Reviewer: Danielle
I have three words for you…modern. classical. music. Hey, where’d everybody go?
My introduction to one of the most prolific modern composers of avant-garde music today was through the score of The Hours. Philip Glass’ haunting scores cascade through films too numerous to list but as diverse as The Illusionist (available at Acorn), Kundun, Candyman, The Fog of War and a re-visitation of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula. He’s written operas, symphonies and, seemingly, most of that evocative music you hear in almost every movie trailer ever made…ever.
Personally, I prefer his more melodious experiments in repetition and resonance as represented by The Hours soundtrack that is playing as I write this. Here we encounter the hypnotic sound experience of being enveloped in a heartbeat; a sensual building of silences and crescendos, an ebb and flow, indicative of reserved passions, or ultimate despair, faltering at a precipice before finally crashing into being; an exaltation of the search for hope and the possible repercussions of that search symbolized in the film by the discovery that that search can only end in one of three ways…love, forbearance or death.
For the more sonically adventurous, Glass has numerous works to cater to your tastes as well. For a taste sampling, you could give The Essential Philip Glass a try, although, I would recommend listening to “Floe” with your hand firmly planted on the volume control unless the chaotic sound of two clowns trying to beat each other to death with squeaky toys appeals to you. I do highly recommend the five-disk set, Philip on Film, (especially the fifth disk) where there is something for everyone to enjoy whether your tastes run toward the melodious or are more firmly planted in the murderous clowns end of the spectrum.
Author: Keith Phipps
The Dissolve might have had some launch issues this past Wednesday, but the web site is finally up and running. The site, which is comprised of many former writers and staff of the Chicago-based The A.V. Club‘s film section, promises to provide coverage of everything movie-related, from obscure Blu-ray releases and exclusive interviews, to standard film reviews. Although I might tune in from time to time, I actually like the idea of Letterboxd better. Letterboxd is a social network/database for sharing movies you’ve seen and making lists of favorite directors or actor retrospectives, as well as a place to share reviews and ratings or comment on movies you’ve seen. The site no longer requires an invite from a pre-existing user, which makes it the perfect time to start keeping track of your viewing habits.
Reviewer: Danielle
The Fourth of July holiday is upon us once again. (No, I can’t believe this year has gone by so quickly, either!) Another flag-festooned holiday filled with frolicking and fun with our friends and family and, let’s not forget, those festive fireworks! We celebrate our country, its beauty and scars, alike. We try to forgive it its trespasses while working, together, to facilitate the promise of its founding. And, we remember…
Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, located on the site of the old Joliet Arsenal and, in a rather poetically dichotomous contrast of life and death, adjacent to Midewin Prairie, the first National Tallgrass Prairie in the country, is one of the largest veterans’ cemeteries in the United States. A thousand acres of land dedicated to those who have given at least part, and sometimes all, of their lives in honor of their country.
For those of us who’ve been there to bury a friend, a neighbor or, especially, a beloved grandfather, it is a place of solemnity and honor tinged with grief and colored by the knowledge that their sacrifice, large or small, recent or muted by the march of time, mattered and will not be forgotten. So, this Fourth of July weekend, after the picnics and celebrations are done, I’ll remember Philip W. Johnson (September 12, 1919 – July 6, 2010) USN WWII and honor all the other men and women who believed enough in a promise to stand and serve but we can also celebrate the continuation of life and contemplate the brave struggles we’ve yet to overcome which are exemplified by a human spirit that decides that, together, we can build an entire prairie, one seed at a time.
Author: Bill Willingham
Fables is a comic book series about well-known fairy tale and folklore characters known collectively in the series as Fables. The series focuses on a group of Fables who have left the Homelands after the invasion of an enemy who now rules an empire that includes most of the Homelands. The exiled Fables build their own city in what has become modern-day New York City. When the story begins, King Cole is mayor, Snow White is assistant mayor, the Big Bad Wolf (here known as Bigby Wolf) is sheriff, and other familiar characters play important roles. The compelling story, the fantastic artwork, and the humorous dialogue combine to make it a light-hearted, enjoyable read. We have the first two of eight hardcover volumes at Acorn.
Author: Sofia Coppola
I’m a big Sofia Coppola fan, and her latest is an (okay, fine: another) exploration of the Bermuda Triangle that is youth, fame, and materialism. It chronicles the short-lived but incredibly prolific reign of a group of teens who used Google and the collective lack of a prefrontal cortex to stake out and pillage the homes of their favorite celebrities. In the process, they became their idols—wearing their clothes, hanging out in the same clubs, heedlessly seeking their next great sensory experience–and manage to shed light on our avaricious, sensationalistic culture.
As with Coppola’s other movies, the casting is perfection. Two unknowns (Israel Broussard and Chicagoland’s Katie Chang) confidently carry the movie with graceful, subtle performances. The supporting actors are also very strong, with Emma Watson killing it as Nicki, a vapid terror with a serious case of vocal fry, and Leslie Mann stealing every scene she’s in as her misguided mother who worships on the alter of Angelina Jolie.
The movie is available at Acorn. It was based on a Vanity Fair article (naturally), which was expanded into a book, which can be requested from SWAN.
Reviewer: Danielle
If you need an infusion of magical realism on one of these endlessly rainy or super-hot summer weekends, here’s a triple feature that will fill you with so much joy that your heart may explode and you will have to fight the urge to randomly kiss strangers on the street.
There’s never been a movie that’s felt more like a giant hug than Amelie. If you only have room for one movie, this is it (don’t let the subtitles scare you away). It’s like an ice cream cone of hope with heart sprinkles. It’s joie de vivre, made concrete. It will make you believe in magic and love and fate. It will make you believe in endless possibility. It will make you run out to your garden to see if your gnome is still there…and then wish he wasn’t.
If, after that, you are not too filled with joy to move, you can put in Chocolat and experience a little more magical fairytaleishness (this time, in English). One woman’s journey to a town that medieval time forgot and her fated impact on all the residents there will leave you with a feeling of infinite connectedness and hopefulness. And, of course, a lingering belief in invisible kangaroos. And, with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp starring, there’s even eye-candy for everyone!
If, after all that, you still want more joy and hope and magic (you glutton, you!) and aren’t dissuaded by subtitles or surrealistic symbolism or some, shall we say, adult content, then let me introduce you to Antonia’s Line. Yes, it’s Dutch. Very, very Dutch. Hope rings eternal and joy practically pours out of this movie at times…although that joy, here, as in life, is juxtaposed with pain and suffering. Magic, again, finds its way into the essence of this film. Matriarch, Antonia, and her kinship line represent Life with a capital ‘L’. Antonia (the body), Daniela (the spirit), Teresa (the mind) and Sarah (the heart) represent the totality of the human experience in all its glories and tragedies. They live, they love, they dream, they die, as we all do but they do it with a spirit and a cast of characters that we could only hope, or dread, to experience.
Amelie and Chocolat are available at Acorn. Antonia’s Line is available through SWAN. Happiness and joy are available everywhere, if you just know where to look! So, seek, find, embrace and enjoy…Vive la vie!
Author: Claire Messud
Nora Eldridge is a dutiful daughter, considerate neighbor, and exemplary third-grade teacher. She’s also a seething cauldron of rage whose barely repressed id goes haywire when she encounters the glamorous Shahids. She quickly befriends Sirena—a revered artist and confidence conduit—who encourages Nora to rediscover her own creative ambitions, becomes a confidante to the entertaining, enigmatic Skandar, and an honorary aunt to their darling son, Reza.
Though plenty of eInk has been spilled over Nora’s “unlikability”, Messud’s surprising, astute portrait of a misanthrope who is still seeking love and meaning will force you to care about her fate. And how will it end? Prison? A sanitarium? In a life with fulfilled artistic ambitions and satisfied material needs? Read this unsettling, incisive, and psychologically suspenseful book to find out!
Author: Isaac Asimov
Reviewer: Danielle
I hereby recommend a short work of utter and staggering brilliance by one of the most prolific literary geniuses of the last century. Blah blah blahdy blah blah. Really? Well then, let me try this again…
A story that fully and unequivocally evokes an unending mental discourse on the meaning of consciousness, time, being, religiosity and the purported infinite nature of the universe in a mere 4,000 words. Yay! What? Pfffffffffffftttt. Hmmph. Okay, well fine, let me think…
Cool story! Twist ending! Honey Boo Boo, Lindsay Lohan and two of the three Kardashian sisters recommend this story! Get your tie-in toy at McDonald’s today while supplies last! Soon to be a movie starring Johnny Depp and the Kardashian sister who didn’t recommend the story in the first place in her big-screen debut!
Seriously, though, read it. You’ll like it. I promise. Ninety-nine and three-quarters percent guaranteed. There are also about eleventy gazillion other Asimov works available at Acorn and through SWAN, so, snap snap, my word-loving friends, time is running out! Or is it?
Author: Alex Proyas
I recently read somewhere that Dark City is one of the most underrated science-fiction movies of the 20th century. Now, considering that I hadn’t heard of this movie until recently, I’d have to agree. An amnesiac named Johnny Murdoch sets out to find why he can’t remember who he is and encounters “the Strangers”, a race of beings who are performing experiments on humans. It’s a futuristic tale filmed in the typical noir styling, but what’s probably best about the movie is that there are very little computer-generated special effects. In the documentary on the DVD, the director Alex Proyas describes that filming took place on stage and oversized replicas of objects were used in particular scenes to make the film seem as realistic as possible. It has an all-star cast (before they were considered all-stars) featuring William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Rufus Sewell, and Kiefer Sutherland and the director’s cut of the film has twelve extra minutes of bonus footage. Several copies are available through SWAN!
Author: Callie Khouri
This show is the ultimate in soapy, indulgent escapism. Connie Britton plays Rayna Jaymes, country music’s longtime golden girl who is currently struggling to reinvent her sagging career and manage her strained marriage to a square-jawed cipher while keeping her powerful, manipulative family at bay. In the other corner, pop tart/money-making machine Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) tries to establish herself as a credible artist while living out a volatile post-adolescence that includes (but is not limited to) kleptomania, a quickie marriage, her mother’s addiction, extortion, assorted PR disasters, and a whole lot of sequins. Not surprisingly, Rayna and Juliette immediately dislike each other, but the show has the discipline and class (that’s right, discipline and class) to show the conflict as a methodical war of attrition as opposed to a series of catfights. It is also but one of the show’s roughly 317,000 subplots.
Though the writing is remarkably fertile, the acting is what elevates the show from clandestine guilty pleasure to something I am willingly sharing here. Britton (formerly of TV’s beloved Friday Night Lights and current host of the world’s most coveted hair) gamely captures Rayna’s coexistent warmth and egotism, but it is Juliette that gives Nashville its crazy, flashy heart. Panettiere takes on Juliette’s many facets—charismatic performer, steely CEO, whiny Millennial, wily survivor, architect of her own destruction—with verve and eminently watchable chutzpah.
The first season is available via SWAN.
Author: Grant Gee
My favorite thing this week has made my list of all-time favorite films. It’s Patience (After Sebald), an evocative homage to the writer W.G. Sebald’s 1995 book The Rings of Saturn. The film is a series of commentaries by his acquaintances and admirers played over images of the route that the character walked in East Anglia in the The Rings of Saturn. Both the film and the book weave an almost incomprehensible web of history consisting of individual parts that I guarantee will stick with you. You’ll learn about silkworms, Sir Thomas Browne, Virginia Wolfe, and English geography to name just a few. You can see the scope of the topics in this map. If you love the downbeat half as much as I do, you’ll love this film.
If you’ve read Sebald you owe it to yourself to see it. If you haven’t, it’s an accessible introduction that is worth your time even if you have no desire to read The Rings of Saturn. I recommend it if you like documentaries, art films, Sebald, or just want to watch something different. There is one copy available through SWAN.
Author: Mason Currey
Did you know that Schiller kept rotting produce in his desk and was inspired by the smell to write? Or that Balzac drank almost 50 cups of coffee a day? What is supposed to be probably the most boring parts of our day–our daily routines–are documented and dissected in 161 anecdotes concerning the most famous people in our cultural history. Patricia Highsmith’s obsession with snails, Flannery O’Connor’s sacrosanct prayers, and Nabokov’s chain smoking are all included and leave the reader with some interesting tidbits on why order is necessary for creation. I highly recommend this insightful book and it is available in SWAN.
