doug nelson: DISENGAGE!

MOVIES AND DVDs.

Little Miss Sunshine
A fantastic little film that builds the tension perfectly throughout, and releases it in a throat-clutching burst of humorous joy at the end. See!

Audition
The more movies you’ve seen, the more you’ll like it. If you’ve been incredibly (incredibly) desensitized to violence, if you’ve seen a lot of horror movies, if you’ve seen a lot of sincere, shy, cold romances, you’ll like it. But I’ve seen a lot of movies, and to me, Audition was sickening, painful, and nearly impossible to watch. I had to put several parts on fast forward just to keep upright and not-vomity.

The Sopranos
I’m kind of embarrassed by it, but I love the Sopranos. Love. One of the only uses of media I’ve seen that allows you to draw your own complicated views of its characters, and then watch those characters change throughout the years. This show never gets bad, and it’s just as sharp during the mob-related bits as it is when characters are discussing the possibilities of a nursing home for someone’s mother.

Everything Is Illuminated
Cute, tidy, but felt compacted. While I haven’t read Foer’s book, I’ve read his other one, and I feel like so much prose is missing from this film. The major emotional points seem to come from nowhere, and the most interesting parts are treated as incidental introductions.

Talladega Nights
Half Anchorman (which, if you didn’t know, I love), half NASCAR movie. Talladega is great while splashing in its absurd-comedic scenes, and reasonably exciting during the races, but there are too many semi-serious plot-advancement moments for my taste. Every scene with Cohen is amazing; it’s nice to see him in something better than the Ali G movie and Madagascar.

Ali G
Season One of Ali G gets 90% of the best material out of the way. Ali’s best interviews (a horrified James Lipton and disoriented Ralph Nader) and Borat’s best moments (”Did you know these photos were in here?”) and outtakes (”Is like, when a horse, run”) are here. Season Two is a noteable decline in these areas, but shows Bruno coming into his own as both a critic of fashion and enemy of the homophobic.

The Devil’s Backbone
This movie is entirely uninteresting. Stay away.

Special Note About The Grudge 2 Preview
Before many movies you may see in the next few month, there will be a preview for the sequel to the Grudge. It is not only poorly-made, but the kind of poorly-made that necessitates speculation: Did some high-up executive issue maddeningly-strange instructions while drunk? Did several editors attempt a preview at once, only to see all efforts mashed into one effort at the end? Did a massive disc error cause 95% of the movie to be deleted, leaving only these clips for preview material? In summary, the preview:

1) Uses the “cut away to a scary face” scare, which is incredibly cheap in that shock is ALWAYS scary, but never lasting. Thanks for making me drop my Sour Patch Kids, jerks.
2) Flashes for the middle third of the preview. When the Texas Chainsaw Massacre preview used the flash-on flash-off technique to show its best half-seconds, it was a great, scary-as-hell technique. But somehow, in the past two years, this limited technique has become incredibly dull.
3) Shows the death of every main character. I’m not kidding. After the point where you think “Hey, shouldn’t the movie’s title be showing by now?”, five major deaths are shown onscreen, in sequence.

Seriously, watch it and theorize. What the hell could have happened on the road to producing this preview?

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MUSIC

Optimo: How To Kill The DJ
This double-disc is totally awesome. The range, quality, and obscurity of the music is fantastic; Optimo has launched several of these songs (”Shack Up,” “Everybody’s Gotta Live,” “Barf) to the iconic status they deserve simple through their inclusion.

Mysteries, by Beth Gibbons and Rusin Man
Jenn declared this the Most Beautiful Song of the moment. And I tried to fight it, but I cannot: Mysteries is heart-stoppingly great.

The Signifying Wolf, by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billie.
The songwriting’s a step down for Will, but the merry-go-round production on this song is a new leap for him and music in general. Death-folk in a dozen tracks? Who would’ve thought?

Cadence Weapon
“I got you pegged like Lite Bright!” Canadian Cadence Weapon is one of rap’s sharpest producers and lyricists. Check out his blog.

CSS
The Brazilian band has Mele and I swooning.

Gang Of Four
Okay, fine! Gang Of Four is amazing!

Girl Talk
Girl Talk is like the opposite of the Avalanches. Instead of songs you don’t know, masterfully blended into a new form of music, Girl Talk gives you the best bits of the modern rap and 90s indie that you (hopefully) know so well, playing your memories and attachments like the strings on a cheap harp (note to self: find out if cheap harps exist).

The Horrors
I mentioned these guys before, but I’m just sayin’: I bet the Horrors release a pretty good album soon.

Jens Lekman
Oh You’re So Silent Jens is the stuff most of you love: Magnetic Fields+sincerity, Jens rocks the warm summer feeling in your heart like there’s no tomorrow. His lyrics are silly and forced, but the FEELING’S there, from “on every homeless kitty” to A Sweet Summer’s Night’s bar-room “a bump-a-bump-a-Bump-a-Bump-A-BUMP!”