Movie Reviews

Reviewed Movies

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
La Dolce Vita
A History of Violence
King Kong (1933)
No Direction Home
The Princess Bride
Le Temps Qui Reste

My Year in Movies: 2005

Movies Seen in 2006

Smog

I don't really know why I like Smog so much. I mean, he doesn't have an extraordinary voice, what's more, he doesn't really sing most of the time, it's more talking most of the time, the music is so bare as to almost not exist (although there are some nice guitar arrangements on the new CD)...

I love it though. Maybe it's because you're always left wondering at the end of songs. Oh, it's not that they're cryptic, they're not, but there's always this feeling that something has been left unsaid. That the songs are situated in a bigger context, a context you keep guessing about. Even a more "well-known" song like "dress sexy at my funeral". I mean, at first it's just a funny concept, an amusing situation, but then you start wondering, why is it "for the first time in your life"? Why didn't his wife dress sexy, is it a reproach, and why is it a wife who never dress sexily who inspires this wish for provocation? For that matter, why do the narrator's relatives deserve this provocation? And so on. Maybe it's looking too much into this, maybe the reason was just that life rhymes with wife, but I wonder about these things.

Oh well. In any case, his music is mesmerizing, and, though it is corny to say, it moves me, somehow.

Smog's new album, "A river ain't too much to love", is definitely worth checking out if you don't mind your music to be a bit slow.

H.

The Sting & Kevin

To those in the Netherlands or the UK, or elsewhere where BBC2 can be watched, the great movie "the Sting", with, of course, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, aka. Paul Newman en Robert Redford when he was still oh so young, is on that channel at 16:55 GMT or 17:55 Dutch time. Worth it for the great interplay between the leads and of course the Scott Joplin music.

Also notable on TV in the Netherlands this week, on Friday, after the -in my opinion-rather lame "Jay and Silent Bob Strike back", RTL5 will show "an evening with Kevin Smith". I haven't seen it yet, I don't think it's been brought out on DVD in the Netherlands, but what can you ask more for a Friday night to spend with Kevin Smith? The special is very long (224 minutes, which is -I love calculating these things-2.234 times as long as "Clerks") and starts late, at 23:50...but then, staying up late is what Friday's are for.

Introduction (can easily be done without)

It's testimony to how uninspired I've felt lately that I spent half an hour looking at the "name your blog" page before falling back on an old quote I used in my signature years ago. A fruitstand seems to be an accurate name for what this blog will be for though. I don't intend here to give an account of my daily life, as it's quite boring and the broad lines will be posted on 1-0-5.blogspot.com anyhow.

Instead, the purpose of this blog is to post the thoughts and opinions my friends have long ago stopped listening to. As I am a film geek, a lot of it will be about films, directors, actors, but there will also be stuff about music, books, (web)comics, physics, maybe even politics if I feel the energy. I'm going to experiment with format, length, etc. in the beginning, so it will be a little uneven.

Introductions are often too long, and never very interesting. Therefore, this will be the end of this one.

Hedwig