Summer in the City, Pt. II (Movies)

In all honesty, I haven't gone out to too many movies lately. I'll write about the last few I saw in theaters, and the next ones I'm anticipating, but this is by no means a comprehensive look at the movies of Summer 2009.

Up

What can I say? I remain heartbroken. I saw this in 3D the weekend before starting my new job at an animation studio, and it just took the wind out of me. I loved Wall-E, and saw it twice in theaters, but where the large scope of that movie is what impressed me, it was the intimate poignancy of Up that was stunning. As with everyone else in the world, I was weeping after 10 minutes, and again at the end. I can't go into any details in case anyone hasn't seen it yet. But I will say that two weeks after seeing the movie, I was looking at a billboard for it while stopped at a red light, and I lost it. I cried for an hour. So brilliant.

Away We Go

I enjoyed this movie even more than I anticipated, and I had been looking forward to it quite eagerly. What seemed like a cute, romantic road trip movie was far more affective than I'd expected, and the movie stuck with me long after. The fears and dreams that the main characters had were portrayed so wonderfully in their tight performances, and I felt like I'd want to rewatch this movie when I'm pregnant with my first child, to make me feel better about what I'm sure must be a very scary time. I can't pick a favorite vignette out of the story, but I definitely was impressed by John Krasinski's character. It is so rare to see fatherhood portrayed so admirably in media these days, and I loved how excited he was to be a dad. It was a shock to see what a fulfilling movie Sam Mendes made after Revolutionary Road which was the ultimate suburban horror story.

(500) Days of Summer

While I definitely enjoyed this movie, in a packed cinema at the Arclight, I think I'd overhyped it in the weeks preceding. The music, the non-linear story, the sentiment, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt: all wonderful. Zooey Deschanel was good in her role, but the character of Summer left me ill at ease. I don't think she's a bad person at all, and I completely understand where she's coming from, but I think that Gordon-Levitt's Tom is just so earnest and dimpled and heartwarming that it's hard not to be saddened by the woman who eventually scorns him. Some of the narration was a little off, but the musical set piece, the unorthodox use of animation and split-screen, and the wonderful ode to my love, Los Angeles, all sat very well with me. I think I must be honest though that it was great seeing Cameron from 10 Things I Hate About You show through in some scenes. Charming!

The Hurt Locker

Romance, romance, romance, WAR MOVIE. I'm sure I've blogged previously about my love of war movies, like Three Kings, Black Hawk Down, and The Best Years of Our Lives (which is about what happens after you come home, but is still one of the best war movies I've ever seen). This became one of my dad's favorite movies of recent years, and I have to say I was sucked in from the opening shot, barely able to blink the whole time. The film runs the gamut, showing us how our three main soldiers interact with each other, how they interact with their work and duty, how they interact with the locals, and finally, with their families. The film perfectly sets up the right feeling of dread from the outset, and then slowly needles the tension throughout. I highly recommend this candid and fascinating movie.

Some movies I'm looking forward to seeing in the coming weeks are Julie & Julia, Adam, District 9, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. I should be seeing the first two sometime this week, so I will let you know how I like them!

Summer in the City, Pt. I (Music)

So, as my first action back on the blog, I'm going to do a little catching up on what I've been enjoying this summer. The quickest for me to update you on will be music. For the last five years, I've complained at how lazy I've become with learning about new music. In high school I was obsessed, reading Q, the NME, Rolling Stone, Spin, and various online music publications. I used to stay up until early morning to watch the new, hip music videos on Fuse and MTV2. I'd go to record stores and pick up CDs I'd never heard of based on the employees' recommendations. I don't think a day went by when I was 14, 15, 16, that I didn't listen to some new music.

And then I went to college and this practically all stopped. I don't really know what happened. I was busier, yes, but I spent hours and hours screwing around on the internet, just not looking for new music. The wonderful radio station Indie 103.1 came and went, and I just waited for new music to come my way, on mixtapes by friends usually.

This summer I've found myself listening to a little more new music than I had been doing. Maybe it's because I have a commute that crosses all of L.A., so I stop at Amoeba with some frequency, and it inspires me. Anyway, here's a short list:

Regina Spektor, "Far"

I've loved Regina ever since hearing "Samson" performed a capella by a friend of mine a couple of years ago. I immediately bought everything of hers I could get my hands on. When I saw her perform live at the Wiltern a year or so ago, it was a really remarkable, ethereal show. This summer, her new album quickly became my favorite. Upon my first listen, I knew that it was immensely more enjoyable to me than "Soviet Kitsch" or "Begin to Hope," both of which I love. "The Calculation," "Eet," "Laughing With," and "One More Time With Feeling" instantly became my favorite tracks, and I had them memorized within days. I even called my boyfriend while I was driving home and made him listen to "Eet" with me. I'm going to be seeing her at the Greek Theatre in October, and I think that the kookiness of this album will be on great display at that venue. The religious tones of her work come back with a passion, and her voice...is as mesmerizing as ever.

She & Him, "Volume One"

My enjoyment of "country-fried indie rock" (as I once termed it in an article I wrote for school) came as a surprise to me in high school when the particular stylings of bands like Rilo Kiley and Limbeck were all I wanted to listen to. The lilting twang of Zooey Deschanel's voice fits in perfectly with that, and is left stripped bare with M. Ward's music. I don't like every track on this album, but there's something so desperate in the vocals that I can't seem to get enough. My friends and I even sat through Yes Man to hear Zooey singing. It was not worth it.

Here's a video of Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis, and Zooey Deschanel on stage. It's like fantasy rock band for me!

The Temper Trap

Okay so I don't know too much about them, but thanks to Ash, I got to see them live at Space Land for free, and they were a really wonderful show. I think the last time I saw a really great small act in a small venue was Everybody Else at the Troubadour in 2005 or so, and they are two very different kinds of bands. The Temper Trap was energetic, and played cleanly, and definitely piqued my interest. They have a song, "Sweet Disposition" featured on the (500) Days of Summer soundtrack, so I'm excited to see what happens for them next.

Death Cab for Cutie at the Bowl

A few weeks ago I got a friend's extra ticket to see DCFC perform with the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. It was a wonderful last minute surprise, though the performance was less impressive than expected. We got there while The New Pornographers were opening, which was a shame because I would have liked to see more of their set. They were quickly followed by Tegan & Sara, who were very talkative and charming, and played a good mix of older and newer music. Death Cab performed one short set solo, again with a good mix of old/new, and then one set backed by the L.A. Phil. Something was just missing though. The sound was off and consequently some of the horns drowned out the rest of the music, and some of the DCFC songs felt at odds with the horde of instruments and the huge venue. Plus, Ben Gibbard seemed to be phoning it in a bit. The general consensus among my friends seems to be that he's happy now that he's engaged to Zooey Deschanel, and can't really bring the angst to his music anymore. In 2004, DCFC performed at the Wiltern, and when they ended the show on "Transatlanticism," the stage filled with yellow light and fog, it felt like I was floating in the air, alone with the music. When they ended the Bowl show on the same note, there were fireworks in the air, and it became a spectacle. In the end, the best part about going to show was being at the Bowl, picnicking in the Hollywood hills and chatting with friends, as it always is.

Spamalot at the Ahmanson

Back in April, I waited in line at the Dorothy Chandler pavilion while Laker girls, wand'ring minstrels, and various Spam-themed games and activities carried on wildly around me. I was queuing up for discounted tickets to the preview shows of Monty Python's Spamalot, in town starring John O'Hurley. I know that the theatre doesn't quite count as "music," but I figured this was as good a place for it as any. Those of us familiar with the Pythons, and The Holy Grail, probably got more enjoyment out of the show than the unitiated. We knew which jokes to expect, but there was enough of a new take on the material to be freshly entertaining. My mom who has no Monty Python experience laughed wildly the whole time, and couldn't believe how crude some of the humor was, so maybe I'm wrong. There were a few little kinks to be worked out (it was in previews, after all), and the faux program in the Playbill was one of the funniest parts of the show, but overall I enjoyed it quite a bit.

That's all I can think of for now. Lately my car's CD player has been playing audiobooks mostly, as it helps more during a long commute than music sometimes does.

what if your worst fear...

...was M. Night Shyamalan!

So, I'm catching up a bit with posting now, but I have had a lot of time to think about one of the latest movies I've seen. Despite all the naysaying leading up to opening day of The Happening, I was pretty excited to see it. I even avoided internet spoilers so that I could finally have an unspoiled Shyamalan experience. Violence, gore, Marky Mark's third nipple (which even though it's always covered, it's a comfort to know it's there, right?), Zooey's watery dinnerplate eyes - all of these things made me want to see a horror movie in theaters on Friday the 13th. I'm mostly ambivalent towards suspense movies, and haven't seen a scary movie in theaters since 28 Days Later (Land of the Dead doesn't count since it wasn't scary, and I Am Legend doesn't count because I was bored). So The Happening was working for me riiiight up until the trailers beforehand indicated what kind of a movie-going experience I was about to embark on.

You know how the tone of the trailers shown before a film give a hint about the distribution company and target audience? Well, before The Happening, there was a trailer for Mirrors, which basically took every horror movie trope that everyone got tired of 4 Japan-remakes ago, and jumbled them together into a movie with no villain. Creepy little boy? Check. Frightened mom? Check. Slowly revealing the distorted image of the expected? Check. Oh but guess what the premise is that your reflection is what kills you. The following paraphrased conversation brought to you by my friend Evan and I:
Evan: What if your worst fear...
Me (in scared mom voice): Why are you going upstairs, Billy?
Evan (as creepy Billy): But they told me to, mommy!
Me: Who? Who told you, Billy?
Evan: MY REFLECTION!!
Seriously, anything could kill you in a movie that stupid. What if your worst fear was...your own hat! a doorknob! the existence of Disaster Movie! Okay, that last one is actually pretty scary... But I digress...

So anyway, The Happening was pure shit pretty much from moment one. I mean, some of the deaths were pretty cool, and I am definitely susceptible to the music and slow pans of suspense building, but just like in The Village or Signs, there was rarely any payoff. In the days since I watched it, I've been trying to decide if it was just bad, or if it veered over to "so bad it's good" territory, and I think I'm leaning towards the latter. Some of the cool deaths are gooey and entertaining (jumping off buildings, headbutting a house), and some are stupidly funny (feeding oneself to lions one limb at a time, throwing oneself in front of a lawnmower?). There are also a lot of unintentionally hilariously delivered lines that are very quotable ("Don't take her hand unless you mean it!" "Hot dogs get a bad rap. They have a fun shape, and they're full of protein!" "Why're you eyein' my lemon drink?!")

But for every nugget of comedy gold, there was a plodding twenty minutes worth of horrible directing. I will not fault Mark "Rock Star" Wahlberg, Zooey "The Happening" Deschanel, or even John "The Pest" Leguizamo for their wooden performances when I'm pretty much convinced that Shyamalan just demands the worst out of his actors. The story unfurled in the first third of the action, by which point everyone in the audience I saw it with had long since stopped caring. The relationship between the leads was unnaturally and unnecessarily tense, and primarily hinged on the color of Marky's clammy mood ring. When the two of them walked into the onslaught of neurotoxin dust that they were sure was going to kill them, I was convinced that they were going to start making out and then suicidally eating each other's faces off. Alas, this did not happen.

In the cheapest system of deus ex machina in practice these days, all explanation about the premise was revealed through news broadcasts, which is just such a coward's way out. *coughSIGNScough* As soon as the credits rolled, there was a lot of loud booing in the theater, so that should be a pretty good indicator that audience opinions were in line with mine, and all those reflected on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

Don't see The Happening. Or, get drunk with a huge group of friends and then sneak in to The Happening. That would probably be a fun evening. Drink every time the trees/plants/wind move menacingly. Drink every time the mood ring is mentioned/present. Drink every time you laugh nervously or earnestly at the movie. Get dialysis. Repeat.

trailer park, part une

In my recent returns to the movie theater, I have also been introduced to a few new movie trailers, and a handful of them look very promising. I also enjoyed combing through a bunch of trailers online, so I wanted to share some of the ones that I want to see. Enjoy!

(Okay, so for some reason blogger is not letting me embed video clips right now, so I'm afraid I had to post the links to the trailers on YouTube. Sorry, I hate to click a link when the video I want to see could be right there!)


The Foot Fist Way (May 30)
Okay, so I actually got an advance copy of this at work, and when I tried to watch it, I was busy doing other things, and ended up losing interest about halfway through. I'll watch it this week so that I can post a review the day it comes out, which is this Friday. I do love mockumentaries, and this looks like a deadpan comedy, which is probably a lot funnier than I was aware of when it was on TV next to me while I was writing a paper.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6hO9lP4lVvY


The Happening (June 13)
So, most people's opinions on M. Night Shyamalan's movies are mixed, and mine are too. Let's face it, the quality of his storytelling varies pretty widely from film to film, anyway. The Happening doesn't look to me like it's going to exceed The Sixth Sense, which is my favorite of his, but it also doesn't look like it's going to sink to The Village or Lady in the Water levels of boringness. Really though, just like Kathy Geiss, I'll show up to almost anything Mark Wahlberg is in. I don't know what it is about his pug-like face and his too-much-muscle body covered in horrible tattoos, but I am drawn to him. Sexy/ugly has never looked so good(?). Also, Zooey Deschanel is incredible, so I imagine the movie must be decent if she chose to be in it.
(NOTE: This is the red band trailer, which is pretty violent, so be careful:)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rFU6Qyjb8aA


Quid Pro Quo (June 13)
Nick Stahl is a very underrated actor, if you ask me, and I am glad to see him in an interesting thriller as the protagonist. The concept of elective amputation is an unusual, and very thought-provoking one, having been explored in mainstream media on Nip/Tuck, and previously on sites such as bmezine.com (I won't post a link because I'm on a work computer and don't want to search around for the article I'm looking for, but it's a fascinating site from top to bottom, if you're interested in body modifications). This mystery/thriller genre as a vehicle to discuss the subject of bizarre body image (and body dysmorphic disorder?) is cool, and I hope I actually remember to watch this when it comes out in (assumedly) limited release.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zgHJcsULMz4


Baghead (June 13)
I've actually seen Baghead already, and I definitely recommend it for the Laemmle-theatergoing crowd, especially if you're looking for a comedy at the independent movie theater which is typically full of high-quality downers like The Children of Huang Shi (which looks reeeally good, btw). It's neither the most memorable comedy I've seen - though few indie comedies are - nor the scariest horror flick I've seen, but I don't really think that's the point. Baghead pokes fun at the indie filmmaking process and community, and the actors are believable and funny throughout. The wallet-phone gag will stick with you for a while, too, so look out for that.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zJNsbHvGNvs


American Teen (July 25)
I've been reading lately about how the cinema verite approach to teens in media is becoming a growing trend, and American Teen is one of the primary examples of this that people are turning to. What can I say? It looks cute and touching, and like something that will appeal to teens, younger adults, and baby boomers, and people from small towns and big cities.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5lB7j6_acxk


The Rocker (Aug. 1)
Oh, Rainn Wilson. No one's ever going to let you put down those horrible glasses from The Office ever again, are they? Just as I examined the posters of Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin, I looked at the poster for The Rocker with a critical eye. But all the pratfalls in the world (seriously, the trailer is like if Chevy Chase and Chris Farley had a child with vertigo) can't detract from the awesome cast. I'm hoping this will end up being funnier than Blades of Glory, as the story seems a lot cooler, and I think that Wilson is a better headliner any day than Will Ferrel or Jon Heder. Yeah, I said it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yIv9SFT7pfY
Fun fact: Rainn Wilson practices Baha'i.


The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (Aug. 8)
Leave me alone. I kind of loved the first one.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5_tOCV6VLR4

hot mess

Okay, so I'm no tabloid writer. I adore tabloids, and would love nothing more than to waste my life away reading about people who don't matter in my personal life, and all the trouble they get themselves into. So I must confess that Paris Hilton has been on my mind quite a bit these past few days. So, she's leaving jail soon - can't wait for the interviews and ghostwritten book. Then, of course, there's darling LL, who - let's face it - is every little girl's dream. I mean, before she got coke-bloat and started looking like an old Judy Garland. As far as Britney's concerned, I would just like to go on record as having always believed Xtina was going to come out ahead in that race.

So, those are our main American trashy starlets (sorry M-K and Ash, you've been boring me for a little while; Nicole, you better confirm that pregnancy or go to jail or something to shake things up; and Mischa, you're English anyway, right?), and my extremely abridged thoughts about them. I mean, I could go oooon, but I won't. Then there's the faves from across the pond, talented hot messes Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse. I've been listening to a lot of Winehouse lately, and I saw Lily Allen in concert a little while ago, so you can tell that I am a fan of both. I mean, Lily Allen drank jager onstage and chain-smoked and forgot her lyrics and all that. And Amy...homegirl is missing a tooth. And all that ruckus with Blake Fielder-Civil - outstanding. For shame, Pete Doherty and Kate Moss!

I'm not exactly sure what compelled me to write about these crazy cats, except I feel like if I'm going to write a blog about pop culture, I can't ignore the tabloids, which I spend a decent chunk of my day reading anyway. I don't intend to write about them frequently, I kind of just wanted to put my thoughts out there. But as much as I love Tara Reid's unfortunate areloae and Britney Spears' horrific extensions, I would also like to go on record and say that I wouldn't be able to enjoy their antics if it weren't for the beautiful young Hollywood actresses who make it worthwhile. I mean, if they were all trashy, I would just feel bad. Like a 24/7 exposure to Maury Povich show guests if they were all filthy rich. But knowing that there also exist level-headed beauties makes it all go down a lot easier. So here's to my real favorites...