Notes
from
Under
(the)
Ground:
Part Two

Click here for part one

I don't usually take notes at press screenings, because I

find it easier to watch the screen—especially when subtitl-

es are involved—than to watch, listen, and/or read while

trying to guide my pen across paper in the dark (and I'm

not about to use a lighted implement and irritate everyone

around me). That said, I make an exception every once in

awhile, and I've always found these chicken stratches al-

most as amusing as enlightening. Here are a few examples.

MADE IN USA
(Northwest Film Forum, 6/09)

Words and pictures.

"To Nick and Samuel, who raised me to respect image and

sound"..."The Moroccan war made you a bit mean"..."Now fic-

tion overtakes reality"..."I feel like I'm in a Disney movie"...frog-

gy-voiced little men, folk-singing babes in bathtubs...the magnifi-

cent reds of La Chinoise, Pierrot le Fou, and the Technicolor mu-

sicals of Vincente Minnelli..."In 22 years, I'll be 26"...Marianne

Faithfull, "As Tears Go By"...tomato-red blood and no points of

entry; better yet, the blood matches the socks...Paula, Richard,

Typhus, and Doris Mizoguchi...jet airliner whooshes and loud

telephone rings...Paul Widmark...Jean-Pierre Léaud as Donald

[Siegel]..."Fascism must pass like miniskirts and rock & roll...

Frank Sinatra, Serge Gainsbourg, and [indistinguishable].

Click here for full review.



A TOWN CALLED PANIC
(Seven Gables, 1/10)

Imagery and comparisons.

Animated opening...birth-

day...Gumby and Pokey,

Mr. Bill, Bob the Builder...

Farmer Steven...bricks, 50

million bricks...stolen walls...

inflatable [furniture]...reckless...cell phones...

travel through the Earth's Core to the other side...

enslaved by scientists...giant food...barracudas, sea

creatures, pearl fountain, swordfish saws...one year later.

Click here for full review. Opens at the Varsity on 1/22.



SAINT JOHN OF LAS VEGAS

(Seven Gables, 1/10)

"Dante's Inferno" goes to Vegas.

Hue Rhodes [director]...Stanley Tucci and Spike Lee

[producers]...New Mexico...convenience store framing

device...John (Steve Buscemi, character actor par excel-

lence)...slicked-back hair, long sideburns...down on his luck...

filing claims at an insurance company...Peter Dinklage, boss...

Virgil (Romany Malco), co-worker, world's worst travel com-

panion...fraud...Jill (Sarah Silverman), smiley faces...Danny

Trejo..."When a cross-dressing skinhead don't rape you,

just take your smokes. Don't ask why"...Tasty Delight,

stripper...Tim Blake Nelson, nudist militia...Hell is Ve-

gas...disorienting, surrealistic..."I think I lost my eye-

brows, but that was the best smoke I ever had."

Opens in Seattle on 2/19 at the Metro.

THE GHOST WRITER
(Pacific Place, 2/10)

Polanski goes Hitchcock.

Accident or suicide...busy, robust soundtrack [Alexandre Des-
plat]...Timothy Hutton, Jim Belushi...Adam Lang [Pierce Bros-
nan]...secret torture...flight...modernist house, looks like a pri-
son...Ruth (Olivia Williams), Kim Cattrall as assistant..."Bril-
liant in a horrible sort of way...all the words are there, but
in the wrong order"...Brits in the U.S...wind...sweeping
leaves..."Got into politics out of love"...Yale or Cam-
bridge..."This place is Shangri-La in reverse."



Click here for the full review.

Endnote: Images from Port and The Auteurs.

Read more »

I Smell Bubblegum

Times New Viking, Born
Again Revisited, Matador

Let's move to California. I hear
you'll have a better time.
-- Times New Viking,
"Move to California"

Hey, they provided that header. This Cleveland trio wraps their sweet, sticky hooks in
layers of loud, crunchy feedback. It's the same trick Pavement
pulled off on 1990's Perfect Sound Forever, after which they add-
ed clarity to their arsenal, and yet Times New Viking never
really evokes the Cali quintet. I've been listening for a few weeks
now, and I still can't figure out who they resemble most. That can
only be a good thing. No band exists in isolation from all others,
but it's that rare outfit who doesn't bring one prior act to mind.

I could try to compare Born
Again Revisited to their
other recordings, except this
is the only one with which I'm
familiar. Prior to 2009, I'd
never even heard of the
group. After one listen,
though, I found a place for
them on my top 10. As with
the Vivian Girls '08 debut,
my only complaint is that the
album is too short (30:54 minutes). In that sense, they're stealing a page from the Guided by Voices playbook, except their com-
positions are more tightly-constructed, at least in comparison
with '80s-era GBV when (fabulous) song fragments ruled.

Times New Viking also has the boy-girl vocal thing going on,
further distinguishing them from all of the above. So, their fourth
full-length is like bubblegum for a new millenium, but with more
gravitas than that description suggests. I'm not just referring to
the distortion, but to a subtle sense of melancholy that pervades
the proceedings. It comes out in the dark-tinged instrumentation
more than the spirited vocals. At times, they almost sound like
Joy Division at their poppiest—or New Order at their grittiest. The
intro to "No Time, No Hope," for instance, recalls "Love Will Tear
Us Part," but louder, faster, happier (if you can imagine that).

Born Again Revisited is
the product of three indivi-
duals: Beth Murphy (vocals,
keyboards, drums, guitar,
violin), Adam Elliot (vocals,
drums, keyboards), and Jar-
-ed Phillips (drums, bass).
I'm not sure where they hid
that violin, but the rickety, farfisa-sounding keys lend the album a dreamy circus vibe, like music half-heard while riding a rollercoaster or merry-go-round. Tim Sendra, in his review of Rip It Off, also cites this "blurry" ef-
fect, noting the "pushed-to-distortion vocals that sound painful when played loud, and like a far-off hum when played quietly."

At times while listening to these 15 tracks, I thought about 1947's
Tyrone Power noir Nightmare Alley, not because there's any-
thing especially terrifying about this disc, but because the stran-
ge, unsettling, carnival-set character study seems like some-
thing these characters would appreciate. Maybe you will, too.



Endnote: If Times New Viking's music doen't float your boat,
you've got to at least credit them with some creative song titles,
i.e. "Imagine Dead John Lennon," "Teenagelust!," "Allegory Gets
Me Hot," "Devo and Wine" (recall that they hail from Ohio), and
"Times New Viking vs. Yo La Tengo," a reference to their for-
mer tour mates. Images from the AMG and FilmFanatic.org.

Read more »

Movie
of the
Month:
Part 14

I recent-
ly review-
ed the fol-
lowing
film for
Video
Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.

TRUCKER [***]
(James Mottern, US, 2008, 90 mins.)

A big rig driver changes her approach to life when her domestic
situation undergoes a dramatic shift in James Mottern's debut,
Trucker. Seemingly foot loose and fancy free, Diane Ford (Mi-
chelle Monaghan, Gone Baby Gone) lives in San Diego and lik-
es to go out drinking and dancing with her best friend, Run-
ner (Nathan Fillion, always good value), when she isn't work-
ing, sleeping, or picking up strangers for one-night stands.

After her ex-husband, Len
(Benjamin Bratt), checks in-
to the hospital for cancer
treatment, his wife, Jenny
(Joey Lauren Adams), who
has family matters with which to contend, drops Diane's 11-year-old son, Peter (Jimmy Bennett,
Star Trek's junior Kirk), off at her doorstep for a few weeks. Feisty
and foul-mouthed like his Mom, they spend most of the movie circ-
ling each other warily, wolves in human form. It doesn't help that
she hasn’t seen him for 10 years, but then she takes him on a run
to New Mexico, enrolls him in school, and a fragile bond ensues.

Trucker is the kind of film that fails to explain why Runner
doesn't get a divorce when his marriage brings him no joy—
clearly, he would rather be with Diane—but Mottern, former
producer of the Slamdance Film Festival, knows when to let
the audience fill in those sorts of blanks for themselves. His
screenplay brings to mind other films about independent-
minded single mothers, like Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn't
Live Here Anymore, but he reveals a sure hand as a direc-
tor, and Monaghan, who has often wasted her talents on in-
ferior fare, such as The Heartbreak Kid and Made of Hon-
or, gives her best performance to date. Recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 13: The Merry Gentleman



Endnote: Slightly revised from the original text. Im-
ages from The Portland Mercury and Awards Daily.

Read more »

Songs for
Swingin'
Cineastes:
2009
Edition


Click here
for Movies
for Music
Lovers


The Tops:
1. Sylvester & the Hot Band - The
Blue Thumb Collection (Hip-O Select)
2. Thee Oh Sees - Help (In the Red)
3. Death - ...For All the World to See (Drag City)
4. Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People...
Lazers Do (Mad Decent/Downtown/Atlantic)
5. Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us (Graveface)
6. Broadcast & the Focus Group -
Investigate the Radio Witch Cults (Warp)
7. The Inner Space - Agilok & Blubbo (Wah Wah Records) [reissue]
8. Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics -
Inspiration Information (Stone's Throw)*
9. Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong (In the Red)
10. Times New Viking - Born Again Revisited (Matador)

* See also Mulatu Astatke - New York Addis Lon-
don: The Story of Ethio Jazz 1965 to 1975 (Strut)



Note: The links lead to my CD reviews. I'm not listing The
Blue Thumb Collection as a reissue, because it consists of
two albums plus bonus tracks, i.e. the material was never
released in this form before. Similarly, 1974's...For All the
World to See never received a proper release until 2009.

Runners-up:
1. King Midas Sound - Waiting for You (Hyperdub)
2. Starless and Bible Black - Shape of the Shape (Locust Music)
3. Various Artists - Dark Is the Night (Matador)
4. Atlas Sound - Logos (Kranky)
5. Sleepy Sun - Embrace (ATP)
6. The Lovetones - Dimensions (Planting Seeds Records)
7. Curious Mystery - Rotting Slowly (K Records)
8. 39 Clocks - Zoned (Bureau B)
9. White Rabbits - It's Frightening (TBD Records)
10. The Bird and the Bee - Ray Guns Are
Not Just the Future (Blue Note/EMI)

Still need to hear (in their en-
tirety): Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
(Domino), Benjamin Biolay - La Su-
perbe (Naïve), Future of the Left - Travels with Myself and Another (4-
AD Records), Mos Def - The Ecstatic (Downtown/Atlantic), Q-Tip - Renais-
sance (Universal Motown), Shabazz Palaces - self-titled (Templar Label Group), Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy (Matador), Various Artists - Daptone Gold (Daptone), Various Artists - Forge Your Own Chains, Vol. 1: Psychedelic Ballads and Dirges 1968-1974 (Now Again), and Var-
ious Artists – Saint Etienne Present Songs for The Dog & Duck (Ace).

Note: Had I but world enough, and time...and money...
and space! But I mostly write about film these days.

Top Reissues:
1. Serge Gainsbourg - Melody Nelson (Light in the Attic)
2. The Monks - Black Monk Time (Light in the Attic)
3. Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle:
30th Anniversary Issue (Beggar's Banquet)
4. Blo - Chapters and Phases (RPM)
5. The Raincoats - The Raincoats (We Three/Kill Rock Stars)
6. Sweet - Action: The Sweet Anthology (Shout Factory!)
7. Bill Fox - Shelter from the Smoke (Scat)
8. 39 Clocks - Pain It Black (Bureau B)
9. 13th Chime - Complete Discography (Sacred Bones)
10. 24 Carat Black - Gone: The Prom-
ises of Yesterday (Numero Group)*

* Thanks to Riz for the tip.



In my dreams: 13th Floor Elevators - Sign of the 3 Eyed
Men [10-disc set] (International Artists Records/Charly Ac-
quisitions Limited), Big Star - Keep an Eye on the Sky [four-
disc set] (Rhino), Rolling Stones - Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out! [three-
CD/one-DVD set] (Abkco), and Various Artists - Where the Ac-
tion Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968 [four-disc set] (Rhino).

Top Rediscoveries: Queen - self-titled debut and the Who - Who's Next. Not completely new to these ears, but I played them over and over again, and found the experience more than a little rewarding. And I continue to take inspiration from Arthur Lee, Phil Lynott, Nina Simone, and every other artist who didn't do what was expected of them, regardless as to race, gender, or sexual orientation—and did it better.

Click here for the 2008 edition



Endnote: Thee Oh Sees play the Funhouse
on 2/19. Images from Buddyhead and XLR8R.

Read more »

January Reviews

These are
the reviews
and other
pieces I'm
working on
this month.



Amazon DVDs: Anna Karenina (with Sean Connery and Claire Bloom), The Old Curiosity Shop (with Derek Jacobi and Toby Jones), 50 Dead Men Walking (with Jim Sturgess and Ben King-
sley), Soul Power (with an electrifying James Brown), Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Seventh Season [multi-disc set], and 10 Things I Hate About You - Volume One [two-disc set].

Amazon Theatricals: Crazy Heart (with Jeff
Bridges, Colin Farrell, and Maggie Gyllenhaal).

Still playing (or yet to open): Broken Embraces, Brothers, Coco before Chanel, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Invictus, Law Abiding Citizen, Me and Orson Welles, Where the Wild Things Are, and Youth in Revolt.

KCTS 9: Mister Rogers Sweater Drive , North Cascades -
People, Places and Stories, and Face to Face with Roberta.

Siffblog: A Town Called Panic and
Movies for Music Lovers: Short Version.

Video Librarian: Legend of the Seeker - Season One [five-disc
set], Show Me Yours - The Complete Series [two-disc set], Tears
to Tiara - Collection One [two-disc set], According to Dom, As We
Forgive, The Beaches of Agnès, Humble Beauty - Skid Row Ar-
tists, El Sistema - Music to Change Life, Speaking in Tongues, Un-
der Our Skin, Alter Bridge - Live from Amsterdam, Jim Brickman -
Beautiful World, Creed Live, Bill Frisell - Blue Dream: Live, Gotta
Dance, Taylor Hicks - Whomp at the Warfield, and Jake's Corner.



Endnote: Images from the Internet-
Movie Database and Movie Cultists.

Read more »

Movies
for
Music
Lovers:
2009
Edition

Click here
for the
2008
edition

I'm always pleased when my top 10 doesn't look like anybody else's, but I'd never set out to create something unique just to stand out from the crowd. Not unless my heart was really in it.

Last year, it was all about the re-release of Jerzy Skolimowski's long-lost Deep End (and this year, the reissue of two forgotten Sylvester albums from the early-1970s top my music list).

But not all years are created equal. In 2006, I gave pride of place
to 1969's Army of Shadows, indicating that the year had nothing
better to offer—not that I don't stand by Jean-Pierre Melville's
amazing movie—but I really would prefer to celebrate the new.

The minute Kathryn Bigelow's Hurt Locker ended, I knew I'd
found my #1, even though there were still six months left in the
year. As it turns out, dozens—if not hundreds—of film critics felt
exactly the same way. So be it. It's my number one with a bullet.

For some, the picture pro-
vided their first exposure
to Bigelow (Near Dark) and
Jeremy Renner (North
Country), which is great—
better late than never—but
I've been pulling for these
underdogs for years. Same for Anthony Mackie, who made my list
three year ago with Half Nelson. He's a fine actor who deserves
more leading roles of his own (and also rates a mention for his
charismatic portrayal of rapper Tupac Shakur in Notorious).

Note: The links lead to my Amazon, SIFF, Siffblog, and Video Librarian reviews.

The Tops:
1. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
2. Il Divo (Paulo Sorrentino)
3. Precious (Lee Daniels)
4. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
5. Public Enemies (Michael Mann)
6. Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog)
7. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)
8. Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone)
9. Hunger (Steve McQueen)
10. Bright Star (Jane Campion)



Runners-up:
11. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
12. Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
13. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
14. Goodbye, Solo (Ramin Bahrani)
15. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel)
16. 35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis)
17. Tony Manero (Pablo Larraín)
18. Medicine for Melancholy (Barry Jenkins)
19. Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)
20. Lake Tahoe (Fernando Eimbcke)

Note: I wish so many critics
didn't find it necessary to dis-
parage Anderson's previous ef-
fort, The Darjeeling Limited, in
order to praise Fantastic Mr.
Fox. Couldn't Fox be appreciated
on its own merits? Further, I
prefer Darjeeling to his debut, Bottle Rocket, among Martin Scorsese's favorite films of the '00s. (For once, I disagree with the director. And I'd also like to see more love for The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou).

Second Runners-up:
21. The Informant! (Steven Soderbergh)
22. A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
23. Where the Wild Things Are (Spike Jonze)
24. Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders)
25. Tie: Big Fan (Robert Seigel) and The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
26. The Silence of Lorna* (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
27. Humpday (Lynn Shelton)
28. Beeswax (Andrew Bujalski)
29. Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
30. The Merry Gentleman (Michael Keaton)

* Also known as Lorna's Silence. Either way: she isn't very talkative.



Note: For my money, A Serious Man and The Informant! are
the year's saddest comedies. While watching both, I laughed. But
afterwards, I wanted to cry. As for The Wrestler and Big Fan, Ro-
bert Seigel penned the pair. And Roy Andersson's morbidly hilar-
ious You, the Living misses my top 30 only because I saw it in '08.

Top Documentaries:
1. Stranded (Gonzalo Arijón)
2. Soul Power (Jeffrey Levy-Hinte)
3. The September Issue (C.J. Cutler)
4. Tyson (James Toback)
5. Audience of One (Michael Jacobs)
6. The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins (Pietra Brettkelly)
7. RiP! A Remix Manifesto (Brett Gaylor)
8. Invisible Girlfriend (David Redmon and Ashley Sabin)
9. Food, Inc. (Robert Kenner)
10. The Queen and I (Nahid Persson)

Top Rediscoveries:
1. Skidoo (Otto Preminger)
2. Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda)
3. Model Shop (Jacques Demy)
4. Lola Montès (Max Ophüls)
5. Dillinger Is Dead (Marco Ferreri)
6. Funeral Parade of Ros-
es (Toshio Matsumoto)
7. Phase IV (Saul Bass)
8. The Rain People (Francis Ford Coppola)
9. So Long at the Fair (Terence Fisher)
10. Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (Paul Mazursky)

Note: Most of these titles screened as part of the Northwest Film
Forum's year-long '69 series. Skidoo is wacked-out, hippie-dippy fun
with a Harry Nilsson score and an all-star cast. The music is available,
the movie is not. To quote Adam Sekuler, "Skidoo: you gotta be there!"



Top DVDs:
1. Magnificent Obsession - Criterion
Collection (Douglas Sirk/John M. Stahl)
2. Philippe Garrel x 2: I Can No Longer
Hear the Guitar/Emergency Kisses
3. Made in USA (Jean-Luc Godard)
4. The Exiles (Kent Mckenzie)
5. Careful (Guy Maddin)

Note: I only list DVDs with extras that enhance the viewing ex-
perience in some way. Further, I only list those that I either pur-
chased or reviewed, hence no AK 100: 25 Films by Kurosawa,
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Qual du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Gau-
mont Treasures, Zabriskie Point, The Exterminating Angel,
or The Samuel Fuller Film Collection, all of which appear
on Dennis Lim's list for The Los Angeles Times.

Worthy of attention
(in alphabetical order):
(500) Days of Summer, Ad-
ventureland, The Baader Meinhof Complex, Broken Embraces, Ché, Coco before Chanel, Cold Souls, The Country Teacher, Duplicity, An Education, Endgame, The Firm Land, The House of the
Devil, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus*, The Imma-
culate Conception of Little Dizzle, Inglourious Basterds, Lem-
on Tree, Me and Orson Welles, The Messenger, The Missing Person, Moon, Séraphine, A Single Man, State of Play, Stel-
la, Sunshine Cleaning, Telstar, Trucker, and Two Lovers.

* Opens at the Metro Cinemas on 1/8/10.

Missed (or haven't seen yet): The Beaches of Agnes, Bron-
son, Coraline, The Cove, Crazy Heart, The Damned United, The
English Surgeon, Everlasting Moments, I'm Gonna Explode, Julia,
Liverpool, The Maid, Next Day Air, Night and Day, Of Time and
the City, Passing Strange, Police, Adjective, Pontypool, Ponyo,
The Road, Still Walking, Somers Town, Sugar, Tetro, Three
Monkeys, Tulpan, Unmade Beds, Up, Whip It!, The
White Ribbon, and World's Greatest Dad.

Note: I'll be seeing The Beaches of Agnes, Cra-
zy Heart, Julia, and Passing Strange shortly.



Endnote: Cross-posted at Facebook and Siffblog.
Images from Film Reference, Action Movie Reviews,
Way of the West, Channel 4, and The Guardian.

Read more »

A Surp-
risingly
Cohesive
Whole

Dios,

We Are

Dios,

Buddy-

head

Records

[2/16/10]

On their third full-length, Cali quartet Dios tosses a grab bag of

styles and moods into the mix and makes them into a surprising-

ly cohesive whole. Driving beats collide with acoustic guitar inter-

ludes, while treated vocals spar with enchanting chimes. As with

Black Moth Super Rainbow, they also wield the flute, an instru-

ment making quite a comeback lately, with aplomb. Fans of Beck

and the Beta Band would do wise to give We Are Dios a try.

Note: According to the AMG, "In summer 2004, guitarist Ronnie
James Dio served Dios with a cease and desist order, citing potential

confusion over his own outfit's name Dio and the younger group's

moniker. In response, Dios changed their name to Dios Malos."

Love ya, Dio, but that's lame—especially since Dios, whose

name comes from the Spanish word for God, consists of four

second-generation, Los Angeles-born Mexican-Americans.



Cosmo Jarvis, Humasyouhitch
Sonofabitch, Wall of Sound

"Well, I'm 19, and I don't know much

about anything, but I ain't dumb."
-- Cosmo Jarvis, "Clean My Room"

About Cosmo Jarvis's self-titled EP, I wrote, "I could

do without a few of his more adolescent lyrics," and I feel

the same way about the New Jersey-to-UK transplant's

two-disc debut (he definitely has a way with a melody,

but one disc would've gotten the job done). That

said, I still like his description of Megan

Fox as "the girl in Transformers."



Static of the Gods, Knowledge

Machine, delVerano records [3/23/10]

The indie rock of Bettie Serveet meets the electro-pop of

the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on this Boston trio's second record, ex-

cept Static of the Gods offer a slightly darker, more under-

stated sound. I feel like I've been down this road before,

but that doesn't make the journey any less pleasant.



Endnote: For more information about Cosmo

Jarvis, please click here; for Static of the Gods,

here. Dios image from ...nonphenomenal lineage.

Read more »