follows Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), a 15 year old scholarship boy who lives for his private school Rushmore Academy. He imagines himself as the top student when in fact he’s just getting by. However, he is king of extracurricular activities and spends most of his times in the various clubs he either leads or creates; he also writes and directs plays. Then comes Ms Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), Rushmore’s elementary school teacher and Max falls in love with her. Max befriends his classmate’s father Herman Blume (Bill Murray), an unhappy industrialist whom Max sees as a mentor. Max enlists Herman’s help to make Ms Cross fall for him. Things go wrong when Herman ends up falling in love with Ms Cross too. This unusual love triangle begins to pits friend against friend in the hopes of getting Ms Cross. Pure Wes Anderson quirkiness.

The Soundtrack:

Consists of musicians such as The Kinks, Rolling Stones, John Lennon, The Who, The Faces, Cat Stevens and Donovan amongst others. Not only are these great musicians in and of themselves, the song choices and how they are layered into the narrative is great. Click here for a list of videos on YouTube for Rushmore. Here’s an example of how well music is handled in the film:

And while I’m not very familiar with all the musicians in the soundtrack, I think the movie is improved with them.

~~~

(500) Days of Summer

~Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t.

The Film:

Music video director Marc Webb makes his feature length directorial debut with this awesomely beautiful film. It stars the talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the boy who believes in true love and Zooey Deschanel who doesn’t. It’s the classic boy meet girl story with no real new material but it is all executed so well, the acting is fantastic and the end product is magnificent. The emotions really do resonate with anyone whether they’d had a bad break-up, can’t get over someone or whether an unrequited love is all you have. Great film.

You can read more details in my review.

The Soundtrack

With much experience behind him, Marc Webb has done a fantastic job in combining narrative and music in 500 Days. Not only does it reflect the mood of the scenes, it also enhances it by adding a sometimes quirky (see video below), sometimes poignant undertone, but always great. Artists such as Regina Spektor, The Temper Trap, The Smiths, Simon and Garfunkle, Wolfmother and Feist can be found on the soundtrack.

Here’s a YouTube video where you can preview the soundtrack.

~~~

24 Hour Party People

~The unbelievably true story of one man, one movement, the music and madness that was Manchester.

The Film:

This movie is more of a biopic/fictional documentary focusing on the music mogul Tony Wilson and the time in Manchester when punk came into the scene. It’s directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Steve Coogan and many others playing music legends. The movie chronicles not only Wilson’s attempts at creating a culture in Manchester, but also the origins and outcomes of some of the most influential British bands such as Joy Division (which went on to become New Order), The Sex Pistols and The Happy Mondays. It parodies some events and breaks the fourth wall quite often but it all works and creates a great portrayal of the time.

The Soundtrack:

This movie is made for lovers of original punk and British music. Not only does the movie showcase some of the best music of the time (Joy Division!), it also gives insight into the bands, their members and how they dealt with their growing influence on the music scene. Therefore, the soundtrack is basically a sort of time capsule consisting of iconic music and bands.

It was by watching this movie that I came to know about Joy Division, which quickly became one of my favourite bands.

~~~

Juno

~A comedy about growing up… and the bumps along the way.

The Film:

Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody, it stars Ellen Page, Michael Cera (along with Arrested Development co-star Jason Bateman) and Jennifer Garner. The movie follows Juno MacGuff and her unplanned pregnancy and subsequent search for affluent adoptive parents for her baby. Chances are you’ve seen the film so you know it’s not as dramatic as that, though it is emotional. The quirkiness of the characters, the development and characterisation of Juno, the humour and the writing are all great. Michael Cera still wasn’t so typecast into the dorky, awkward, almost Woody Allen Jr type of character he has now; he was still high from Arrested Development. And Ellen page’s acting was fantastic, well worth the Oscar nomination. A lot of the praise should also go to Diablo Cody for the way she wrote the script, and Reitman’ directing.

The Soundtrack:

This movie has a really unique soundtrack that reflects the emotions and atmosphere of the movie. In this interview Ellen Page talks about the music of Juno. She mentions the music has a youthful and quirky feel to it but it’s also heartfelt so there is a balance there. This balance is something the movie does really well too. There are a lot of Indie artists in this soundtrack, which again reinforces the alternative personality of Juno. It’s a fantastic movie.

I’ve obsessed over this soundtrack. I hadn’t heard of Kimya Dawson, Antsy Pants, Belle and Sebastian or The Moldy Peaches before Juno and I’m so glad I know them now. My favourite band in the soundtrack is Belle and Sebastian.

~~~

Other notable movies/soundtrack combinations are:

• Once (a great low budget movie revolving around two unnamed characters who love music; a sleeper hit; won Oscar for Best Song)
• Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (quirky love story with a beautiful look; originally Naomi Watts was set to play Amelie)
• Whip It (another great performance from Ellen Page but not at all like in Juno; a funny/offbeat coming of age; Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut)
• Little Miss Sunshine (proof of Murphy’s Law; quirky characters with a real emotional undertone; Oscar nominated for Best Picture)

Da’s een tijd geleden! Om het goed te maken zit er in deze post genoeg om weer even vooruit te kunnen, namelijk twee reviews en als een soort bonustrack mijn filmtoptien aller tijden. Over de films: ééntje prima, ééntje geweldig. Over de toptien: had na een kwartiertje al mijn bedenkingen en wilde weer gaan schuiven. Achja, niks is perfect.

Eldorado – dvd review

Als je een dief in je huis vindt, wil je die zo snel mogelijk hardhandig wegwerken. Wat gebeurt er als je precies het tegenovergestelde doet?

Lees verder…

Sunshine Cleaning – dvd review

‘From the producers of Little Miss Sunshine’ prijkt er trots op het hoesje van de dvd. En terecht, want ook Sunshine Cleaning is een zonnestraaltje.

Lees verder…

Filmtoptien

MovieSense vroeg redacteur Rick de Jong om zijn film top 10 samen te stellen. Dit is de lijst:

Lees verder…

Paste Magazine has a great website with a listen and watch section hosting audio and video for some very talented musicians.

Check out Colin Hay at their studios: http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2009/10/watch-colin-hay-live-at-paste.html

Colin Hay is mostly infamous for the band he once was part of: Men At Work.

After the band went defunct, however, Hay continued on the solo path, releasing several well-received albums. His music has been featured in films and tv, but arguably one of my favorite songs and appearances of his was when he sang his song “overkill” in an early season of Scrubs:

His song ” I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you” was featured on the Garden State Soundtrack:

One of the things I like most about Jon Bon Jovi is that he always gives a shout-out to his home state – the Garden State.

Heck, he even named one of his albums after Jersey.

And the love just keeps on coming. In the opening minutes of his recent appearance on “Inside the Actors Studio” (along with band mates David Bryan, Tico Torres and Richie Sambora), he gave us props once again.

“Where were you born?” asked host James Lipton.

“In the great state of New Jersey,” Jon proudly replied. “Perth Amboy, New Jersey.”

“And here’s a little-known fact,” he continued. “Richie, David and I were all born in the same hospital – delivered by the same baby doctor.”

I believe he’s referring to Raritan Bay Medical Center. Wonder if Dr. Greenberg is still practicing or if he’s retired?

On a side note, I’ve known Bon Jovi (not personally, of course) for most of my life. But what else would you expect of someone who was a teenager in the ’80s in New Jersey?

My association with the band goes a little farther, though: I was present for the filming of the band’s “7800° Fahrenheit” single “Only Lonely” in 1985 at a club called Modern Times in Jon’s hometown of Sayreville. (The club is now very well-known as Starland Ballroom.) If you squint really hard while watching the video, you might see me. Or not. Hey, I was only 15 and 5′7″!

I don’t remember much else, except there was a lot of standing around in a large crowd of people. Not surprisingly I didn’t get anywhere near Jon or any of the other band members. But I was there.

In the meantime, if you get the opportunity definitely check out David’s “The Toxic Avenger Musical.” I saw it last year at New Brunswick’s George Street Playhouse and it was a lot of fun. It’s got a lot of Jersey jokes in it, so you’ll enjoy it that much more if you’re a Garden Stater.

And Richie was just in his hometown of Woodbridge this week, where a street leading into the high school was named in his honor. You can read my former Home News Tribune colleague Chris Jordan’s story about Richie’s time in Middlesex County right here, and there’s a whole online gallery of photos here.

Who says you can’t go home?

Yeah Ghost est le dernier album en date du groupe anglais Zero 7  (zéro seven).

Ce duo masculin s’est imposé depuis sa naissance en 2000 et de son premier album ‘Simple Thing’ dans le style downtempo. Très vite, on les a mis au niveau des ténors Air & Morcheeba apparu à la fin des années 90. A la différence de ces derniers,  Zero 7 garde toujours cette même fraicheur 4 albums plus tard.

“Yeah Ghost est 1 très bon album qui s’écoute du début à la fin avec l’envie de remettre 1 replay après le 11ème morceau. Il y a dans cet opus 1 véritable identité musicale que l’on retrouve dans les albums précédents.

Néanmoins l’album précédent m’a beaucoup déçu ; “The Garden” sorti en 2006 n’a d’ailleurs pas réussi à conquérir les fans.

Seul 1 titre “Throw It All Away”est largement au dessus d’1 album très plat et vide musicalement.

Tour d’horizon de “Yeah Ghost” illustrée par 4 magnifiques vidéos filmées en live session

Dès l’intro “Count me Out”, Zero 7 nous mets de suite en émoi.

1minute et 30 secondes plus tard “Mr McGee” ajoute cette petite touche pop anglaise facilement reconnaissable au style préconçu de Zéro 7.

S’en suit “Swing”, morceau à l’accroche baladeuse comme un retour à la source de l’album “Simple Thing” (sortie en 2001).

“Everything Up” nous replonge dans l’esprit rythmé des synthés venu tout droit de la galaxie 80′.

“Pop Art Blue” s’enchaîne et on retrouve avec bonheur cette voix féminine  qui ressemble à la voix de Sia, la chanteuse qui fut révélée par Zero 7. Pourtant quelque chose attire vraiment ma curiosité dans cette voix. Après recherche il s’avère qu’il s’agit de Martha Tilston.Le duo anglais applique à la lettre ce mélange voix féminine & downtempo tellement accrocheur qu’ils ont crée il y a 10 ans. La chanteuse Sia, malheureusement absente de l’album est donc remplacée par plusieurs autres voix. Celle figurant sur “Pop Art Blue”  cristallise le morceau et moi par la même occasion.

“Medicine Man” est entrainant, pop, sautilleur, et pourrait largement faire nouvelle vie auprès de jeunes talents remixeurs.

Finalement mon coup de coeur arrive maintenant, avec “Ghost Symbol”. Tout de suite je ressens la même émotion qu’à la première écoute de ‘Untrue’ l’album de Burial et cette façon si magnifique d’associer le dub au 2 steps.

Grâce à cette diversité de titres très éclectiques, Zero 7 avec Yeah Ghost a réussi son coup.

“Sleeper” est passé à la moulinette électronica, un petit coup d’oeil rapide pour vérifier sur quel label ce disque a été signé : Warp ??? et bien non. ça sera ma seule déception.

“Solstalgia” nous plonge dans une petite mélancolie, mais on reprend tout de suite le dessus, grâce notamment à une autre petite merveille intitulée “The Road”, Ce morceau me rappelle la façon dont j’ai découvert Zero 7 et son morceau “This World” .

L’album se termine (déjà ) en puissance avec le titre “All Of Us”, un OVNI expérimental où l’on retrouve la totalité des sons entendus sur l’album.

Vous l’aurez compris, ce disque doit parvenir rapidement jusqu’à vous.  Pour vous motiver, allez faire un tour sur leur site officiel. Celui ci propose l’écoute intégrale de morceaux issus de leurs 4 albums studio.

Du coup, ça me fait aussi pensé qu’il faut voir (et/ou revoir) le film Garden State du réalisateur Zach Braff dans lequel vous entendrez plusieurs morceaux de Zero 7 et d’autres artistes que vous aimerez à coup sur.

Gigandmix

Soundtracks, we all have our favorites and some of us refuse to acknowledge their existence all together. I, on the other hand, have a good relationship with soundtracks, depending on the movie/television show/web series it comes from. These are pretty good choices that I just happen to own, interested? Read on.

#A – Girl Interrupted.My first glimpse into WILCO, a lovely little band that may see a bit on the pretentious side but really have some amazing songs. One of those bands that make you love every song, sound, word, vibe. They start off this semi-depressing group of misfit songs that work well with the movie of the same description. Title works fantastic with the motif of this album, “How to Fight Loneliness”, this first glimpse was not the end of my relationship with Wilco, they are still alive in my soul to this day. This album also has one of the greatest bands and one of my favorite songs from them, Jefferson Airplane with “Comin’ Back to Me”, such a beautiful song, really beautiful is the one perfect word to explain this song, and most of their music as a whole. Other artists include, Aretha Franklin, The Band, The Mamas & The Papas. Take a listen why don’t you?

#B – The Craft.

Witches who just so happen to be a bunch of bitches, makes for a great soundtrack, well its more of a sentimental one for me with a couple good songs that make me reminiscent of the first viewing of the movie. Great pop song with Letters to Cleo’s “Dangerous Type” and some heavy grungy hate music with Sponge’s “All This and Nothing” and a surprisingly good song by Our Lady Peace with “Tomorrow Never Knows”, (you can tell I’m obviously not their #1 fan). A not so good cover of a Harry Nilsson song, Tripping Daisy’s “Jump into the Fire”, I’d rather” they have put the original but they never asked my opinion on the subject. Some other good jams, like Spacehog’s ”Horror” & Love Spit Love’s “How Soon Is Now”, but the gem is Matthew Sweet’s “Dark Secrets” which made me want to own it to begin with, it pleases the ear gods for sure.

#C – Jawbreaker

Yes, pranks that turn deadly mixed with pretty girls who look nothing like the regular high school student, proves great for a rockin’ soundtrack. (Plus, Julie Benz, a young vampire on BTVS, classic). Songs to get you pumped and sent back into the 90’s like a whirlwind. I’ll start of with the favorites, The Friggs ”Bad Word for a Good Thing”, those Frigg girls can belt and rock, plus rock while never becoming famous, some hardcore girl power going on with that song. The icing on the cake? Imperial Teen’s “Yoo Hoo”, again the reason I even wanted the album in the first place, an amazing jam with the most intoxicating sound, voice is prime on this one. Ending it out with one of the most depressing songs I’ve ever heard in my life, The Transisters “Flow”, its beautiful and sad and painful, if I ever needed to be heartbroken with a theme song, this is it. Having a bad breakup? Lost a person close to you? Listen UP.

#D – The Wedding Singer

Get ready for some 80’s! This soundtrack has the “good shit” from the 1980’s, and its a double disc-er! Unfortunately I only have one half the album but that’s alright by me.  The half I have has bands like, Billy Idol, David Bowie, New Order, Musical Youth, Elvis Costello, The Thompson Twins, The Police, Culture Club, The Psychedelic Furs, and so on. If your in an 80’s mood, then stick the sucker in and enjoy your weird flashback that ensues.

yeah, tricked you. I know its not a song, but Buscemi rocks.

#E – Garden State.

We’ve got some good ones on here folks. Of course their is the “what lead me to own it” song, which we’ll begin with. Frou Frou’s ”Let Go”, a very graceful sound and is a basic recap of the movie itself. Jump in, what are you waiting for? Date Natalie Portman, Zach Braff, just DO IT! But any who, next up is another great jam, that I didn’t come in contact until long after I had the Cd, but when a friend of mine did it in a talent show, another song full of beauty, Bonnie Somerville’s “Winding Road”, pretty voice meets pretty sound, good good. The entire beginning of this Cd gets me in a crazy odd mood, I used to listen to it on my Ipod walking through the halls of high school, very surreal. First, Cold Play’s “Don’t Panic”, and No, I am not a cold play fan or freak, its the only song I dig, so get over it. Following it, is The Shins with “Caring is Creepy”, great sound, goes right through to the bone. And after that? Zero 7’s “In the Waiting Line”, one of the other songs I am in love with on this soundtrack, a main reason you might as well just go out and get it right now.

#F – Once More With Feeling – BTVS

A musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer belongs on this list, if not dominating it. Joss Whedon, the entity himself, wrote the songs, music, all of it. Which would be good reason for me to love it so, and I do. Its addictive to the highest extent. These actors, just people, who yes, famous, but normal; not singers, (well not all of them, James Marsters, Amber Benson, & Tony Head), just people, made beautiful music together. I probably listen to it at lease a couple times a week. I don’t think I would have the power to actually say out loud, or type, my favorite song from this album. I’ll just go through most of them for you to decide.

So, we start with Buffy complaining shes lost her mojo for her job, we can all sing a long as the demons agree with her and she diss’s the gentleman in distress.

Then you’ve got a group jam with the gang, which turns ugly with Anya, the demon, yelling about bunnies, and ending with a who-even-gives-a-crap attitude brought along by sad-sap Buffy.

A song about Mustard being removed from clothing.

A lesbian love song between the 2 most believable, non-skanked-out-for-the-sake-of-MALES-everywhere lesbians on television ever, and probably will always be. You just gotta love Willow & Tara, for ever, and ever, and so on.

Then we have the couple, demon and construction worker, Anya & Xander, talking about the things they can’t stand about each other that they could never say out loud, without song of course, which leads towards the end with Anya “dancing crazy!”. You have to love a song  that has a line about penis diseases, classy.

One of great writers of the show finds herself singing about a ticket she’s getting for parking in front of a hydrant, which has become one of my favorites to sing in the car.

Then the addictive song of Spike, the whiny love ridden fool song, he even admits he’d be Buffy’s slave, talk about being whipped. Just let him rest in peace, Buffy. Just let him be buried and go get Angel to sooth the pain. Sorry…

Next, a snippet of dawn’s voice before she gets kidnapped, pretty voice while its lasts.

Pretty Ballet instrumental leads to the dancing demon, Sweet, singing out with his great deep man singing voice trying to hit on 15 year old Dawn, Hawt.

A big hit in my car sing-a-long, the Giles song, sad but upbeat and lovely, he doesn’t want to leave Buffy, but needs to, sweet slow-mo scene with some kick-ass dodging of sharp things while pulling off some gymnastic moves, go SMG.

Here we have 2 songs emerge which is a high on the list for me, putting together the two amazing voices of Tony Head and Amber Benson, wonderful actors and brilliant singers. Such a beautiful addition to the already amazing track listing.

Up next, everyone joins in while wanting to walk through the fire, another great song, with some awesome lines, “things are turning out so dark”, “No, I’ll save her then I’ll kill her!” &  “I think this line mostly filer”. The best part is when the scooby gang chimes in and does their little part, is the slayer too far gone to care?

Then us listeners get something to sing about, a glittering world, and a dancing almost-to-her-death Buffy ending with dropping the heaven bombshell.

And to help finish it off, sweet rubs it in all our faces that things didn’t quite go our way with the whole dancing thing, that lead to the death thing, and the “aw we all have so many secrets!” thing.

Ending with the cast leaving confused, not knowing where to go from there. And a big sloppy wet one from Buffy & Spike, which I wish i could scrub from my brain.

If you’ve never see the episode, watch it. If you’ve never heard the soundtrack, listen to it. You’ll have to track it down like I did, since the boyfriend and I bought the only 2 copies in our area. Plus, if your REALLY lucky, like me, you’ll get to take a trip to Indianapolis and watch actors act out the episode, sing the songs, and dance the dances, an amazing experience, especially on the night before Halloween.

#G – Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog

How shocking, right? Another Joss choice, you get my love yet? Do you? Do You? Well you’ll figure it out eventually. Now, this sound track is Uh-Maze-Ing, seriously. NPH (For the less hip folks, Neil Patrick Harris) really shows us the talent that Doogie never really did, he sings, and he sings well. Fantastically well to be exact. He’s a villain looking for his big villainy break, to belong to the big-bad’s club, that’s of course ran by a horse, derr. Then we have the love interest, with a killer voice, no other than the beautiful Felicia Day, (who if you don’t watch the guild, START, I’ll explain more later), the helpless-helping-homeless-home-giving goddess that the villain is head-over-heels in love with. But in walks the bad guy, wait no, the GOOD guy. He just happens to be a prick, with a picture of a hammer on his chest. But he is played by no other than the mystical, magical, stud-man-guy Nathan Fillion. The guy crushes of the world surround this guy, which makes it easy for your Felicia, “Penny”, to fall for instead. (sad). So with this comes amazingly catchy songs that, yet AGAIN, Whedon is responsible for, also making it a family affair adding brothers and a sister-in-law. This is another Cd that is found being played in my car multiple times within a week. You’ve GOT to get this soundtrack, like now, LEAVE, GO!

#H – Pick of Destiny

Okay, Tenacious D is the best band EVER. Maybe this statement is not something you would agree with, and if it isn’t, stop lying. Seriously you know the truth, they probably ARE the greatest band EVER, why you ask? Because they have it ALL. What other band can use curse words like poetry, I mean really, “Mother Fucker” never sounded so good. If you haven’t had the chance to gander at the power that is the D, its time my friends. My passion for the D is forever deep, I was hooked the first time I heard them, saw them, and inevitably fell for them. “The Pick Of Destiny” is a movie and an album, and both are glorious. Watching Jack Black and Kyle Gas for 93 minutes straight has to be an experience, and sir, it was. But, the soundtrack that came along? GODLIKE, truly amazing music, which is not surprising from this duo. Another album i could not possibly begin the misery of deciding the best song on it, so you will have to venture out on your own and taste the taste that is TENACIOUS D.

be blown away by Rage Cage & Jables, KG & JB.

#I – Nashville

Great movie, wonderful soundtrack. Robert Altman is an amazing director and he did an amazing job on all the movies I’ve seen of his. They always have crazy relationships, and madness masked in innocence and he didn’t shy away from that with this one. Country singers, singing and crawling in drama filled situations; if you get a chance make sure to check this one out, i have a feeling you’ll be pleased if your in anyway cool, or hip, or happenin’ in the way I am. So rent it, steal it, borrow it, either way watch it, and make sure you listen to the songs you hear, it won’t be hard. I’ve leave you with a video of my favorite song from the movie that happens to be a great part of the film. Watch and aw.

So that’s it for now, I might come back and surprise you with more amazing songs that go with amazing movies/tv shows/web series, or I wont, don’t hold your breath. I leave you with a thought… Come back and see me, I mean read me, sometime.

sas

Sam introduces Andrew to The Shins in "Garden State".

(Zach Braff, 2004)

November 19, 2009

by Joel Crary

Recently I’ve come across several articles on hipsters and indie cinema that point to “Garden State” as some sort of (un)holy text, for better or worse. Of note is one written by a personal friend of mine, music and culture enthusiast Matt Buttler, who seems to be arguing on his blog that hipster-dom is a sort of necessary result of the postmodern condition – that is, a culture of anti-ideas rather than ideas, seeming creative dead-ends rather than new avenues, etc. Matt is responding in part to an article printed in Adbusters last year that made the claim that hipsters marked no less than the end of civilization. This week, Vadim Rizov, who may be my favourite film blogger, posted a rebuke of Twitter users who took part in a meme that defined “indie” film as such and such, more often than not incorrectly out of ignorance, citing “Garden State” as the film that kick-started a useless paradigm and stigma about independent cinema.

I don’t think of myself as a hipster, which is, of course, a classic hipster assertion to make. I turned 30 last week and I feel as though I’ve largely outgrown those kinds of definitions. If the definition of a hipster comes down to a lifestyle of constantly attending awful rock shows, making bad or extreme fashion choices, drinking a beer with too many consonants in its name and exhaling sarcasm instead of air, I’m about one for four. This isn’t to say that I’ve never bought an ironic t-shirt, thought that compilations weren’t a spiritual necessity or spouted asinine opinions about contemporary society that had no basis in informed fact. A lot of that comes out of the energy of being young and submitting to the false recognition that life is short, that cool is exclusive or that certain existential dilemmas can’t be solved with a little perspective.

I was first attracted to “Garden State” because of the music. About a year before its release I took the advice of a friend and started listening to online radio stations to discover new songs, and that’s how I came across “Breathe In” by Frou Frou, the former dance pop duo comprised of Imogen Heap and Guy Sigsworth that would come to pop up on “sounds like Morcheeba” Amazon recommendation lists. I bought the record while on a trip to New York City in June of 2003. Less than a year later, the album’s first track, “Let Go”, was featured prominently in the teaser trailer to “Garden State”, which began opening in theatres on July 28th, 2004.

The teaser presents a series of images and brief snippets from many of the more visually alive sequences in the film. Writer/director/star Zach Braff is shown prominently wearing an expression of near catatonia as bizarre things happen around him or to him. A group of people scream for dear life as his plane crashes to the ground. A room full of people move in fast forward as he sits perfectly still on a couch. He is shown wearing a shirt that has been stylized in sync with the wallpaper behind him, causing his torso to blend in to the background. He discovers a torn gas pump handle still attached to his car. Throughout all of these moments, the same expression, the same glassy-eyed acknowledgment that he should be reacting to these incredible circumstances, but somehow can’t. Quotations from Newsweek and efilmcritic.com sell Braff as a young visionary. All the while, Frou Frou’s lilting dance number drives the preview forward, filling the cracks with heart and the melancholy observation that there is beauty in breaking down.

Perhaps my personal discovery of Frou Frou was instrumental in finding “Garden State” so appealing initially. Those who knew of Braff knew him from the popular television sitcom “Scrubs”, in which he played a goofy medical intern with a bizarre imagination. His prominent presence in a film represented something fresh for a young generation, a new and unique kind of auteur that the youth could call their own without admitting to it. His devoted online presence fueled his fandom and drove scores of people to the theatre and video stores, turning “Garden State” into a cult classic. Studios began their cookie-cutting process and the inevitable backlash followed. For some, the movie has come to stand for all that is unbearable about Generation Y, a collection of misguided individuals who assembled their cultural histories from soundbytes and conveniently located hyperlinks that teach them all they need to know about how the world works.

When we first see Andrew Largeman in a non-dream state, he is tucked tightly in bed in a purely white room, looking up at the ceiling. His phone rings. It’s his father, calling to tell him that his mother has died. Andrew reacts to the message as though he’s trying to do rudimentary math in his head – the previous generation dies and leaves the next alone in mental disarray. We discover that Andrew gets through life on a cocktail of lithium and other anti-depressants that keep him functioning, but only barely. Throughout the course of a weekend, he abandons his meds and allows his emotions to surface, whereupon he is able to forgive himself for his mistakes and deal more truthfully with his own life.

The emotional sad sack with psychological issues is the hipster prototype. Kids understand dour and upset. The world is a massive letdown, but that’s sort of comforting. There is a solace in not being all right. It means that a person can be different, more fully individualized in a global village that has suddenly and dramatically shrunk in size. There is a relief in thinking that no one understands. And that’s how the hipster subculture thrives: by a superficially singular yet mutual understanding of a collective’s ironic apart-ness. Back in 2001, Donnie Darko excitedly turned to Gretchen Ross and asked, “What emotional problems does your dad have?” as though emotional problems were trading cards that could be negotiated for a complete set. In “Garden State”, Andrew Largeman sports a proud collection, as does old high school friend Mark (Peter Sarsgaard), though someone has stolen his Wolf Blitzer.

Sam (Natalie Portman) enters Andrew’s life in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. Her affliction is epilepsy. Her medicine is a sense of humour and music. She dares to utter the name of a band that will change Andrew’s life, pouring on the significance of The Shins before a brief few bars of “New Slang” plays over her grinning face. It’s a moment with little precedent on film. Certainly, characters have luxuriated in music and called artists by name, but an actual, for real “indie” rock band? The past decade has marked a period of time in which pop radio married itself to hip hop and music video channels stopped playing music videos altogether. How would a young woman in Jersey know of a band out of Portland with a couple of 7-inch singles and a full-length debut released on Sub Pop?

It’s unspoken in the film, perhaps because modern narratives still don’t know how to discuss 21st century technology without sounding infantile or corny, but Sam in particular is a child of that technology. The Internet has expanded the definition of what can be called authentic, while simultaneously enforcing authenticity as a prime secular ethic. Anyone can now be the first to hear anything. The moment in “Garden State” when Sam plays The Shins for Andrew, a band he’s never heard of, attracts hipsters by presenting itself as a moment of unbridled authenticity. The boy listens to the girl’s music and it/she changes his life. She pulls him out of his medication-induced clouded haze to realize that life is worth encountering by showing him that a song can still mean something to two people at the exact same time.

Music’s always had that power. The soundtrack to “Garden State” is lathered with good, solid songs. They emerge from the narrative like a thoughtfully chosen playlist, repeatedly evoking the right kind of modern emotion. Every song spirals around the loneliness a person can experience when coming of age. Mark tells his mother that he’s only 26 and that he doesn’t want to feel rushed. At 24, I listened and thought, yes, I didn’t want to feel rushed. There’s something about being 23, 24, 25, 26 that makes the rest of a life feel unacceptable somehow. People speed by like blurs and rarely stay. The future is an infinite abyss.

What “Garden State” does well is sustain a mood and vision that is quite apparently of its writer and director. Braff deserves due credit for it. He has yet to follow it up, and when he does, he won’t be telling the same story. The film is the acute result of being a certain age, feeling a certain way and resisting the belief that everything will change. “Garden State” is about the process of letting go.

Music video for “New Slang” by The Shins:

This I need to see:

It’s  menswear designer Tom Ford’s first foray into filmmaking which explains the structure and style, and Julianne Moore and Colin Firth are both in it. If that isn’t tempting enough, there are two shots in the trailer worth watching it for.

First, close-up of Moore’s mouth, she smiles the screen floods rouge and lights up (37 seconds into trailer).

Second, Firth and Moore collapsed on a cream carpet with messily strewn hair. Factor in a 60s shift and TV sized spectacles and you have yourself a shot akin to Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey in bed, on a beach, in the snow (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) or Zach Braff and Natalie Portman screaming in bin bags in Garden State.

They make you want to trade in reality for really pointless prettiness and flimsy memories that stand up for art but not so much narrative. That I can definitely aspire to.

broknenglsh.bandcamp.com

In Twitterland, it’s music Monday, and in anticipation of their album release tomorrow, I thought I’d show some love and get you ready!

There’s more fresh music ready for the picking from the good ol’ Garden State. New York may be the birthplace of hip hop, but it is definitely being brought back to life and executed with precision in its neighboring state. This post is dedicated to the lyrically cunning, mad cool, and all-around stand-up trio by the name of Brokn.Englsh. Please trust, there is nothing broken about their delivery. Check the drop and check them out tomorrow! SHOW LOVE!!

Mini critiques de films vus en août/septembre…

Garden State
De Zach Braff

En 2005, Zach Braff (connu par la série Scrubs) sort son premier long-métrage, un film à la fois décalé, triste et drôle, à consonance autobiographique. Résultat : c’est l’histoire d’une magnifique rencontre entre deux personnages que tout opposent, Sam (jouée admirablement par Natalie Portman) et Large (Zach Braff lui-même). A voir et revoir. Jean Pierre Jeunet le dit “Original, inspiré. Zach Braff est un surdoué.” Et on ne peut que lui donner raison.

Big Fish
De Tim Burton

A venir

Inglorious Basterds
De Quentin Tarantino

La seconde guerre mondiale revisitée par QT avec un casting hallucinant composé d’acteurs qui s’amusent (Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Mélanie Laurent), des scènes et des répliques bientôt cultes (“I want my scalp ” ou ” That’s a bingoo”). Et une grande révélation : Christoph Waltz.

District 9
De Neill Blomkamp

La première moitié de District 9 montre un film très, très impressionnant. Filmé en permanence sous le point de vue de caméras de télévisions, de caméras de sécurité ou d’hélicoptères, la réalisation est nerveuse, bluffante. Graphiquement, les aliens sont plus que crédibles… Scénaristiquement, l’orginalité est de mise, tant dans la personnalité du personnage que dans le synopsis.
Malheureusement, tout bascule durant la seconde moitié du film. Fusillades, fumée, militaire au crâne rasé, héros héroïque et grands sentiments. C’est dommage. A voir tout de même, et inventer sa propre fin.

28 jours plus tard
De Danny Boyle

Ça aurait pu être un banal film-de-zombies-qui-fait-peur, mais Danny Boyle (Slumdog milionnaire) arrive à composer quelque chose d’étonnant et de profond sur un sujet pourtant déjà pas mal traité (notamment par Romero). Filmé du style documentaire (repris dans des films comme Cloverfield ou plus réussi Rec), les passages qui se déroulent dans un Londres totalement vide sont très réussits. Et la présence du charismatique Cillian Murphy apporte beaucoup au film.

Victor Victoria
De Blake Edwards

“Une femme qui prétend être un homme qui prétend être une femme.” C’est sur tout ce paradoxe que se fonde ce film pétillant et tendre. On pardonne à Victor Victoria des longueurs et une fin qui n’en est pas une puisque Julie Andrews illumine joliment ce film. Blake Edwards sait mêler à la perfection scènes burlesques et numéros musicaux dignes de Broadway. La partie centrale du film est un pur délice.

Un prophète
De Jacques Audiard

Un magnifique film de Jacques Audiard sur l’univers carcéral ou l’histoire de Malik un petit qui deviendra grand (joué extraordinairement par Tahar Rahim). C’est beau, brutal et le film mérite plus que jamais son premier prix du jury à Cannes.

Peau d’âne / Les parapluies de Cherbourg
De Jacques Demy

Deux comédies musicales de Jacques Demy très touchantes, poétiques et colorées. Peau d’âne est une reprise fidèle du conte : des morceaux entiers de dialogues ou de narrations sont extraits du conte de Perrault. Cependant, les quelques touches de modernité et la présence de Delphine Seyrig décalent à merveille ce conte classique. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, quant à lui, présente une histoire d’amour déchirante entièrement en chanté. Les couleurs et les décors sont ici l’atout fort de ce film parfois plaintif, mais jamais agaçant.
Dans les deux cas, Demy et Deneuve nous enchantent.

L’armée du crime
De Robert Guédiguian

Le film est plus intéressant par son propos que par sa forme : l’histoire de l’armée Manouchian, groupe de résistants immigrés durant la seconde guerre mondiale est passionnante. On regrette juste que la mise en scène soit inexistante, mais certains acteurs (comme Robinson Stévenin ou Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) sont particulièrement convaincants.