Pop tart What's our mission Do we know But never listen For too long They held me under But I hear It's almost over In Detroit On a Memphis train Like you said it's Down in the heat and the summer rain of The automatic gauze of your memories Down in the sleep at the airplane races Try to hold on To this heart A little bit longer Try to hold on To this love aloud Try to hold on For this heart's A little bit colder Try to hold on To this love Paperback scrawl your hidden poems Written around the dried out flowers Here we are still trading places To try to hold on Pop tart Can you envision A free world Of clear division For too long They held us under But I know We're getting over In Detroit With the Nashville tears Like you said it's Down in the heat with the broken numbers Down in the gaze of solemnity Down in the way you've held together To try to hold on To this heart A little bit closer Try to hold on To this love aloud Try to hold on For this heart's A little bit older Try to hold on To this love aloud And we are still alive Try to hold on And we have survived Try to hold on And no one should deny We tried to hold onto the pulse of the feedback current Into the flow of encrypted movement Slapback kills the ancient remnants That try to hold on Try to hold on To this heart alive Try to hold on To this love aloud Try to hold on And we are still alive Try to hold on And we have survived Try to hold on Pop tart You never listen Skinned knees Try to hold on Stop start What's our mission Skinned knees Try to hold on
Since the day Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) was announced, I became eagerly excited to watch it. It had Tom Hanks - my favourite actor - and that alone was enough. But there was more...
Sandra Bullock, with her "market quote" bigger than ever, after her Oscar winning performance in The Blind Side (2009), was another major attraction. Here, we had two leads with the "golden statue" in their CV.
Add to the mix a supporting cast with the likes of Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright and Max von Sydow, a veteran that seems to improve his brilliance in every film he takes part on.
We could just have leaved it at that, but this is just the cast...
Stephen Daldry, renown English director took helm of the project based in the best-selling book (with the same name as its movie adaptation) with Scott Rudin backing him up, with the producer role. Two men with great background in terms of cinema success, working together in what it seemed to be a moving and powerful film. The trailer also left that impression...
To my big surprise, it didn't took me long to realize it was going to be a struggle to go through little more than two hours. The reason: Thomas Horn.
I couldn't see eye to eye with the young actor, who the story revolved around (well, his character, but you get the idea). Everything seemed forced... his dialogues, his body language, his over-dramatic scenes and even his voice-over narrative. But if you exclude that, everything almost seemed good...
Enjoyed Tom Hanks in his little time on-screen, saw the qualities that made Miss Bullock an Academy award winning actress and Max von Sydow, the best performance of the film, justifying entirely his nomination for Best Secondary Actor.
So you may wonder... "How come you didn't enjoy the film, when the only thing you disliked was the kid's performance?".
Well... If you take into consideration that 85% (if not more) of the action taken in the movie has Thomas Horn in the centre of attention, than it might make it clear to you.
I'm probably being very harsh - after all, this is his début on-screen and he's still quite young - but I can't ignore or deny that his role was a total downer. I even wanted to think it was the character's fault and there was nothing any child actor could to, under any circumstances.
That would be a lie!
There is some to blame on who wrote the script, however, there would be some salvage to Oskar Schell if the casting was different.
Having said this, I would still encourage you to see it as other people's perception is a lot different than mine. Thomas Horn got a lot of compliments over his performance and this feature was nominated for Best Motion Picture of The Year!
Be it as it may, this is my take on it! It's not great, but not bad. Having good moments and very average ones, it might worth your while, especially because of the efforts of the ever so brilliant, Mr. von Sydow.
I got to hear the album Kaputt (2011) through a friend of mine, without having the slightest idea of what to expect.
As I went from track to track, I felt more and more in tune with their music and by the end of it, I was impressed. I needed to share my experience in the blog and for that the research started to flow in order to provide a bit more details about the Canadian band, Destroyer. After scrolling very quickly through their wikipedia page, I was shocked to find out they have been together for the last 16 years and here I was thinking this was their début album. Felt like a fool... like I was missing out...
I'm yet to hear their other projects, but hopefully I'll find the same 80's groove with Summer flavour to it.
The beat made of a pacey bass and guitar, plus the addition horn instruments seem to bring back the heat from a time where Hawaiian shirts, Aviator Ray-ban's and the movie Top-Gun (1986) were trendy as hell. Not the best of descriptions, but serves the purpose.
Vintage Summer time...not something that I lived, but would wish to experience. Kaputt allows me just that...
Intouchables (2011) is a French movie - based on true events - written and directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano.
In both these fields (writing and directing), Olivier and Eric performed gracefully with great taste, not only aesthetically - with their fine direction - but also with the narrative which never seems to cross the border into cliche territory. Quite a task considering the nature of the script and how now a days film makers try hard to fabric tearjerkers.
You can say this feature almost fits that "genre", depending of one's sensibility... but being an over sensitive person myself, I can tell you that Intouchables while being able to move you, doesn't bring the saddest emotions from you. It offers a balance between comedy - in a smart and genuine way - with the finest of human nature, one where love, respect and compassion are big assets.
As the movie starts, the opening scene gives away a mysterious beginning with two men (Philipe and Driss) with a great piano track serving as soundtrack. Immediately I was drawn... not only because I was curious about the relationship between the two men in the car, but the music was gripping and very familiar. I remember watching various NBA Playoff commercials (ex: 1) with the same song. Soon after, this piano theme gives room to a more funky upbeat, September by Earth, Wind and Fire.
Come to think about it, the French film is exactly that... a mix of the piano theme with September. While intense and beautiful, it's also fun and cheerful. Having a lot of qualities that define and describe Intouchables, one that becomes obvious is the relationship between both main characters. In their individual aspects they are great, having a lot of depth and interest, but together they provide a brilliant chemistry, one that alone makes the movie worth it. It's beautiful to see such a comrade between two men, outside the typical male environment. A love between two man, resembling in many aspects the friendship between Andy Dufrane and Red (Shawshank Redemption) with the settings being completely different, but equal in terms of principal. For those who saw the "DVD extras" of Shawshank, the way most of the cast describes their relationship, can easily match what is seen on-screen with François Cluzet and Omar Sy (Philipe and Driss).
From start to finish, what you see - and hear (try and listen to this soundtrack with mix of classic and funk music) - is excellent, making justice to the hype created around this movie. One more successful European venture, reminding us that French cinema is alive and well!
Another group with New Wave influences and a sound that immediately reminds me of an alternative version of The Drums... They go by the name of The Young Friends and the following tracks are taken from their album Hella (2010)
Years ago, when I started digging in on everything Christian Bale had or was working as an actor, I came across a movie called Laurel Canyon(2002). It had a cast of which I was very fond of, but again, the reason that lead me to watch it was the Welsh actor.
After seeing it I became fan of other actors who were almost (if not entirely) anonymous to me. I'm talking about Kate Beckinsale and Alessandro Nivola, this last one performing one of my favorite moments of Laurel Canyon.
Nivola portrays a rock star, trying to get his album done and for that, he isolates himself in a studio owned by his girlfriend, played by Frances McDormand (by the way, this is not the synopses, just one of the character's background).
During his music sessions, he plays a track that instantly came across as a sweet and heartfelt ballad.
I was hooked!
Those next weeks, the song was on loop and to this day, I still hear it from time to time. In fact, listening to it recently inspired me to share the the song, the movie and the story behind it.
While doing some research to write about it, I found out that the song Shade and Honey was taken out of the album Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (2006) by Sparklehorse. I also found out that the lead singer wrote the song for Nivola to sing it in the film.
As for the film directed by Lisa Cholodenko (who also directed/wrote The Kids Are All Right), to simply put it, is an emotional drama of mixed emotions, twists and turns... It goes deep into messed up relationships, be it regarding love, lust, passion... or even between family and friends.
It wasn't a success, but it's definitely one of my favorite movies!
I could look in your face
For a thousand years
It’s like a civil war
Of pain and of cheer
But if you was a horse
I could help you with your chains
I could ride you through the fields
By your fiery mane
May your shade be sweet
And float upon the lakes
Where the sun will be
Made of honey
I'll cry gardens while you burn
'Cause no one here can save you
She’s returning to the Earth
But one day she’ll be silver
The stars are dying in my chest
Till I see you again
She was born with the wings of a hawk
Where she combs her hair with blood
May your shade be sweet
And float upon the lakes
Where the sun will be
Made of honey
May your shade be sweet
And float upon the lakes
Where the sun will be
Made of honey
May your shade be sweet
May your shade be sweet
And float upon the lakes...
