2 Films

A quick rundown of two films I've seen recently.
Gus Van sant's Elephant is one of the most original movies I've ever seen. It's unlike anything I have ever seen. A colorful, intriguing, documentary-like, and thoughtful movie shows the lives of multiple highschoolers on moments leading to unspeakable atrocity. As I watched this movie, I am reminded of just exactly how much walking is involved in highschool. This movie is definitely not for everyone, as I would suggest only those who are open-minded about new cinematic techniques to watch it. A film that does not answer questions, does not glorify violence but does provoke us to think, Elephant is truly surprising.
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, on the other, is a silly straight parody of black and white B-movies. It purposely carries some poor screenwriting to be too long for comic effects. Sometimes it works, and I found myself laughing at the pure silliness of the movie. They make sure people know who is serious about science during an alien mutant attack and a plot to revive a dead skeleton by giving those characters a testtube rack and a kid's microscope. They always talk abouting "doing science". A scene about a farmer being horribly mutilated becomes entertaining when it goes on for way too long, when Ranger Brad says "I hope telling folks about his horrible mutilation can prevent other folks from meeting a fate of being horrible mutilation." "Horribly mutilated? That sounds dreadfully horrible." "We take our horrible mutilations seriously around these parts." This kind of repetitive humor is my cup of tea, and I enjoyed the movie, but too much.

The Barbarian Invasion

I just watched the Barbarian Invasions, the Quebec film about a man who's coming to terms with death. He lived a colorful, hedonistic life, and now faces death with dignity and scathing wit while coming to terms with everyone close to him during his life. The film begins with scathing satire against the Canadian health care system, beauracracy, Unions and even narcotics, which punctures our rosy stereotype of Canada being the socialist Shangro-la. While I myself am a socialist, I must admit these are scenes that are well done. Then we see the man, who was a history professor, try to put in perspective his terminal illness by lecturing about 230 million people's death in the 20th century from massacres. The film flashes through vignittes where we encounter philosophy through leftist politics, and we catch glimmers of the man's life. The film also reminds me of Wit, with Emma Thompson, who is also a professor who has to deal with terminal illness. They can expound a witty and literate tyraid, and at the end of it, bleakly admit that they are afraid, that they are not prepared, and can admit they have not done anything worthwhile in life.

www.CurtisYee.com

So much has gone into my website, that I have been totally jaded from flash. The music page is also still incomplete as I just rushed it to get it live. At the same time, I just got more work from Jesse K, which is great! Moreover, the good thing is that I can also reuse the code for these things I program and offer them cheaper/ free to people I want to work with. For example, Dave from work does some excellent photography of punk bands, and I think it would be great for him to have a portfolio. I also realized that to have a really good site, I would need to work with graphic artists for ass-kicking illustrations.
On a sad note, my best friend Jesse K cannot join my new club for people who have their Gall Bladders. His sudden became inflamed and infected with uncoolness. The doctors had to take it out his body to make him feel better. On the good side, he just lost 2 pounds. Get better soon, Jesse K!

Pretty Boy Rock

Of the three bands that played last night at the Axis, I knew two of them (and own their actual CDS), so with few hesitations, I bought tickets to see Phantom Planet, with the Washington Social Club and Damone opening.
The first band, Washington Social Club was an energetic garage band. At first we thought the lead singer was a female, but it turns out he really looked like a young Steve Buscemi. Their set was short, and filled with angsty, Ramone-esque garage punk, with gratuitous references to drug, which gave them a cursory rebellious, counter-culture.
Damone was off with a bad start. While they performed on the debut CD, From the Attic, quite well, their first two songs caused me to cringe because their lead singer, Noelle, was inaudible, but obviously off key. But just when I lost hope and thought they were really a better studio band, she drastically improved, and I was soon nodding their songs. They surprised me by playing a lot of new songs, and the good thing is that the new songs were like as if they were from the same album (ie more of a good thing). The same cannot be said about Phantom Planet.
I never knew Phantom Planet had such a large young female following. Then again on second thought, with such a pretty boy line up, and an emaciated, emo lead singer, how can they not? Their early CD, The Guest, set their sound firmly as melodic, Califoia rock and roll. Their latest eponymous album saw them change their sound dramatically to a noisy, angsty, poseur rock. I didn't like that album, and their live show didn't help. The show just got more and more boring as they alternated from melodic songs from their previous album, to ridiculous songs to this new one. There were a few highpoints, but mainly from The Guest. Their last song was a good song, but they decided to sing only 2 verses, and sandwich in between those a lenghty, unneccesary jam improv. When Damone did that, they had gnarly guitar solos over their chords, but Phantom Planet opted for the spacey, desultory ramble that was really just wasting everyone's time while I made my way to the coatcheck to pick up my stuff. Anyways, my only thought was: why was Phantom Planet so angry? They're white, rich, famous, has a legion of teen girl following, and they live in California. Please leave the angst to people who really need it.