Monthly Archives: July 2008

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My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

I had heard a lot about My Morning Jacket but I’d never actually heard them. Then I saw songwriter/lead singer Jim James’ haunting performance of ‘Goin’ to Acupulco’ in I’m Not There and I realized it was time to jump in.

My Morning Jacket is one of those bands (like Radiohead and Wilco) that did a certain thing very well for awhile, then suddenly started doing something strange and different equally well. Evil Urges is their OK Computer or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Now, coming to the band fresh with this release doesn’t allow me to talk about their evolution, so all I can talk about is the music. And the music is nothing short of superb.
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The Dark Knight

“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Those words are spoken by Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred (Michael Caine), one of the few people in Gotham who know that the billionaire playboy is actually the vigilante hero Batman. He is explaining, by saying there essentially is no explanation, why the villainous Joker continues to defy their expectations. The Joker has plenty of dastardly schemes, but no grand plan. He is a master of chaos, but nothing holds mastery over him.

The Dark Knight, director/co-writer Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to Batman Begins is, without question, the best superhero film I’ve ever seen. But I feel like that is faint praise. This is the first “summer blockbuster” since Jaws, maybe, that is truly a film first and foremost. Yes, it is breaking box office records, and it will sell tons of popcorn and action figures, but as an artistic achievement it belongs on the same playing field as the best films this year has to offer.

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Emmys suck as usual

I won’t waste much space writing about this morning’s Emmy nominations because, following the trend of the past 35 years, most of my favorite shows were ignored. Mad Men did very well, and I have Season One in my NetFlix queue, so maybe I’ll be happy about that retroactively.

The absurdity begins and ends with Connie Britton’s lack of a Best Actress nod for Friday Night Lights. Never mind that the show itself was all but shut out, and Kyle Chandler ignored as usual…. Britton is the best freakin’ thing on TV and she couldn’t crack a lineup of the same old actresses (most of them movie stars turned TV stars) who’ve populated it for years? Give me a break. And why no Mary McDonnell, who was superb this year on Battlestar Galactica even if the series itself had a weak season?

Happy to see Lost and The Office there, and I hope they both win. Lost had maybe its best season yet and is fully deserving. But no doubt the Academy will bestow its award on Boston Legal or some such nonsense.

Oh well, enough of my yakkin’. At least the Oscars got it right.

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Beck – Modern Guilt

Throughout his impressive career, Beck has explored many, many paths — dabbling in funk, rap, tropicalia, metal, folk and psychedlia, just to name a few. He’s released albums I can dance to and albums that make me want to cry in my beer (ok, my Coke). What he hasn’t done, until now, is bore me.

Modern Guilt is not a bad album, by any means. I’ll go so far as to say it’s a good one. But it’s the first Beck album that hasn’t hit me as something brand new. Most of the tracks feel like B-sides to his earlier, better material.

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Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Date: July 12
Location: AMC Sunset Place

Setting aside Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (possibly my favorite movie ever), there is no film in the past ten years that I find more moving, powerful or perfectly realized than Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. It is the ultimate blend of high art and extravagant fantasy, and a singular vision that on its own puts Del Toro among the ranks of the finest filmmakers working today.

Now, Hellboy II: The Golden Army is no Pan’s Labyrinth. But it’s clear in every frame of this carnival ride of a film that the same extraordinary imagination is working the levers. Del Toro skips between art house fare such as The Devil’s Backbone and Labyrinth and mainstream action flicks such as Mimic and the Hellboy films, but it’s obvious that he throws himself into both with equal fervor. You can sense his love of cinematic storytelling in every sweeping camera move, not to mention the visual delights filling every frame.

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