Movies and Music

This will, assuming I actually keep going with this vomiting of my opinion into the aether, become a fairly regular fixture here. I watch a lot of movies and listen to a lot of music, and have opinions about both.

Yesterday we went to see The Bank Job, starring Jason Statham and the 1970's, and man was it awesome. I have a fairly significant mancrush on Statham, and will probably see just about whatever he does, with the exception of that Uwe Boll piece of garbage, the trailer for which made me want to burn my eyes out with acid and ice-pick my eardrums just so i wouldn't have to experience any more of the pain. The Bank Job, fortunately, was the exact opposite of this. Based on a true story, the film quickly lets you know that it will not be falling into the trap so many others have before it of "true story + bullshit contrived fictional elements = weirdbeard heckling the screen." Only so much is known about the robbery on which the film is based, so only so much is, in turn, shown.

Clearly, it is a fictionalization of a real event, but the way the story is told lends a sense of realism I find lacking in most films of this sort. Focus will jump back and forth between characters and events in a way that at first doesn't seem to be building towards anything besides the inevitable heist. And this feels weird. Heist movies are supposed to start setting the background of how awesomely clever the criminals are and/or how awesomely gritty and determined the cops who will be chasing them later are, or going on about how exceptional the loot will be. But this isn't The Bank Job, a Jerry Bruckheimer Production, this is Film, and I feel that all too many of the heist movies recently have been the former rather than the latter. Its mainly just refreshing to see well-made dramas with action and emotional depth that lack emotional pandering and needless explosions.

I have a rather serious thing for the aesthetics of the '70's. I remember watching a BBC miniseries a few years ago of a John le Carre spy novel starring Alec Guinness, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and being struck by the opening scene wherein the Secret Spy Organization's morning meeting is kicking off, and this guy walks in wearing a Harris Tweed suit, with a swirly purple shirt and a day-glo orange polka dot tie. "Damn," I remarked to my girlfriend at the time, "that's a hellof sweet suit. I thought the '70's were supposed to have sucked." Needless to say, my idea of acquiring a similar getup was met with some amount of resistance, or at least incredulity. I wouldn't consider myself a highly fashionable person and would generally rather spend my disposable income on food, drink, and merriment, but it is gratifying to look around at hipster culture today and know that all across Capitol hill, dudes were having those same thoughts.

There was going to be a music section here, but through the combination of having been unable to get a ticket to The Helio Sequence's show last night and being about to nap so hard I may injure myself hitting the pillow, I'm just going to bump a few things I've been listening to.
MGMT
Sally Shapiro
Battles
Hot Chip

Their most recent albums make a playlist of excellence.