Keep me in the dark with the opposite of everything
Marisa and I got our trash on Friday with our opening night viewing of A Perfect Getaway, the new thriller from David "guy who did those Riddick movies" Twohy. Though some of the ads sort of give everything away, or rather give you all of the tools you need to give everything away yourself, this matters surprisingly little in terms of enjoying the movie, which I did, quite a bit. This is a clever, well-acted, satisfying little B-movie. Timothy Olyphant re-affirms his awesomeness after some high-profile disappointing performances, and Milla Jovovich is quite good, too, considering that I mainly associate her with looking convincing slash sexy when kicking people in the face.
We also saw G.I. Joe across the street. We were going to see it first, but it was sold out. Yep. My official review for PopMatters will be up shortly (EDIT: there it is!). I really say most of what can be said about this movie in the review, so I'll save it. I will say: Sienna Miller is a highlight the movie doesn't know what to do with. Stephen Sommers still isn't as offensive as Michael Bay or as dull as Brett Ratner, but this movie is several steps below The Mummy Returns or even Van Helsing.
Then on Saturday before Sara's birthday party, we saw Julie & Julia. I don't necessarily agree with the prevailing notion that a movie just about Juila Child would've been so much better. Meryl Streep is indeed wonderful as Child, but making her the whole movie would either mean the standard biopic with excellent performance, or possibly just (if they still covered a smaller amount of time than a typical biopic) a relatively anticlimactic movie. I didn't object to the Amy Adams sections -- I actually sort of enjoyed how unlikable the usually chirpy and optimistic and always charming Adams is allowed to be as Julie Powell -- so much as I found them reflective of the movie's ephemeral quality; it's basically two hours of mildly entertaining and very well-acted anecdotes. Some of the mirroring of Julia and Julie is sort of clever, but the tone and pacing is so even and neat that the movie lacks much spontaenity. I do appreciate the way Nora Ephron doesn't try to make a case for Powell being some kind of hero or even a particularly great writer. The movie is more about what she got from Julia Child than aggrandizing her accomplishments. But as enjoyable as Streep and Adams are here, I didn't really get much out of the movie.
So, yes, A Perfect Getaway = movie of the weekend. Which, incidentally, made for a pretty depressing one if you watch box office and check out how Funny People plummeted and Getaway got ignored as G.I. Joe opened like it was based on something meaningful. None unexpected developments, but lame nonetheless.
Sunday was time for rock. Last year I went to three free Pool Party shows at McCarren Park. This year the relocated line-up at the Williamsburg waterfront has been, from an objective indie perspective, pretty strong, and almost completely uninteresting to me. However, today the Fiery Furnaces were playing -- and not even headlining; that honor went to a Simian Mobile Disco DJ set (Jeff, I will rely on you to better assess the degree of ridiculousness therein). So I didn't let the fact that rain was predicted and hardly anyone I know likes the Fiery Furnaces deter me from going. The experience was weirdly concise: walked along the water to Williamsburg, saw and chatted with Val (who I'm now convinced has checked out most indie bands on the scene today and puts even my peak show attendance to shame), watched the Fiery Furnaces, bought a t-shirt, walked home. The whole thing took a little over two hours.
Just as the new FF album, I'm Going Away, is their most straightforward in years, this set was also a bit more normal: rather than 40-minute nonstop medley chunks that characterized many of their shows in the past, they simply played slightly more guitar-based (rather than piano or keyboard based) versions of a bunch of the new songs. And just as I'm Going Away is straightforward compared to other Furnaces albums but not really compared to 90% of rock music, this show was relatively conventional for this band but not particularly compared to most bands. Watching them, I was struck by how much they remind me of Dylan. That might seem like an overreach and initially I thought I only made this connection when I first heard them because of Eleanor Friedberger's tendency to use the word "babe." But the way they constantly re-phrase and re-emphasize different elements of their songs in both words and music, and the way those songs appear at different points on a spectrum of sense-making and accessibility, really is pretty Dylanesque, albeit a little more calculated in some of their arty and/or experimental touches.
I was happy to see a set comprised mainly of new songs because I love the new record, but it was a little odd that they chose almost exclusively songs from I'm Going Away and their very first record, Gallowsbird's Bark, which the new one has been compared to in its listenability. As long as they're making their shows a little more straightforward, they could go ahead and mix in the best songs from their more eclectic records: "Duplexes of the Dead," "Here Comes the Summer," "Police Sweater Blood Vow," "Benton Harbor Blues"... but it's a testament to the new songs that I didn't mind seeing them instead.
I didn't think I'd be able to figure out a setlist, but what do you know, I think this is mostly accurate:
some song I didn't entirely hear or recognize and as such assume is from Blueberry Boat
Cut the Cake
Ray Bouvier
Charmaine Champagne
Keep Me in the Dark
Leaky Tunnel
Staring at the Steeple
Drive to Dallas
The End is Near
I'm Going Away
Worry Worry
Then I came home and played some Nintendo with Marisa and Nathaniel and got some pizza. I've noticed through some conversations the three of us have had recently, as well as other various conversations I've had over the years, that there are a number of movie projects that we'd like to get going that no one is likely to finance. Therefore, we should probably form a studio whose slate will look something like this:
--She-Ra franchise, ask Marisa for top-secret details. We figure the girl toys will be the last one to get adapted. Seriously, there could well be a ViewMaster movie first.
--Boris Karloff biography starring Jeremy Irons.
--Quaid Brothers project, featuring Randy Quaid, Dennis Quaid, and possibly another Quaid to be named later.
--Untitled movie I've been pitching for the past ten years where Brendan Fraser and Keanu Reeves play brothers on some kind of mission and are constantly punching each other in the face
--Similarly, my Dobby/Kreacher spring break adventure project. This one is tangled up in rights issues, such as: I don't have the rights and lots of other people do.
--Jason Statham and Milla Jovovich team-up. Luc Besson would have to suck it up and write it. An acceptable substitute might just be Statham and Jovovich getting it on in real life. Because wouldn't that be awesome?!
Additional pitches welcome.
We also saw G.I. Joe across the street. We were going to see it first, but it was sold out. Yep. My official review for PopMatters will be up shortly (EDIT: there it is!). I really say most of what can be said about this movie in the review, so I'll save it. I will say: Sienna Miller is a highlight the movie doesn't know what to do with. Stephen Sommers still isn't as offensive as Michael Bay or as dull as Brett Ratner, but this movie is several steps below The Mummy Returns or even Van Helsing.
Then on Saturday before Sara's birthday party, we saw Julie & Julia. I don't necessarily agree with the prevailing notion that a movie just about Juila Child would've been so much better. Meryl Streep is indeed wonderful as Child, but making her the whole movie would either mean the standard biopic with excellent performance, or possibly just (if they still covered a smaller amount of time than a typical biopic) a relatively anticlimactic movie. I didn't object to the Amy Adams sections -- I actually sort of enjoyed how unlikable the usually chirpy and optimistic and always charming Adams is allowed to be as Julie Powell -- so much as I found them reflective of the movie's ephemeral quality; it's basically two hours of mildly entertaining and very well-acted anecdotes. Some of the mirroring of Julia and Julie is sort of clever, but the tone and pacing is so even and neat that the movie lacks much spontaenity. I do appreciate the way Nora Ephron doesn't try to make a case for Powell being some kind of hero or even a particularly great writer. The movie is more about what she got from Julia Child than aggrandizing her accomplishments. But as enjoyable as Streep and Adams are here, I didn't really get much out of the movie.
So, yes, A Perfect Getaway = movie of the weekend. Which, incidentally, made for a pretty depressing one if you watch box office and check out how Funny People plummeted and Getaway got ignored as G.I. Joe opened like it was based on something meaningful. None unexpected developments, but lame nonetheless.
Sunday was time for rock. Last year I went to three free Pool Party shows at McCarren Park. This year the relocated line-up at the Williamsburg waterfront has been, from an objective indie perspective, pretty strong, and almost completely uninteresting to me. However, today the Fiery Furnaces were playing -- and not even headlining; that honor went to a Simian Mobile Disco DJ set (Jeff, I will rely on you to better assess the degree of ridiculousness therein). So I didn't let the fact that rain was predicted and hardly anyone I know likes the Fiery Furnaces deter me from going. The experience was weirdly concise: walked along the water to Williamsburg, saw and chatted with Val (who I'm now convinced has checked out most indie bands on the scene today and puts even my peak show attendance to shame), watched the Fiery Furnaces, bought a t-shirt, walked home. The whole thing took a little over two hours.
Just as the new FF album, I'm Going Away, is their most straightforward in years, this set was also a bit more normal: rather than 40-minute nonstop medley chunks that characterized many of their shows in the past, they simply played slightly more guitar-based (rather than piano or keyboard based) versions of a bunch of the new songs. And just as I'm Going Away is straightforward compared to other Furnaces albums but not really compared to 90% of rock music, this show was relatively conventional for this band but not particularly compared to most bands. Watching them, I was struck by how much they remind me of Dylan. That might seem like an overreach and initially I thought I only made this connection when I first heard them because of Eleanor Friedberger's tendency to use the word "babe." But the way they constantly re-phrase and re-emphasize different elements of their songs in both words and music, and the way those songs appear at different points on a spectrum of sense-making and accessibility, really is pretty Dylanesque, albeit a little more calculated in some of their arty and/or experimental touches.
I was happy to see a set comprised mainly of new songs because I love the new record, but it was a little odd that they chose almost exclusively songs from I'm Going Away and their very first record, Gallowsbird's Bark, which the new one has been compared to in its listenability. As long as they're making their shows a little more straightforward, they could go ahead and mix in the best songs from their more eclectic records: "Duplexes of the Dead," "Here Comes the Summer," "Police Sweater Blood Vow," "Benton Harbor Blues"... but it's a testament to the new songs that I didn't mind seeing them instead.
I didn't think I'd be able to figure out a setlist, but what do you know, I think this is mostly accurate:
some song I didn't entirely hear or recognize and as such assume is from Blueberry Boat
Cut the Cake
Ray Bouvier
Charmaine Champagne
Keep Me in the Dark
Leaky Tunnel
Staring at the Steeple
Drive to Dallas
The End is Near
I'm Going Away
Worry Worry
Then I came home and played some Nintendo with Marisa and Nathaniel and got some pizza. I've noticed through some conversations the three of us have had recently, as well as other various conversations I've had over the years, that there are a number of movie projects that we'd like to get going that no one is likely to finance. Therefore, we should probably form a studio whose slate will look something like this:
--She-Ra franchise, ask Marisa for top-secret details. We figure the girl toys will be the last one to get adapted. Seriously, there could well be a ViewMaster movie first.
--Boris Karloff biography starring Jeremy Irons.
--Quaid Brothers project, featuring Randy Quaid, Dennis Quaid, and possibly another Quaid to be named later.
--Untitled movie I've been pitching for the past ten years where Brendan Fraser and Keanu Reeves play brothers on some kind of mission and are constantly punching each other in the face
--Similarly, my Dobby/Kreacher spring break adventure project. This one is tangled up in rights issues, such as: I don't have the rights and lots of other people do.
--Jason Statham and Milla Jovovich team-up. Luc Besson would have to suck it up and write it. An acceptable substitute might just be Statham and Jovovich getting it on in real life. Because wouldn't that be awesome?!
Additional pitches welcome.