Here’s a great obscure Simon & Garfunkel song from the Bridge Over Troubled Water album.
As least it was obscure until Zach Braff put it in Garden State and every 17-28 year-old in America gobbled up the soundtrack because it made them feel as languorously cool as the characters in that movie.
(This is the first in an occasional series on movies that never got the recognition they deserved)
1990 was a landmark year for one of my favorite genres — the crime film. Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing, Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita and Stephen Frears’ The Grifters all hit screens that year to massive critical acclaim.
But lost in the pack was George Armitage’s stylish, funny and violent Miami Blues, an adaptation of Charles Willeford’s novel and one of the very best films of the 90s.
I have many reasons to love Neko Case’s 2006 album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood: her amazing, husky vocals; her stellar songwriting; the production that hits a perfect balance between earnest country and gothic romance.
But Reason #1 is that it’s my 6-year-old daughter’s favorite CD. When we’re in my car, Sophia likes to rifle through my CD case and pick an album for us to listen to during the ride. Months ago she was immediately drawn to the Fox Confessor Brings the Flood disc because, well, it has a cartoon fox on it. Two songs in, she was hooked.
From then on, she didn’t need to look at the CD case. When we got in the car, she’d say “Can we listen to the fox CD?” And I’d happily oblige. We’re not talking about Barney here… this is as rich and gorgeous an album as I’ve heard in years, filled with beautiful sad songs about heartbreak and loneliness. I have to say, my kid has great taste in music.
My definition of hip, musically speaking, is a bit backward — literally. I find it far cooler to have a knowledge and appreciation of music from before your time than the stuff being released tomorrow. Like my super cool niece, who is 12 years old but worships The Beatles. That’s hip.
I’ve always considered myself rather hip in that sense. In my teens (this was the late 80s), I bought and devoured every Bob Dylan album, then tackled the whole Beatles catalog. I was into Led Zeppelin and The Who and (especially) Pink Floyd. I had a passing knowledge of The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys. I wasn’t Robert Christgau, but I was pretty hip.
Date: July 25
Location: Muvico Boynton Beach
I have no idea why any studio greenlit or released this movie, and I say that as a die-hard X-Files fan. We’re talking about a show that went off the air six years ago and probably should have gone off the air a couple years before that. Who on earth did they think was the audience for this movie? My wife and me and about 25 other people, based on box office returns.
But setting aside the mystery of its very existence, how is the movie itself?
