Photo Courtesy © Columbia Pictures

Walk Hard

Directed by: Jake Kasdan

Written by: Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan

Starring: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows, Kristen Wiig, Chris Parnell and Matt Besser.

Growing up, about the most lewd comedies that my father ever allowed us to watch were the Mel Brooks films—Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, The Producers, Young Frankenstein, A History of the World: Part I, and then later, Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It—and I like to think to this day that it is there where I first discovered my love of all things wacky, mocking and filled with sexual innuendo.

Walk Hard is a parody film very much in the vein of Brooks’ High Anxiety and Spaceballs, and even this year’s action tribute film Hot Fuzz. Jake Kasdan, who directed the brilliant and totally underrated Orange County, is at the helm once more with Walk Hard (he also co-wrote the screenplay with producer Judd Apatow) and John C. Reilly finally gets his due as a leading man as Dewey Cox, the film’s Johnny Cash-esque protaganist.

The film is not as hilarious as this year’s other Apatow releases Knocked Up and Superbad, but it is on another playing field altogether, one that requires the viewer to be familiar with the standard biopic conventions and plot points in order to really laugh out loud. And if you are, you will—take one of the movie’s running gags via Tim Meadow (so good to see him back on the big screen): remember the scene in Ray (there were similar scenes in El Cantante and Walk the Line) where he catches one of his band members doing drugs and the guy goes, “You don’t want no part of this, Ray”? In Walk Hard, this line becomes a standard refrain and one that never fails to deliver a laugh, as is Dewey’s pension for ripping out sinks right off the wall and the random extended close-up shots of groupie dick (Brooks never went that far but I think he secretly wanted to).

The movie also features cameos galore—everyone from “Office” cast members to Paul Rudd, Jason Schwartzman, Jack Black, Jack White and Justin Long—and best of all, really terrific songs, courtesy of the amazing Dan Bern, that you will find yourself singing out loud long after the movie ends. Kasdan and company set out to mock everything it is that they both love and hate about rock n’ roll biopics and they succeeded, but in the process they also created a rare comedy classic.

Lily@picturesandframesmagazine.com

Photo Courtesy © Focus Features

Atonement

Directed by: Joe Wright

Written by: Christopher Hampton

Starring: James McCavoy, Kiera Knightley, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai.

I have to admit that I was incredibly nervous about watching Atonement. I recently discovered the novel by Ian McEwan and had fallen hard for it. As a big screen adaptation, I pictured a sweeping romantic epic, the sort of movies made by Warner Brothers during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Then I discovered that it was going to reunite director Joe Wright and movie star Keira Knightley, who had previously remade Pride and Prejudice. Despite being a huge Jane Austen fan, I thought their adaptation was pretty run-of-the-mill bland and could never understand how Knightley scored an Oscar nod for it. (At least I’ll always have the BBC’s fantastic adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.) However, the thought of them adapting Atonement had me worried. And maybe even a little pissed off. Still, knowing that James McAvoy would be starring as Robbie was encouraging.

Much to my surprise, Atonement ended up being one of my favorite films of the year. For the most part, it is incredibly true to the novel. This is particularly true for the first part of the story, when a young imaginative girl named Briony (Saoirse Ronan) tells a story that will change the lives of those around her completely. McAvoy carries the film’s second act, which takes place in France during World War II. The film’s final act features Vanessa Redgrave, playing Briony during her final years. While it is here that the film veers the furthest away from the novel, it feels like a necessary change and manages to give the film the punch-in-the-gut ending that McEwan imagined.

McAvoy and Ronan give the film its strongest moments but even Knightley manages to give the naysayers (like myself) something to think about as Celia. In the end, it’s one of those wonderful films that fans of the novel can watch without thinking, “why did they do this?” the entire time.

Unlike, say, The Golden Compass.

Rick@picturesandframesmagazine.com

Photo Courtesy © Universal Pictures

Charlie Wilson’s War

Directed by: Mike Nichols

Written by: Aaron Sorkin

Starring: Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams 

Ask any Aaron Sorkin fan why they’re Aaron Sorkin fans and chances are that they will cite his writing—his tendency to write strong, intelligent characters, spitfire dialogue and subtle sexual tensions set him apart from all modern day writers working on television and in Hollywood. For the past couple of years however, Sorkin fans have had to get their fix strictly on TV as 1995’s The American President (which served as a kind of preview for what would ultimately become “The West Wing”) was his last foray into writing for the big screen until Mike Nichols’ latest film, the Tom Hanks-fronted Charlie Wilson’s War.

When Charlie Wilson’s War was first announced, with Sorkin as the writer, Nichols as director and Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman (this month’s P&F Spotlight) as the film’s leads, the Oscar buzz was palpable, even six months before the movie’s December release. Which meant of course that about three months before it even hit theaters, the backlash started and the entertainment media began to write about the film as one that failed to deliver the caliber originally expected of it. As usual, they were wrong.

Charlie Wilson’s War is exactly the kind of film that Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder and Frank Capra would have made had they been making films today, in the wake of terrorism and with the threat of nuclear war constantly looming overhead. Hanks’ Charlie Wilson is a breath of fresh air and dazzling to watch—he is a womanizer, a boozer and a user, but one whose heart is even bigger than his many vices and habits, and as such, he sets out on a mission to single handedly take down the Soviet Union, with the help of religious nut and sometimes lover, beauty queen Joanne Herring (played by a perfectly cast Roberts) and genius CIA operative Gust Avrakotos played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The film has many high points—the story unravels so perfectly that, much like with the best “West Wing” episodes, you find yourself hanging on every word that is spoken just in case you missed anything, and visually, the grainy 80s war sequences serve as a really interesting parallel to the scenes taking place on Capitol Hill—but the most exciting moments in the movie undoubtedly belong to Hanks and Hoffman. Watching these two riff off of each other is tantamount to watching Newman and Redford, their chemistry and mutual bravado is unmatched. Their relationship carries the film’s ultimate message—look what we accomplished, but also, look how much we fucked up—and serves as a reminder of just what is possible when people work together, regardless of party affiliation, race, creed or patriotism.

Lily@picturesandframesmagazine.com

Photo Courtesy © THINKFilm

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Written by Kelly Masterson

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei

Seeing this film was, for me, a much anticipated experience. I remember seeing the trailer for Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead several months ago and thinking two things: This looks like it’s going to be a very good movie and it looks like it’s going to be a true Sidney Lumet picture. Lumet’s great accomplishments in the past include 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network and Night Falls on Manhattan. There are a great many other films on Lumet’s résumé, most of them good films. But I point out the above titles because they are areas where Lumet has pushed the envelope and done what was widely considered “edgy” material for its time. With Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead Lumet takes on the new millennium’s version of edgy material, where family members partake in the unthinkable.

What’s really wonderful about this movie is it seems to tackle subject matter akin to a sleazy story one might hear on the news and say “What’s wrong with these people? What were they thinking?” However, where Lumet and first-time writer Kelly Masterson make the right choice is in not romanticizing or complicating any of the motives. The perpetrators of the crime here are desperate and unsavory, plain and simple. I must say that I liked the fact that the filmmakers made no attempt to excuse or make sense of the characters’ actions; they kept it simple and grotesquely human.

That being said, I walked out of the theater not knowing how in the world I was going to write this review. It’s hard to discuss without giving too much away. Yet, simply stating “the movie is good” would be too monosyllabic to meet the standards we uphold at Pictures and Frames. One conclusion I did come to was that this film falls under the category of “better if you don’t see the trailer.” I’m sure there’s a reveal in the film that would have been more dramatic had I not known the film centers around this incident. Therefore I’m going to leave it up to the reader to choose whether or not they want to see the trailer first or go into the movie completely ignorant.

The strength of the film ultimately rests on Lumet’s direction, Masterson’s impressive debut screenplay and the exceptional acting of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman plays his odious character with such power and honesty, really making a troubled and despicable person come to life on the screen. Albert Finney, who is pretty much good in anything, is also good in this. Ethan Hawke manages to make you squirm in your seat, feeling every exasperating moment of his endless struggles. The performance that pleasantly surprised me however was that of Marisa Tomei. Her character is an emotional wreck and, though perhaps a bit underwritten, Tomei truly seems to be feeling each heartache her character has to cope with.

This is a difficult movie to recommend to anyone; it’s incredibly subjective, like a lot of other good films. Yet it’s different, it’s fascinating, well written, well acted and wonderfully directed. That combination makes for good cinema.

David@picturesandframesmagazine.com

Photo Courtesy © United Artists

Lions for Lambs

Director: Robert Redford

Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan

Cast: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, Michael Pena, Derek Luke, Andrew Garfield, Kevin Dunn

Robert Redford. Wow. As has been previously made aware, Mr. Redford is one of my favorites (see Spotlight, February 2007). His latest picture Lions for Lambs continues a streak of remarkable films that Redford has directed. The film tells three stories that are ultimately connected. One story has Redford playing a college professor, having a conference with a student he feels is particularly special, but whose motivation has been deterred. The second story deals with Meryl Streep’s journalist interviewing Tom Cruise’s Senator about his new plan to win the wars in the Middle East. The third of the stories covers two soldiers deserted in battle, under attack and trying to survive.

What makes the film work best is that it doesn’t simply tackle the easy target: the right wing government and the Bush administration for getting us into the mess overseas. This film also has a lot to say about America’s youth, who can’t be bothered with what’s happening to their country and their world. The corporate media machine is also called to question. And cleverly, it is all done in a manner that doesn’t become preachy. Screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan develops each story with expert care and really has something to say with his work.

Streep is exactly what you expect—amazing, extraordinary and brilliant. She goes toe-to-toe with Cruise’s Senator Irving, always having the right rebuttal for his political and social opinions. Redford, well he can do no wrong as I see it. Mr. Cruise on the other hand, he’s a different story. I had heard rave reviews for his performance from various critics and media outlets. What I saw was not particularly a great performance. I saw somebody given really good material to work with, playing a character whose main goal is to try and sell something. So basically, it was Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise with really good dialogue.

This is flat out, one of the best films I’ve seen this year. I have a soft spot for socially relevant, politically important films, and this is certainly in that category. But content aside, it’s just a really good story, cleverly intertwined by people who want to make movies that speak out.

David@picturesandframesmagazine.com

DVD'S:

Photo Courtesy © Warner Bros. Pictures

Blood Diamond

As a movie fan, it pains me to be this transparent but I feel that I should as (I think) it serves the purpose of the review: although I Netflixed Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond in September of this year, it is only now, nearly four months later (I am ashamed to admit), that I finally got around to watching it.

There are two main reasons as to why it took me four months to actually watch this film: A) being a pretty big Edward Zwick fan (love his work on TV—“My So-Called Life,” “Once & Again”—and most of his film work, particularly Glory) I was disappointed with his last film, The Last Samurai, and therefore was hesitant about watching this one; B) it was hard to come home at the end of the day and get excited about a film that I knew would tear me apart and make me cry—especially one that dealt with the murderous diamond trade in Sierra Leone. Both of these reasons are pretty dumb, I know, and I feel especially stupid having now seen and loved Blood Diamond.

It is strange and almost ridiculous to get excited about a film that was nominated for Oscars almost a year later, when everyone has either seen it or has moved on from it, but that is where I find myself now, basking in its subtle glory and uncharacteristically un-preachy message, and in the brilliance of Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly, the film’s three leads.

Djimon Hounsou and Leonardo DiCaprio were both nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor Oscars, respectively, for Blood Diamond and looking back, it is pretty amazing that neither won. Hounsou delivers a performance that is both tender and yet full of blinding rage, and DiCaprio, who also turned in a mesmerizing performance this same year in The Departed, steals every scene that he is in (which is pretty hard to do with Hounsou as a co-star). He is quickly becoming one of the most interesting actors to watch and follow on screen, disappearing into one terrific and challenging role after another, and he is still only in his early 30s.

Jennifer Connelly was the real surprise to me here however—the past couple of years she has become an expert at playing the role of “the wife and mother,” first in A Beautiful Mind, most recently in Little Children and Reservation Road, and although she has been great in all of these films, it is a welcome change to see her fiery independence in the role of journalist Maddy Bowen. Connelly has long been one of my favorite actresses over the years and I am always amazed by the beauty, that goes beyond simply just the physical, that she commands onscreen.

Blood Diamond ultimately, succeeds where, I feel, The Last Samurai fails. Zwick has long been an expert at narrowing down the emotions and actions that drive the human heart in his stories and has tackled subjects on film that have tried both, but unlike Samurai, which felt cold and oddly far-removed, Zwick clearly connects with the story behind Blood Diamond and that is apparent in every frame of the film. The movie is gripping and heartbreaking and increasingly difficult to watch because of its harrowing subject matter, but somehow Zwick draws us in slowly, daring us not to look away. With Blood Diamond, as with Glory, he has made a message film, one that looks to educate even as it entertains, but its message is one of hope and possibility, where the actions of one man still hold meaning… not at all the grim sermon that I long avoided or feared.

Lily@picturesandframesmagazine.com

Photo Courtesy © Sundance Channel

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream

A film by Peter Bogdonovich

Few sounds get to the heart of rock and roll better than Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Celebrating their more than 30 years together, director Peter Bogdonovich brings together the story of one of America’s greatest bands in a documentary as honest and detailed as its four hours promise. Runnin’ Down a Dream is a definite must-see for Petty fans, as well as any music fan seeking knowledge on the men, origins and influences behind their all-time favorite songs. The two-disc director’s cut includes interview clips with George Harrison, Eddie Vedder, Rick Rubin, Dave Grohl, Johnny Depp, Stevie Nicks and Jackson Browne; the package also includes a DVD of their historic 30^th anniversary concert in Gainesville, Florida, the Heartbreakers’ hometown, as well as one CD featuring rare and unreleased tracks. Every penny on this collection is well spent.

I was in complete awe of the available and obtained historical footage integrated into the film. Nearly everything in the story, including priceless documentation of their beginning band days as the carefree, Florida forest festival anchors, Mudcrutch; car breakdowns, repairs, and being stalled for three days while on the road to getting signed in Los Angeles; and being taken to a private room in a German airport for a member’s pocketful of Mary Jane (not to mention another hilariously swallowing a whole chunk, attempting to hold Amsterdam behind his teeth).

It’s as if each step along the timeline was scrap booked for the library of rock and roll. Best of all were the reflections and digressions of Petty’s and band members, guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Trench, once drummer Stan Lynch, and once and current bassists, Howie Epstein and Ron Blair. Petty believed the music would only contain as much magic as the band as a united family and club generated, refusing the idea to make it alone or that a talented outside musician could easily swap-in for a member. The brotherhood, love, and belief they shared as a collective is truly inspiring; through musical and life triumphs (record deal offers, early European acclaim, hit singles, world tours), trials (Tom Petty vs. MCA Records over publishing rights, Tom Petty vs. Music Industry over high record prices, his divorce), and tragedies (Epstein’s fatal heroin addiction), music was forever soulfully surging and synthesizing in their blood, as divinely elemental as sea to sailor.

The film’s length lets each chapter of the Heartbreakers’ story shine. Musical highlights include the gorgeous and tender, “Southern Accents,” every music video shoot (one which reached seven minutes and which MTV played in heavy rotation!), Petty singing a Hank Williams cover he heard on a morning drive, “Lost Highway,” which he handwrote the lyrics for in a notebook (lovely penmanship), the romantic and time-stunning, “Stories We Could Tell” and “Keeping Me Alive,” and what Grohl, guest drummer on an SNL appearance, describes as the “fun, barn-burner,” sexy, bluesy ruffler, “Honey Bee.” The Heartbreakers’ blues and country influences spill in buckets from this special set, most of which are set within the contents of the accompanying CD.

They say you can know a good man by the way he laughs. Tom Petty is a good man; I love the way he laughs and communicates peace as the bandleader throughout the film. It’s beautiful and remarkable to hear all the details and accomplishments, framed by his famous shaggy blonde hair: the stressful, mad battles with the music industry and his “young punk” wins, his challenges with writing songs for Stevie Nicks (they were too good for him to let go!), and creating magical moments with Bob Dylan, the Traveling Wilburys and Johnny Cash. His vision, uncompromising righteousness and strength, intelligence, straight-shooting, and undeniable gifts as a poet will continue to inspire the space, causing many contemporary bands and up-and-coming songwriters to deeply pursue their rock and roll dreams.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers experienced a divine, illuminated Heaven on earth. They were true to themselves, humble to their roots, and always committed to the truth of their sound, simply and extraordinarily; the degree of honesty in which they approached, grew and succeeded in their craft through the years is nothing less than sheer treasure. Listeners the world over are so very founded and blessed as a result, forever spiritually accompanied and encouraged to fly.

Jehan@picturesandframesmagazine.com

Photo Courtesy © Hollywood Pictures

The Invisible

Jeanne: We’re watching…uh…is it…Invisible?…

Richard: The Invisible.

Jeanne: (Ignoring Richard and checking the Netflix envelope) The Invisible?

Richard: Damn, I forgot to refill my Dr. Pepper.

Jeanne: You should do that. (Triumphantly stating the movie name after checking the envelope) The Invisible!

Richard: Bitch, that’s what I said.

Jeanne: I couldn’t remember if it was invisible or the invisible and I didn’t take your word for it.

Richard: I take your word for things.

Jeanne: Really? You shouldn’t. I lie a lot.

Richard: I know that because you’re a girl.

The tape is momentarily paused while Dr. Pepper is gotten. It resumes in the middle of a fat-like-the-Pillsbury-dough-boy-conversation.

Richard: Jeanne just called me fat.

Jeanne: I did not. I didn’t call you fat.

Richard: You called me the Pillsbury doughboy.

Jeanne: I said you giggle like the Pillsbury doughboy.

Chris: Teehee

Jeanne: Teehee

Richard: You make me feel fat which makes me eat which makes me feel fat which makes me eat.

Jeanne: It’s the circle of life. That’s what Simba did, too. 

Richard: Like how I cut myself and then I hate myself and then I cut myself and then I hate myself?

Jeanne: You’re very emo, Richard.

Richard: What?

Jeanne: Emo.

Richard: Oh, I thought you said anal.

Jeanne: You’re very anal as well. It’s part of the homosexual part.

The movie’s opening scene begins. It’s rainy.

Richard: We’re in Seattle!

Chris: We’re in New York, Richard.

Richard: Look at how pretty.

Chris: Apparently demons get loose and wreck shit up there every week.

Jeanne: What? Is this about demons?

Richard: No, he was talking about “Reaper.”

Jeanne: Oh! That’s in Seattle?

Chris: Yeah.

Jeanne: Should I have known that? I think you guys mentioned it last time.

Richard: I haven’t seen every episode and I know that.

Jeanne: You’re smart.

Richard: Whenever they look at a newspaper it says Seattle.

Jeanne: Whatever.

Richard: Whatever.

Jeanne: I don’t pay attention to the details.

The opening scene shows the main guy in the movie at a graduation party at his house. His mom, Marcia Gay Harden, is giving a speech.

Richard: It’s Marcia Gay Harden.

Jeanne: Gay is right.

Richard: (Referring to the main guy) That’s the guy from Weeds. The first episode. He was in his underwear.

Chris: I remember ‘cause we were like “I hope he stays on this show” and he didn’t.

Richard: We hope he comes back in his underwear.

Chris: I didn’t mention that part.

Richard: I know you were feeling it, Chris.

The main guy gets up from the dinner table where everyone’s gathered to celebrate his graduation and begins to wander around the patio space where the party is. Some strange ambient music plays in the background while he sort of floats around seeming very detached.

Richard: I feel like this is going to be a dream sequence. I feel like we should be watching this with the lights out.

Jeanne: Go turn the lights out. Make it creepy, Richard.

Richard: So you want me to stand behind you and whisper things?

Jeanne: Dude, that was way freaky. Don’t ever do that again.

As the main guy walks around the party he comes to his cake, which has a giant photographic image of his face on it. He grabs a knife and cuts into the picture of his face and takes a slice out of the cake.

Jeanne: Never get me a cake with my face on it.

Richard: Oh my god, I retroactively wish that for my birthday you had made me brownies but with my face on it.

Jeanne: At Carvel you’re supposed to be able to bring in a picture and they’ll put it on your cake. So next birthday you’re getting that. (This is an empty threat because the Brooklyn Gang’s lease is up in August of 08 and our new landlords will be kicking us out. That’s right folks; enjoy the Gang while you’ve got us! And by enjoy I mean write us some fucking fan mail! Brooklyngang@picturesandframesmagazine.com. We’ll also accept cash and gifts as tokens of your undying love.)

Richard: Well that’ll be really interesting.

Jeanne: I’ll mail you a Carvel cake.

The main guy wakes up panting a little in bed.

Richard: There you go.

Chris: You called it. It was a dream.

The main guy gets up and heads out into the dining room and finds that his mom, Marcia Gay Harden, has set out breakfast. It’s plated to look like smiley faces made of bacon and eggs. It all seems very dreamlike still. And who, over the age of four, gets served breakfast in little happy faces?

Richard: You never make me bacon and eggs like that.

Chris: You don’t like eggs.

Richard: I can’t believe you remembered that, Chris.

Chris: I remember that because no one in this house but me likes eggs.

Jeanne: I like them on occasion. Lily eats eggs sometimes.

Chris: She eats them on a sandwich though.

Marcia Gay Harden has this insane updo that makes her head like seven feet long. It’s bizarre.

Even after only 5 minutes there’s a heavy handed use of music that I’m starting to find annoying. I only allow Garden State to toy with my emotions that way!

Richard: I think that’s the same Seattle high school from Mad Love with Drew Barrymore and Chris O’Donnell.

Chris: How come when something’s ingenious it’s genius but when someone’s infamous they’re like bad famous?

Jeanne: I don’t know. Infamous is like notorious…

Chris: I know what it means.

Jeanne: I know but I don’t know why.

Chris: So shouldn’t ingenious be like a bad genius?

Jeanne: Like an evil genius?

Richard: Yes.

For anyone paying attention, through the wonders of Microsoft Word’s spell check, I realize that ingenious is not spelled ingenius and so this conversation only works to make us all look pretty dumb.

Richard: I wish Ellen Page was in this movie. (After having seen Juno, Richard has a total straight crush on Ellen Page. I welcome you to make fun of him in the fan emails that you will be sending to us because I told you to.)

Some chick that I guess is going to be like THE chick for this movie is apparently a thug. She and her two retarded henchman are holding down a kid in the bathroom while she threatens him for not paying her for something. She cuts his hand and leaves.

Chris: Is this like Brick?

Jeanne: It seems like it.

Richard: Nothing is like Brick.

Jeanne: My high school wasn’t that intense.

Cut to an English class at the school. It’s all poetry all the time. Gay. Some kid is in front of the class reciting his crap. “I fly. Love you, baby. Bye. Bye.”

Chris: Lame.

Richard: That sounded like the fucking Kate Bush song at the end of The Golden Compass. (Begins singing) “Lyra…with her bear beside her.”

The main guy goes up to recite his poem.

Chris: He’s cool. He’s gonna sit on the teacher’s desk.

Richard: He’s gonna sit on the teacher’s face.

Jeanne: Anybody reciting poetry is not cool.

Richard: I’m really with you on that.

Guy’s lame ass poetry: “Day burns down to night burns the edge of my soul in the night I break into sparks of sun…”

Chris: Your poetry burns my soul. That doesn’t rhyme. It’s not poetry at all.

The bell rings in the middle of his poem and everyone rushes out.

Jeanne: No one respects my poetry!

Richard: No one respects poetry. I don’t.

Jeanne: No, It’s something only to be enjoyed privately and with embarrassment.

It’s lunch and the main guy sits down with that guy who got his hand cut in the bathroom. They’re apparently best buds. They chat about how the kid from the bathroom owes the thug girl money but he says his dad never gives him a dime so he can’t pay her back. Main guy decides to pay off his debt for his friend. Very chivalrous…and a little gay. He goes up to the thug girl and gives her a wad of cash saying that the debt his friend owes is paid. She looks all tough and emo in her black winter cap and tells him to get lost. He leans over and whispers, “You’re so broken” which are, apparently, the key words to unleash her inner psycho. She takes a running leap onto him as he turns away from her and they start into a lunchroom brawl.

Jeanne: She’s gonna kick his ass…and then they’re gonna have sex ‘cause that’s what you do. You beat each other up and then you have sex.

Richard: Is that what you do?

After being taken to the principal’s office, the main guy chooses not to rat out the thug chick and says that they were just fooling around. The principal pulls him aside and tells him he shouldn’t bother trying to protect someone like her ‘cause she’s going nowhere.

Jeanne: Is she going through like cancer treatment? Why doesn’t she every take that cap off?

We get to see the thug chick at home. She looks after her little brother while her dad and mom fight and yell at her. We get it; people aren’t bad they just come from bad homes.

Jeanne: I bet they end up loving her and she ends up being the one who saves him.

Cut to main guy and his friend at home. We find out that Main guy was accepted into a writing program in London. He’s supposed to leave the next night but he hasn’t told his mother yet. She’s always had his life planned out for him and he doesn’t like it. He wants to break free and all that.

Cut to thug chick out with her thug boyfriend stealing cars. She wigs out, grabs a trash can while her boyfriend yells at her to stop and smashes the display window at a jewelry store and grabs a handful of stuff from the window before jumping into the car he hotwired and taking off.

The next morning her boyfriend tells her to leave the bag of jewelry for him and he’ll fence it for her. She refuses saying that she can make money from it herself. Yeah, right. A little high school girl with maybe cancer can find a way to fence stolen jewelry at her upper-middle class high school. Dumbass. She takes the bag as he yells at her to leave it.

He seeks revenge by phoning in a tip to the cops that there’s a shit load of stolen diamonds in the locker of the high school resident thug. Of course, the principal calls in cops to search her locker and there’s the bag of loot. She gets carted away in handcuffs but, and this is the crux of the movie really, it never occurs to her that the shithead boyfriend that was screaming at her this morning might be the guy who ratted her out. Instead she decides that it’s the main guy’s best friend ‘cause he looks at her funny while she’s hauled away or something.

Jeanne: (Aww, she thinks the people living in the TV can hear her) I told you that was not a good place to put that shit.

Richard: (Warning: Richard in all of his divine psychic knowledge largely sums up the film in the following comment) She thinks it’s him and she’s gonna send her goons after him but they’re gonna kill Justin Chatwin (main guy) instead and it was actually the guy that she was fucking.

Getting home after hanging out with his friend, the main guy walks in to see that his mom has found his ticket to London. She’s pissed since he totally didn’t even tell her about it so she cancelled the ticket and fucked him over. Marcia Gay Harden’s a bitch.

Cut to the friend. The thug chick’s found him and her henchmen are beating the shit out of him. She keeps trying to get him to confess to having ratted her out but he won’t because he didn’t.

Richard: (Another psychic spoiler) He’s gonna blame his friend ‘cause he knows his friend is leaving.

Chris: You’re right. You wrote this movie.

Richard: I don’t want credit for something that David Goyer wrote.

Jeanne: Did you also write Blade 3?

Richard: So much no.

Devastated at having lost the chance to go to London, the main guy expresses this by getting hammered at a friend’s party and stumbling around the party yelling, “Do you want to go to London?!”

Chris: He’s really weird. Like I don’t have a grasp on his character…or any of these people.

Richard: I could get a grasp on his character.

Chris: I bet you could.

Jeanne: Is that what it means when you say, “I want to go to London?”

Richard: (Laughing) Yeah. It’s like my cock is painted like a British telephone box.

Chris: Like Big Ben!

Richard: It lights up.

Jeanne: That’s not right.

Some chick at the party takes the main guy into a room where he gives his ticket to London to her and she starts stripping down. I’m not sure if this is like a transaction or more a happy coincidence.

Jeanne: (Being a cold hard realist at all times) She can’t use it unless this is supposed to be a pre- 9/11 world where you can take a ticket with somebody else’s name on it and use it.

Chris: What is going on ‘cause this makes no sense so far.

Jeanne: I don’t know. Ask Richard. He wrote it.

However, there will be no nookie. The main guy decides to abandon the possible coitus before any fluids are exchanged and, instead, starts walking home drunkenly. Of course, the thug chick and her henchmen find him along the road, grab him, drive him out to the forest, and start beating the shit out of him while his friend is in the back seat sobbing and telling the thug chick to call off her goons.

The beating gets heated when the thug asks the battered main guy, “Who’s the broken one now?” and he responds by saying, “Still you.” The thug girl kicks him hard in the head sending him over a small ledge and, they think, killing him.

The friend sort of just sobs a lot but never once thinks to jump into the running car that the thug and her henchman left a few feet away. He’s a shitty friend. And a pretty terribly acted character which is SO sad given that the actor is the same guy who played the little brother in Just Friends, also know by me as The Greatest Movie Ever.

The thug and her goons drag the main guy’s body over to a manhole (don’t ask me why there’s a manhole in the forest) and they dump his body in to cover their tracks.

The thug chick goes to her boyfriend’s chop shop to freak out about having just killed somebody. The boyfriend, never bothering to say, “Hey, you just killed the wrong guy ‘cause I’m the one that called the cops”, tells her to get the fuck out because he’s on parole but the thug chick tells him if he doesn’t act as her solid, sexual alibi that she’ll rat him out to his parole officer.

Jeanne: (Still perplexed by the fact that thug chick has yet to be onscreen without her stupid black hat) Is she seriously going through chemo, I mean, why aren’t they showing you her hair?

Cut to the next day when the main guy, who is now presumed dead at the bottom of a sewer shaft, walks into his school looking totally normal.

Jeanne: He’s not wondering why he’s wearing the same clothes he was wearing yesterday or anything like that.

The sort of dead main guy walks into his English class and takes his seat. His teacher is talking about poetry and asking if anyone can name the poem she just recited from. Being a big poetry dork, the main guy totally knows that it’s Ezra Pound and starts saying the answer but the teacher doesn’t acknowledge him. Then she asks about everyone’s opinions on the poems that were read the day before. We all say that they were gay but, much like the almost dead guy, the teacher ignores us. A student starts saying he didn’t understand the main guy’s poem but the teacher says they’ll have to reserve criticism until the main guy is in class to defend his work. The main guy freaks out since he thinks he’s totally there. He grabs a book and chucks it at the wall knocking stuff off but when he looks back he sees that the book is still sitting on the desk and that the wall is actually unchanged. Ooohhh…creepy.

Jeanne: He’s become (dramatic pause) the invisible!

Richard: He has a chest that reminds me of like those male actors from the 40’s. Barrel-chested or something. It’s really weird.

Chris: I don’t know. He looks pretty scrawny to me.

Richard: He does but it’s like…

Jeanne: I think a lot of it’s his gay-ass haircut.

Chris: (Laughing) That doesn’t even make sense.

Jeanne: I’m just saying…

Chris: How would that affect his chest?

Jeanne: I think it makes him look scrawny ‘cause he has a gay-ass haircut.

Richard: Do I have a gay-ass haircut?

Jeanne: No. It’s just like his is too long in the back and like gay in the front.

The main guy’s mom called the cop when he didn’t show up the night before. The main guy’s strange, detached soul-like thing watches as his mom talks to the cops and they search around his room.

Richard: I want that house.

Chris: I think that’s the fucking house from…

Richard: When a Stranger Calls?

Chris: I think it might be.

Richard: I think it is ‘cause I was just thinking the same fucking thing.

The main guy tells his mom that he thinks that he’s dead but she can’t hear him anyway so what does it matter. Some sad music plays.

Richard: He doesn’t know that he’s dead. He could just be having an out of body experience. OBE!

Jeanne: Is he gonna become like that grizzled mean guy on the train in Ghost?

Chris: Yes. This is like the prequel to Ghost.

Richard: I don’t like this scene. It’s stupid. Get on with it. I’m starting to hate movies with lots of music…music and montages…OH!

Jeanne: OH! For the non-viewing audience, He just walked in slow-mo, stopped in the middle of the street and yelled silently.

Richard: He looked gay as hell just now.

The cops are hot on the investigation trail and it leads them to the thug chick’s house. It turns out that the thug chick’s dad used to be a cop and he worked with the cop that’s now investigating the case and when thug chick was a little girl she used to like the investigating cops ties. This is pretty useless information but I think that it’s supposed to make you feel like maybe she’s not all bad. The chick gives her car-jacking boyfriend as her alibi. The cop totally isn’t buying it but he gives her his card and tells her to give him a call if she’s got any info. Cops are lame. The dead guy thinks cops are lame, too, and yells at the cop that she’s lying and he should be arresting her.

Jeanne: They obviously don’t buy it but they can’t just start punching her in the face and yelling, “Where’d you put the body!”

Chris: They could if this was 1970’s England. (Chris has a sick obsession with “Life on Mars” and desperately wants to be a cop who beats people up, drinks too much and plants evidence.)

Richard: I thought that this movie was going to be awesome.

Chris: I didn’t think that it was going to be awesome but I thought that it was going to be better than this.

A search party is gathered and a search of the woods begins. That lame ass friend of the almost dead guy is part of the search party. How the fuck did this guy get so sucked in to this? Why hasn’t he ratted that chick out yet? So much for BFF.

Richard: He’s a pussy.

Jeanne: He is a pussy and a shitty friend.

Richard: If I was ever with you guys and some chick killed you I’d totally be like ‘That bitch killed my friend!’

Jeanne: Thank you, Richard. I would do the same.

The almost dead guy goes back to his house and hangs out in his bedroom. He looks out his window and sees a bird at the bird feeder keel over. Suddenly, it appears inside on his shoulder. Then, when it finally dies, the bird on his shoulder vanishes. He realizes that he must be almost dead and not all the way dead.

Jeanne: You can communicate with all things that are in a coma.

We all debate how likely it is that a bird would drop into a coma-like state while he happens to be in his room so that he can learn the true nature of his limbo-like state. We all agree that it’s a pretty lame way to show that his character isn’t actually dead yet.

Jeanne: I’m sure there are other people in the city in comas. Why didn’t he bump into any of them? (Damn her and her logic)

Richard: I really wanted to like this movie.

Jeanne: Yeah, but that’s not working out.

Richard: That’s going to be my whole review: I really like the fact that they’re outside Seattle. It’s really pretty.

After finding out that he’s not totally dead the almost dead guy races out to the search party. They find his watch in the woods just a few feet from the sewer grate that he’s lying below but the crappy dogs and cops start heading in the wrong direction and he remains unfound.

The former BFF reports in to thug chick and tells her that they almost found the body and he’s afraid. He wants out and he plans to go to the cops. She says he’ll go to jail, too, for being a pussy.

Jeanne: I’m having a little bit of trouble taking that chick seriously as the ringleader. Maybe she’s just a little too pretty and she’s got the chemotherapy cap and I don’t know…I just have trouble.

Richard: Sexist.

Jeanne: No, maybe I’m just opposed to cancer patients being ringleaders.

The main guy goes back home and yells at his mom who can’t hear him. She ends up breaking down and sobbing on the floor because she misses her little boy or something. Chris and Richard begin making sloth like noises to mock Marcia Gay Harden’s Oscar caliber performance. Richard then manages to make things even more uncomfortable.

Richard: He’s like, “While you’re down there…”

Chris laughs and Jeanne makes sad sounds.

Jeanne: Oh, Richard. First you’ve got to make Lyra fuck a bear and now she’s got to blow her son. What’s wrong with you? You sick sexual fetishist.

Unbeknownst to the thug chick, her carjacking boyfriend has decided that she’s become a loose cannon and if she gets busted he’d be pulled down too. His solution is to move the body of the main guy and lure her out to a place where he can kill her. Never trust a carjacker. But instead of showing up to the trap directly, the thug chick sends the shitty BFF instead and waits in the bushes watching. The cops are trailing him so everyone has to make a run for it. She gets away from both the cops and the carjacking boyfriend but as she’s running the almost dead main guy shouts her name and she turns around. He realizes that she can hear him and starts shouting it around even though no one else can hear him so he looks pretty retarded.

Richard: (About the thug chick) I kind of hope that this movie turn into like a series of degradations for her. Like I kind of hope she ends up like Jennifer Connolly in Requiem for a Dream.

Jeanne: And at the end she’s going ass to ass with another girl or something.

Richard: Yeah, I kind of do.

Jeanne: That’s kind of fucked up, Richard. You just have sick sexual fetishes.

Richard: She’s awful and she deserves it.

Jeanne: I just want to know if she has hair. I want him to tear her hat off at the end and her to be like, “I’ve got leukemia!”

Perfectly timed, the thug chick walks into a club and tears off her black cap revealing a hell of a lot of burly red hair. I have trouble believing that it could be hidden under that little hat. She then starts to dance all by herself very intensely.

Jeanne: (Shocked) She does have hair!

Chris: She has a lot of hair.

Jeanne: I like how this chick…she kills people, she’s a badass but then she’s like, “I just have to dance…no, I just have to dance. You don’t understand the day I’ve had.”

The almost dead guy is still stalking her and he just sort of stares creepily at her as she bounces around on the dance floor. I guess finding out that she wasn’t bald was all it took to make him fall madly in love with her.

Chris: And now he’s falling in love with her. He’s like, “Wow, she’s pretty.”

Richard: (Lisping as he talks for the almost dead guy) “Maybe I can save her and save myself.”

As the dancing scene goes on and on and on…

Richard: This is stupid.

Jeanne: I can’t believe he looks like he is falling for her. This is ridiculous. She beat the shit out of him. So what if she has pretty hair. This proves that men are complete idiots.

Chris: This movie does?

Jeanne: This moment does.

Chris: It’s fiction!

Jeanne: If some chick beat you into a coma would you see how pretty her hair was and go like “Maybe I can fix her…”

Chris: This is not real. This is not real life, honey. This proves nothing.

Jeanne: This proves everything.

Chris: This proves that David Goyer is really hit or miss.

Richard: Mostly fucking miss.

The thug chick seems to know that the end is near. She takes a sack of cash made out to her little brother to her school locker and leaves it inside.

Jeanne: So she’s putting money in her locker for him? Is that going to be his locker when he hits high school and then he’ll find it?

Chris: Maybe that’s his locker in elementary school or something?

Jeanne: It seems like it’s too tall for him.

The almost dead guy is still following her around like a puppy. He tells her that only she can save him although it doesn’t seem like he hears that part. He then just screams out her name and she turns around in a scene that looked way cooler in the commercial.

Richard: I think in the trailer I thought that she was like a school outcast and she was the only one who could see him…

Jeanne: That’s what I thought. I didn’t realize that she was like, the one who put him there.

Chris: But you know what, that would have been cliché.

Jeanne: And this at least is not cliché except that she’s about to take a shower?!

Yeah, the thug chick, no longer bothering to cover up her hair with the cap, is now in the school showers. This scene is so pointless.

Richard: Aw yeah! Shower scene!

Jeanne: This is really pointless and unnecessary.

Chris: Well, she can’t go home.

Jeanne: Yeah, but we don’t watch her pee so why do we have to watch her shower.

Chris: ‘Cause it’s gonna show him watching her shower.

Richard: And he’s going to fall even more in love with her. 

After the school shower, the thug chick goes to sleep on the exercise mats in the gym. The almost dead guy spoons with her and it’s totally weird. Does Stockholm Syndrome apply to disembodied spirits, too?

Richard: This movie makes me want to kill myself and everyone I know.

Jeanne: I don’t know who that person on the couch is.

Richard: You know what would probably be very therapeutic is if you broke her neck.

Chris: But he needs her to tell the police where his body is.

Jeanne: By making her fall in love with him.

Richard: A) There are other people who know where his body is. B) There’s a possibility that his body isn’t where his body used to be.

Chris: He doesn’t know that.

Jeanne: Don’t bringing your twisted logic into this, Richard.

Richard: And 3) I hate David Goyer.

Chris: You mean C.

The next scene starts and the thug chick has gone to the almost dead guy’s house to snoop around his room and get to know him better. Lame. Some more heavy-handed music plays over the scene to let you know how you should be feeling. The almost dead guy is still following her around and saying serious and meaningful things that she can’t hear anyway.

Jeanne: You can tell that she’s softening ‘cause she’s not wearing that hat anymore.

Now that’s she’s all in love and stuff the thug chick somehow comes to the conclusion that the almost dead guy, indeed, is almost and not entirely dead. She goes back to the sewer where she dumped his body but finds that it’s no longer there. She panics. She rushes over to the shitty BFF and confronts him about having moved the body. He finally caves and tells her that his BFF isn’t the one who ratted him out. It took you long enough, bastard. She realizes that if it wasn’t the almost dead guy and it wasn’t the BFF then it must have been her carjacking boyfriend and that she’s nearly killed this guy for nothing. She sucks at life.

Chris: I like how her henchmen have become his henchmen.

Jeanne: I think henchmen’s loyalty is questionable. She was also a huge bitch.

The scene shifts to the shitty BFF’s room at his house.

Chris: He’s gay.

Jeanne: Maybe he just likes rainbows.

The shitty BFF has started downing sleeping pills. That’s what happens when you do nothing while someone kicks your friend to death and then you spend the next week being the murderer’s bitch. The almost dead guy starts freaking out because he believes that his shitty BFF is his only chance to be found before he dies so if he dies then the almost dead guy will end up dying, too. After a few minutes, the spirit of his friend shows up standing next to him like that bird did. I guess his friend has hit coma stage. The almost friend still tries to get his BFF to answer him about where his body is but his BFF is too busy crying and apologizing. He finally gets out that the body is out in front of the dam.

At the same time the thug chick has got her carjacking boyfriend on his knees at a cliff’s edge with a gun to the back of his head trying to get him to tell her where the body is as well. The carjacking boyfriend tells her it’s by the dam but rather than kicking him off the edge of the cliff she just turns around and walks away. Bad move. He totally shoots her. She manages to shoot him back though. It’s a gut shot so she’s slowly bleeding to death. She gets into her car and uses her cell to call the cops and tell them where the body is and to ask that they make sure that her little brother gets what she left for him in her locker.

Richard: Look how pretty it is there, you guys.

Chris: I know. It is pretty.

Jeanne: Yeah, but it’s full of coma ghosts.

Richard: But they won’t bother you unless you’re in a coma.

Jeanne: What if I’m in a coma one day.

Richard: Jeanne!

Jeanne: What if when we go into comas we all go to Seattle. Like no matter where you are in the world…

Richard: Then I want to go into a coma.

Jeanne: Come here.

Richard: Hit me really hard in the face…the head, I mean.

Jeanne: Not the face. He’s got such a pretty face.

The cops race to the dam to try and find the body before the flood gates open at their scheduled time that day. It’s a race against time! The gates begin to open and the almost dead guy is down at the rocks cradling his own body and trying to keep his body’s head above water.

Jeanne: That’s not really happening though! You can’t pull yourself out of there.

Chris: Believe in your dreams, Jeanne.

Of course, just in time, the cops are able to get the floodgates to close back and they recover the almost dead guy’s body.

Jeanne: By shutting off the dam right now though are they like, flooding a small city?

The thug girl watches as they recover the almost dead guy’s body and confirm that he is, indeed, alive and then slumps down into the front seat of her car. It doesn’t start so she passes out to bleed to death. Cut to a few hours later and a cop wakes her up tapping on the window. He says he’s going to need to take her downtown but she says no and speeds off. She’s being called to the almost dead guy’s hospital bed. He’s calling to her and saying that he needs her in order to wake up.

Jeanne: Why does he need her? Is she like Hayden Panettiere and her blood can cure?

Richard: She’s no Hayden Panettiere.

Chris: Is Ratatouille better than this?

Jeanne: Ratatouille’s awesome.

Chris: I hope so.

Richard: How dare you compare Ratatouille to this.

Chris: I didn’t see Ratatouille.

The almost dead guy’s spirit steers the thug chick through the hospital so that she doesn’t get caught by any police. I guess now that she’s bleeding to death she can hear him really clearly.

Chris: She’s gonna kiss him and bring him back to life. It’s just like a fairy tale.

Richard: If that happens I’m going to vomit.

But the one person that he can’t get her past is his mother who confronts the chick about the whole “putting her son into a coma” thing.

Jeanne: This is gay like Marcia Gay Harden.

Somehow the thug chick actually starts like channeling the almost dead guy. It’s lame. His spirit is standing behind her but his words start coming straight through her mouth in the first person.

Jeanne: She’s like a medium!

Richard: Hit her and call the police.

Jeanne: Is she like carrying his spirit? Is she going to put it back into his body?

After the whole channeling thing Marcia Gay Harden decides to step aside and allow the thug chick through.

Chris: Marcia Gay! (Snickers)

Richard: Marcia Gay doesn’t make fun of your name.

Jeanne: Nothing brings a man back from the dead…

Richard: Like a bleeding girl!

The thug chick lays down in bed beside his comatose body.

Richard: (again with his spot-on predictions) I hope she drops dead and he wakes up and the movie’s over.

Chris: And then he kills himself. It’s like Romeo and Juliet.

Jeanne: Does his gay friend make it?

Richard: I hope his gay friend makes it.

Chris: I think he did.

Richard: I want them to make out.

Chris: This is gonna be hard to explain when the cops bust in.

Richard: On top of everything we’re busting you for necrophilia. Wait, necrophilia’s against the law, right?

Chris: It depends on if it’s consensual or not.

So Richard is right and the chick dies and then the almost dead guy wakes up so I guess now he’s “the not dead guy.”

Jeanne: Gay. 

Richard: That bitch lived like way longer than she ought to have.

Jeanne: So the only way to bring him back was to die. That’s kind of fucked up.

The scene in the hospital ends and a new scene opens on the thug chick’s little brother outside with a kite. The not dead guy is with him.

Chris: Now he’s best buddies with her little brother.

Richard: No. Please tell me no.

Jeanne: I think he’s right. So the parts of this that you didn’t write, Richard, Chris wrote.

And for that I hate you both.

The Saturday Night Itinerant Brooklyn Gang is:

Jeanne Lopez, Cookie Monster

Rick Sayre, Pop-Culture Critic

Christopher Wilson, Vampire Hunter

BrooklynGang@picturesandframesmagazine.com

MUSIC:

Kylie Minogue – X

Australian pop superstar Kylie Minogue has released her 10^th album, X. (Although it’s not technically available in the States until February 18^th.) Four years after her last studio album, Body Language, and after beating breast cancer, Kylie makes a resoundingly strong comeback.

The first song, the single “2 Hearts,” is an upbeat affair, the perfect lead off for an album of shine and sparkle. “In My Arms” is another early standout, with a sing-along chorus that will resound with you for days and days and “Speakerphone” will have you bouncing despite yourself. “Hear Beat Rock” has the misfortune of sounding a bit too much like Fergie’s awful “My Humps,” although with the benefit of lyrics that don’t seem like they were written by a retarded 8-year-old-boy. Even with the “Humps” association, the song is fun. In fact, there’s not a misstep to be found on X. It’s Minogue’s best album since 2001’s Fever.

When you consider what Kylie has lived through over the last few years, songs like “No More Rain” and “Cosmic” are triumphant anthems and X is a jubilant treat.

[Note: There is a special edition of X available. It includes a DVD with the “2 Hearts” video, interview footage and an additional song, “Rippin’ Up The Disco”. It is very much worth getting!]

Rick@picturesandframesmagazine.com

The Killers – Sawdust

“Indie Rock and Roll is what I want/It’s in my soul /It’s what I need/It’s Indie Rock and Roll for me…”

So bellows Brandon Flowers on “Glamorous Indie Rock And Roll,” a new track off of The Killers’ latest release, the B-side and cover songs-driven Sawdust. The song is a fun sing-along ballad but it is also clear that Flowers takes what he is saying very seriously—it really is all about Indie Rock and Roll for him, and that is especially thrilling to listen to as a music fan let alone a rock fan.

Over the past year, The Killers have quickly become one of my favorite bands—not just of the moment but ever. Listening to them, especially to their sophomore album Sam’s Town, I feel like there is hope for the future of rock, that all the naysayers are wrong and deaf, and that hope lies in the earnest fucking phenomenal music being made by these four lads from Vegas—frontman Brandon Flowers, guitarist Dave Keuning, bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci.

When I heard that they were releasing Sawdust this year, a B-sides compilation nonetheless, after only having two albums under their belt, my first thought was, ‘They sure do have some balls on them.’ Singles and B-sides have gone the way of the cassette tape thanks to the cheap and accessible formula devised by iTunes, and it is even more rare to hear of a popular band (outside of home-grown favorites such as Pearl Jam or Dave Matthews Band, both of whom have years and years behind their respective names) releasing an album entirely comprised of rare tracks and cover songs. And then I remembered the last band that I love that did this, also having only previously released two full-length albums, the Smashing Pumpkins, whose B-sides CD Pisces Iscariot contains some of my favorite Pumpkins’ songs including “Starla,” “Plume” and the wonderful cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.”

This is exactly what I love about The Killers—their seemingly-brazen career aspirations which includes emulating the path that their own rock gods paved for them. Time and again, their instincts serve them well, and Sawdust is no exception. Featuring songs that are stamped with either the Hot Fuzz new wave sound, such as “The Ballad of Michael Valentine,” or the more guitar-rock oriented Sam’s Town, on songs such as “All the Pretty Faces,” “Where the White Boys Dance,” which was actually included on the UK version of Sam’s Town and “Daddy’s Eyes,” a B-side for the “Bones” single and features the beginnings of what would eventually become Keuning’s singular Sam’s Town guitar sound.

Some of the other highlights on the album are “Show You How” which begins with Flowers singing the song’s opening lines onto a cell phone, Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix of "Mr. Brightside," that turns what was always a dance song into an actual dance song, and the Lou Reed duet “Tranquilize,” a song that took me several listens to really warm up to but ultimately pays off in the coupling of Reed and Flowers’ voices.

Sawdust really shines however on the covers—First Edition’s “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town,” which features a terrific country-western guitar hook, Dire Straits’ “Romeo And Juliet,” taken from their “Live from Abbey Road” sessions and “Shadowplay,” the Joy Division cover that transports you back in time to a packed 80’s era dancefloor somewhere in Manchester. When Flowers yells “Woo!” in the middle of the song it only serves to echo the intensity and joy of the music, and the fun that can be had when it is blasting on your stereo. Although not originally their own, every one of these songs becomes an instant Killers classic by the sheer infectious and original passion that they instill in them, and by default, in playing tribute to these bands via Sawdust, they further cement their own place in rock and roll history.

Lily@picturesandframesmagazine.com

Daft Punk – Alive 2007

The follow up to their first live album Alive 1997, Daft Punk’s new collection of live songs will keep your body and soul rocking until 2017. Alive 2007 was recorded at the Palais Omnisport Paris Bercy, on the 14^th of June of this year and it features a beautiful hardcover packaging that includes pictures from the concert as well as two CD’s. One is the audio portion of the concert and the other one has additional audio tracks plus a bonus video.

Featuring the hits from all of their previous albums, Daft Punk shows us all why they are still the Robotic kings of the dance floor. I have to say that this time around Daft Punk dramatically improved upon their first live release: Alive 1997 felt more like a concert bootleg that happened to have wide release rather than an official album from the band. Not because the sound quality was bad but because no time was spent on the packaging—and instead of keeping each individual song on a separate track they chose to include the entire concert on a single track. That can be annoying, especially if there is a particular track that you want to hear.

Alive 2007 is definitely a step up from their previous release but I have to say that my favorite thing about both albums is that you get to hear how the band has evolved in the past 10 years. Some of my favorite tracks of the album include: “Around the World/Harder Better Faster Stronger (which was the basis for Kanye West’s hit single “Stronger”),” “Television Rules The Nation/Crescendolls,” “Burnin’/Too Long,” “One More Time/Aerodynamic,” “Superheroes/Human After All/Rock’n Roll” and the bonus track “Human After All/Together/One More Time (Reprise)/Music Sounds Better With You.” I’m not sure if they will plan to release their next live album in 2017 but if they do you can bet that I will be one of the ones in line with my very own copy of Alive 2017.

Juanmarcos@picturesandframesmagazine.com

One Sentence Music Reviews

By Lily Percy, Rick Sayre and Juan Marcos Percy

Raising Sand – Robert Plant and Allison Krauss

“I fell asleep listening to it.” – Juan Marcos Percy

Kala – M.I.A.

“I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun listening to a girl rapping.” – Lily Percy

Rhino’s The Brit Box

“Bloody Brilliant Box—especially Disc 2’s shoe-gazing favorites.” – Rick Sayre

Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall – Rufus Wainwright

“Rufus is gayer than ever in front of a live audience…and we are the better for it.” – Lily Percy

BOOKS:

Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

For all my attempts at acceptance, I simply do not enjoy reading most popular, contemporary literature. The Devil Wears Prada. Blah. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. Ack. The Secret Life of Bees. Groan. The Life of Pi. Snore. She's Come Undone. Murder. And, so when I picked up Jonathan Safran Foer's 2005 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which is spoken of in general chit-chat with overlapped sighs of awe, people touting it a definitive and imaginative view of the September 11 tragedy, I prayed that my prejudice would find itself challenged.

Told with structural and im