Sound Bites

Room Service

Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited premieres at the New York Film Festival tonight and will be in two NYC theaters tomorrow. Having not really liked The Royal Tenenbaums and full-on disliking The Life Aquatic, I am wary... but hopeful this will be back on track. Reviews are decidedly mixed. That AmEx commercial was amazing, right?

For those who don't live in Manhattan and have to wait to find out, you can get a taste via Hotel Chevalier, Anderson's short film "prologue" to The Darjeeling Limited. They aren't going to show it with the film for some reason, though it'll be on the DVD. You can download it for free from iTunes, however, and I really encourage you to do so. At 12 minutes, it's funny, sad, charming and just about perfect, with more genuine emotion than anything in Aquatic.

It also features "Where Do You Go to My Lovely," Peter Sarstedt's lovely, Francophilic single from 1969 that spent six weeks at #1 on the UK pop charts. I'd never heard the original before watching Hotel Chevalier, but I knew the song via a cover version done for a 1992 compilation called Ruby Trax that celebrated NME's 40th anniversary. Performed by Welfare Heroine (a one-off group made up of NME staffers at the time, I think... anyone) the cover takes a Saint Etienne meets The Wolfgang Press approach to the song, making it danceable but maintaining the original's classy, Frenchy vibe.

MP3: Welfare Heroine - Where Do You Go to My Lovely?

Product Shop NYC has an MP3 of the original tune. And David Amsden's feature on Anderson in this week's New York is well worth reading (Guess what? He's just like his movies!).

...and the Really Long Title

So the only thing interesting to come out of last night's horrendous VMA's was Shia LeBeouf letting everyone know the title of the new Indiana Jones movie: ... And the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. If nothing else, this should increase the number of hits on one of Seattle's more underrated bands. Quick guys, write a song called "Indiana Jones" or "I've got a Jones for Indiana" or some variation on that theme... maybe Spielberg will use it!

MP3: Crystal Skulls - Hussy (from 2005's Blocked Numbers)

MP3: Crystal Skulls - Baby Boy (from 2006's Outgoing Behavior)

Dead Souls

Anton Corbijn was the obvious choice to make a movie about Ian Curtis. The Holland-born photographer moved to Manchester after hearing Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, and his photo of the band, taken from behind in a Tube station, is the iconic image of the group. (He also directed the posthumous, pretentious, and silly video for "Atmosphere").

Was he the right choice? Debatable, but probably. In the press notes for Control, he repeatedly complains about being stigmatized as a "rock photographer" and that he had no desire to make a music-related film as his first feature. He agreed to make it once he realized Control would be made with him or without him and he preferred not to have someone else mess it up. While you can't tell Ian Curtis' story without telling some of Joy Division's story, Control is definitely not about the inner-workings of one of post-punk's most influential bands. For that, or at least more than you get here, rent Michael Winterbottom's superb 24 Hour Party People.

Corbijn does a good job of fleshing out the enigma (played by newcomer Sam Riley), whom most of us only know through his bleak lyrics, impassioned vocals, photos and performances caught on video. As much as he can. It seems apparent that nobody really knew the introverted singer, not his bandmates, not Tony Wilson, not Corbijn, not even his widow Deborah, on whose book, Touching from a Distance, the movie is based. Curtis is not portrayed as a brooding sourpuss stereotype. This is someone who laughed, had fun, worked at the Job Centre by day and was in a band at night. A guy who enjoyed being in a band... at least until his epilepsy got worse and was forced to take a variety of medications to control his seizures, drugs that significantly altered his mood.

Problem is, Corbijn doesn't do much speculating as to why Curtis did it, so what we're left with is a bit dramatically thin. Unlike the "Atmosphere" video, he thankfully doesn't put Curtis on a pedestal. The man was also no saint, neglecting his wife and infant daughter, sneaking out of the house to go on tour, leaving for weeks without calling or letting her know where he was. He also carried on an affair with a Belgian fanzine writer, Annik Honoré, for the last two years of his life.

Riley, in the crucial role, does a fine job as Curtis. He also can sing like him. Actually, one of the most effective parts of the film is that the people hired to play Curtis, Steven Morris, Bernard Sumner, and Peter hook, are actually playing in the perfomance scenes. And they're great, they've got it down. Except... the one area where Riley disappoints is his dancing. If you've ever seen footage of Curtis onstage, it's like he's in a trance, an out of body experience. To name another Mancunian, Riley's dancing is more like Bez.

Samantha Morton, the only marquee name here, brings some emotional heft as Deborah Curtis -- the scene where she discovers Curtis' body is absolutely heartbreaking. But it's a supporting role in this scattershot film that doesn't really know what it wants to be. As you'd expect from Corbijn, Control is gorgeous to look at, with his signature super-high-contrast black and white photography that changes to blue tint and then sepia as the film progresses. He gets the period details right (including an appearance by the real John Cooper-Clarke, performing his f-ing classic "Evidently Chickentown")) and he doesn't overload it with music, though the song accompanying the final shot is a bit obvious.

The real question is, who is the audience for Control? Joy Division fans will surely want more of the band, Martin Hannet, Rob Gretton, and Tony Wilson; and everyone else is likely to wonder what all the fuss is about. Control is not a bad film, just a disjointed one. And probably unnecessary. The music is testament enough.

MP3: Joy Division - Dead Souls (Buy it)

Control is released October 10 in the U.S.

Dropping Like Flies

Jeez, first Bergman and now Antonioni? Sad week for cineastes. I still have no idea what Zabriskie Point is about (then again, neither did he), but for my money, Michael Bay doesn't hold a roman candle to Antonioni when it comes to blowing up stuff.

Are there any major directors who got their start in the '40s who are still with us?

Insert Comic Book Guy Quote Here: It's the Simpsons Movie Review

"I can't believe we're paying for something we could get for free on TV." -- Homer Simpson, The Simpsons Movie.

Exactly. Eighteen years in the making, we get a pretty funny 86-minute Simpsons episode. Not Season 4 funny, not even Season 8 funny, but not bad. But, honestly, it's nothing special.

On the plus side, there are less celebrity guest stars than your average current episode -- I counted only  three, one of whom provides the movie's biggest laughs. (It's not Green Day.) Another, frequent guest voice Albert Brooks (Brad Goodman, Hank Scorpio, Bowling instructor Jacques), is funny as always as an EPA brass who is the defacto villain.

But the story -- Homer messes up with catastrophic results -- although grander in scope, is basically one we've seen dozens of times before. The biggest flaw for me, and David Poland of Movie City News also pointed this out, is that the writers pull much of the story out of Springfield and alway from the townsfolk. Mr. Burns and Smithers get a very, very short scene. Krusty gets maybe two lines. So does Moe. Principal Skinner gets one line. Lenny gets one line. Carl gets one line. Willy... nothing! None of them, apart from Flanders, is really intrinsic to the story. Maybe this is what happens on episodes these days --  I stopped watching regularly about six years ago.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone knew how to take a TV show and turn it into something bigger, wilder, funnier for the Big Screen. I think The Simpsons Movie was over-thought, with the edges dulled and the schmaltz factor upped. (Blame James L. Brooks for that.) One of my complaints of later Simpsons seasons was that they took away the heart, which made episodes like "Maggie Makes Three" so good. But on TV they only get 20 seconds of sentiment, but here you get long scenes of introspection. Again, it's in now way bad. Just disappointing. I guess. It'll probably play better on TV.

Tea Time

If you went to see Danny Boyle's new sci-fi flick, Sunshine, this weekend you probably saw the trailer to The Darjeeling Limited, the fifth film from Wes Anderson, which is now online.

I am on the fence about Anderson. I loved Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, but he seemed to just repeat himself with The Royal Tennenbaums and The Life Aquatic. And they became increasingly cold, sterile and ironic for me, missing the heart that collaborator Owen Wilson brought to the scripts. (That's how I perceive it anyway. I know Wilson is credited with co-scripting Tennenbaums, but I'm told he had very little to do with it.) Anderson also seemed more interested in the little details -- the clothes, what books were on the shelves -- than in the story or characterizations. It's like the old Starkist Tuna commercials: we don't want a tuna with good taste, we want tuna that tastes good.*

The Darjeeling trailer is pretty entertaining, and 100% Anderson in style, from the title cards, to the broken family storyline, and the Kinks songs. But you can make any movie look good in a trailer. The screenplay was cowritten by star Jason Schwartzman and his cousin Roman Copolla (whose film CQ is also on the sterile side, though I liked it; he was also Second Unit director on Life Aquatic) so here's they will bring a little humanity back to Anderson's world, or at least pull him in a different direction. Also: no Mark Mothersbaugh this time, instead using music from the films of Satyajit Ray (maker of the wonderful Apu trilogy, among other things) and Merchant Ivory -- presumably the early films of the latter, the ones set in India like The Guru and Bombay Talkie.

I want to like Anderson's films again. His recent Amex commercial is genius. Please do something different this time, Wes. Please. Anyway, here it is in Quicktime format, better to enjoy Anderson's meticulously-designed composition. Gorilla Vs. Bear has the mp3 of the Kinks song, "This Time Tomorrow," used in the trailer.


*Though the slogan really did its job, I never understood why Charlie wanted be a be caught, killed, and processed into a can of Starkist.

Everything's All Knocked Up

There has been enough written about Judd Apatow's new comedy Knocked Up in the last few weeks that I no longer feel a need to write a review of the movie. I saw it about six weeks ago and, not  to add to the hype, but it's pretty great, very funny, and a better film than The 40-Year-Old Virgin. There may not be one scene as uproariously funny as the chest-waxing scene in Virgin, but you'll laugh more throughout.

Knocked Up is loose, like most of Apatow's work, with probably a good half hour that could have been lost without hurting the story one bit. Of course, those are some of the funniest moments. Apatow also for the first time seems to be able to balance his improv-based working style with a bit of visual flair. I'm pretty sure the camera moved in at least a couple scenes.

Fans of Judd Apatow's previous work will be particularly happy as it features appearances by nearly every castmember of Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared. though you're likely to exclaim, "whoa, is that Bill Haverchuck?" The whole cast is great, but any scene with Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd is pure comedy gold. A set-piece where they go to Vegas and experience Cirque du Soleil as it was meant to be experienced is one of the funniest things I've seen all year. (And the delivery room scene... to quote Steve Carell in Virgin, "Wow. This is graphic.") Even more than his previous film, Knocked Up appeals equally to dudes and ladies -- it's going to be one of the biggest hits of the summer, getting a lot of repeat viewings... heck, I may go to see it again this weekend.

That was more of a review than I intended, but so be it. There has been lots of Apatow-related stuff in the last week, and here's the best of it.

Judd was the cover story on this past Sunday's issue of the NY Times Magazine. It's a great read. The Times Website has some nice supplemental material, including an mp3 of Judd interviewing Jerry Seinfeld for his high school radio station. (Seinfeld mispronounces "Apatow.") There's also a funny video of Apatow and Rogen discussing that giving writer Stephen Rodrick such close  access may have been a horrible mistake.

Meanwhile, the AV Club has a great interview with Rogen, who looks to have a very good year with three major films released before 2007's end: Superbad (which he wrote and has a small part in) and The Pineapple Express, an action-comedy he wrote and stars in that is directed by... wait for it... David Gordon Green.

The soundtrack features another Apatow mainstay, his musical hero, Louden Wainwright III -- a brave choice when you figure the studio probably would've preferred it to have Fergie and Maroon 5. There actually is lots of hip hop and modern pop in the movie, but the soundtrack is typical, dark and funny Wainwright. It's more a Wainwright record than a soundtrack, actually, given the title is Strange Weirdos - Music from and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up. In addition to the songs, Louden, who played Steven Karp's divorced dad in Undeclared, has a funny part in the film as one of Katherine Heigl's many obstetricians. If not my normal cup of tea, Strange Weirdos is quite a nice record.

MP3: Louden Wainwright III - Grey in L.A. (Buy it)

And, saving the best for last like the dummy that I am, according to an interview on About.com, Apatow reveals that one of the planned Knocked Up DVD extras will be a "fake documentary about how Seth Rogen was the tenth choice to play the lead. So during our shoot we would have actors come and perform a scene and then I would fire them. We had James Franco do it, Justin Long, David Krumholtz, Allen Covert. I did it. There was a moment where I think I should be the lead as an actor/director. Orlando Bloom did it. It’s really funny." Michael Cera (of Arrested Development and the upcoming Superbad) is also in it, and his scene has hit the internet:

I've got one more bit, which is long, so you'll have to click past the jump for it...

Control at Cannes: The Reviews are In

Anton Corjbin's hotly anticipated Ian Curtis biopic, Control, debuted at Cannes today as part of the Director's Fortnight series, and both of showbiz's two biggest trades have weighed in.

Variety gives it a rave, full of their annoying in-house jargon: "Somber, sad and compelling, Ian Curtis biopic Control, about Blighty '80s post-punk band Joy Division's lead singer, is a riveting, visually arresting portrait of a soul in torment. Central perf by Sam Riley is a winner, surrounded by a strong ensemble of thesps. First feature helming bow by photographer Anton Corbijn manages to present working-class Northern England in a wide range of appealing grays that make the description "black-and-white film" inadequate. Widely anticipated by the band's legion of fans, pic is assured a warm welcome and a successful worldwide tour." (Read the whole review)

The Hollywood Reporter, however, is less enthusiastic: "Any biography of a fringe performer with a cult following must give the uninitiated some clue as to what the fuss was about or it will never appeal beyond a small circle. Anton Corbijn's "Control," covering the short life of 1970s British rocker Ian Curtis of Joy Division, captures the period nicely. It features lots of music from that time, and it has decent performances, but it fails to make the case for its fallen star," adding later in the review, "Curtis is made to look like a bland grammar school boy who leaves wife, baby, girlfriend, bandmates and fans in the lurch because he can't stand the heat of fame." (Read the full review)

Ouch. I'm guessing THR reviewer Ray Bennett is not a Joy Division fan. The rest of us will get to make up our own minds when Control makes it's stateside debut this fall, date tbd. To tide you over, here's LCD Soundsystem's cover of "No Love Lost" (not used in the film) from their "All My Friends" single:

MP3: LCD Soundsystem - No Love Lost

Neworderonline has loads of stills from the movie.

You Fill Me Inertia

Time to give the Devil his due. One of my favorite films ever is Stanley Donen's 1967 farce Bedazzled, staring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore> (The two also wrote the screenplay.) The film takes Faust and puts it in the middle of swinging London. Dudley Moore is Stanley Moon, a sad little fry cook at Wimpy's Hamburgers who trades his soul to Peter Cook's George Spiggott (aka The Devil) after a failed suicide attempt. All Stanley wants is for the girl of his dreams to fall in love with him. But, as the story goes, the Devil twists his words, only technically giving Stanley what he wished for, but not really.

Though the "granted" wishes are broad (One involving nuns and trampolines, couldn't be broader or funnier), the best parts are in between -- Stanley and George's conversations about theology, morality, organized religion, and the nature of evil. "There was a time when I used to get lots of ideas," George tells Stanley. "I thought up the Seven Deadly Sins in one afternoon. The only thing I've come up with recently is advertising." (And in this film the Seven Deadly sins are personified. Raquel Welch plays Lust.)

This is the stuff that was entirely gutted from the 2000 remake starring Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser, and the less said about that the better. But it's the only one most people even know about, partly because the original has never been released on DVD... until now. Out today, FOX has done a nice job with the disc, cleaning up the print and the audio, as well as including some from-the-time interviews, the trailer, photo stills, and a new interview with Harold Ramis who I'm hoping spends most of his time apologizing for directing the remake.

But even without extras, it would be worth buying. Apart from the nuns sequence, my favorite part is when Stanley wishes that girls would be screaming for him and suddenly we're on the set of a pop music TV show like Shindig! or Top of the Pops. Dudley Moore belts out, Tom Jones-style, the pleading number "Love Me." The girls go wild. But no sooner than it's done, the camera spins over to the other side of the stage where the Devil launches into his own song, "Bedazzled," (based on the same music as "Love Me") and the girls go even crazier, despite his emotionless read of lyrics like "You fill me with inertia." Fame is fickle.

MP3: Dudley Moore - Love Me

MP3: Peter Cook - Bedazzled

Both songs were written by Dudley Moore (who wrote the movie's soundtrack), with Peter Cook providing lyrics for "Bedazzled." The latter has been covered by Bongwater, Nick Cave & Anita Lane, Pussy Galore and others.

Buy Bedazzled.

As a little bonus, here's a song Cook & Moore actually released as a single, a parody of the trippy psychedelia of the day. Even though the voices were a dead giveaway, some people actually speculated it was The Beatles under a pseudonym.

MP3: Peter Cook & Dudley Moore - The L.S. Bumble Bee

There are clips of the movie on YouTube, but why spoil it for those who haven't seen it. Instead, here is one of the DVD bonus features, an interview with George Spiggott himself:

URGH! A TiVo Alert

Thanks to Heather over at Ugly Floral Blouse for pointing out that VH1 Classics is showing seminal post-punk/new wave concert film Urgh! A Music War tonight (10/30) at 9PM. If you've never seen it, Urgh! features performances by Echo & the Bunnymen, Gang of Four, XTC, Wall of Voodoo, Devo, Joan Jett, the Cramps, Gary Newman, Klaus Nomi and many, many more when what they were doing was actually fresh. Other than Penelope Spheeris' Decline of Western Civilization, this is the most important punk/new wave film that has yet to be released on DVD. (Except for those who don't worry about legalities.)

There are several different versions of Urgh! floating around, so who knows which one VH1 Classics will actually show. The last time I know it was televised, on IFC in 1999, the footage of Gary Newman's "Down in the Park" (perhaps the film's most classic moment, along with Nomi's "Total Eclipse") was not included. When the Onion screened it at Anthology Film Archives last year, other footage (Pere Ubu, 999) was missing. But whatever version is being shown is worth catching.

Some of the footage is just incredible. Gang of Four's "He'd Send in the Army," Klaus Nomi vamping it up in "Total Eclipse," The Cramps' Lux Interior doing awful things to a microphone (I feel bad for whoever had to use it afterwards), and Gary Newman driving a weird little go-kart onstage... classic stuff. Plus bands you've never heard from since: Skafish, Invisible Sex, and the unforgettable (if hard-to-pronounce) Splodgenessabounds. Plus, for you sting fans, two songs by the Police.

Of course, a lot of it has found it's way onto YouTube, but if you consider yourself a music fan at all, you owe it to yourself to see this essential document of a vital era in music.

From the soundtrack:

MP3: Gary Numan - "Down in the Park" and Wall of Voodoo - "Back in Flesh"