Author Archives: Duff

February Album Reviews

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It seems quite weird that I didn’t buy much more music in February than I did in January…considering I am usually no holds barred with the February spending. Well, SOMEONE’s got to buy me birthday presents.

Absolutely Love & Adore:
Joshua Radin “Simple Times” – Joshua Radin music is all kinds of sad swoooooony sounds. An old single of his (“Winter”) was a staple on every mix I made for ages. And his cover of Yaz “Only You”? Sigh. Sooo nice. This album is equally enjoyable. I mean if you like the sorry sadness of it all. Fave songs: “Brand New Day” “We Are Okay” “Vegetable Car”

Messiah J & The Expert “From the Word Go” – Bought on spec in Dublin for no reason other than I knew I’d never heard of the group. Hip-hop rap combo sounds. LOVE IT! Sassy and fun. Fave songs: “Turn the Magic On” “Geography” “Amnesia Comes Easily”

Mick Flannery “White Lies” – Oh now. Another speculative Dublin purchase. Le sigh. This album is beautiful, head to toe. Last time I looked iTunes only had his older stuff. You should harass them to get this one. The only issue I wonder about for this guy is whether he can make it big when Damien Rice is already out there. Definitely playing to the same “market” and “Wish You Well” for example sounds a lot like Rice. This is in constant rotation chez Duff. Fave song I canNOT stop listening to: “Wait Here”

Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):

  • “My Life Would Suck Without You” Kelly Clarkson – may be the funnest pop song out there right now.
  • “Crack a Bottle” Eminem – oh yeah, shady’s back.
  • “Been a Long Time” Gary Jules & The Group Rules (feat. Jim Bianco) – sometimes old TV leads you to old tunes.

Other Albums I Liked:

  • Cut Off Your Hands “You & I” – Fun! Love the lyrics of “Happy As Can Be” and the sounds of “oh Girl” and “Let’s Get Out of Here”. I was really busy listening to sad mopey stuff (see “adore” category ha ha) so I really haven’t listened to this one THAT much.

Not really for me / but maybe for you!:
Halfset “Another Way of Being There” – Another Dublin purchase. Nothing bad about these tunes; I’m just not that into the mostly instrumental. (I prefer lyrics.) But if you’re into this stuff (think Explosions in the Sky), then you might enjoy it.

Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion: Nada!

Big Screen: Sunshine Cleaning

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Very enjoyable. Certainly the most worth seeing of the movies I’ve seen recently. And I think it would stand up to higher standards as well.

While it’s being marketed as another psuedo comedy, as with indie peers such as Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, it’s really a much deeper movie than that. Much more concerned with the little miseries of our day-to-day lives and how much greater an effect the bad things have than the good.

In other words, you take one small step towards improving your life, it helps a tiny bit and then just one little bad thing happens and KABAM you are five steps backwards. A very realistic look at that place of struggle between “doing OK” and “not really doing OK at all” or “barely hanging on” where so many people are stuck. It was so topical and seemed very true to that moment (moreso really than Little Miss Sunshine in fact).

Amy Adams and Emily Blunt were believable as sisters not just in appearance but in attitude and we both really enjoyed it. Although T did ask on the way out: How many movies with “Sunshine” in the title are these people going to make? And are they all going to have Alan Arkin as the dad? 🙂

Big Screen: Gran Torino

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SPOILERS

Another afternoon at the cheap (although $1 more expensive than before!) theater.

My dad and I seriously DISAGREE about this movie. My parents liked a lot of it, thought it was worthwhile, thoughtful, etc. (Although Dad agrees with me about the ending. I think.)

I thought it was sooooooo heavy handed and ridiculous. Most of the scenes between Eastwood and the girl next door (particularly the one in the truck) were, to paraphrase myself, straight out of “The Mung People for Dummies”. (When I said this to Dad, he said “Nooooo!!!”)

There’s a huge difference between “thinking some particular people might be OK” and “realizing that your racist attitudes are bullshit” and Eastwood seems to have filmed the movie thinking he has persuaded you of the latter when in fact he BARELY makes the leap to the former.

I was not impressed. The dialogue was horrible, stiff and sometimes idiotic. C. and I were OFTEN laughing at things that likely were not meant to be funny. It was such a thin attempt at addressing racist attitudes. THIN. And not well done, if you ask me.

I can’t quite put my finger on what made this palatable to my pops and not to me. I think it’s some combination of 1) age: I found Eastwood’s character so annoying and such a perfect picture of what’s WRONG with so many old people you run into; how they expect you to just be fine with incredibly rude behavior on their part that they would FREAK OUT if a young person treated them with the same disrespect; and 2) exposure to Asian people in general?and perhaps a more shall we say rare Asian culture in particular? That’s my guess anyway.

I really thought it was not a very good movie at all.

And the ending? Hello, suicide by provocation? It almost pissed me off as much as another ridiculous ending recently (THAT LINK HAS SPOILERS). Then he uses himself crooning (and playing piano) over the ending credits? COME ON.

I’m glad I didn’t pay more than $4 for this because I would have been pissed if I had.

Big Screen: Duplicity

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Basically a couples version of the Oceans 11 (12, 13) scenario (i.e. if the characters of Brad Pitt & George Clooney were romantically involved). One of those heist/con movies that works while you’re watching it, but is just a little bit too slick in the end, too many things work out “just” right. Or do they? Whether they do or not, you can pick apart about a million things when you leave the theater so it’s really whether or not that ruins the experience for you. (In this case, for me, it did not.)

The difference between the Oceans movies and this one is a bit of added slapstick thanks to Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti playing feuding consumer products CEOs. It’s partially hilarious because you’re like come on NO ONE’s this crazy…but on the other hand, it’s hilarious because hello CEOs of Fortune 500 companies…are TOTALLY this crazy. They both brought a very hilarious physical energy to their roles.

Not much deeper than your average bit o’ fluff. But definitely entertaining and Julia/Clive played their love/hate relationship very realistically. Ah, the hidden jealousies. So nasty when they become unhidden.

MK insisted (and I mean INSISTED) we go get champagne after this movie (they seem to celebrate each assignation with yet another bottle) so we had a long leisurely afternoon… Fun times!

Big Screen: Push

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An afternoon at the $3 theater* is always so pleasing as you can see things that have long left the mainstream theaters still on the big screen.

I’m not sure anyone else on earth saw this movie but really? I quite enjoyed it! It was pretty cheesy and the crazy Asian dudes whose power is SCREAMING? Yeah, they were a bit much. But if you decided to just roll with it, there was some cool Matrix-y / Wanted type stuff. And Dakota Fanning was really good. Impressively so.

I wasn’t blown away by Chris Evans but I thought he did a decent job and Djimon Hounsou always manages to bring some serious gravity to his roles, even if silly.

Totally entertaining and didn’t piss me off. So you know, a worthwhile afternoon at the movies! AND ONLY $3. 🙂

*Which JUST upped its price to $4 a few weeks after this!!! I thought C. was going to die of shock when he found that out!

Big Screen: The Reader

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I have no idea how I was blissfully unaware going into this movie that hello it’s about the fucking Nazis. (Generally I cannot watch Holocaust-related movies as the sobbing and the crying just get out of control. Yup, I’m a crier.) Maybe because this and that suburbia movie with Leo were released so close together? Not sure, but somehow I just had no idea what this one was about.

Kate Winslet was totally entrancing and I really loved the sloooooow revelation of the movie, how you suddenly come to realize what the kid suddenly comes to realize. To someone who’s been thinking a lot about the particular relevant issue* these days (long story), the “middle” of the story was done so nicely. Not an easy thing to portray on film.

The ending was really quite beautiful in its very sadly devastating way.

*That bit’s a big spoiler so I’ve tried to be vague as it’s worth not “knowing” going in.

Big Screen: The Class (Entre Les Murs)

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This movie was oddly affecting. Strong and interesting performances both from the main dude and the kids in his classroom. Intriguing look at a very diverse classroom/school. Also interesting to think about and watch how the teacher needs to approach students in individualized ways and when that does or doesn’t work.

Yet somehow it felt a bit incomplete. A number of storylines that weren’t quite tied up or where it wasn’t quite clear how the resolution came about. Yet definitely kept you involved and interested and felt very “true”.

Worth seeing despite feeling a bit…unclear at the end.

Big Screen: The Wrestler

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Don’t read this if you don’t want SPOILERS but honestly if you wanted to see this, why haven’t you seen it already?
Uh huh

SPOILERS.

The ending of this movie made me so angry I had fumes coming out my ears. But T. sitting next to me was totally wiping away tears. So you know, there’s another point of view.

Not sure why all the reviews are rah rah Mickey Rourke, who is basically, face it, playing himself, right down to the wrestling. COME ON. Hey congratulations on pulling your life out of the shitter and doing a decent job acting again? Hello, not sure why that’s SOOOOO noteworthy.

Whereas Marisa Tomei isn’t actually a down-and-out stripper in real life, yet here a) she does a great job and b) the movie is as much about her transformation as his. Perhaps moreso since her character ACTUALLY works toward transformation a bit harder than his, frankly. I wasn’t prepared to see literally all but about an inch and a half of her naked body, but I thought her performance was outstanding.

So he basically gets a death sentence, halfheartedly tries to change, tries to start anew and oh gee things don’t go EXACTLY his way? COME ON!!! He has a shitty day and his daughter and potential girlfriend don’t give him exactly the response he’s looking for? So he basically commits suicide via wrestling? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. If I committed suicide every time things don’t go exactly my way…

I spent several years in NYC working TWO jobs, 9-5 at #1 and 6-10 at #2 Monday through Friday, plus 10-4 Saturdays at #2 and some Sundays. That sucked fucking dick and it wasn’t by any means the only shitty thing that happened those two years. Funny how SOMEHOW I kept going. WHATEVER.

Oddly time has not softened my feelings toward the end of this movie but made me even madder.

À la Super Eggplant, currently, I am…

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Eating: Doing way more drinking than eating. Liquid calories, they’re delish.

Making: The last of the Fab Five hats. Two baby boy quilts. Whatevs.

Reading: I just finished one GREAT and one pretty good book (“Little Bee” by Chris Cleave and “City of Glass” by Cassandra Clare) and today I’m going to start “Then We Came to the End” by Joshua Ferris (Dad’s and my challenge book for April).

Watching: BStarG. I went back to the beginning again. There are some nice resonances to the very first five eps or so in the finale. It’s nice to go back. Also I am loving this season of Lost. Sawyer is awesome*.

Listening to: An AWESOME* album I bought in Dublin. Mick Flannery “White Lies”. Over and over. Particularly “Wait Here”. Swoon.

Failing at: Being cooperative instead of confrontational. (This may be a bit of an in-joke. But I trust you can figure it out. And honestly, I’m not interested in NOT failing at that. At all.)

*This month’s most overused word. Odd, since there’s very little AWESOMEness happenin’ here. If any.