Another Great Concert (HAIM) and 4 Films in the Bucket ("The Notebook")
Well, summer's over and so I begin my new school year back in Kindergarten, where I've longed to be since I had to leave it two summer's back.
But, personally, I've started my fall line-up of concerts. Sunday night I went to see HAIM (3 sisters hailing from L.A.). It was a sold out show at the Paradise in Boston and it was an energy-filled night. It was HAIM's first American headlining show and I'd say they kicked it off with a rocking bang. Those girls are amazing and sound great live. I discovered them quite a few months ago (and then a friend told me they'd actually played here in Portland last summer at the Mumford and Sons festival, Gentlemen of the Road- I still can't believe I missed that!). They look like they belong in episodes of "Girls," each sister clearly has their own personality and let it shine through at last night's show.
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Film 247
"The Notebook"
starring: Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands
directed by: Nick Cassavettes
I'll say it right from the start. "The Notebook" might be one of the most romantic movies of my generation, despite being written as a novel beforehand by the always sappy Nicholas Sparks (you know him thanks to "The Last Song," "Message in a Bottle," "A Walk to Remember" etc.). The film is unbelievably touching and has all the right elements. The two young stars really shine (alone, and together on screen). Ryan Gosling is a born star/heartthrob in this film and Rachel McAdams is so beautiful it almost hurts your eyes to look at her on the screen. It might be one of the ultimate "chick flicks," but it's a great story and it's well done by filmmaker Nick Cassavettes, despite the fact that thanks to nepotism he cast his mother in the film to play the elderly version of McAdams' character (that's right, Cassavette's mother is Gena Rowlands-- side note- one of my favorite bands, Fugazi, actually name drops Rowlands in a song titled "Cassavettes" on their album... "In on the Kill Taker").
Okay, I'm done defending my love for this movie.
"The Notebook" (in case you haven't seen it on your own or have been forced by your girlfriend or wife to watch it) is the story of the same couple told at two points in their lives. We see them at the blossoming of their romance with the urgency of need and desire. We see them fight with each other, make up, kiss passionately, make love, separate, reunite, and ultimately never really give up on their love for each other or the idea that they were meant to be with each other. Their love, their relationship is the quintessential "til death do us part" and "through good times and bad times" you know, all those vows taken during marriage. The young couple version of these two people destined for romance is played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. They play the fictional characters of Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson, respectively. Noah is a local who works at the sawmill, but is still smart and poetic, get with words which ultimately gets him what he wants. And what he wants is Allie, for the moment he lays eyes on her. She is stunning. Allie is a rich kid, summering with her family in a coastal town of North Carolina (that's where all of Nicholas Sparks' books take place).
They quickly fall for each other and fall hard. Allie's parents are not supportive of her new relationship, which causes a fight between the young couple eventually and they end up breaking up with each other. Allie finds someone else, as a nurse during the Korean War or Vietnam War (I'm guessing), but you can tell that's not really going to work, that Allie is simply filling the void that losing Noah made in her heart. They do find each other again and are inseparable, yet again. The passion and heat is still there, as well.
The elderly couple, played by James Garner and Gena Rowlands, make the story the tearjerker that it is. Gena Rowlands plays Allie near the end of her life, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. You might think that's just a typical move in order to invoke tears from the audience but the two seasoned actors are so great and natural in their delivery of their roles that it never plays out as overly sentimental. Noah has made it a point to never leave her side, even as she suffers. Instead, he lives at the assisted living home with her, even though he doesn't necessarily have to. And, he reads to her from a notebook, which tells the story of how they met, fell in love, and faced/overcame obstacles that came between them. Sure, the story may be a science-related fantasy of sentimentality (because once Alzheimer's really hits someone, there's no turning back, there's really no more moments of clarity). But this is a major love story that avoids the sappiness and stays true to itself. It makes you really believe in love (everlasting) and that's not harmful at all.
This is an amazingly romantic movie that will go down in film history as one of the best romantic films ever.
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Film 248
"Skateland"
starring: Shiloh Fernandez, Ashley Greene
written and directed: Anthony Burns
I understand what writer and director Anthony Burns was attempting to do with his coming-of-age story about a nineteen year old boy stuck in self-imposed limbo, but unfortunately the film gets caught up in itself, perhaps because of the time period it is set in (re: 1980s). Yes, the time is the '80s and Burns fills his film with lots of cultural references that get tiring pretty quickly. The protagonist works as a manager of "Skateland" which is a rolling coaster place/hub of action, you know, where all the cool kids hang out. Except that it's not, and we find out that the owner is actually in the process of selling the place, so that a multiplex can probably be built in its place. In a lot of ways, the film is perhaps an ode to the end of an era, I guess. It's also set in Texas, but the main characters are outsiders to the small-town environment, because they'd rather party and have menial jobs than be a part of their community. Let's face it, when you think of Texas, you think of high school football, of which this film had absolutely no references at all. In fact, I think Burns steered clear of that, perhaps for personal reasons. But, the trouble is, there have been some great coming-of-age stories told set in Texas with football as the background (re: "Friday Night Lights" probably my favorite because of its ability to add just enough "real" drama to an excellent story).
The story focuses on Ritchie Wheeler (played rather subdued by Shiloh Fernandez, who seems to rely solely on his emo facial expressions and skater-esque hairdo and baby-boy good looks far far too much that his emotional (or lack thereof) rollercoaster ride post-high school becomes rather inane and unimportant to us). I never really cared what he chose to do and it got aggravating that he clearly wasn't make the "right" choices. He wants to be a writer (which came out of left field, because there's no references or scenes showcasing his "skill" as a writer), but has no ambition to go to college. He has a childhood/longtime friend, who also happens to be an attractive girl (Ashley Greene, decent here, stepping away from the "Twilight" series that will scar her chances of being taken seriously), but Ritchie cannot seem to pull the trigger or pick up any signals that she wants to be his girlfriend. Spoiler- they do sleep together, but then she finds him flirting it up with a blonde girl at a party the next night. Ritchie also has a best friend in a washed-up motocross racer, Brent. Something tragic happens to both of them, which forces Ritchie to sort of wake up, but it still doesn't seem like enough.
I think this movie was trying way too hard to be everything all at once. It wanted to be "Dazed and Confused" with its boys don't want to grow up, they just want to party and stay the same high school age that helped them live their glory days. It wanted to be sort of like a milder version of "Catcher in the Rye" with a teenage boy that's thumbing his nose at the norms and expectations of society. And it wanted to be an ode to the '80s (complete with Ashley Greene's character working at MusicLand?! Remember those days?). Unfortunately, I'd rather reminisce on that time period, when I was growing up, in my own head and not have it hammered into me via a mediocre film. It could've been so much more if it had more/better direction, kind of like its main character. There's potential for something better, unfortunately, it never makes it.
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Film 249
"It's a Boy Girl Thing"
starring: Samaire Armstrong, Kevin Zegers
I know I should not have liked this film (and sure, there were a few things I could've done without, you know those obligatory sort of things), but I really enjoyed it for what it was- an indie, sappy, typical version of the swapped-bodies story, focused on two unlikely characters who both envy and despise each other for who they are, but then have a revelation about what it's like to be the other person and they are all the better for having had the experience. In this case, it's a boy-girl, so the weird, yet expected romance is thrown in as well, and you know they're going to end up not only liking each other, but also together by the end (sorry, but that's not a spoiler, it's an expectation with this genre of films). The idea behind the "swap bodies" films is to walk a mile in the other person's shoes. Point taken. Point understood. It's about empathy, I guess.
The boy: Woody Deane (Zegers) is the typical high school jock- football team quarterback, pretty dumb, ambitions of going to college on a football scholarship, excited about homecoming, has the perky, ditzy, blonde cheerleader girlfriend (played expertly well by Brooke D-Orsay).
The girl: Nell Bedworth (I like the play on words there, because as played by the very naturally attractive Samaire Armstrong, whom I've known thanks to her stint as Seth Cohen's nerd-loving brief, yet oh so perfect girlfriend on "The O.C."-- she is certainly bed-worthy, but anyway). Nell is the typical, smart, bookworm type of girl, more concerned with studying and good grades than any boy that may cross her path, especially her annoying neighbor, who happens to be Woody. She doesn't have any real friends to speak of or that we really see at all. She's looking forward to college for the academia- really wants to go to Yale.
As all swapped-bodies films go, they have a bizarre encounter with a statue in a museum, in the middle of a heated argument, which causes them to wake up in each other's bodies. They talk the same, but we get the internal dialogue of the characters as they've switched (make any sense). They have to figure out how to make it through each day as the other person, so as to not let anyone know that they've actually switched, because that would totally be embarrassing. And so, they go about their high school lives as each other and you'd figure, since they are the opposite sex, there would be some funny scenes of them trying to figure out their bodies (especially since Nell seems to have no idea about boys- that would've been funny, but there's really not much other than a scene related to a morning erection). I appreciated the filmmaker's disinterest in going down that route, because the story was left with more heart.
Samaire Armstrong as Woody Deane definitely has a lot of fun in her role, and I would argue that it's more fun for a girl to play the boy part because we're rather easy to figure out. She gets to act tough, talk raunchy, etc. You could tell she was pretty comfortable in her reverse role.
For what it was, "It's a Boy Girl Thing" was actually a bit of a surprise hit with me. I appreciated it's light, fluffy (yes) comedy. Thinking of other swapped-bodies films, this one is decent.
Swapped Bodies:
The Change-Up
18 Again
Face/Off
Freaky Friday
Like Father Like Son
Mulholland Dr.
The Hot Chick
Vice Versa
Wish Upon a Star
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Film 250
"Hatchet 2"
starring: Danielle Harris, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder (the wrestlet, yup)
written and directed by: Adam Green
I watched this film having not seen the first (in apparently a trilogy), but after viewing "Hatchet 2" and being just entertained enough, I definitely want to check out the other two. This is the kind of film you expect to be terrible. Terribly delicious, in the gory, go-for-blood-and-guts kind of way. It kind of reminded me of the Troma Films catalogue as well as all of those cheesy B-movie horrors that fill up space on shelves. It's so bad that it's actually good. I guess.
This film picks up immediately where the first one leaves off (apparently), except the girl, Marybeth, is played by a different actress here (Danielle Harris, who apparently is a new, underground scream queen, and she certainly works her lungs for this film). In the opening scene she is escaping a brutal attack from a monstrous swamp-like creature. This monster's name is Crowley, and he used to be a real, albeit messed up and severely deformed boy. Anyway, Marybeth gets rescued by a fisherman who takes her back to his shack. But, then he finds out who she is, and the connection she kind of has with this creature spooks him, so he sends her on her way; but not without some information, to go see Reverend Zombie (dear god, really). Rev. Zombie (Tony Todd) hears her pleas and wants to go find this Crowley dude/monster. He gathers a group of armed vigilantes and they set off in search of Crowley, to kill him.
Adam Green throws in a completely unnecessary and rather lengthy explanation as to why Crowley has taken to being violent and killing a lot of "innocent" people. That background story just distracts from the real-time story, but allows perhaps a break from all the blood and guts. Because, of that there's plenty. Crowley slices, dices, slashes, disembowels (it's so fake you can't help but kind of laugh at the graphics), and chain-saws his victims. The entire film's budget must have been spent on gallons of faux blood and a variety of meats at the butcher shop because it's clear they didn't really care to spend it on anything of more importance.
It's ridiculous. It's inconceivable. It's still rather entertaining, as long as you know what to expect.
But, personally, I've started my fall line-up of concerts. Sunday night I went to see HAIM (3 sisters hailing from L.A.). It was a sold out show at the Paradise in Boston and it was an energy-filled night. It was HAIM's first American headlining show and I'd say they kicked it off with a rocking bang. Those girls are amazing and sound great live. I discovered them quite a few months ago (and then a friend told me they'd actually played here in Portland last summer at the Mumford and Sons festival, Gentlemen of the Road- I still can't believe I missed that!). They look like they belong in episodes of "Girls," each sister clearly has their own personality and let it shine through at last night's show.
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(Fleetwood Mac cover)
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- Encore:
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Film 247
"The Notebook"
starring: Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands
directed by: Nick Cassavettes
I'll say it right from the start. "The Notebook" might be one of the most romantic movies of my generation, despite being written as a novel beforehand by the always sappy Nicholas Sparks (you know him thanks to "The Last Song," "Message in a Bottle," "A Walk to Remember" etc.). The film is unbelievably touching and has all the right elements. The two young stars really shine (alone, and together on screen). Ryan Gosling is a born star/heartthrob in this film and Rachel McAdams is so beautiful it almost hurts your eyes to look at her on the screen. It might be one of the ultimate "chick flicks," but it's a great story and it's well done by filmmaker Nick Cassavettes, despite the fact that thanks to nepotism he cast his mother in the film to play the elderly version of McAdams' character (that's right, Cassavette's mother is Gena Rowlands-- side note- one of my favorite bands, Fugazi, actually name drops Rowlands in a song titled "Cassavettes" on their album... "In on the Kill Taker").
Okay, I'm done defending my love for this movie.
"The Notebook" (in case you haven't seen it on your own or have been forced by your girlfriend or wife to watch it) is the story of the same couple told at two points in their lives. We see them at the blossoming of their romance with the urgency of need and desire. We see them fight with each other, make up, kiss passionately, make love, separate, reunite, and ultimately never really give up on their love for each other or the idea that they were meant to be with each other. Their love, their relationship is the quintessential "til death do us part" and "through good times and bad times" you know, all those vows taken during marriage. The young couple version of these two people destined for romance is played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. They play the fictional characters of Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson, respectively. Noah is a local who works at the sawmill, but is still smart and poetic, get with words which ultimately gets him what he wants. And what he wants is Allie, for the moment he lays eyes on her. She is stunning. Allie is a rich kid, summering with her family in a coastal town of North Carolina (that's where all of Nicholas Sparks' books take place).
They quickly fall for each other and fall hard. Allie's parents are not supportive of her new relationship, which causes a fight between the young couple eventually and they end up breaking up with each other. Allie finds someone else, as a nurse during the Korean War or Vietnam War (I'm guessing), but you can tell that's not really going to work, that Allie is simply filling the void that losing Noah made in her heart. They do find each other again and are inseparable, yet again. The passion and heat is still there, as well.
The elderly couple, played by James Garner and Gena Rowlands, make the story the tearjerker that it is. Gena Rowlands plays Allie near the end of her life, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. You might think that's just a typical move in order to invoke tears from the audience but the two seasoned actors are so great and natural in their delivery of their roles that it never plays out as overly sentimental. Noah has made it a point to never leave her side, even as she suffers. Instead, he lives at the assisted living home with her, even though he doesn't necessarily have to. And, he reads to her from a notebook, which tells the story of how they met, fell in love, and faced/overcame obstacles that came between them. Sure, the story may be a science-related fantasy of sentimentality (because once Alzheimer's really hits someone, there's no turning back, there's really no more moments of clarity). But this is a major love story that avoids the sappiness and stays true to itself. It makes you really believe in love (everlasting) and that's not harmful at all.
This is an amazingly romantic movie that will go down in film history as one of the best romantic films ever.
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Film 248
"Skateland"
starring: Shiloh Fernandez, Ashley Greene
written and directed: Anthony Burns
I understand what writer and director Anthony Burns was attempting to do with his coming-of-age story about a nineteen year old boy stuck in self-imposed limbo, but unfortunately the film gets caught up in itself, perhaps because of the time period it is set in (re: 1980s). Yes, the time is the '80s and Burns fills his film with lots of cultural references that get tiring pretty quickly. The protagonist works as a manager of "Skateland" which is a rolling coaster place/hub of action, you know, where all the cool kids hang out. Except that it's not, and we find out that the owner is actually in the process of selling the place, so that a multiplex can probably be built in its place. In a lot of ways, the film is perhaps an ode to the end of an era, I guess. It's also set in Texas, but the main characters are outsiders to the small-town environment, because they'd rather party and have menial jobs than be a part of their community. Let's face it, when you think of Texas, you think of high school football, of which this film had absolutely no references at all. In fact, I think Burns steered clear of that, perhaps for personal reasons. But, the trouble is, there have been some great coming-of-age stories told set in Texas with football as the background (re: "Friday Night Lights" probably my favorite because of its ability to add just enough "real" drama to an excellent story).
The story focuses on Ritchie Wheeler (played rather subdued by Shiloh Fernandez, who seems to rely solely on his emo facial expressions and skater-esque hairdo and baby-boy good looks far far too much that his emotional (or lack thereof) rollercoaster ride post-high school becomes rather inane and unimportant to us). I never really cared what he chose to do and it got aggravating that he clearly wasn't make the "right" choices. He wants to be a writer (which came out of left field, because there's no references or scenes showcasing his "skill" as a writer), but has no ambition to go to college. He has a childhood/longtime friend, who also happens to be an attractive girl (Ashley Greene, decent here, stepping away from the "Twilight" series that will scar her chances of being taken seriously), but Ritchie cannot seem to pull the trigger or pick up any signals that she wants to be his girlfriend. Spoiler- they do sleep together, but then she finds him flirting it up with a blonde girl at a party the next night. Ritchie also has a best friend in a washed-up motocross racer, Brent. Something tragic happens to both of them, which forces Ritchie to sort of wake up, but it still doesn't seem like enough.
I think this movie was trying way too hard to be everything all at once. It wanted to be "Dazed and Confused" with its boys don't want to grow up, they just want to party and stay the same high school age that helped them live their glory days. It wanted to be sort of like a milder version of "Catcher in the Rye" with a teenage boy that's thumbing his nose at the norms and expectations of society. And it wanted to be an ode to the '80s (complete with Ashley Greene's character working at MusicLand?! Remember those days?). Unfortunately, I'd rather reminisce on that time period, when I was growing up, in my own head and not have it hammered into me via a mediocre film. It could've been so much more if it had more/better direction, kind of like its main character. There's potential for something better, unfortunately, it never makes it.
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Film 249
"It's a Boy Girl Thing"
starring: Samaire Armstrong, Kevin Zegers
I know I should not have liked this film (and sure, there were a few things I could've done without, you know those obligatory sort of things), but I really enjoyed it for what it was- an indie, sappy, typical version of the swapped-bodies story, focused on two unlikely characters who both envy and despise each other for who they are, but then have a revelation about what it's like to be the other person and they are all the better for having had the experience. In this case, it's a boy-girl, so the weird, yet expected romance is thrown in as well, and you know they're going to end up not only liking each other, but also together by the end (sorry, but that's not a spoiler, it's an expectation with this genre of films). The idea behind the "swap bodies" films is to walk a mile in the other person's shoes. Point taken. Point understood. It's about empathy, I guess.
The boy: Woody Deane (Zegers) is the typical high school jock- football team quarterback, pretty dumb, ambitions of going to college on a football scholarship, excited about homecoming, has the perky, ditzy, blonde cheerleader girlfriend (played expertly well by Brooke D-Orsay).
The girl: Nell Bedworth (I like the play on words there, because as played by the very naturally attractive Samaire Armstrong, whom I've known thanks to her stint as Seth Cohen's nerd-loving brief, yet oh so perfect girlfriend on "The O.C."-- she is certainly bed-worthy, but anyway). Nell is the typical, smart, bookworm type of girl, more concerned with studying and good grades than any boy that may cross her path, especially her annoying neighbor, who happens to be Woody. She doesn't have any real friends to speak of or that we really see at all. She's looking forward to college for the academia- really wants to go to Yale.
As all swapped-bodies films go, they have a bizarre encounter with a statue in a museum, in the middle of a heated argument, which causes them to wake up in each other's bodies. They talk the same, but we get the internal dialogue of the characters as they've switched (make any sense). They have to figure out how to make it through each day as the other person, so as to not let anyone know that they've actually switched, because that would totally be embarrassing. And so, they go about their high school lives as each other and you'd figure, since they are the opposite sex, there would be some funny scenes of them trying to figure out their bodies (especially since Nell seems to have no idea about boys- that would've been funny, but there's really not much other than a scene related to a morning erection). I appreciated the filmmaker's disinterest in going down that route, because the story was left with more heart.
Samaire Armstrong as Woody Deane definitely has a lot of fun in her role, and I would argue that it's more fun for a girl to play the boy part because we're rather easy to figure out. She gets to act tough, talk raunchy, etc. You could tell she was pretty comfortable in her reverse role.
For what it was, "It's a Boy Girl Thing" was actually a bit of a surprise hit with me. I appreciated it's light, fluffy (yes) comedy. Thinking of other swapped-bodies films, this one is decent.
Swapped Bodies:
The Change-Up
18 Again
Face/Off
Freaky Friday
Like Father Like Son
Mulholland Dr.
The Hot Chick
Vice Versa
Wish Upon a Star
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Film 250
"Hatchet 2"
starring: Danielle Harris, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder (the wrestlet, yup)
written and directed by: Adam Green
I watched this film having not seen the first (in apparently a trilogy), but after viewing "Hatchet 2" and being just entertained enough, I definitely want to check out the other two. This is the kind of film you expect to be terrible. Terribly delicious, in the gory, go-for-blood-and-guts kind of way. It kind of reminded me of the Troma Films catalogue as well as all of those cheesy B-movie horrors that fill up space on shelves. It's so bad that it's actually good. I guess.
This film picks up immediately where the first one leaves off (apparently), except the girl, Marybeth, is played by a different actress here (Danielle Harris, who apparently is a new, underground scream queen, and she certainly works her lungs for this film). In the opening scene she is escaping a brutal attack from a monstrous swamp-like creature. This monster's name is Crowley, and he used to be a real, albeit messed up and severely deformed boy. Anyway, Marybeth gets rescued by a fisherman who takes her back to his shack. But, then he finds out who she is, and the connection she kind of has with this creature spooks him, so he sends her on her way; but not without some information, to go see Reverend Zombie (dear god, really). Rev. Zombie (Tony Todd) hears her pleas and wants to go find this Crowley dude/monster. He gathers a group of armed vigilantes and they set off in search of Crowley, to kill him.
Adam Green throws in a completely unnecessary and rather lengthy explanation as to why Crowley has taken to being violent and killing a lot of "innocent" people. That background story just distracts from the real-time story, but allows perhaps a break from all the blood and guts. Because, of that there's plenty. Crowley slices, dices, slashes, disembowels (it's so fake you can't help but kind of laugh at the graphics), and chain-saws his victims. The entire film's budget must have been spent on gallons of faux blood and a variety of meats at the butcher shop because it's clear they didn't really care to spend it on anything of more importance.
It's ridiculous. It's inconceivable. It's still rather entertaining, as long as you know what to expect.
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