I've seen a fair number movies in the last while, but aside from Borat (solid but overrated) and The Departed (fantastic and correctly rated) haven't gotten around to a proper mention. Of note are two movies that could have been written by Charlie Kaufman but weren't.

Most recently I saw Stranger than Fiction last week and it was well worth it. Will Ferrell is very convincing as stale IRS agent Harold Crick, who one day finds his cripplingly boring life intrrupted by the voice of author Emma Thompson, who the film simultaneously follows as she struggles to finish her novel...about Harold Crick. Nevermind that it seems unlikely a whole book could be written about someone like Harold, because things get interesting when Harold hears his narrator mention his imminent death. At this point Dustin Hoffman and Maggie Gylenhaal become prominently involved, as Crick becomes a little more interesting now that he's concerned he could drop dead at any minute.

Ferrell plays his role mostly in a constant deadpan, which has an interesting effect because his character is difficult to imagine as a real human being: his life is so flat and regimented, social interaction seems an almost unthinkable deviation. It's perhaps most similar to his role in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda, if only because he's playing a somewhat normal, not funny human being. Of course with the plot being as it is, it's clearly a stylized world that is being imagined, with Crick less a caricature than a black-and-white penil outline, but still far from being a fully-formed, believable character. As a result, the idea of "imminent death" is both startling and uniquely able to force a break from his bland routine and after a while you stop really caring why or how the plot of the movie is at all explicable.

The film's soundtrack was scored by Spoon's Britt Daniel, so there are the requisite choices from the Spoon back-catalog (though perhaps surprisingly, the fittingly titled "This Book is a Movie" did not make the cut) in addition to a couple new songs. Even putting aside my affection for Spoon, I think the music as a whole works very well, as Spoon's often plodding and clean sound fits Harold's life pretty well. Perhaps my favorite part of the movie was strongly influenced by the scoring, but it wasn't a Spoon song--it was the random inclusion of the Cyann and Ben version of M83's "In Church," which was a bonus track on the US release of Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. In any case, the film wasn't a total revelation but it's unique and fun and now one of my favorites of the year.



The same can be said Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep, which marks Gondry's follow-up to the awesome, Kaufman-penned Eternal Sunshine. It's easy to compare the two, but in truth they don't have that much common, aside from Gondry's imaginative directorial style that puts a strange skew on otherwise real worlds.

Gael Garcia Bernal plays Stephane, a half-French, half-Mexican 20-something who at the urging of his French mother moves to Paris after his Mexican father passes away. Dealing with the disappointment of his shittier-than-advertised job, he takes an interest in girl next door Stephanie played by Charlotte Gainsbourg. Beyond that the film kind of needs to be seen rather than described, as it takes fantastical but often absurd turns in his sweet but mostly juvenile attempts to woo her. Complicating the process is his tendency to blur the lines between his dreams and reality, but it's that condition which makes the movie so much fun. The movie is fundamentally incomplete and disjointed in many respects, but there are far too many great moments to make you care too much about that. Definitely a DVD purchase when it comes out.

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I've been blathering about the Sunshine Underground for months, and finally got my hands on an import copy of their debut disc, Raise the Alarm. To recap, their tunes are in that category of danceable alt-rock a la Franz Ferdinand crossed with the Clash, though I'd caution that their sound isn't quite as distinct as Franz's. Still, the album is solid as hell...certainly much better in my book than You Could Have It So Much Better, which only had one great track ("Outsiders") and one really good one ("I'm Your Villain"). There are no less than EIGHT really good songs out of the album's 12 (eleven plus a bonus track), so there's a lot to like.

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I also picked up the Peter Bjorn and John album Writer's Block, which I first mentioned in the summer for its lead single "Young Folks," and which since has become a Pitchfork favorite. I haven't totally wrapped my mind around it yet but my first weeke reaction is that the two best songs are fantastic but it's a little thin after that. Not offensively bad otherwise, just nothing that really jumps out at me.

Peter Bjorn and John / "Young Folks" f/Victoria Bergsman
Peter Bjorn and John / "Let's Call it Off" (left-click)

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One of my favorite Conan appearances, here's Jonah Hill a couple months ago...be sure to watch long enough to see the "Earthquake" and car keying stories...

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I think Kelly Clarkson may actually be the lead singer of AC/DC.