Making Up For Last Time

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Ok so my last music recs didn't go over so well (even though I prefaced it by calling Mika a guilty pleasure). So here I am, back to try to atone.

Brazilian Girls - Good Time

Brazilian Girls had a hit a few years ago with "Don't Stop" which was featured prominently in the ad campaign for one of those unfortunately popular MTV "reality" shows about life in the valley, or the city, or the hills, or wherever. Now they are back with another "dance rock" anthem about just wanting to have a good time...all the time. I'm a fan of this relatively new genre that blurs the lines between dance, pop and rock and also includes solid bands like The Rapture, Hot Chip, Bloc Party, CSS and occasionally Beck and Gnarls Barkley.



Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

As critically acclaimed as Fleet Foxes are, it took me a while to find a song that struck a chord with me, but I finally found it in White Winter Hymnal. This song could be any more different than Good Time. It's a slower, majestic, melancholy song that relies on harmonizing voices rather than on an infectious beat. It's a bit difficult to describe this song, so just listen and enjoy the old-school claymation video.



Tom Waits - Downtown Train

And now for something else completely different...this one dates back to 1985, when music videos were much less sophisticated and much more cringe-worthy (more later). I love Tom Waits and this is one of my favorite songs by him. If not for Waits' incredibly distinctive voice, this could easily be mistaken for a Springsteen song. And much like the Springsteen songs of the same era, it has certain trappings that unmistakably identify it as an '80's song, but manages to transcend these outdated characteristics and not feel dated as a whole.



One last thing. Speaking of cringe-worthy '80's videos, this might be the mother of them all. No explanation necessary. I feel embarassed for both of them.

Gerard Butler Is a Tool

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After being bombarded with advertising for an absolutely terrible-looking comedy called The Bounty Hunter for the past month, I feel compelled to rip into its star, Gerard Butler.

The first time I ever saw this guy was as King Leonidas in 300. I loved the movie and he seemed appropriately mysterious and just right for the role. But then I read an article on him in Esquire or GQ or something like that which made him seem kind of full of himself. Then I saw him on a late night talk and he was the worst kind of guest - one who comes prepared with canned stories which aren't remotely funny even though he seems to think they are.

Now he seems to have replaced Hugh Grant/Matthew McConaughey/Patrick Dempsey as the male romantic comedy star du jour and I want him to go away in the worst way. That stupid smug look on his face on the posters first for The Ugly Truth and now for The Bounty Hunter fills me with a rage I haven't felt since the last time I had to spend time at the New Jersey Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Why casting agents think he belongs in a comedy is beyond me. He is decidedly one of the least funny actors I've seen on screen (which is actually what made him good in 300 - a particularly earnest film). I guess the only prerequisite for the cookie cutter roles Grant, McConaughey, Dempsey and now Butler have been filling for a decade now is being eye candy for the ladies. But Butler is so unlikeable that I can't imagine his bizarre-looking, 3-sizes-too-small shirt from The Bounty Hunter can counteract his d-baggery to create a net positive. And the accent! I am not sure I have ever heard a less successful attempt at covering up an English/Scottish/Australian accent while trying to sound American.

I dare you to try to watch this trailer and not hate his smug, boorish guts. Good luck.



This guy had one role he was born to play, and that was King Leonidas. But I am worried that next time I try to watch 300, all I will see is the stupid looking guy from posters like the one below:

I would try to organize a boycott of his movies until her goes away, but for that to work, somebody would have to be going to these movies in the first place. Oh snap!

Guilty Pleasure Tunes

Since my movie watching has temporarily ground to a halt, it's high time I contributed a few of my music picks to the world.

First up: Mika

There's no getting around it, I feel guilty about getting hooked on Mika's relentlessly catchy songs which, by definition, makes him a guilty pleasure. The 26 year-old Lebanon-born Brit makes pop music, pure and simple. It's hard to even fit him into that "pop-rock" space occupied by the Smash Mouths and Sugar Rays of the world. He sings more than a little like Freddie Mercury and shows signs of developing a stage to match. Heck, even writes his own songs. At times, the Queen references are a little much (in Grace Kelly, he very directly references "trying a little Freddie" and in another song, Big Girls (Your Are Beautiful), he channels Fat Bottomed Girls to such a degree that Queen practically deserves a writing credit).

Although few of you will recognize the name Mika, I'd be willing to bet that the majority would recognize at least one of his songs because (a) they've been used in commercials, and (b) the hooks are so damn memorable.

Give it a chance and don't hate me if you despise it or if it gets stuck in your head. Here's a taste:

from his first album...

Grace Kelly



Love Today



...and from his new (second) album...

One Foot Boy (audio only)



We Are Golden



I'll be back with some picks that will make me feel better about myself very soon.

This is just awesome

A new video for the OK Go song "This Too Shall Pass"




Gotta hand it to these guys for creativity. Just in case you have never seen their YouTube breakthrough, "Here It Goes Again", here it is.

Movie 180: Big Fan

Big Fan (2009) by Robert D. Siegel
starring Patton Oswalt & Kevin Corrigan




In a nutshell: The only thing keeping me from loving it without qualification is the ending. I can't decide whether or not it worked, but it certainly made me think about it a lot more than your average ending

Quick synopsis: A downward spiral in the life of a man to whom the NY football Giants mean far too much.

Content: I cannot possibly discuss my thoughts on Big Fan without talking about the ending. But before I give the spoiler alert, a few comments on the rest of the movie:

Patton Oswalt...who knew you were anything more than a dirty (and funny) comedian? I was impressed by his voice acting skills as Remy the Rat in Ratatouille, but voice acting hardly counts, right? That's like evaluating chef only by the smell of his food. Does it taste great too? In Big Fan, we get to taste the meal, and it tastes surprisingly good.

The movie comments on the very odd subculture of hardcore sports fans who enjoy a bizarre kind of anonymous local celebrity as disembodied voices who are regular callers on sports talk radio and have funny nicknames like "Walter from the Cape" or "Maurice in the car". It's a subculture I am somewhat familiar with, being an on-again-off-again listener of WEEI 850 sports radio back is Boston. Big Fan's paints a rather cynical (and probably fairly accurate) image of these people as working class schmoes who spend hours every day planning and scripting their big moment - the highlight of their day - their minute or two of airtime in which they get to unleash their finest insults upon rival callers.

The main character, "Paul from Staten Island", is one of these callers. He has a big Italian family he doesn't get along with and one real friend with whom he shares an unhealthy obsession with the Giants. He fills the void in his life with perceived relationships with his beloved team, the talk show's host and a particularly devious Eagles-supporting caller, none of whom give a second thought to poor Paul at the end of the day while Paul sits alone writing a script for his next foray onto the airwaves. It paints the world as a dark and unfriendly place that only rewards those bold enough to go out and grab a piece of it for themselves, a category Paul most certainly does not fit into. Paul pours his heart, soul and nearly all his free time into his obsession with the Giants who not only don't love him back (Fever Pitch covered that territory well enough) but, in this case, actually turn against him. His reaction is the make-or-break point for Big Fan. But we'll get to that later.

Big Fan has some other interesting points to make as well. It touches on personal injury lawyers and the lawsuit-happy nature of America. It comments on the dangers of investing so much of yourself in one pursuit and on the effects when that pursuit yields no results. It even supports a few of my long-held stereotypes about the lovely people that inhabit the Island of Staten. What do each of these themes have in common? The are all incredibly cynical perspectives on today's culture. This attitude that the film establishes beyond any doubt is the source of my confusion about the ending.

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!

So one day everything starts going wrong for Paul...and I do mean EVERYTHING. He gets beaten up by his idol, Giants QB Quantrell Bishop, after a confrontation in a night club and ends up in the hospital for a few days. Then he starts getting terrible headaches and is unable to sleep. Even worse, the single thing that brought him joy - the Giants - has now been compromised which is the source of endless confusion for Paul. The fallout from the incident strains his relationships with his family - especially with his brother who sues the star quarterback on Paul's behalf without his permission. Paul hits rock bottom when his on-air rival discovers that "Paul from Staten Island" - the biggest Giants fan on the face of the earth - is singlehandedly responsible for Quantrell's legal trouble and suspension, and the Giants subsequent slump of biblical proportions. Now, all of a sudden, Paul's love affair with his team has been violated from both directions and he no longer has the one thing is life that keeps him sane.

At this point, Big Fan seems to be growing into a full-blown tragedy. Paul's life is spinning out of control and I could not help but think of the explosion of violence that the similar decline of Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver) led to - especially when Paul reaches his apparent breaking point and does something extremely contrary to the passive personality he has displayed throughout the film and pockets a gun as he sets off to find the Philadelphia bar that his Eagle-loving nemesis has challenged him to visit during the winner-takes-all Giants/Eagles showdown.

What follows I did not see coming.

SERIOUSLY! LAST CHANCE TO STOP READING BEFORE THE REALLY BIG SPOILER!!!!

I kinda believed it when Paul follows the guy into the bathroom and winds up shooting him several times. I didn't like it, but it made sense considering Paul's progression. An incredibly dark ending to a dark movie. As the victim is slumped in the corner looking at the red liquid all over his hands and shirt I was shaken by what Paul was capable of when everything was taken from him. Then the camera pulls out a little and we see that the liquid on the victim's other hand is blue. Good for the movie for not spelling it out and giving me several seconds to comprehend on my own that what I was seeing was paint. And not just any paint, Giants colors. Those few seconds of confusion followed by realization are what the best twist endings are made of.

But then I started thinking about this twist and started disliking it. The worst kind of twist is one that doesn't have any narrative purpose other than to surprise the viewer. These are usually distinguished by the fact that there is absolutely no evidence (especially on repeat viewings) that they are coming. I felt betrayed by the past hour of the movie which set a particular dark tone. I felt that the twist was only there to supply the film with a twist ending and not because it made any sense.

But the more I thought about it, the more it started to make sense. Most of the judgments that I made about where the story was headed were caused by my own cynical assumptions. Sure, the filmmaker might have encouraged me to follow this path by showing me things like a gun handle protruding from Paul's pocket, but I also saw what I expected to see. Director Robert Siegel let me walk myself down that road.

In retrospect, the twist was consistent with Paul's character after all. He was a pathetic guy not capable of anything more than a football-themed prank as an outlet for his football-based rage, even when he was at rock bottom. And besides, to him, Giants football is life and death, so his "extreme" actions are probably the logical conclusion that a person like that would have reached when they decided to take drastic action. To him, he exacted the ultimate revenge on his foe. Luckily for everyone, it seems Paul spends far more time watching football than elaborate revenge fantasies like Kill Bill, Oldboy and even that infamous South Park episode, Scott Tenorman Must Die. It seems so obvious now that Paul's character would never have actually shot anyone, but I temporarily talked myself into it. I think that really says something about the conditioning of moviegoers in this day and age.

The film ends with a lovely, quirky bit of optimism, reminding us how stupid we were to have been fooled before the twist. This final conversation left me with a pretty enduring positive final impression of Big Fan and drove home its lesson. I will try to remember this lesson, but the overwhelming proliferation of violence in today's movies and the resulting mentality of media consumers will (sadly) probably win out once again in the long run.

Rolling rankings:
1. Jackie Brown (#173)
2. Avatar (#176)
3. Sherlock Holmes (#178)
4. Anvil! The Story of Anvil (#172)
5. Big Fan (#180)
6. The Cove (#177)
7. Julie and Julia (#175)
8. Kids (#179)
9. Angels & Demons (#174)
10. The American Nightmare (#171)