Athens66: Movies

500 Days of Summer

So I finally saw this one (been looking for the movie for months). To be honest I expected it a bit better but nevertheless I enjoyed it. Cool music, Zooey Deschanel and romance with a twist..what else do you need for a light comedy? Of'course the ending may put some people off (you've been warned) but the music and the close ups of Zooey were pretty much enough for me.

She & Him - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (The Smiths Cover)

God Help the Girl Playlist

It took me quite a while to discover this one...eventhough it's been posted everywhere for quite some months now (I somehow missed it). God Help the Girl is a musical film by Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian) that will be shot in 2010 and will feature mostly new songs plus two old Belle tracks. The difference here are the all female vocals in most tracks, which give another twist to the Belle sound we came to love. To be honest, nothing can be compared to Stuart's voice...but nevertheless the soundtrack is amazing and we are highly anticipating the film. Until then, here's a playlist of all four behind-the-scenes documentary clips that Stuart has made available.

Artist.Site

Waiting for a Paper Heart

Another one on my watch-list for the post summer vacation period. Michael Cera yet again starts in a corny and naive story; in other words perfect!

Watchmen are A Changin'

Simply one of the best opening titles of all time...although it took me quite some time to finally see the movie :-)

Away we Go

This is the next movie I'll see!! Sam Mendes is back with Away we Go; a couple who is expecting their first child travel around the U.S. in order to find a perfect place to start their family. Backed up by a wonderful soundtrack from Alexi Murdoch, this looks like a perfect summer movie. I only have one doubt..should I see it at home or at an open air cinema?

PS. Thanks to Mixalis E. for posting this one at StereoNova

Yeap..I am a Vampire

After seeing Juno once more (don't ask why...) I have to admit I love it more and more (and especially the music). I'm still laughing out loud with "they're yellow" and singing to Polisar's intro song and Antsy Pants' Vampire (yes..I'm a Vampire too). Add Cat Power, Belle and the feel-good ending and you got a charming deal!

How long for 500 Days of Summer?

So waiting for this movie...can't resist anything that includes our beloved Zooey Deschanel. Released day is somewhere around September..but hopefully we'll be able to catch it somewhere earlier!

PS. Lovely opening track on the trailer by Regina Spektor (Us).

Regina Spektor - Us

5...4...3...2...1...Reprise

I've been trying to see this little Norwegian gem for quite some time now. Finally last night I found some (late) time and pressed the play button on this one; an action I should have done a long time ago. Reprise is written and directed by Norwegian director Joachim Trier. The plot revolves around two young wannabe-authors and their lives in modern Oslo. Ambition, love, friends, mental instability, anxiety for the future and an eagerness to differ from the crowd are just some of the pieces of the puzzle behind this wonderful film.

Le Tigre - Deceptacon

Reprise starts off with the two leading characters (best friends Philip and Erik) just before they are ready to mail their first novels to publishers. What follows is a mix of flashbacks and alternative futures that leads to failure and success for both friends. This creative use of Nouvelle Vague and modern cinematography gives the film both freshness and edge. While the plot unrolls, we see the two friends taking different paths. Philip's book immediately becomes a hit but can't handle the success and quickly falls into a mix of depression and psychosis (hinged by his parallel obsession for the love of his life Kari). On the other end, Erik quickly faces rejection and while supporting his friend, drudges to improve his writting style and sort out his personal life. Supporting the two main characters, a number of subplots unveil, mainly focusing on the lifes of some common (and not so common) sterotypes of 20-something friends that slowly apart as everyone is trying to figure their purpose in modern society. Although the plot may sound a bit too serious and stiff, the directive style of Trier is so captivating that makes the film both intruiging and a entertaining. If you combine the plot and directive style, you'll see that at the end Reprise boils down to a nostalgic trip on early adulthood and how our plans and dreams (work, love, friends) for the future constantly evolve. Throw in an amazing soundtrack which includes tracks from Joy Division, Le Tigre and post-punk and you got an amazing film that utterly caught my attention. I won't spoil you with the end or how the story really unfolds but I'll tell you just one thing...if you haven't seen this already don't delay it anymore!

Following the Revolutionary Road

A follow-up review on another film I recently saw, Sam Mendes's Revolutionary Road. The director of American Beauty is back with a beautiful tale about a young couple in the 50's which is trying to get away from the American cliches of the era. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are teamed up again after the Titanic portraying an everyday couple that is trying to run away from the stereotypes of suburban life; the neighborhood housewife-devoted mother and the successful-hardworking business man-father.

The whole movie is masterfully directed by Mendes, with strong characters that Slowly build up and set the dilemmas. Also, Leonardo and Kate are quite a joy together on-screen (although I've never been a real fan of Leonardo's acting abilities). The movie has many similarities to Mende's masterpiece American Beauty, since it is centered around the mid-life crisis and lost dreams of American families, in a past era this time and a clearer focus on the dreams and ambitions we seem to neglect as we grow up. A lovely movie that is definitely more than a joy to watch but lacks in details to make it really stand-out (the plot is a bit too similar to previous movies of Mendes and also the chemistry [and acting] between Kate and Leonardo could have been slightly more intense and bold).

PS. The music in the trailer is from the 60's classic Wild Is the Wind from Nina Simone while the soundtrack and music score by Thomas Newmna, who has produced (amongst many others) the score for American Beauty and the opening titles in Six-Feet Under

Who wants to be a Slumdog Millionaire?

It's been ages since I last did a movie review here in Athens66 (it's been a bloody long time since I did a proper review in general but that's another story). Nevertheless, I just couldn't leave this one without a post. I decided yesterday (along with my other half) to finally see Danny Boyle's (yeap..the old Trainspotting chap) latest film Slumdog Millionaire. And what a joy it was (Danny is back on track after a long period of pointless movies)

M.I.A. - O... Saya

His latest film revolves around the life of a poor Indian muslim Jamal Malik and his journey from the slums of Mumbai to the sets of the TV show "Who want to be a Millionaire". The plot is slowly unfolding Jamal's life through the game show's questions and leads from the slams and poverty in India to the hope for a better future for a whole nation. Boyle has come up with a masterpiece, with a stunning scenario that is both entertaining and emotional. Through Jamal's tale we get a chance to see the tough life a lot of kids go through in India but also the hope for a better future. I truly enjoyed this one...thumbs up all the way!!

Haunting you with Emiliana Torrini's Gun

I was able to sustain my Swedish streak for more than a week now, but (while I'll return) this comes to an end today due to a track that's been haunting me the last few days. Ever since elafini posted Emiliana Torrini's new song Gun from her latest album Me and Armini, it's been constantly playing on my player and in my mind. Once you hear the eager-to-explode reverb riff and the femme fatale lyrics you'll more than agree with me on this. So good, that not only did I put my Swedish tribute aside, I also made a video for the track (since none existed) by mixing it up with Shinya Tsukamoto's classic Bullet Ballet. From Sweden to Iceland with a taste of Japan...

Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground

While I was ready to prepare (been saying this to myself for 2 days now) the space disco review I promised to Elafini, today's post by Muz!cOn just reminded me of another story I've forgotten to write about.
A couple of weeks ago I managed to see Nina Persson's film Om Gud Vill from back in 2006. The film is quite good (but not too original) and what is perhaps even more interesting is Nina's wonderful cover of White Stripe's Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground. Yeap..Nina is just getting better and better with time...

Morning Update from our fellow Bloggers

In an attempt to wake up and get back to working, I managed to do my casual blog roundup while sipping my morning coffee. Two posts (beside the death of Don Lafontaine) caught my attention and got in the mood for re-posting them.
First one (although BLR will curse me once again for this), the new Obama campaign spot titled "Signs Of Hope & Change". We fully supported the guy from the start, but now comes a political spot based on National’s Fake Empire to top it off!! (posted on Salad Days Music and originally on Stereogum)

The other post was from Stereo Sancity and is (finally) the trailer of Gus Van Sant’s eagerly awaited (probably mostly by me) new film Milk, starring Sean Penn. Our favorite director is back in Hollywood form and is ready to once again hit big time after many years of experimental films (although we loved him mostly for those).

The Dark Knight

After endless raving reviews and recommendations by close friends, I finally decided to give in and go see The Dark Knight. To be honest, I haven’t seen any of the recent comic blockbusters on the big screen (Ironman, Spiderman, Batman Begins) so it was a good chance to catch-up. Especially on a boring Sunday night and after having watched at home in the afternoon Pixar’s marvelous The Incredibles, I was all psyched up at the end for some action hero kick-ass scenes.
Sadly, as in most cases, yet again the critics and friends let me down with their taste. Where should I start? First, the movie was way (way way) too long. Why do all new blockbusters need to be 2 ½ hours long? We’re not paying entertainment by the hour ( I know better places for that :-) ).
Second, Christian Bale was just awful. And if his acting wasn’t bad enough, during the last hour he started speaking like Rocky (honestly, I was expecting him to shout Adrianneeeee). Thank god for Heath Ledger who was amazing in his role as Joker (that I will agree with the critics) and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent (although Two-Face at the end was too superficial as a character and didn’t add much to the story line). The rest of the cast was merely ok, with Maggie Gyllenhall not convincing me as the woman to steal Batman’s heart (or anyone else’s for that matter).
But the biggest letdown was director/screenwriter Christopher Nolan, who created an endless storyline with weak ethical dilemmas and poor action scenes (they were way too confusing and always ended way too easily). Even worse, the end sequence of Batman vs Joker lacked total suspense or climax (I silently cheered for Joker but his final plan was so simple that portrayed him as a common fool). What a disappointment from a film that could have been so much more. At least we’ll always remember Ledger’s magnificent acting in surely the best Joker ever on the big (or small) screen.

PS. Here’s a real Batman action sequence from the past…watch and learn Nolan!!

Movie Stardust - Zooey Deschanel vs Gretchen Mol

I’ve got no access to music today so I decided that it would be a good break from the Roskilde posts (which I still need to prepare for the remaining 2 days of the festival) to have a match-up of two beautiful women. They may have almost a decade difference in age (8 actually) but they are both still looking damn good. Am I getting too obsessed with these stardust posts? Perhaps…

First up is Zooey Deschanel. The girl we first met at Almost Famous is now 28 years old and has made a name of herself (although she has still to become a true moviestar). Some of her most known parts were in All the Real Girls, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and of course her short role as the crazy chick in Weeds.

Next is Gretchen Mol, who has now reached the age of 36 but still looks hot. Unlike Zooey, she has taken up roles in some better (and more cult) movies, such as Dead Man's Walk, Donnie Brasco, The Last Time I Committed Suicide (damn I loved this movie…and the title is amongst the best ever), Rounders, Celebrity and 3:10 to Yuma.

Zooey definitely has a more cute / indie look while Gretchen is the classic beauty withstanding the pass of time. The choice of dreams is yours..

Movie Stardust (First Impressions)

I’ve been posting too much music during the last month (although I didn’t receive any complains about it). So, for a break I thought I would head over to Vanity Fair and dig into their archives again. So what did we come up with? Well, we found a portfolio from December 2006 titled First Impressions. It reviews some of the young actors and actresses that have appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair while they were still considered a rising star. So here are some of those stars photographed during their early years. For obvious reasons we’re only posting the actresses!!

Natalie Portman in December 1995 by Eika Aoshima

Jennifer Connelly in February 1996 by Max Vadukal

Gretchen Mol in February 1998 by Regan Cameron

Penelope Cruz in December 1998 by Jaun Gatti

Kirsten Dunst in April 2000 by Francois Nars

Zooey Deschanel in July 2001 by Anders Overgaard

Tony Gatlif sets the Trance (Exils)

Today we are posting something totally different for this blog. It was yet another day on the beach for us, giving us time to hear some more music on the way. So we gave Monika and The Old 97's a couple of spins before switching to something from the past. The clip (and music) below is from Tony Gatlif's 2004 movie Exils. I saw the movie that year (I think during the Athens film festival) and really loved it. It is about the journey of a couple from Paris to their roots all the way to Algeria (obviously an autobiographical journey of the director). Gatlif is perhaps better known for Gadjo Dilo and especially Latcho Drom. Check him out; he is one of my favorite directors. and his movies are filled with music (ethnic of 'course). The same goes for the soundtrack of Exils, with tracks like this combined with oozes of flamengo. So now it's your turn to get into the trance...

Elena y el Sexo

One of the strangest things about Savage Grace is the absolute lack of music. There is basically only one song in the whole movie (plus one more during the end titles) but both the song and the scene it is appears in are really something. On a beautiful Spanish beach, Elena Anaya (who we adored in Lucia y el Sexo back in 2001) makes her entrance and performs her sensual dance to the sounds of Howard Tate’s soul hit Ain’t Nobody Home. Elena may be getting older, but she still remains amazingly sexy and get’s our thumbs up every time..

I just had to upload the scene for everyone to enjoy, along with posting the original (wonderful) hit by Howard Tate. You can never get bored of some tunes (and such women)..

Howard Tate - Ain't nobody home

Savage Grace

Unable to watch more than 5 minutes from the Eurovision contest on Saturday night (which is actually 5 minutes more than I intended to watch), I decided to put on a DivX and enjoy Savage Grace instead. Tom Kalin’s 2007 film about the life and death of Barbara Baekeland was quite a strange take on this allegedly famous homicide. Kalin focuses on the strange relationships amongst this dysfunctional family in quite a superficial way, initially concentrating on the social life and status of the Baekeland family and later focusing on the sexual relationships and issues of homosexuality. While the photography, beautiful scenery (from Spain) and cinematography takes us back in time and gorgeously sets the scene, the script and especially the dialogues are too sparse and out of context, in some cases sounding even random. This makes it impossible to get into the character’s mentality and unfortunately disappoints in taking the story to the next level. I personally found the film quite enjoyable (although the disturbing storyline may upset some people) but mostly because it saved me from watching the Eurovision contest. As far as the actors were concerned, Julianne Moore was once again a joy to watch, Stephen Dillane was somewhat nonchalant, Eddie Redmayne (the family’s son) was quite convincing and Elena Anaya was the beloved Blanca (for whom we will dedicate our next post). Recommended only as a visual trip to sunny Spain or a break from the usual Hollywood blockbusters.

Bowld, Harrrd

Can't say that I've been a big fan of Will Ferrell. I have to give kudos to him though, because he finally made a movie that is at least watchable. It is also funny at times! It even made me want to post something after so much time!

That's all for now, I'll get back to the posting habit when I can find some free time during working hours. Until then, I must avoid the temptations :)