(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

And now I’ll just leave this here…

What’s the deal with the current trend of making trailers promising Liam Neeson doing things that never actually happen in the movie?

10 | Hugo

I have been extremely skeptical of the 3D craze. I have shelled out the extra few bucks to wear the hipster glasses a handful of times in the theater and only a couple have stuck out as even arguably necessary. But when I heard Martin Scorsese was making a 3D film I was curious. His films ooze visual style, so naturally he could be the one to turn me around on the twenty first century’s smell-o-vision. Regrettably I must report that I did not care for even Mr. Scorsese’s venture into the third dimension. Though a few scenes really stood out as remarkable examples of what could be accomplished with the medium, I never felt a loss of the 3D would be detrimental to the storytelling.

I am nearly as mixed on the story of Hugo as I am on the technical endeavor. The first third of the film feels a little trite and over-reaching especially for a Scorsese picture. Too many characters are introduced and not enough time is given to any of them… or so I thought. Suddenly the film takes a sharp left turn and never looks back. In an attempt to preserve for you the magic I felt in the last hour and a twenty minutes (or so) of Hugo I will not go into any detail about the genuine story of the film. If you have somehow avoided the talk and reviews of this film I encourage you to remain oblivious. I never get emotional during movies (okay it got a little dusty in the theater towards the end of Toy Story 3, but that was 15 years in the making) but this film got my heart pounding with excitement and chills running straight through my entire body. I felt like a child again seeing a movie on a big screen for the very first time.

In retrospect I have come to understand the point of all of those characters I had thought were wasted, and they are absolutely validated in the way they cleanly tie into the latter part of the film. I still have a few problems with the it, but I can’t wait to see how it plays the second time around.

09 | A Separation

Do not write this film off as a domestic drama. The seemingly simple story of an Iranian couple on the verge of divorce unravels into a beautifully messy depiction of Iranian society, politics and justice. Plus it packs all of the sharp exploration of morality’s grey areas that you used to find in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s film. Well written, well acted, must see.

08 | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I have heard some divisive reviews of this film from friends, but then again I recall hearing similar thought of Let The Right One In when people saw it. Like Tomas Alfredson’s last picture, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy does not follow the conventional wisdom of its genre. This film does not hold your hand from start to finish to show you the way. It is an organized mess with a great payoff if you just keep up. I was slowly sucked in by the building paranoia and found myself believing nearly anything was possible by the end. If you cannot appreciate the story you will at the very least appreciate the impeccable ensemble cast.

07 | Tyrannosaur

Paddy Considine’s feature film debut as writer/director shows great maturity and control. Peter Mullan gives a terrifying performance as perhaps the only old man who could beat the shit out of Clint Eastwood. This is not a film about a man evolving to become a better person, but rather a film about a man who remains just as awful as he ever was in spite of the things he has learned and attempted to change. Compare it to Gran Torino if you must, but this film packs a whole lot more punch, succeeding in the many, many places its American counterpart failed.

06 | The Arbor

The Arbor is one of the most inventive documentaries I have ever seen, and amazingly all of the surreal flashy production actually works in favor of the story being told. The film chronicles the life and work of a late British playwright, Andrea Dunbar. She wrote plays about what she knew, the stark existence of living in her little village known as The Arbor. Audio interviews with friends and family are synced with actors representing each speaker. While it sounds incredibly kitsch, this style actually helps to flesh out the world of Dunbar and her plays in a way that would not be possible otherwise. Scenes from her plays come to life in the actual locals they are meant to represent on stage. The actors portraying the real interviewees move around The Arbor with a revealing impact talking heads simply wouldn’t have. The Arbor is currently streaming on Netflix. Add it to your queue.

05 | Tree of Life

I’m afraid I do not have much to say about this film that has not already been said, so I will simply throw some truthy clichés at it. Tree of Life is visually breathtaking and emotionally arresting. Even the dinosaurs were incredible. Though it may run long in places, particularly towards the end, for me it served as a remarkable catalyst for memories of childhood and the struggle of being a kid coping with new and unfamiliar emotions.

04 | Midnight in Paris

I am about 50/50 on the Woody Allen movies I have seen, and I haven’t even seen any of the bombs from the nineties and aughts. Maybe that is why Midnight in Paris surprised me so much. I know some might call it slight sacrilege, but I personally found it to be the most captivating and magical Woody Allan film I have ever seen. My relationship with Midnight in Paris is actually very similar to the one I previously described with Hugo. I will once again be as vague as possible, because going in blind was very rewarding. The first 20 minutes or so felt a bit rigid and had me shuffling in my seat, but when that first “moment” happened a smile literally came to my face. This picture was so much fun I actually considered buying another ticket to see it again immediately following the end credits.

03 | We Need to Talk About Kevin

This is by far the heaviest film on my list. Tilda Swinton gives an emotionally depleting performance as a mother at odds with her son’s revulsion for her and perhaps the world. This film could be problematic, because a large driving force of the narrative is entirely unrealistic, but Swinton and the three actors portraying Kevin keep the story so grounded that the transgression is easily forgiven and forgotten. Kevin was impeccably cast for each age group and creates a character so terrifying a young Anton Chigurh would probably keep away.

02 | Submarine

When I read “coming of age” and “first time director” together I always expect one of two things: lo-fi mumblecore crap with some shaggy characters and little to no plot or something with over ambitious visual style and characters so quirky you could die from a whiff of their irony. While I cannot deny the quirk found in Craig Roberts’s pipe smoking, loner teen, Oliver Tate, it is within at least some moderation and falls more under playful than abrasive. Director Richard Ayoade has clearly studied the work of directors such as Has Ashby and Wes Anderson, but he does more than throw meticulous flat compositions and precocious antics at the audience. The world of Submarine is fully realized. It is a timeless place with rules aided by cinematic enchantment.  There is not a weak link in the cast which includes Sallly Hawkins, Noah Taylor and Paddy Considine.

01 | Drive

I don’t care if this is the second most cliché pick for the best picture of the year (Tree of Life would clearly take the #1 spot) I love this movie so much and you cannot take that away from me. The first 15 minutes of this film can go toe-to-toe with any movie opening as one of the most engaging openings I have ever seen. Bonus points for featuring Lovefoxxx. Nicolas Winding Refn made the coolest, sexiest, most satisfying film of the year. He bypasses cheap dialogue in favor of silence and cuts out most exposition all together. His trust in the audience to fill in the blanks is so refreshing. I don’t need a minute long scene of Ryan Gosling explaining to the kid how the staring game works or hammering home the moral of the fable of the scorpion and the frog.

The calmness of the first half of the film amplifies the intensity of the second half in a very powerful way. I have seen Drive twice. Each time the rampage of the latter part of the film provoked a visceral reaction in me, a rarity among fake movie valence. The silence after a gun is fired or a blow is struck is more powerful than any swelling strings and syncopated percussion.

Oh yeah, and the soundtrack. The dreamlike synthy 80′s score sounds like something straight out of a David Lynch film and I love it. The other songs accompanying compliment the dense ethereal landscape of the film and places the audience in the wistful state of mind Driver appears to be stuck in.

I love this film.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• Elite Squad 2 | The Departed meets Michael Bay meets Heat
• Meek’s Cutoff | Kelly Reichardt brings the bleak. Not quite as enchanting as Windy and Lucy, but quite noteworthy nonetheless.
• Rubber | Arguably one giant gimmick, but I went along for the ride and loved every minute of it.
• Senna | A fascinating biographical documentary regardless of your knowledge of or interest in Formula 1.
• Source Code | I should have never doubted Duncan Jones, but the trailer just looked so bad. A fun inventive thriller.

FILMS I MISSED

• The Artist
• Attack the Block
• Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Hesher
• Margaret
• Martha Marcy May Marlene
• Shame
• Shut Up Little Man
• Take Shelter
• Win Win

REDEMPTION!
This appears to be the same studio recording used at the end of Moving McAllister, now without dips in audio and people talking all over it! I don’t know it originated from, but I’m so have finally found it. (originally posted on Mellow Ds Tumblr)

Enjoy!

Steel Train (the album) was my favorite record of 2010 and is full of high energy tacks, perfect for the summertime. Already have the album? There’s something for you too! The band has included two bonus tracks only previously available to members of Steel Train’s 7″ of the month club.  PLUS when you download the album you automatically enter to win all 4 releases from the 7″ club.

Here is the first track from the album, Bullet.

Givaway/Contest page | SteelTrain.net | ST on Twitter

Let me start out by saying that I was on the fence about The Killing as soon as I began to see the “Who killed Laura Palmer Rosie Larsen?” ads all over the TV and the interwebs. Sure, it seems like a fairly generic, yet provocative, question, but when combined with the plot synopsis (detectives search for the killer of a high school girl,) phrases in the  trailers/TV spots like ”Good girl with no secrets… What was she doing with him?” and the Pacific Northwest setting it was impossible for me to not at least imagine this may be a gritty Twin Peaks rip off. Turns out it kinda was… but more on that in a moment.

I began watching and though it was at least good enough to warrant an 45 minutes of my time each week. Five or six episodes in things seemed to be hitting a good stride. …and then I don’t even know. Around halfway through the season I realized I couldn’t even name many of the characters in the show. I had to describe them by gender or relation to other characters. This is a problem. I guarantee I could remember Don Draper’s name by the end of the first or second episode of Mad Men. And I could even spout off Peggy Olson, Bert Cooper, Paul Kinsey, Harry Crane, etc at least by the end of the first season. But sitting here right now typing I can’t remember the name of the female detective in The Killing. I also can’t tell you much about her as a character. She’s a workaholic with a son and a pissed off fiance in California. I could tell you more about Pete Campbell and he had a lot less screen time than what’s-her-face.

The tagline “the deeper you go, the darker it gets” actually turns out to be referring to the character development. This may be the biggest flaw in the whole series thus far. They accomplished in 13 episodes what should have been accomplished in about 6.  The 11th episode, “Missing,” was a massive waste of time (particularly with just two more left in the season.) At the same time it held maybe the best scene of the season, a quick snack break for detectives ginger-works-a-lot and her partner, Detective Holder. I remember his name because I actively attempted to (as I did with all of the characters when I realized I hadn’t naturally absorbed them) and because he is probably the most interesting and character in the show. They have a short philosophical exchange and you learn a little bit more about Holder.  The only problem is that this conversation came at THE END OF THE SEASON. It should have occurred no more than like five episodes in, especially when taking into consideration how little development the writers did. In retrospect I understand why they would chose to place the conversation so late in the season, but shame on them for not trusting their audience enough to connect the dots with a larger gap of time.

Let’s talk about Twin Peaks for a moment now. Aside from the aforementioned parallels, in no particular order here are the ones I can think of off of the top of my head that seem too obvious to be coincidence.

• The  casino out of police jurisdiction
• The prostitutionish ring thing
• The film of Rosie with the bike (substitution for the motorcycle)/the cell phone video of the kids in the basement shack pad
• The of Rosie in the school
• and more junk I can’t remeber

There is no one as awesome as Agent Dale Cooper and no one as terrifying as Bob. And what’s the deal with stealing the ATM surveillance camera bit from Breaking Bad???

Red herrings cease to be red herrings when they are expected and thus predictable. By the end of the first episode I was already clued in to the nothing-is-what-it-seems-ness of the show which kinda killed some of the suspense. When the audience already knows the lead the officers are tracking down is  a dead end it is a lot harder to care about what they are doing. I found myself getting annoyed instead of thrilled. If they had laid off of the deliberately misleading information the reveal in the last 5 minutes of the finale (while still warranting angry responses) would have been more of a shocker. I get that their whole idea seems to be to throw convention on its head. I assume this is why the didn’t actually conclude the only strong arch established throughout the first season. Instead of presenting a soft and satisfying conclusion the writers threw a mostly undetectable wrench into the spokes last minute causing a brand new mess where everything had just been tidied up. If you have been interested in the series, but haven’t begun to watch yet I would highly recomend waiting until the second season is underway, because the lack of satisfaction or resolution at the end of season one currently feels pointless. A year from now we may be able to look back in retrospect and say how immaculate season two was and how necessary it was to conclude the first season abruptly to lay the tracks for a pace-setting second season.  Though I only focused on negative elements of the series I do not hate it. I’m just a little disappointed.

TLDNR

Full Set List:

• “Shit Luck”
• “Gravity Rides Everything”
• “Dashboard”
• “Bukowski”
• “The View”
• “Lampshades On Fire”
• “Cowboy Dan”
• “I Came As A Rat”
• “Baby Blue Sedan”
• “Dance Hall”
• “King Rat”
• “Dramamine”
• “Wild Pack Of Family Dogs”
• “Poison”
• “Float On”
• “Here It Comes”
• “Spitting Venom”

I have been anticipating this album for a long time.  Unfortunately that typically leads to at least a little disappointment, but somehow Man Man has exceeded my already high expectations.  Life Fantastic has all of the energy, madness, quirk and malleted instrumentation that Man Man is known for.

Need to familarize yourself more with Man Man? Listen to Engwish Bwudd and catch them on tour this summer.

Just head over to his Bandcamp page to get it for free in a variety of codecs including FLAC.

And while you’re at it, check out the original soundtrack he made for the independent film, The Sinking of Santa Isabel.