Ra Ra Riot (EP) (2007)

I wouldn't normally find myself listening to an indie "buzz" band, but these kids are friends of Rory's sister so I discovered them organically and thus, authentically (in my head).

They played a show last night at the Double Door and I really appreciated the dynamic they brought to their performance. It genuinely seemed like they enjoyed playing together, and at any given moment the lyric that Wes, the frontman, was singing was also being mouthed by another player, enhancing the feeling of dedication they were giving to the show.

This group coherence sort of comes across on the EP, although overridingly the recording reminds me of a more uplifting Funeral-era Arcade Fire (dance-rock rhythm section plus strings). Wes isn't as SHAKING with emo-tion as Win Butler, which is a plus in my book.

And to Rory: Sting! That's who Wes sounds like. I didn't figure that out myself, some website mentioned it. But it's Police-era good Sting, not "Fields of Gold"/"Desert Rose" bad Sting.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)

Frumpy? Yes. Dowdy? You betcha. Needs a makeover? Like you wouldn't believe. Miss Pettigrew has a problem. And lucky for her, she's found just the people to fix it.

:Plot Outline:
Guinevere Pettigrew, a middle-aged London governess, finds herself unfairly dismissed from her job. An attempt to gain new employment catapults her into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse.:

Meanwhile, WWII looms on the horizon, giving a bit more heft to the film than might appear in the previews. Unless they played up that part.

The music is pretty good, with live big band stuff out of the 40s. A touching number near the end, "If I Didn't Care," is originally by an all black band called The Ink Spots. I don't know whether to laugh or cry about their name, but they made decent song.

Vantage Point (2008)

[submitted via online discussion with BrownEbert322]

BrownEbert322: btw
BrownEbert322: never see Vantage Point
BrownEbert322: ever
Jon: that bad, huh?
BrownEbert322: they make you live the same incident over
BrownEbert322: again and again
BrownEbert322: from different vantage points
Jon: hahahaa
BrownEbert322: but unlike Rashomon
BrownEbert322: there's nothing to be gleaned
BrownEbert322: from each new view
BrownEbert322: they all fit together
BrownEbert322: nicely
BrownEbert322: snugly
BrownEbert322: annoyingly
Jon: ah it sounds like an exercise in futility
BrownEbert322: and it's just an action movie with 7 scenes
BrownEbert322: that we see 7 times
BrownEbert322: from the views of 7 losers
BrownEbert322: I haven't seen Rashomon
BrownEbert322: but I thought
BrownEbert322: that with each person's "view"
BrownEbert322: the story was told differently
BrownEbert322: so you didn't know what was the truth
BrownEbert322: where reality and fiction merged or separated
Jon: yeah, that's rashomon in a nutshell
BrownEbert322: you've seen it?
Jon: contradictory accounts of the same incident, so no one knows what the truth is
Jon: yeah
BrownEbert322: see, now THAT"s interesting
BrownEbert322: and far more realistic
BrownEbert322: Vantage Point
BrownEbert322: is just "hey what would the movie be if we put the camera Heeeere"
BrownEbert322: "What if we had put it over Thurrrr"
Jon: hahaha
BrownEbert322: "Hey, let's intercut this crap!"
Jon: what an odd idea
BrownEbert322: yeah well the preview is the best part of the movie
BrownEbert322: made it look like it had substance
BrownEbert322: no sir
BrownEbert322: no
BrownEbert322: the end.

Blindsight (2006)

(title of post links to free download)

In the middle of reading this book I was compelled to take a month-long break to take care of some life potpourri. It certainly hurt my enjoyment of the novel, since I stopped reading right when the action picked up, and for that month my lasting impression of the book was of a series of digressions into identity and sentience ("sentience" definitely being a word that distinguishes SF readers from those who frequent other genres), wrapped in a dark, dense, and convolutedly told first contact story.

It hits a really good mix of theory and action when they encounter the aliens at about the halfway point though, and picks up steam through to the end. I page-turned the last 100 or so pages (of a 300-page book).

This was up for a Hugo Award for 2007, and probably should have won on the strength of its commitment to rooting fantastic phenomena in at least somewhat plausible scientific theory (aside from the vampires, but c'mon, it's vampires!), and its willingness to pose an unpleasant question and follow it to its logical, bleak, conclusion. What the Hugo Winner, Rainbows End, had that Blindsight didn't was a preternaturally gifted preteen girl to act as a foil and soften the hero-hardass's heart. A good thing, IMHO.

Beaver Trilogy (1985)

OK, it's not what you might be thinking. This is a unique trilogy in that the first film is basically a documentary, and the following ones are fictional recreations of it. I use documentary in a fairly loose sense as The Beaver Kid consists of film maker Trent Harris filming an entertainer-wannabe, "Groovin'" Gary from a small town in Idaho known as Beaver. He first sees him by chance in the parking lot of a local television station, where Gary immediately gravitates to the camera and begins doing celebrity impressions and generally hamming it up.

He fatefully notes that he does a great impression of Olivia Newton-John, but says he'd better not do it without his backup. Harris later gets a letter from Gary asking him to come to a talent show in Beaver where Gary will be making an appearance as Olivia Newton-Don. We next see Gary donning his make up and costume at a morticians (supposedly the only person in town who does make up.) As Harris films this process it's clear that Gary feels a little uncomfortable revealing his own enthusiasm for dressing up as a female pop star.

The talent show is predictably ameturish and it's obvious that Gary is more invested in what he's doing than he wants to admit. It's uncomfortable to watch, but it seems that Gary is pretty happy with how things turn out.

Although this "documentary" is entertaining, it wouldn't really stand out without the following films. It's a bit too haphazard to really work well, although that is also its strength in that it gives you an unexpected insight into an intersting person that you would otherwise never know anything about. The following films explore the character of Gary (who becomes Groovin' Larry) focusing on the tragic conflict between his aspirations and apparent proclivity for cross-dressing, and the reluctance of those around him to accept these things.

The first short stars Sean Penn. It's pretty satirical, showing Larry to be rather self absorbed and making the film maker himself out as a cynical exploiter. It's decent, but the gem here is the third movie The Orkly Kid starring Crispin Glover as Larry. It has the highest production values, and a more subtle and sympathetic portrait of Larry. Crispin Glover is definitely in his element, especially when he is in his "Olivia Neutron-Bomb" persona.

I don't think that the point of these movies is to try to accurately recreate Gary's story, but more to explore Gary's persona in an obviously fictionalized (at times ridiculous) way. The Orkly Kid really suceeds in particular, and alongside the documentary footage is an intersting example of how real life can become fiction.

By the way, if you want to watch this movie (I recommend you do!) you'll have to find a rental place that stocks underground and cult movies, i don't think there's an official vhs or dvd release of this. In Chicago you can get it from Odd Obsessions on Milwaukee in Wicker Park.