This month has seen many album releases that piqued my interest, and a few that are really great.
The new Los Campesinos! album, Romance is Boring, is the one I've had a hard time turning odd repeat. Their dancey, punk spirited, indie rock sound remains intact as they hit new levels of depth and songwriting I felt was less apparent in their previous releases.
A strange surprise has been Ok Go's Of Blue the Colour and the Sky. Another danceable indie group that was previously just catchy, rather than good. They've changed their sound up a good bit, and created an album that's still catchy but relies less on its guitar hooks and more on its compelling vocal harmonizing and funk-influenced sound.
As far as films go, nothing that looks very good has graced the screens of New Orleans these past few weeks. And I haven't been watching many films out home due to a long running tv venture of mine finally coming to an end. I did have time to watch a fantastic new short film over at The Auteurs the other day. I don't know how some people have still not joined this website. It's free. They show free films periodically from great directors. Last year they premiered Austrian Oscar nominee Revanche weeks before its theatrical release.
I'd never seen anything by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, but I know I'm supposed to. The Auteurs premiered his new short film A Letter to Uncle Boonmee last week for free. It's still up there, but now costs 2 bucks. Boonmee is a meditative and beautiful love letter to northeast Thailand, and is mostly a collection of images from an abandoned rural village. These are held together by a wistful narration by a filmmaker trying to find the perfect location to shoot his film about his late uncle Boonmee that also doubles as a letter currently in progress. The director repeats sections of the narration over and over again, attempting to find the perfect words to express his complex feelings to his dead relative.
I listened to a lot of pop music in 2009. So I was not surprised when I knew all of the 25 songs featured in this mash-up very well, but I was ashamed. Somehow, radio has crept back into my life. It's terrible.
But this isn't
Seamlessly put together and edited, with the running theme of Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling", an infectious and irresistable song. And even though it comes from mostly terrible songs, it is hypnotic, definitely aesthetically pleasing, and beautiful in how it sums up the nature of pop.
By default it is currently thrash metal staple Overkill's Ironbound. Soon to be released, this album features mostly clean vocals over epic and intricate thrash metal. It's easily my favorite record from Overkill, who've been around since around 1980, the beginning of the sub-genre. Will it be record of the year? I'd surely hope not. But this great album gives me hope for some more fantastic music in the year to come.
The coming month alone sees releases from folk rockers Nana Grizol, tribal dance post-punk outfit These New Puritans, and dreamy pop group Beach House.
Sherlock Holmes
Yeah, I thought it was awesome. An immersive and detailed world, fantastic performances and chemistry from its two male leads, intelligent, if slightly over-plotted writing, and an adherence to the spirit of Doyle's classic character. It's dark, funny, and massively entertaining. It's no game changer or masterpiece, but it's a fine achievement in Blockbuster filmmaking.
Oh, and it features the best score I heard in 2009. (Ihaven't seen Moon. Clint Mansell is usually the man)
Up in the Air
Awesome? Not so much. It's all finely acted and stuff, but without much meat. Clooney's a character from frame one we know has to change, so he does. Vera Farmiga is fantastic as a character we see has a reveal coming late in the film. Anna Kendrick is good as the character who's supposed to help George Clooney change.
Why? Why is Clooney the emotionally damaged man that he is? His family shows no signs of being broken in any way at all. We get nothing. He's just a fucking creep weirdo that we end up liking because Clooney is that fucking charming. And those testimonials at the beginning and end of real people who've been fired? Why is it necessary. We've got the whole movie giving us a message, so Jason Reitman throws these at us, really forcing it down.
Third act? Feels like a different movie. Something more connected to the story we've been watching for the past 80 minutes should have occurred in what did happen's stead. But we got Danny McBride giving a nicely restrained performance, being funny while letting Clooney be the center of attention.
Still, enjoyable in places. I just have a problem seeing anything under the surface of this film.
