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May 03, 2008
5 THOUGHTS
FIVE THOUGHTS
1. The Raconteurs are the new Big Star. HANDS is the best song Alex Chilton never sang, but should have. It’s got all the rising beats, love of pop music, love of women, that the best songs off NO. 1 RECORD have. Their first album, the awesometastic BROKEN BOY SOLDIERS, is at once a relic of the 70s and an iconoclastic mission statement. Their new album, the terrific CONSOLERS OF THE LONELY, continues in the tradition. The Big Star legacy, however, will probably never happen as long as Jack White has another band and the group that I like better is just a glorified side-project / supergroup. But this song rules:
2. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is my favorite actor. The three movies he put out in the tail end of 2007 are uneven, yet imbued by his impeccable, low-key brilliance. CHARLIE WILSONS WAR, while repugnant in its politics, Julia Roberts-ness, and revisionist history, offers Hoffman the opportunity to have a goofy haircut and be smarter than everyone else in the room. He and Tom Hanks are a jovial Mutt and Jeff combo – the former always has a runny nose and speaks under his breath, while the latter seems to be existing in some terminally imaginary press-conference. If nothing else, Hoffman’s performance is the best manufacturer of one-liners in recent memory.
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR DEAD offers Hoffman the lead in something he normally plays second fiddle in; despite a sturdy cast of standouts like Ethan Hawke (who is terrible), Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney, Hoffman’s lead characterization is the only reason to see this naturalistic rain-cloud of a story. Everyone is either miserable or about to be, and Hoffman at least has the good sense to be deserving of his fate. His early scenes with Hawke remind me of the moment in WAYNES WORLD 2 when Wayne asks that a bit actor can be replaced with a better actor, and Charlton Heston shows up – that Hoffman owns this movie is mainly because Sidney Lumet seems to be working with his periodic attempt at gravitas and tragedy that doesn’t suit his workmanlike style very much, and Hoffman goes for something much more earthy, less respectable, more bulked-up.
THE SAVAGES, the best of the bunch, tag-teams him with equally marvelous Laura Linney. In a game of “who can undermine the others façade of happiness,” Hoffman wins, only because he has least embodied his dying, senile father’s sense of enduring misery. A failed intellect, teacher, lover, son, brother, and care-giver, Hoffman’s Jon nonetheless maintains a certain dignity and arrogance that unravels in each scene only to be rebuilt again. When Hoffman talks about the grim facts of death, it’s a recognition of his own mortality and meaningless, and it both contrasts and makes necessary the false cheery optimism of his sister. Both Hoffman and Linney create characters who are lived-in, probably even moreso than their script deserves, but paradoxically, Hoffman is a joy every second that he’s on screen, even though he’s not.
3. Here’s an interesting article from The New York Review of Books about the Wikipedia ™.
As an occasional half-assed perpetuator of Wikifraud, my take is that the writer seems to waver between the Wiki being too high-brow and too low-brow. But isn’t that an adequate level of “brow” for something that can be edited by anybody who has access to the internet?
4. Chuck Klosterman has a typically interesting and preposterous analysis of the Hannah Montana phenomenon. Though several of my students like her, I knew nothing about her until I read this piece.
What’s the deal with this rumor I keep hearing about Hannah Montana being romantically linked with Morgan Freeman?
5. Here are a few arbitrary, unexplained ratings for things I’ve experienced recently:
A free trip to Graceland with an open bar and lots of Elvis swag: A+
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY: C
SOUTHLAND TALES (the 20 minutes I watched): F
SWEENEY TODD: D
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (again): A
THE MIST, book: A
THE MIST, movie: C-
AMERICAN GANGSTER: D
Van Morrison, KEEP IT SIMPLE: B
Elf Power, IN A CAVE: B
Portishead, THIRD: C+
The Headlights, SOME RACING, SOME STOPPING: A
The last two episodes of LOST: A+
CHRIST THE TIGER, by Thomas Howard: A-
British Sea Power, live, at the Hi-Tone: B+
Prince's cover of CREEP, which is no longer available online: A
| By Andytown | 12:49 PM
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Comments
Andy,
I've been religiously checking your blog for two weeks, but you hadn't posted anything until today. And unfortunately I fell into an unnamed fourth category for your last blog: people who are willing to listen to the Boss's music or accept arguments for his greatness but who are still apathetic about him. Anyway, what did you think of Christ the Tiger, besides the perfunctory A-? Did Joel recommend it? I enjoyed it but found it lacking when compared to more literary-minded spiritual/philosophical/theological memoirs like Buechner's trilogy.
And I'm keeping a mental catalogue of your reviews so that I can play catch-up when I get back home in 13 months.
Posted by: Jonathan at May 3, 2008 02:00 PM
BSP at the Hi-Tone was a B+?
Posted by: Joseph Pensak at May 3, 2008 06:44 PM
ok, so it's been a while since i've been on your blog. i just attempted to post a comment on your march 19 post and it won't let me. so much for making my first deeply profound remark on your blog.
Posted by: Christine at May 4, 2008 12:49 AM