Wednesday, August 17
Random Thoughts
- Anyone other than me like Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou? I've seen all of Anderson's films and I've enjoyed all of them, but Zizzou never really took off with audiences or with fans. Hence, I didn't see it until it came out on DVD. I remember enjoying the movie more than I expected to the first time I saw it, but it wasn't until about two weeks later that I realized that I'd spend the past two weeks thinking about and revelling in the experience of watching that movie. I realized it was a special film, filled with fascinating characters, great music (especially the Portugese Bowie songs sung by the Brazilian singer Seu Jorge, who was a member of the cast), wonderfully low-tech graphics, and an overall tone that is, like most of Anderson's films, sad, ambiguous, funny, insane, and sweet all at the same time. I've since purchased a copy of this film and have seen it now half a dozen times.
- Yes, it bears resemblance to many of Anderson's earlier films--in part because Bill Murray is in it (as he was in Rushmore and The Royal Tennenbaums) and in part because it's filled with all weird minutae and overwhelming eccentricities just like those other films. However, I find it refreshing that a filmmaker focuses less on developing a punchy plot and more on creating a vivid, fascinating universe for his characters to inhabit. Like the best science fiction and fantasy books, the best part of watching Anderson's film is to be immersed in the world he's created; the plot's secondary to this sense of retreat into a new and exciting place.
- I have about a dozen promo albums various people have sent me over the past year that I have yet to review. I plan to create one giant review for all of those albums, and then I plan to give up writing regular reviews for a while and concentrate on other endeavors--researching Finnegans Wake, studying Central Asian music, reading, and writing.
- The Newslitter isn't going anywhere; if anything, I hope my move away from reviews will spell a move toward more frequent posts, as I hope to make this site a free-flowing forum for all sorts of topics and idea.
