All Is Quiet on New Year's Day

All is quiet on New Year's Day
A world in white gets underway
I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year's Day
On New Year's Day.
--U2, "New Year's Day" (1983)

These are the reviews and other as-
signments I'm working on this month.

Amazon: Happily N'Ever After (Shrek wannabe), New Year's Day (David Duchovny's first film), Shottas (Scarface-inspired
"rastaploitation" flick), Seven Swords (Tsui Hark's over-long, if
stunning actioner), KT Tunstall - KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extra-
vaganza, The Animation Show - Vol. 1 & 2 (theatrical series
from Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt) [two-disc set], Two-a-Days - Hoover High: The Complete First Season (MTV documentary
series on high school football), [three-disc set], The Golden Girls - The Complete Seventh and Final Season [three-disc set], Border Radio - Criterion Collection (first film from Allison Anders!), and
The O.C. - The Complete Third Season [seven-disc set].

(I am the queen of the teen soap!
See also Beverly Hills 90210,
Grosse Pointe, One Tree Hill, etc.)

Resonance: Re-wrote my
profile of the Brothers Quay
and interviewed David Lynch.

Siffblog: The Treasures of Long Gone
John, SherryBaby (Maggie Gyllenhaal's
first starring role since Secretary), 51
Birch Street (best documentary of the new year), and Le
Petit Lieutenant (ace policier with Nathalie Baye, above left).

Steadycam: I contributed my top 10 to their year-end poll.



Endnote: I realize it isn't cool to like U2. Well, it may not be
1983 anymore, but they meant a lot to me at the time. And Paul
Greengrass's decision to use a live version of "Sunday Bloody
Sunday" over the credits to Bloody Sunday, his docudrama about
the Derry massacre, was a masterstroke. Obvious perhaps, but
perfect, nonetheless. (According to Wikipedia, "New Year's Day"
concerns the 1981 suppression of Solidarity in Poland. Hey, who
knew?) I like few of the "anthemic" bands U2 has influenced--or to
which they've been compared--the Alarm, Big Country, Coldplay,
etc., but War will always hold a special place in my heart.