Star Wars Trilogy on DVD: September 21st

We just rented the Woody Allen movie Anything Else. We normally hate Woody Allen movies, but it had Jason Biggs for her and Christina Ricci for me, so we figured we’d give it a shot.

We stopped it after the first 15 minutes. It was in that nasty area between boring and annoying, kind of like Nickelback or The Bachelor.

On the upside, I picked up the new Distillers and Muse CDs today for decent prices.

Whoa.

Frankly, I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Granted, it’s a decent movie, with pretty good performances by some excellent actors, but I’ve seen better from each of them. Marcia Gay Harden was the only performance that I found stunning, and I think that’s only because she played such a sociopath in Case De Los Babys. If you want to be impressed by any of the three main actors, you could pick up their seminal prison performances: Penn in Dead Man Walking, Robbins in The Shawshank Redemption and Kevin Bacon in Murder In The First (though I prefer his turn in JFK; it’s a smaller role, but a well executed one and the movie is infinitely better).

• Holly Golightly . Painted On
• The Fire Theft . The Fire Theft
• The Muffs . Blonder And Blonder
• Pilate . Caught by The Window (look, up in the sky…it’s Radiohead, it’s Coldplay, it’s…a band from Ontario…)
• My Morning Jacket . It Still Moves (is it just me, or do these guys sound an awful lot like The Band?)
• Drive-By Truckers . Decoration Day
• Neutral Milk Hotel . In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (thanks Alana)
• The Walkmen . Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone

Picking up where Manufacturing Consent left off, The Corporation is another documentary that just leaves you shaking your head. I’m probably a little more torn than the average ticket buyer for this movie, what with my commerce degree and the dogma drilled into my head about the holiness of free market enterprise. The filmmakers don’t hide the fact that they’re biased, but they let the mild psychosis of the CEOs and think-tankers speak for itself. Most interestingly, the filmmakers aren’t pushing for the evil corporations to go away, or to supplant capitalism in favour of communism; they’re pushing for corporations to stop using their loopholes and begin using their consciences. And the implied message to the viewer is this: the next time you buy shares or enjoy dividends from certain companies whose records aren’t quite spotless, think about what you saw in this movie.

Reviews: eye magazine, now magazine, the globe and mail, the star.

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel.

1. Radiohead . Hail To The Thief
2. Bonnie Prince Billy . Master And Everyone
3. The New Pornographers . Electric Version
4. The White Stripes . Elephant
5. Clearlake . Cedars
6. The Raveonettes . Chain Gang Of Love
7. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club . Take Them On, On Your Own
8. Mogwai . Happy Songs For Happy People
9. Grandaddy . Sumday
10. The Stratford 4 . Love And Distortion
11. The Kills . Keep On Your Mean Side
12. The Be Good Tanyas . Chinatown
13. Frankenixon . Depth Perception
14. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs . Fever To Tell
15. Sam Roberts . We Were Born In A Flame
16. Damien Jurado . Where Shall You Take Me
17. The Drive-By Truckers . Decoration Day
18. A Silver Mt. Zion . This Is Our Punk Rock, Thee Rusted Satellites Gather & Sing
19. The Fire Theft . The Fire Theft
20. One Mile North . Minor Shadows

Biggest disappointments of the year:

• The Dandy Warhols . Welcome To The Monkeyhouse
• Elbow . A Cast Of Thousands
• The Folk Implosion . The New Folk Implosion
• Matthew Good . Avalanche

Likely would have made the top 20, but haven’t arrived in the mail yet:

• My Morning Jacket . It Still Moves
• Guided By Voices . Earthquake Glue
• The Fiery Furnaces . Gallowsbird’s Bark
• Explosions In The Sky . The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place
• Snow Patrol . Final Straw

top discs of 2003. i always do it in january, then revise it in march as i discover more music. happens every year. learn to love it. and me.

Sorry, kiddies, I haven’t posted in ages. I was away on holidays, celebrating xmas, getting married, dreading work, yada. Here’s what I’ve seen since last we spoke:

• Cold Mountain: Jude Law: excellent. Renee Zellweiger: excellent. Small part by Philip Seymour Hoffman: excellent. Scenery: excellent. JackWhite: excell…well, not great acting-wise, but the music was good. Nicole Kidman: overrated, as usual. Still, worth a watch. Be forewarned, though, it’s 2.5 hours, and the time doesn’t fly like it does in a Peter Jackson film.
• The Last Samurai: Mix one part “Dancing With Wolves” and one part “Braveheart”. Stir. Leave theatre completely indifferent to previous 2 hours. Forget.