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The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Date: May 30, 2008
Location: Clifton Living Room

This is a film I avoided for awhile because it fell into the “want to have seen it” category. So now that I’ve seen it, I’m glad I did, but I wouldn’t choose to ever see it again.

Director Julian Schnabel does a wonderful job of putting the audience in the body (and mind) of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the French Elle editor who suffered a stroke and became almost completely paralyzed. Bauby’s only means of communication is through blinking his one good eye (take that, Christy Brown!) and with the help of his saintly, beautiful speech therapist, he is able to not only communicate but write a best-selling memoir.

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Robyn – Robyn

Continuing the theme of one-named women from foreign lands, we jump from Duffy to Robyn. Robyn is a Swedish pop star who wrestled with record execs who weren’t happy with her new direction, bought out her contract and started her own label. This self-titled album was released in Sweden a year or so ago but reached U.S. shores just last month. Her story reminds me a bit of Aimee Mann, who was entangled in record comapny meddling after early success with ‘Til Tuesday only to launch her own label and self-release her more ambitious solo work. Robyn isn’t in Mann’s league, but she’s crafted a very good album.

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Duffy – Rockferry

Duffy could perhaps best be described as a blonde Amy Winehouse with fewer tattoos and a less tumultuous personal life. The Brit’s debut album strikes the same old-fashioned girl-group vibe as Winehouse’s celebrated Back to Black, with crisp modern production to match.

But such comparisons are a disservice to a young woman who has put out a record even stronger than Winehouse’s. Comparisons to Dusty Springfield are overreaching but not too far off base on this album’s extraordinary opening and closing tracks — ‘Rockferry,’ the title track, a slow builder that shows off both her vocal and songwriting chops; and ‘Distant Dreamer,’ a soaring slice of 60s pop perfection so genuine you’ll swear it must be a cover of a Ronnie Spector classic.

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Date: May 23, 2008
Location: Muvico Boynton Beach

I’ve come to the realization that there are Indiana Jones films, and there’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. Crystal Skull is the former, and it is much like its predecessors (Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade) — exciting, corny, outlandish, funny… and not a very good movie.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a very good movie. In fact, I’ve said I consider it a perfect movie. It has no false notes, takes no missteps. It’s one of the most spectacular feats of entertainment ever committed to celluloid. And as such, it’s an impossible act to follow.

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I’m Not There revisited

As you may have noticed (if you religiously study my year-end lists even months after the given year has ended), I recently moved Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There up to #3 on my 2007 list. I did this after rewatching the film on DVD, and then rewatching it again with Haynes’ commentary track. When I first saw the film in the theater, I was convinced of its greatness — now, though, I’m convinced it’s one of the best films of the ’00s and further proof that 2007 was one of the finest years for cinema in a very long time.
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