Badlands

The damaged youth of Sheen's character. The beautiful innocence of Spacek's character. This film could not have been more perfectly cast. There is a complexity to the relationship between these two people. A level never fully evolved throughout the film. This is the film's greatest weakness- an inability to really delve into that which brings these two together and so far apart.

This is Terrence Malick's first feature film. I have been wanting to view this film for a number of years. Always pushing back the "right time." I can't say I find the film particularly worthwhile. The filming is beautiful. Malick's desire to capture nature is heavily at work. In fact, most of Malick's significant themes are at play from the very start of his work.

Badlands ties very closely to Days of Heaven. Both films deal with men on the run from the internal. Fighting their way out of themselves and into the external. Malick's two follow up films, The Thin Red Line and The New World, are complete opposites of his first two films. The Thin Red Line and The New World are much more focused on fighting ones way deeper inside while running from the external.

I am happy to have completed Malick's filmography up to this point in time. I find him one of the ten best directors in the history of filmmaking. While I won't say this is his finest moment, it certainly is a nice glimpse at where genius grew.

B-

Genuine Negro Jig, Carolina Chocolate Drops

What if the 1930's banjo music never went away? And then it mixed with the contemporary issues of a whole new decade? Genuine Negro Jig would most likely be your answer. This is the bands third release, but my first experience with their music.

At times, the lyrics are a bit superficial. Trying too hard to still hold onto an old world feel. At other times, the music a little too "world music" sounding. And, I hate nothing more than "world music." But, overall the mood is upbeat and original. Kissin' and Cussin' is the darkest song on the album. Possibly the strongest, too.

After I first listened to the album it made me think it could be a new soundtrack for Steven Martin's The Jerk. The mix of African-American bluegrass banjo blues and soul.

This album is very different from anything I've encountered this year.

B

Black Noise, Pantha Du Prince

BEST OF 2010

How many albums make you want to dance and dream at the same time? Shoe gazing, star gazing, drugged up off in space gazing. This album is just an incredible escape into sound. Most of the songs have this slow build up of a beat. The softest start and the most lovely finish.

One could say there is a hint of Animal Collective to the music. And, one would be kind of right. Panda Bear guests on 'Stick To My Side.' There are very few vocals on the album.

Once I hated albums without vocals (minus Broken Social Scenes first release, of course). This year, I have found myself drawn to the lack of voice. This idea of speaking without word. Something to the level Bjork attempted with her throat noise album Medulla.

This is the album Four Tet could only dream of releasing.

A+

Summer Hours

I had read reviews of this film when I was in New York for the summer. Never found the time to find my way to the theatre. There has been a bit of a delay in the DVD release. The Criterion Collection will be releasing the film in a couple months. By chance, the Sundance Channel had a showing two weeks ago. I recorded, but only found the time to watch it this evening.

I expected a family drama based on the dysfunctions and relationships of three siblings after the death of the mother. Somehow the film slightly captures this, but the film is larger. The family is just a model. The story is everything surrounding.

The film is a discussion on age. The need and want of 'things' as new generations are born. And, with this need for 'things' comes a disrespect for 'things.' The constant change over to something bigger, better and the easy access to so much is partial focus of the film. The 'things' the aged hold close vs. those 'things' the youth glance over.

Also, the film is a discussion of art. Of aesthetic. Of creativity lost and inspiration no longer growing. There are such lovely little ideas, references, glimpses of the art world from the view of the artist and the artist's family.

The film tends to wander. Lots of little conversations. Little hints of disagreement. Quick views of family arguments. None of this is for the purpose of emotion. Just for the purpose of exhibit. The need to display the interactions of a contemporary family. There is a complexity so carefully touched on throughout the film.

B+

July Flame, Laura Veirs

Ever since I heard Veirs' 'Rapture' off of her 3rd release, Carbon Glacier, I have been a fan of her quirky lyrics and folky guitar strums. "Do you blame Monet? His gardens in Giverny he captured..." How can one not fall in love with these lyrics?

The follow up album, Year of Meteors, suffered from a bit of a rut. A mix of recycled and bland. It didn't help I had seen her opening for Sufjan Stevens and found her stage presence to be rude, unwelcoming, and downright superior acting. It took me a few listens of the songs I love by her to really come to terms with sometimes you have to separate the art from the artist.

On her fifth release, July Flame, Veirs is showing she is a strong song writer. A lot of the quirkiness has been erased. The lyrics are slightly darker. There is a maturity, a sadness, a longing in Veirs voice. It was always there, but is stronger on this release. The music compositions are similar to earlier releases, but also a lot darker, heavier.

B

A Village Life: Poems, Louise Gluck

It has been at least five years since I last read a collection of Gluck's poetry. I may have been that English Literature cliche. So it is odd to return to poetry so matter of factly. I have read a few collections over the past few years. Random new poets and recent releases of favorite poets. There was a time I really admired Gluck's honesty. The sense of writer/poet self in so much of her voice.

In A Village Life I feel much of Gluck is removed. We're faced with the infamous stuff of poetry- life and death. The strongest poems in this collection deal with the life and death cycle of nature. The weakest are focused on the life cycle of the living: love, youth, family, life, etc.

The three strongest poems in the collection are named "Burning Leaves" (there are a handful of poems containing the same title throughout the collection). The subject of these poems, the life and the death, are strongly portrayed through nature and humans. The literary theme of man vs nature is stripped and the fight is removed. The same struggle of survival is revealed..."So it's finished for another year,/death making room for life" (26).

C+

iamamiwhoami

This is a bit of a change from the "typical" review. Although, still a bit of a review. But, how does one review something they aren't fully certain of? Perhaps, it is the best way to review. Knowing nothing of what is behind the sound, image, meaning. A complete emptiness on which to base comparison and criticism.

Since the end of December a series of one minute videos have been surfacing all over the web (youtube, muumuse, vinyl and vodka, pitchfork, etc) from an unknown artist. These videos vary slightly. From scenes of a woman licking a tree... being birthed in a mucky pond... turning into a spring flower... Each video is accompanied by a series of numbers. A code. Each video associated with an animal (owl, bee, whale, llama, dog, monkey, goat).

Her voice is muffled. Hidden behind music. The music is beautiful. Ranges from dreamy to poppy to music box. Every video just as confusing and beautiful as the one before. The blogs have listed many possibilities: Christina Aguilera, Goldfrapp, Lady Gaga, MGMT, Trent Reznor, Animal Collective, Bjork, Little Boots,... the list goes on and on.

In this final(?) video, a glimpse of the true voice. A single word (why?) or a single letter (y) are uttered.

Follow the link and watch the videos from bottom to top (in the correct order). Be ready to be in a trance.
http://www.youtube.com/user/iamamiwhoami#p/u/5/oPFM3DUVT-8

A+