Once

The Oscar nominations are out this morning and even though I don't get out to the movies quite like I used to, my first thought was ... wow, what an odd, highbrow year. Just when you think that American civilization has completely bottomed out, Cormac McCarthy and Upton Sinclair are in the running for Best Picture.

But the biggest, most pleasant surprise of the morning was from the most unexpected, moving film I have seen in quite some time. Among the nominations for Best Original Song -- "Falling Slowly" from the film "Once," by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. You can see the video above.

It's a beautiful song and beautiful film. I can't say enough about it. In a film landscape when everything seems to be an onslaught of robotic violence, serial killers and trite fantasies for the Bratz generation, along comes this quiet little realistic Irish film that is sweet and touching. It's just a simple story of two people sort of falling for each other and making music. And we find -- not surprisingly -- that people's lives are complicated things.

But unlike many music films, the story doesn't take a backseat to the music or vice versa. Hansard and Irglova are two very capable musicians who can also act. The music doesn't feel like a departure from the narrative thread -- it moves it forward.

Do yourself a favor and see this movie. And tell a friend. You'll be glad you did.

UPDATE: The Onion AV Club interview with Glen Hansard.

The Future Is Unwritten

Because Fort Worth still doesn't have its shit together enough to offer a true art house movie theater, PeteG and I trucked it over to Dallas to see Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, the story of The Clash lead singer who died five years ago.

Joe Strummer and The Clash represented an important part of my youth. It may seem a bit much to point to a band as a consciousness-raising tool, but The Clash were just that. They were proof that you didn't have to accept things the way they were -- whether you were talking about your frustration with hearing the same five songs on the radio or your frustration with your own angst-ridden teen-age existence. Someone once said that The Clash were the only band that ever mattered, and I always took it as the God's-honest-truth.

But teen-agers just love loud, frustration-venting rock and roll and if you watch the clip above, you can see it open with Strummer belting out White Riot with face-melting intensity. What teen wouldn't love that? But what surprises about The Clash isn't that I found them essential at 15, it's that I still find the music to be meaningful when I'm staring down the barrel of 40. Circumstances have changed, but the music is still relevant. Like all great music, whether you are talking about Beethoven or the Beatles, there is a universal truth at the core of it that hasn't diminished.

While some hear The Clash and find only punk rock nihilism, I always heard optimism. The theme that ran through Strummer's music and his life always came back to one message -- you are not a victim of circumstances, you have choices. Life is what you make of it. The future is unwritten.

You can't tell the story of Joe Strummer without telling the story of the Clash, but whether talking about the man or his band, the message was the same. In the clip below, the spotlight may be on Mick Jones, but the words and the sensibility are pure Joe Strummer -- Stay Free.

"Cos years have passed and things have changed
And I move anyway I wanna go.
I'll never forget the feeling I got
When I heard that you'd got home.
And I'll never forget the smile on my face
cos I knew where you would be.
And if you're in the crowd tonight
Have a drink on me.
But go easy... step lightly...
Stay free."

Merrily, Merrily Going to Florida

Fort Worth restauranteur/filmmaker James M. Johnston writes that his short film, Merrily, Merrily has been accepted in the shorts program at the 2008 Sarasota Film Festival. Congratulations, James!


Merrily, Merrily - Trailer from James M. Johnston on Vimeo.

Lone Star International Film Festival

If you haven't been down to check out the screenings yet, go downtown for the Lone Star International Film Festival, going on all weekend. And if you want to read about it, head over to West and Clear for the low-down. Last night, I saw a couple of movies and ended up latching on to Bill Paxton's entourage. Kind of surreal.

Monday Morning Whimsy

For your consideration and to give you three more minutes to not be productive, I give you the new Wes Anderson AT&T commercials:







Anderson's new comedic road drama, "The Darjeeling Limited," lands in theaters Oct. 5.

NED?! Ned Ryerson!

I love the movie Groundhog Day. But who would've thought that Ned Ryerson, played by Stephen Tobolowsky was in a garage band with Stevie Ray Vaughan during his Kimball High School days in Dallas? If you don't believe me, check out the Filter magazine interview with Tobolowsky, or skip to the good parts at Unfair Park.

Wes Anderson's New Movie

Wes Anderson's new movie, The Darjeeling Limited, a comedy about three brothers re-forging family bonds, is due in theaters on Sept. 29. The eldest, played by Wilson, hopes to reconnect with his two younger siblings (Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman) by taking them on a train trip across the vibrant and sensual landscape of India. The film's script has been bouncing around on online bulletin board for months and according to one web description, the three brothers are on a trek through India to find an albino tiger that’s actually their reincarnated father. Sez Anderson, don't believe everything you read on teh internets. I agree. View the the trailer here and see for yourself.

What The Hell Is An Aluminum Falcon?!

I love me some Star Wars. And I love me some fake Star Wars too. If you haven't checked out the Robot Chicken Star Wars parody from Adult Swim, you need to watch this. Who would have thought Seth Green could do something so funny?

Weekend Odds and Ends

The Hamburger Pimp is dead! Fort Worth's Vanius Murray "VP" Rackstraw, co-star of the blaxplotation classic Dolomite, died April 14 at age 65. The obit ran in the Saturday Startlegram. Why the delay? Evidently, Rackstraw "remained at the funeral home for a month because the convalescent facility where he died lost his death certificate. His mother had him cremated him May 7, but money and transportation issues kept her from submitting his obituary notice until this week." There are some great moments in this obit, like "Family members said Mr. Rackstraw was a devout Muslim who loved Muhammad Ali, Richard Nixon and, of course, his mother." Nixon?! WTF?! Take some time to read this. It's worth it.

Ornette Coleman collapsed onstage while performing at the Bonnaroo Festival this past weekend. Apparently, he was suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration. Coleman was given fluids, taken to a local hospital and released a few hours later.

This story about Tarrant Sex Predators on MySpace seemed like the perfect mix of public service and prurience for a Sunday read. But this lead really jumped out at me:

Tarrant County prosecutor Lori Varnell looked at the teen-age girl’s MySpace page, and a red flag went up.

The teen had included too much personal information -- enough for anyone, including a sexual predator, to find her.

With a few clicks of a mouse and an online directory, Varnell quickly had the girl’s phone number and address. Later, Varnell drove to the girl’s home, pulled into her driveway and called her mother.

“Look out your door,” Varnell told the woman. “See the headlights out here? I’m a prosecutor and I found your daughter from her MySpace page. She is 16. She goes to a school near me. You definitely want her to take it down.”

Is it just me or does this seem a little wacko? Honestly, if I had been the parent she called, I think I would have thought this woman had come a little unglued. But if 10 percent of this county's sex offenders are on MySpace, who's to say Varnell's an oddball? But this is the kind of scare-the-pants-off-your-readers stories that editors love. It sells papers. And selling papers is important.

As we mentioned before, musicians are getting their equipment boosted all over the place. Now, it turns out even dead musicians aren't safe. There's a story in the Austin American-Statesman today about $100,000 in backstage passes, music equipment, photographs and other memorabilia of Stevie Ray Vaughan stolen from the storage unit belonging to his brother Jimmie.

Ryan Adams is clean and sober according to the NYT.

Meeting Resistance

I found out about this documentary on XM's Bob Edwards Show this morning: Meeting Resistance, a behind the scenes look at the Iraqi insurgency. It answers the question: who are these guys? The answer is not criminals, al-Qaida, Baathist or dead-enders. For the most part, these are regular Iraqis and many of them didn't begin as radical Muslims, but many seemed to be heading in that direction by the end of the film. If you don't have XM, you can read an interview with the filmmakers here.

When I first heard about it, I have to say I felt uneasy about it. Regardless of how you feel about the war, watching insurgents assemble an IED to blow up Americans doesn't sit well with me. I know people who have been to Iraq and I I know people who will probably go back. I know there are people who will seize on this as a Hanoi Jane moment.

But a curious thing is most of the early screening of this film have been at such liberal bastions as the Marine Corps base at Quantico, West Point and England's Royal College for Defense Studies. It seems the military finds some value in pulling back the curtain on the insurgency.

What have the military learned from the film? "We came to know who funds them [broadly speaking] and where they get their weapons, who and how they recruit and what effects US counter-insurgency operations have on their will and effectiveness to fight," said the filmmakers in their directors' statement. Another lesson comes from an article in Government Executive (and that entire article is quite an eye-opener for anyone interested in counter-insurgency lessons learned.):

A particularly illuminating 2006 documentary film, Meeting Resistance, by journalists Molly Bingham and Steve Connors, who spent 10 months interviewing insurgents in Iraq, revealed that the weapon the insurgents hated and feared most was the American dollar. Dollars could buy people, Iraqi informants, who could identify the insurgents who otherwise blend into the population.

So what's the takeaway? Do the filmmakers have an agenda? Yes. Do I agree with everything they say? No. Has this changed how I look at Iraq? Maybe a little. I have actually favored staying in Iraq because I fear that pulling up stakes and leaving would actually make a bad situation worse. After listening to this interview, I'm not so sure.

Wendell Baker Story Update

Not that I'm really on fire about all this, but the Dallas premiere of The Wilson Brothers' movie The Wendell Baker Story was held at the Inwood last night. Other than that, I got nuthin 'cept this. You can get some video on the D(a)MN site (right), but it crashes my Safari browser, so good luck there. Also you can check out Frontburner buzz-fest. Ands last but not least, a little bit of real news: Luke Wilson sez the Dallas movie seems to be dead.

The Wendell Baker Story

Because I know you've been waiting for it, The Wendell Baker Story, which Luke Wilson wrote for he and big brother Andrew (aka Futureman) to direct, will have its Dallas premiere at 7:30 p.m., May 7 at the Inwood Theater. The film stars Luke, who plays a seller of fake IDs to migrant workers who winds up trying to save an old-folks' home run by Owen. Got it?

Herding Cats

Found this on Stash Dauber. It makes me laugh.

Am I An AlternaDad?

Am I an an alternadad? Preliminary testing indicates maybe not. However, I’m still anxious.

Consider the evidence. I have worked to cultivate my daughter’s taste in:

Godzilla movies

Speed Racer cartoons

Lost in Space reruns

The Ramones and other “suitable” types of music. She loves “Bonzo Goes To Bitburg.”

I have bought my daughter a Waterloo Records t-shirt. We watched Bottle Rocket together so she can begin to have an appreciation of Wes Anderson movies. And, of course, I have “nurtured” her love of Texas Longhorns football has been described as “brainwashing.” While I think it doesn’t reach Manchurian Candidate levels, she knows beyond a doubt, that Vince Young is the greatest football player ever and OU does, indeed, suck.

So, what does this say about me?

The anger surrounding alternadad and hipster parenting derives from the idea that these new parents don't want to "grow up" and act like parents.

Um, guilty. But I've always thought that growing up is overrated anyway.

Instead, they give their kids fauxhawks and inculcate them with a precious taste in music and "film." I agree that this can be irritating, but find me the set of parents who haven't, consciously or not, indoctrinated their kids into a little family cult. And who's more annoying: the 3-year-old who knows Mandarin or the one who loves Devo?

I've always though an appreciation of 80s music is a greater priority than a second language. Guess that let's me off the hook. I think I’ll go pick up a Wilco t-shirt for my daughter to celebrate.

Telling Stories

Jessica Peters is a 27-year-old single mom from Hurst who makes her living as a data entry clerk for an oil and gas company. But in her spare time she’s making a documentary about the late great Dallas singer-songwriter Elliott Smith (above) -- and she’s close to finishing. The project is titled Strange Butterflies and there’s a cool story about her efforts on the Big D Little d blog.

“Peters' goal is to tell Smith's story through the people he impacted in the cities he lived; to that end, she put out a call for musicians from Smith's various home cities--Portland, NYC, Dallas and LA--to record Elliott Smith covers that would fit each city's footage,” writes Sam Machkovech on Big D Little d. Fort Worth’s own The Theater Fire has put together a cut for the project, “Say Yes” from Smith’s Either/Or. You can visit the Strange Butterflies MySpace page and find out more or make a contribution if you are so inclined.

Robert Solomon, 1942-2007

This just in from my friend Joel:

Hey, If you're receiving this message, you're a Longhorn, so you might have heard of, seen in a Linklater movie, or taken a course from Bob Solomon, a legend in UT's philosophy department. He died a week ago. He was famous on campus for existentialism course and the annual symposium he hosted when I was there. In my experience, he was incredibly entertaining, provocative and generous, all great qualities in a teacher. Here's the Statesman obit/story.

I've also included the link to his appearance in one of my favorite films - Richard Linklater's Waking Life. It really changed the way I look at existentialism and prompted me to do a lot more reading. I didn't take his class at UT, but I wish I had.

What Makes a Good Bad Movie

Chuck Klosterman writes about the most overhyped movie ever, Snakes on a Plane, in the latest Esquire:

The Polyurethane Jungle

Years in the making, The Polyurethane Jungle is finally complete. It's a dark tale of the gritty reality that is the day-to-day stuff of a toy's life -- a tale broken dreams, redemption and hardcore toy-on-toy violence. Please view, enjoy and tell your friends.

Francois!

The new Wes Anderson American Express Ad I guess qualifies as the first new Wes Anderson movie in a while. It's pretty funny. Plus, there's another essay about why it takes so long for him and his contemporaries to roll out movies.

Deconstructing Stillman

I love the movies of Whit Stillman because the characters seem to exude this earnestness that used to be sort of a stereotypical American trait but now seems so foreign and charming.

Interesting thing about Stilman – other than the fact that he hasn’t made a movie in eight years – is that evidently conservatives love his movies (according to this Slate article) because "Stillman's films insist that there were (and are) true virtues in this class and its ideals."

Hadn’t really thought that deeply about them. I need to go back and watch Metropolitan, which I loved when it came out in 1990 (but there were a lot of things that I loved in 1990 that haven’t aged that well).

What I do remember was that the film sort of lamented the end of the upper classes, That sort of ennui was rampant then. I remember the novel Generation X by Douglas Coupland had that same sense of that everything was downhill from here, we’ll be the first generation not to do as well as our parents, etc. And a funny thing happened … actually lots of funny things. The Internet, the Stock Boom, 9-11 and so on. Now here we are in 2006 and the world is a very, very different looking place.

Point is maybe Stillman’s movies won’t make the jump. But their sweetness and the feeling that they are like a New Yorker cartoon come to life may save them. We’ll see.

Of course, what really made Stillman's films was Chris Eigeman, who was always the jerk you liked in spite of yourself. He's reason enough to go back and watch all of those films again.