MCN Blogs
David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

BYOB – Monday

Hello again from New York City, home of Broadway, where I have been catching up with the last wave of shows, finding two remarkable pieces – Passing Strange and The 39 Steps – and one sure-to-be-popular mediocrity with big music and strong performances and little else (In The Heights).
More to come, with a full day ahead… including airplane time. So tend to the flock, try to keep the The Dark Knight drool off the keyboards, try to keep the success and limitations of Sex & The City in perspective, come to peace with Wall-E‘s obvious appeal to kids who don’t go to movies for, and wonder aloud which film will be the sad story of June – The Happening, The Love Guru, Get Smart – or all of the above

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30 Responses to “BYOB – Monday”

  1. Dave, here’s a question for you (and anyone else, really). What’s on your iPod (or other mp3 device) at the moment. We all know you have very strong opinions on movies and stage, but I don’t think you’ve mentioned anything music related since you fawned over the I’m Not There soundtrack.
    Me, I’m very much into ScarJo’s Anywhere I Lay My Head (all moody and lush production by Dave Sitek with Nico-esque vocals by Johansson), Ladytron’s Velocifero, Martha Wainwright’s I Know You’re Married, But I’ve Got Feelings Too, Quiet City’s Silent Movie and am getting back into Madonna’s Hard Candy after a blase initial response. Plus, Santogold‘s self-titled debut is still one of the most amazing albums of the past ten years.

  2. Quiet Village, sorry, not Quiet City. They’re very much like a moodier version of The Avalanches.
    I’m also into Girl Talk’s Night Ripper.

  3. doug r says:

    Looks like this year will be more even. As long as the studio gets their money back and the theaters make a little money, I’m happy.

  4. Jimmy the Gent says:

    I like to use my iTunes account to create playlists of movie soundtracks. They’re complete soundtracks.
    I created a Mean Streets soundtrack, which has every song from the movie in chronological order. It might be the best soundtrack never released from a studio. If anyone knows someone from Rhino Records, please have ’em contact me. I would love to pitch an official soundtrack to Mean Streets. It could be a really good seller, I think. One Cd would be the pop songs, while a second CD would have the opera/folk songs. The booklet could be a Q & A with Scorsese about the song selections for the movie.
    I’m slowly putting together a Wanderers soundtrack.
    The other CD I have on steady rotation is the debut from Vampire Weekend, a really terrific pop record.
    If anyone is really interested in a good pop song, I highly reccomend checking out The Airborne Toxic Event. Don’t let the band’s name scare you. Their EP is really catchy. The highlight is the song “Does This Mean You’re Moving ON?”. You can find it on iTunes. Trust me.

  5. IOIOIOI says:

    You can never go wrong with…
    – Tegan & Sara
    – The Twilight Singers
    – The Kills
    – Lou Rawls
    and
    – Ben Harper.

  6. Speaking of music. The Sex & the City soundtrack is the #1 album on iTunes in Australia (and the movie isn’t even out here yet), USA (beating Coldplay and even Usher) and number four in the UK
    Which goes to beg the question… where did all the popular soundtracks go? You can throw S&tC onto the very small pile of recent hits like Juno and Hairspray (i think, in Australia at least, they were the only soundtracks to chart in the top ten throughout 2007) but other than that it’s pretty skint.

  7. Oh and Step Up 2 the Streets. How could I forget that? Or was that 2008 and I’ve just forgotten short term movie releases?

  8. For me it’s….
    DRIVE BY TRUCKERS- Brighter than Creations Dark; An awesome, well rouded Americana record
    NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS- Dig! Lazarus! Dig!: I’ve never really been a fan but after a multitude of interviews post THE PROPOSITION and some good reviews of this one, I got it. And, it’s pretty much amazing.
    OLD 97’S- “Blame it on Gravity”: The boys are back to form on this one
    A SHIT TON OF WILCO BOOTLEGS- My favorite band did a 5 night stint in Chicago where they played every song they ever recorded. The boots are leaking out now and I’m sooo mad I didn’t get to go.
    Other stuff that rules (or, owns):
    CHUCK PROPHET “Soap and Water”
    NEIL DIAMOND “Home Before Dark”
    FIVE A.M. “Raise the Sun”
    And that Vampire Weekend album is great stuff as well!

  9. Dave Vernon says:

    The sad story of June? Easily Get Smart. The trailers have gotten HUGE groans from any audience I’ve seen it with. I was out yesterday, saw the billboard, and without thinking said, “I can’t wait to not see that movie”. I think thats the sentiment.

  10. Jimmy the Gent says:

    One of the Showtime channles was showing End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, a terrific tell-all documentary of one of the most influential bands of the last 40 years. (The DVD version is longer and better.)
    Seeing it again made me take down that Weird Tales of the Ramones box set and wwatch the DVD of music videos. I’ve always loved the clip for “I Wanna Be Sedated.”
    Has anyone picked up the Shine A Light 2-CD soundtrack? It’s pretty terrific. It proves without a doubt that the Scorsese-Stones concert movie has one of the best-mixed soundtracks of the year. Of course, it won’t get an Oscar nomination. I find it odd that the Sound or Sound Editing for movies like The Last Waltz or Stop Making Sense or Dave Chappelle’s Block Party never get the recognition they deserve. Shine A Light in IMAX (or at the Zigfeld) was one of the best moviegoing experience I’ve had so far this year.
    I just had an idea. who here thinks some artists would be smart to release their music videos compilations on Blu-ray? I would definitely pick up the Blu-ray DVD of Michael Jackson or Madonna or Prince or Bjork or Duran Duran.
    Who doesn’t want to see “Sledgehammer” in 1080p?

  11. movieman says:

    I hear ya, Jimmy!
    “The Last Waltz” opened at the Ziegield when I was at NYU, and I think I must have seen it at least once a week during the length of the run. (With my Walter Reade student discount card, it only cost me $1.50 weekdays before 5 P.M.!)
    Even though I went out and bought the soundtrack album (on vinyl, naturally), listening to the record could never compare to the amazing audiovisual experience of seeing and hearing it “live” at the Ziegfield.
    That will always be one of my sweetest moviegoing memories.

  12. SJRubinstein says:

    As there was just a “Lunch with David” featuring Joel Silver, one has to wonder if Lord Joel will respond to Larry Gross’s “The 48 Hr Journals,” currently the biggest must-read on the interwebz.
    Silver, of course, comes off as a tough, dedicated filmmaker – so he probably wouldn’t be put off. I would just be curious as to what he thought of his portrayal thus far.
    And huge kudos to Gross. Just the best thing since “The Jaws Log” or “Spielberg, Truffaut and Me” – speaking of Spielberg šŸ™‚

  13. lazarus says:

    Jimmy the Gent, I agree on the Blu-Ray music video releases, though my first thought went to those Criterion sets of Jonez, Gondry, Cunningham.
    In other Blu-Ray news, apparently U2-3D will be hitting the small screen, when it was originally thought it would be theatrical only. I’m guessing they will have to include glasses with the DVD, and they aren’t the cheap kind. How is this going to work? And is the film going to have anywhere near the same effect that it did on the big screen?
    They’re also going to have to include more than the 14 songs from the theatrical release to make it a worthwhile purchase.

  14. They’re already doing some Blu Ray concerts on DVD. THE LAST WALTS is one and I have Sprinsteen and Elvis Costello ones on my netflix queue.

  15. Hallick says:

    IPod #1 -Bat For Lashes / What’s a Girl To Do: spooky, big sound, and the video is a real “gets under your skin like a poltergeist” kind of thing.

  16. IOIOIOI says:

    The video is also freakin hilarious. The dudes jumping the BMX bikes in unison is pretty damn impressive. It could be CGI, but I do love it still the same.
    Oh yeah… does not one of you people watch LOST in here?

  17. lazarus says:

    LOST addict here, IO.

  18. IOIOIOI says:

    Hey Laz… welcome back and what did you think about the finale? While I loved it. I am curious as to how 2004 Benjamin Linus can time travel to middle to late 2005, and know what Sayid is doing? This makes me wonder how far in advance Widmore and Linus know of the activities of the Oceanic Six and each other.
    On a side note to Heat: are you going to discuss the T4 knee-capping AICN did yesterday? Or will you let it slide?

  19. I too loves the LOST….but the finale was underwhelming. Such a good season too. I don’t mind the lack of closure, but things have been so shifty all season in regards to reality and time, I had a tough time *believing* the final scene with Jack and Benjamin.
    I also thought it was stupid to have a “cliffhanger” with that group of people in the raft when the only true “character” on it is that Jeremy Davies character whose storyline and point sucks. Am I wrong or was that whole raft full of people heading back to the boat all the “Star Trek” people (randoms from the island who, when they get introduced to a storyline, you know they’re gonna die…like the buried alive couple, etc) or were there some regulars on there? Like the bi-racial couple. Were they on the boat? The island? Sigh. Like I said, lack of closure is to be expected….dropped storylines and characters who serve no purpose and their whereabouts not being explained…just bad writing.

  20. IOIOIOI says:

    I am not trying to take a shot at you Don. Responses like yours about LOST really drive me nuts because they seem to ignore the obvious. Daniel Farraday is of the MOST IMPORTANCE of anyone on or off that island.
    Not only did he know about the CONSTANT and has his own CONSTANT. He also knew that the island was about to move, that he could be doomed, but decided to face time and space issues anyway. He’s very important to this show. He will also be the one who saves Jin. So to imply it’s a dropped storyline, is to state that it’s over. When nothing is over on LOST.
    This is why Harold Perrineau’s comments about Michael’s death and no reconciliation with Walt seem so strange to me. The man works on the show. The man had to have read the finale script and noted the Eko reference. Heck, if he watched the Hurley and Charlie premiere episode. He would get that no one is truly dead on LOST.
    You would also think that he would get that WALT has to return to the island. This would mean that a reconciliation could happen. Which once again leads us to LOST arguments and complaints that have very little weight because they will only makes sense — Dalton willing — in the grand scheme of things. You just have to be patient and try to figure out why CS Lewis has no idea where she was born, why Miles can some how sense things no one else can, why everyone has to go back even if Claire does not want Aaron that island anymore, why Jeremy Bentham failed as a leader, and why John Locke will most likely come back to life the moment he sets foot on that island again.
    Oh yeah… Rose and Bernard are still on the Island.

  21. Noah says:

    LOST SPOILERS AHOY
    Yeah, I’ve put myself firmly in Darlton’s hands after last year’s finale; never again will I doubt that they know more than I do about the story they are telling and that they definitely have a direction they are aiming at.
    Having said that…I did love the finale this season, but considering John Locke has been my favorite character from day one, it hurt quite a bunch to see him in that coffin, even knowing that he will be resurrected (he is Jesus, right?). So that stung a bit, but I think that as great as this season was, the wonderful thing about Lost historically was its ability to be right on the edge of “can this be explained by science or is this science fiction?” But now, after this season, it’s firmly entrenched in the latter category and that’s fine, but it’s really amazing to think back to those first episodes, wondering where we were and who these people are and now look at how massive this world has become.
    It’s great and I love the new characters (especially Faraday and Charlotte), but let’s just say I’m anxious to see some things resolved…especially the storyline involving Claire (dead or no?) and her baby (who was supposed to be raised by Claire and ONLY Claire). Either way, great finale and I’m psyched for next season which is only eight short months away šŸ™

  22. IOIOIOI says:

    Noah: The Claire storyline is apparently one of the bigger ones for season six. So get ready to wait 20 months or more for a resolution to that story. Which gets a big sarcastic “yay” from me, but this is LOST. I will wait because it’s a part of the process.
    I also was rather bummed that Locke was in that coffin. It just seemed rather logical last season, that I tried to ignore it while watching season four. Yet it creeped back in there and now Locke is dead.
    He may not be Jesus, but he is tied to that island. Richard Alpert tried to get him to the island twice. While Widmore’s guy Abaddon even told Locke to go to Australia in order to get him to the Island. So it would seem that Locke has a mission there, that he failed terribly at once his *POSSIBLE* constant Jack left the island.
    This leaves me once again trying to figure out how Widmore knew Locke would fail. How does Widmore and Ben know things about the future, that other’s do not besides possibly Farraday? How on earth did they manage to bend time and space to such a degree that they know what these OCEANIC 815 people are doing? How is the time travelling happening?

  23. Noah says:

    Interesting that you pointed out that Abaddon is Widmore’s guy, which I didn’t put together (I thought he was with Alpert or Ben but it makes more sense for him to be Widmore I think). And yeah, I had heard that Claire isn’t gonna be a regular next season which sucks but I guess the good part is that it means her story will be integral to the storyline and especially the end game.
    IO, I’m curious if other Lost fans feel this way or if it’s just me, but does island Jack make you as angry as he makes me? Seriously, he’s like Scully in the X-Files; over and over Locke has proven to be right about almost everything, insisting that the island is special but Jack is just like “nah, I don’t care that there are polar bears here and all these hatches with experiments, blah blah blah, it’s all normal.” It’s infuriating! But at least it looks like bearded Jack will be a bad ass…
    I wonder what Sawyer is up to on the island without all his buddies…I mean, besides boning Juliet. And I hope they explain what it meant when Alpert put all those items in front of young Locke and asked him which belonged to him. Aahh, so many questions, but I love it!

  24. IOIOIOI says:

    Abaddon being Widmore’s guy could play into all sorts of weird theories about Widmore, the Black Rock, and so on. If you really want to get into it, but he did suggest Locke go to that island. This meant that he knew Locke would fail, because Widmore knew he would fail, and that’s the rub of it all.
    That aside; there is a reason that I am a James Ford, Noah. Jack simply has been a wanker for most of this story, but he has to be. He is the “Man of Science, Man of Faith.” Which has left Jack in a sort of quandry about who he is as a person.
    If you watch the entire story of Jack in chronological order. It should become apparent why he’s so hesistant to believe in anything because he has believed, and nothing good has come of it. He believed in his future-wife surviving, they married, and then she broke his heart. He believed in his dad, and his dad broke his heart. He believed in things once. Until they all failed him. So now Jack’s story is about believing again. Jack accepting the order of things should be rather awesome to watch.
    That aside; Alpert showing those items to Locke is similar to the way Buddhist find a new Lama after the previous one dies. They show those items to someone they believe to be the reincarnated Lama, ask them to pick one item, and if they pick the right item. The item that belonged to deceased Lama. This means they are the new Lama. I know this because Bobby Hill was actually given this same test on King of the Hill years ago.
    Long explanation aside, this means that Richard believed Locke to be reincarnated from someone that died like Jacob. Locke picking the wrong item does mean that he failed the test. Yet he becomes leader anyway. Which demonstrates a lack of understanding of the fundamentals on the part of the Others.
    With James Ford; he apparently has a thing for that Island. It’s apparently redeemed him. So I would imagine that James will fight to prevent the bad things from happening with Juliet by his side.

  25. Rothchild says:

    Abaddon sent that ship to the island. Remember the final scene of “Confirmed Dead” with him and Naomi? Clearly…he’s Widmore’s guy.
    Oh, and Noah, do you download this show illegally, too?

  26. crazycris says:

    Rothchild, don’t most of us? Especially when it’s not available onscreen in our neck of the woods ’till months later. It’s hard enough waiting from one week to the next, imagine tacking a couple of months onto that! Speaking of which… 2009?! Argh!!!!
    I’m dying to know what the hell Sun was doing to talking to Widmore, is he the 2nd person she blames for Jin’s death? What will she do? And what has happened to the others on the island in 3 years? Are they all settled in “othersville”?
    And what happened in those 3 years to drive Kate and Jack apart?
    Nice insight into Jack IO! Th “man of science” thing has been a bit annoying though. How dense can one be when all these things are placed in front of him? And why hasn’t anyone told him about those miracles he doesn’t believe in? It might help! He doesn’t know Sun couldn’t conceive ’cause Jin was sterile, and he doesn’t know Locke was paralysed! It seems so obvious…

  27. crazycris says:

    Nice take on the month of May Noah!
    Athough about Caspian (the book since the movie’s not out here yet, sigh!), it’s not the filmmakers that have dropped the “christian mythology”, it was C.S.Lewis himself! I guess you might consider Caspian to be about converting people (if you’re looking for a religious angle), having them believe in the “magical” side of Narnia. No, if the filmmakers have made any major changes at all (based on the reviews and such I’ve read) it’s a- focusing the story more on Peter (the book is centered around Caspian, it’s his voyage of discovery, his crusade to reawaken Narnia), and b- given Susan a more active role (instead of the bitchy trying to be a grown-up know-it-all she is in the book, which is actually setting up her abandoning her belief in Narnia mentioned in the final story).
    I can see how being “forced” to see all those films would lose some of the “magic” in them. But even when you’re not downing tht many films, some unfortunately didn’t have enough in them to warrant a magical response. I’ve only seen 2 of them: was v. pleasantly surprised by Iron Man (went in with no expectations other than a 2h break from reality), whereas -although I enjoyed myself_ was rather disappointed with Indy ’cause I couldn’t help from realising it could have been so much more…
    sorry… looks like I’ve waxed long on this post! :p

  28. Noah says:

    Rothchild, really wouldn’t know how to do that. I just TiVo it.
    Thanks, crazycris, I appreciate the insight into Narnia; it’s strange that the faith element was such an integral part of the first story and it’s something they kind of leave out of the second. I also was kind of disappointed that there is such a focus on Prince Caspian because I feel like it takes away from our time with the original kids; and whereas they had definable personalities the first time around, it seems like the character of Peter especially has devolved into a one-note kind of whiner. I know you haven’t seen the movie, so I won’t say more, but I’m curious as to how it compares with the book.
    I don’t really feel “forced” to see all those films, per se, it’s more a matter of not picking one or two summer films to be excited about and trying to anticipate all of them. It’s just hard to keep up that level of excitement for every film that comes out in the summer, so inevitably there will be some let-downs.

  29. IO-
    I totally agree Farraday is an increibly component to what’s going on yet his characters like an important blob. They totally threw in that love/crush thing about Charlotte just to try and give him some kind of arc. I mean…he’s secretly madly in love with her so he just kind of smiles and wanders off when she says she wants to stay on the islane….forever? Lame. That whole “constant” thing was really cool and intriguing and went…nowhere.
    I guess my overall issue that gets back to what I was saying is…there’s too many characters with too many arcs that serve no purpose. Yes, I get that “everyone has a purpose” to the show but there’s not enough hours per week or season to do justice to them all and it’s annoying. Just seems rinky-dink to throw in these crucial developments (like the constant, or Michael being death proof, etc.) that serve a purpose for 2-3 shows and then go away.

  30. IOIOIOI says:

    That’s the thing Don. They do not go away. We only think that they do, but all of this stuff is important. It’s all going on in the background. Even if it’s not going on in the foreground.
    I know that’s a ridiculous explanation but things do not go away on this show. There’s a reason the guy in the Dharma videos starts off without an arm and much older, then gets younger as they go on. There’s a reason why CS Lewis found the Polar bear that James Ford possibly shot in the deserts of Tunisia. There’s a reason why Farraday’s constant is a man he hardly knows.
    There is a reason to all of it. You just have to wait. If you are waiting. I do not get the frustration. Well I did, but there are questions that are answered. There are questions that remain unanswered. I guess we will have to wait two more years to find out what’s what.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” ā€” some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it ā€” I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury ā€” he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” ā€” and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging ā€” I was with her at that moment ā€” she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy namedā€”” “Yeah, sure ā€” you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that Iā€™m on the phone with you now, after all thatā€™s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didnā€™t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. Thereā€™s not a case of that. He wasnā€™t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had ā€” if that were what the accusation involved ā€” the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. Iā€™m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, ā€œYou know, itā€™s not this, itā€™s thatā€? Because ā€” let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. TimesĀ piece, thatā€™s what it lacked. Thatā€™s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon