Elln's Top Ten July '09

Well, it was tough this week because Dashboard's The Shade of Poison Trees cover is very pleasing to the eye. But I think The Thrill's Teenager cover is so classic, I couldn't resist. So there it is in all its honest, hormone-crazed glory.


1. "Modern Love"/David Bowie-Admittedly, I've never been a huge Bowie fan, but I've been listening to the Adventureland soundtrack a lot lately. His glam rock is powerfully addictive and sort of commercial, while also being musically clever, respectable, and viable. He also incorporates jazz into his rock, evidenced by the saxophones. His lyrics are nonsensical, but somehow make sense. So what I'm saying is that he's essentially a walking, singing paradox. Yeah, I dig those.

2. "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked"/Cage the Elephant-Ah, thank you, something straight-forward. While Cage the Elephant betrays southern roots here with a little country and folk twang, this song is purely mesmerizing rock and roll. The saga-like story-telling lyrics are all folk, but the acoustic guitar hook is 100% clever, polished rock.

3. "Don't Dream It's Over"/Crowded House-Another gem from the Adventureland soundtrack, Crowded House sounds like a band that was an '80's one-hit-wonder, though they actually went platinum in their native Australia for the release of their fifth album, Time on Earth. The song is relaxed with an undeniably mellow, catchy hook, and a sort of melancholy main-stream appeal--like a pared-down, much shallower version of a Smiths song. Which doesn't make it any less good.

4. "The Midnight Choir"/The Thrills-Teenager, Dublin rockers The Thrills' third album, signifies a break from their usual California-inspired classic surfer music love affair to more morose, carefully crafted alternative stuff. While the California guitars are still there, the vocals have become significantly more stylized. "The Midnight Choir" is surprisingly fast-paced for a song playing with nostalgic sadness, but the odd combination works in interesting ways.

5. "Gold Lion"/Yeah Yeah Yeahs-I'll be the first to admit I've never understood the buzz around the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Perhaps with time my opinion will differ, but for now "Gold Lion" remains my favorite offering of their range of spare garage rock revival offerings. The rawness of Karen O's vocals and the meanness and simplicity of the guitars make the beat of the song easily accessible so that it becomes, almost against the listener's will, addictive.

6. "Our Lips Are Sealed"/The Go-Go's-Another band I'm not such a fan of, the Go-Go's are undeniably one of the quintessential bands of the '80's, and "Our Lips Are Sealed" makes it apparent why. Using clever and direct arrangement and instrumentation, the Go-Go's power-pop sound is well-honed and well-crafted for easy listening.

7. "Swollen Summer"/The Bravery-Okay, it's one of the dumbest songs ever from an album which is stunningly mediocre. But I still love it. I can't really justify it, except that those siren-like guitars and the lyrics "looks like a swollen summer/what if I'm getting dumber?" have wormed their way into my heart over the years. Hey, I'm allowed a guilty pleasure, aren't I? Besides, it's a perfect summer song to obnoxiously blare out the car windows.

8. "Moment"/Gran Bel Fisher-You have to at least give him credit for not singing about love, drugs, depression, or surfing. Instead, GBF sings about being in the moment, and music. So yeah, not terribly original, but not generic, either. This is pretty standard college rock, but it helps that his voice is smoky and rather sexy, and it has a nice southerny tinge to it.

9. "Diamond Hoo Ha Man"/Supergrass-Supergrass is kind of an interesting band; they're classified as alternative, though they kind of steal superficial genre styles from all over the place. Anyway, this strange gem is a catchy song about a thief...who is either personifying his diamonds in an extended metaphor ("I gotta get you in my suitcase"), or is a serial killer putting women in his suitcase after he "love[s] [them] all night long." What I was talking about with the superficiality is that though the guitars are unnaturally heavy and low in the song, the song itself isn't particularly weighty.

10. "Fever Dreams"/Dashboard Confessional-Ah, why can't you put out more delightfully compact pop songs like this, Dashboard? Why do you have to walk the fine line of emodome all the time? This is one of the rare Dashboard songs I actually like, probably because it stays on the acoustic side of things, Chris Carraba manages to sing mostly from the chest and not the nose, and the lyrics are sweet and honest.

-elln

Revolutionary Road (movie)

Frank and April Wheeler are the ideal young couple in 1950's suburbia--bright, vibrant, and convinced that their home on Revolutionary Road isn't permanent. Frank and April's huge argument erupts as a result of that dream shattering, with Frank's dead-end job not exactly lending itself commensurate to his romantic visions of life. April suggests a return to the spirit of youth and spontaneity in the form of a move to Paris, and Frank eventually agrees, but it seems that life and reality have other plans for the couple.

This movie has so many powerhouses behind it, it's hard to imagine a version where it turned out badly. It's directed by Sam Mendes, who did American Beauty which is a gorgeous, gorgeous film; it reunites Mendes' very own wife Kate Winslet with romantic Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio; it's got Kathy Bates; and it's based on one of the greatest triumphs of modern fiction, Richard Yates' novel of the same name.

The direction is a visual feast, and credit must be given to the set designer--I even recognized earthenware my grandmother had from the fifties.

But on to the characters, and the plot, and the writing. The examination of the relationship between Frank and April (and Revolutionary Road) is the key to the entire story; in fact, one reason I had so much trouble relating to them was that I couldn't imagine any normal people who paid so little attention to their children. Most of the time the children didn't exist in the film (probably an authorial and therefore directorial choice to lend more focus to the leads--but it's still incredibly jarring that the children appear briefly, and only when it's convenient).

The film got its point across very cleanly, and the tragedy was unpredictable without knowing the source material. Frank was relatable as a character until he sold out for security; unfortunately, April's character was chilly at best, although by the end she had somehow become the most sympathetic. This movie is an odd creature in that it brings you so incredibly close to two human beings, yet a connection is still difficult to establish. You can only sit there, wishing you could change things for the better, hoping you can knock some sense into these people as Helen Givings' (Kathy Bates) lunatic son tries to do (played in a stunning performance by Michael Shannon). And while Winslet and DiCaprio's performances are central to the film, the tremendous talent of the supporting cast truly evens out the tone of the film.

Unfortunately for us, tragedy is inevitable, and in an ironic twist of fate it's no longer Frank we sympathize with, but April. And while it may be enlightening and gruesome to watch the drama unfold, I have to question how much of a ring of truth some of it felt. Aside from the children not existing, a lot of the explosive fights had dialogue that felt a touch histrionic, with many "Oh God, April,"s, and "Jesus, Frank"s. Sometimes this was even enough to distract from the scene when I had to ask myself Would this really happen? Would someone just come out and say that? A brilliant film in the study of the human condition, and phenomenal taken as a whole, Revolutionary Road nonetheless lacks the heart and relatability which make so many other films a success. That doesn't make it any less worth seeing, though. Just don't expect to get too invested.

-elln

PAPRIKA

If America is the King of Live-Action, then no one can compete with the King of Animation: Japan. If you know anything about film outside of America, that fact should be obvious. And if you follow film here, you may recall a shining gem called Spirited Away which won a 2001 Oscar for Best Animated Feature and is, according to Wikipedia, the highest-grossing film at the box office in Japan ever.

Don't worry, all of this has a point. Because you see, the director of Spirited Away may be the only widely-known anime director in America, and the term "widely-known" is optimistic. The man who should also be acknowledged is Satoshi Kon, who has made everything from the R-rated Perfect Blue to the family-friendly Tokyo Godfathers.

Paprika came out in 2006 to relative laudation and notoriety here in the states, as it well should have been. The movie is a visual masterpiece, with its story bested only by its artistic direction. Kon is the master of confusing dreams and reality, and this movie is written to give him the best excuse he's ever had to show off that particular talent.

A new device called the DC Mini has been developed in the near-future, and it allows people to record, play back, and even enter, other people's dreams. Developed by Dr. Kosaku Tokita, an immature genius whose incredibly obese body houses the mind of a child, his associate Dr. Atsuko Chiba hopes to use the device to treat her patient's psychological illnesses. The device is controversial, however, as the hospital director believes it's a dangerous invasion of privacy. All hell breaks loose, however, when the device is stolen while it's in the development stage and before it's legal. Suddenly, acts of terrorism by the thief via the DC Mini begin to break down the walls between reality and dreams, and it's up to Dr. Chiba and her dream alter-ego, Paprika, to stop the collision.

The visuals are done by Madhouse Studios and they're a sumptuous feast for the eyes; the opening credits sequence is especially clever. The plot itself isn't that complicated; it's the progression of events and the strange sliding of the dreams that keep you unequivocally involved. It's a movie with more width than it has depth, but it has enough depth to make you think about the implications of future technology-both the good and the bad. Most of the time you're so overwhelmed (in a good way) that it's just enough to sit back and enjoy the ride. Although the villain's story regresses from genuine concern over, perhaps, mankind's other final frontier, to a power-trip, the other characters are so full of eccentricities that it's easy to miss his deficiencies. Also, Susumu Hirasawa's music is ethereal and zany.

I haven't seen the sub, although I should see it; however, to get a full experience and focus on the visuals, I would highly recommend the excellent English dub.

If you're a fan of luscious, surreal experiences, thrillers, drama, science-fiction, gorgeous direction, and mind-blowing stories which require an open mind, this is your movie.

-elln

Public Enemies

John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is America's Most Wanted criminal in the 1930's. A notorious bank robber, his notoriety soon becomes his undoing as crime syndicates begin to see him as a liability and J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) sends his best agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) in pursuit of Dillinger in a push to establish the FBI.

Enemies is an interesting movie- intense, dark, and racy in atmosphere. Dillinger's fling-turned-love with Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) is impulsive and seems poorly developed except that it somehow manages to make its few scenes genuine. Dillinger's character is fascinating. He is portrayed as extremely loyal to friends and family, and he prioritizes public opinion directly after money and Billie. He also totes a gun all the time in the film, but rarely kills anyone, preferring to take hostages over murdering. Speaking of which, on a side note, there is a good one-minute or more spent on a massive gunfight and I've never heard Dolby SurroundSound that loudly. Bad choice on the volume-I was this close to covering my ears.

I'm a Christian Bale fan and he definitely delivered as hard-nosed agent Purvis, blurring the moral lines between the FBI and the criminals they hunt (particularly relevant to the last eight years, eh?). Depp's performance was excellent too- it's always nice to see him outside of his weird roles (such as that awful adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Cotillard was the warmest and most compelling of the bunch, however.

I had two main issues with the film. The first is more minor but nevertheless important: the score. It was inconsistent to the point of eye-rolling when instead of the lovely '30's jazz or folksy bad boy tunes we got sweeping orchestral scores for scenes that didn't really deserve it. Scenes involving Billie were especially susceptible.

The other flaw of the film is that it can't decide (or rather Michael Mann couldn't decide) if it's a hard, gritty take on a real-life infamous public figure, or a throwback to classic gangster movies with all the romanticism and bravado of idealized tragic crime. Still, it makes for an interesting dichotomy, and if you like history, particularly American crime history, and intense character-studies, this is a must-see.

-elln

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (movie)

After the near-travesty of the fourth film and the "business-as-usual" tone of film #5, I went into Half-Blood Prince decidedly apprehensive-and I left it pleasantly surprised.

For those who have been following the movies, a short synopsis: Voldemort has come into the open and Harry is being heralded as The Chosen One. Harry, Hermione, and Ron return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry amid the chaos of Death Eaters in the open, and Hogwarts is quickly becoming their last oasis. But while hormones are running rampant, Dumbledore has a special mission for Harry: to delve into the past of Tom Riddle a.k.a Lord Voldemort and unravel the secret to defeating him.

I'll first comment on how beautiful the cinematography was. Even book purists shouldn't mind the burrow-burning scene just because of the wheat field film. The arrangment of objects within the frame, the lighting, and the transitions were all spectacular.

On top of that, it helps that the sixth book isn't action-packed until the end. Yates shines as a director when given the time for character development and exploration. Sure, a few key scenes are cut from the plot (most noticeably the Marvolo Gaunt ring backstory, which I expect will be worked into one of the two next films) but the film moves at a much more comfortable pace than its predecessor. It even manages to tackle teenage heart break in a realistic and touching fashion; the Harry Potter movies haven't been this good since The Prisoner of Azkaban. On the other hand the film could have spent less time on Draco Malfoy, and developed the Harry-Ginny relationship past the staring-and-drooling-intensely-at-each-other part. Lastly, I have to say that I miss Richard Harris sorely. Michael Gambon doesn't do it for me.

-elln

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present: Dark Night of the Soul

Don't go looking for this in stores, kids. It's not legal yet due to a dispute between Brian Burton and record company EMI, so instead Burton & co. have been selling the 100+ page photography narrative done by David Lynch as well as a CD case with a blank CD--subtly encouraging legally questionable downloading of the album.

And what an album it is. I hope they work the deal out because I can't remember the last time I so fell in love with an album. Danger Mouse of Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkley fame has teamed up with lesser-known electro-rocker Sparklehorse and multiple musical powerhouses to create an absolute gem of an album.

We start with "Revenge" featuring The Flaming Lips, and if you've heard anything by the Flaming Lips the bell in the opener of this song gives them away in a second. The song is dark and moody but also laid-back. It's absolutely gorgeous, floating along on a psychadelic wave, building up to smooth and painful choruses and then cresting gently down. "Just War" features Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, with whose work I'm unfamililar. While electronic elements are certainly present, there's a little country thrown in with the rock. Much of the album overall is tough to classify, something I consider to be a true triumph. This is a song which grows on you because of the hook, especially the hard-hitting keyboard; it continues the mellow tone of the album as a whole. "Jaykub" is an odd little animal. It features Jason Lytle of Grandaddy and sports a distinctly folksy sound over the experimental noises in the background.

The cool and collected tone of the album continues with the next track, one of the crowning jewels of the album entitled "Little Girl" and featuring Julian Casablancas of the Strokes. While Casablancas' influence is certainly present, the subject matter is much darker and more sohpisticated than the Strokes' usual fare, which only serves to illustrate the power of the collaboration. I don't know what else to say except that it couldn't really be a more perfect song.

The mellow atmosphere of the album breaks when we get to Black Francis' guest vocals on "Angel's Harp." Again, though, the album seems to have toned things down as the song doesn't really have the same rawness of Pixies songs, nor are Francis' vocals particularly screechy. It's a weird song and will probably please fans but not necessarily the unconverted. In fact, I'd say this song and the next track, "Pain" featuring Iggy Pop, are album weak points. Since it's hard rock and not tightly crafted pop or purist punk, it's a lot tougher to get away with repetitiveness.

David Lynch (who is normally an avant-garde director) holds his own vocally as Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse return to psychedelic meandering dream pop with "Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It)." Jason Lytle returns to sing in the eerie, haunting, regretful "Every Time I'm With You," which is completely different from his earlier appearance on the album. The driving force of the song is a sort of muffled distorted circus tune in the background layered behind a quiet piano and other synth effects. "Insane Lullaby" has an even stranger array of synth, electronic, and occasional orchestral noises. However it features one of my personal favorite guests, James Mercer of The Shins. Unfortunately, no matter how strangely compelling the song is, I'm not sure the music complements his voice quite.

The album goes out of experimental mode and back into a some country swing with Nina Persson of The Cardigan's vocals unobtrusively crooning in the background. "Daddy's Gone" is a sweet, relaxed tune, but not a particularly strong one for the album. "Daddy's Gone" is followed by another of the album's subtly power-packed highlights, "The Man Who Played God." Suzanne Vega sings beautifully for this mellow treat, supported by pretty acoustic guitars. In "Grim Augury" the off-kilter, mournful circus/showtune returns in the background; the vocals are by Vic Chesnutt, another solo artist whose work I'm unfamiliar with. The lyrics are sad and blues-like, and the modernized blues continue in the final track, "Dark Night of the Soul," which sounds like something one of my favorite artists might concoct. The album ends on a lingering, eerie, and distinctly electronic combined with blues/soul note.

This album is short, sweet, low-key, and magnificent.

-elln