The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow

There is a house along the way to Canterbury Park, on my way to the Monon Trail, that usually plays music that I like. This guy has it blasting, nicely, out of his garage. Sometimes it's Pink Floyd, sometimes, it's the Stones, sometimes it's something I've never heard before. A couple of weeks ago, I passed by this house and heard this very haunting tune that I had never heard before. I knew I'd run across it at some point; tonight was the night.

I stumbled onto Amy Hanna's blog and read a bit of an interview on this blog. Lo and behold! Before I even clicked to play The Civil Wars video at the bottom of the interview, I knew I'd found the artists I'd heard that day on the way to the Monon.

MesrineL Killer Instinct, Cutting Loose, and Detropia

I've had Mesrine: Killer Instinct in my NetFlix queue for a while. I remember hearing about it on NPR several years ago and thinking....File that away. Jacques Mesrine was quite the character: he pulled double bank robberies (hey, there's another bank across the street, let's rob that one too) and he was a master of disguises (hey, someone broke into  your house, we're with part of a team of  police investigating the crime). Vincent Cassel becomes Mesrine. Ahh....this is one of those lovely movies as only the French can create - Characters with depth and attention  to detail (my eyes were all over the place trying to catch all the day to day items in a scene),

 

 Cutting Loose won Best Matter of Fact - Short Film @ the Indianapolis International Film Festival this year. This film caught my attention in the festival flyer - Convicted murderer and two-time champion Francis defends his title at the Scottish Prison Service Hairstyling Competition - but he's distracted by his upcoming release. This was not a reality show view of someone's life we can't imagine, this is a look at the lives of folks we can quickly identify with.

Detropia won Best Matter of Fact - Feature Film. Detropia is not just a film about the end of  manufacturing jobs in Detroit;  it's about the end of middle class America as we know it. At one point 1.8 million people lived there, now the population is less than 800,000. Hipster artists moving into once luxurious apartments next to abandoned, destroyed neighborhoods gives me cold chills.

Madonna's Pig

  I finally made it to a film @ the Indianapolis International Film Festival last night and saw Madonna's Pig. What a delightful, magical movie! This film is so clever on so many levels. Put this in your NetFlix queue!

Hell's Bloody Devils and Brain of Blood

This month's selection for Cult Movie Night @ Gary's -- Hell's Bloody Devils and Brain of Blood. Uh...don't the titles fool you, these are not really horror movies, so they at least get an "E" effort. This was such a fun film to watch riff track. A couple of really nice mustangs, a convertable pony and a silver Fastback (both sporting very stock wheels and tires) made for vintage car eye candy. A shoot out and explosion of an old abandoned car shows up in both of the films. And...yes, those scenes in the trailer really were in the movie.

B-O-R-I-N-G. Too many scenes of folks walking around in a daze, but enough inconsistencies and bad film making to induce commentary from the audience. In a supporting role, Regina Carrol, as the Amir's bimbo wife made Tammy Faye Baker look like Patti Smith (Btw,I really like PS)

The Big Blue and Bringing Up Baby

The Big Blue, directed by Luc Besson, was this month's selection @ Alex's. Staring Jean Reno and Jean-Marc Barr as life long friends who grow up to be competitive free divers. Rosanne Arquette's character is as limp and tastelss as boiled white spaghetti. The combination of under water scenes and camera work gave it a very hypnotic look. The Fiat 500, who seems to have a lot of personality for a car, is seen in quite a bit of the first half of the movie and I count it as an uncredited actor. Even the car gives a better performance than Arquette.

 I watched Bringing Up Baby staring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn @ home. I love the way the dialogue just whizzes by. Everyone is  so dapper and the leopard is so beautiful...

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

If you are an artist, this is a must see movie. I love it when I think a movie is going to be good and it turns out to be better than I could have imagined: Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life is one of those films. I knew Serge, sang, acted (yawn), but I had no idea he was, or rather wanted to be, an artist. A large portion of this movie covers Serge's life as a disillusioned artist. He carries a sketch book journal with pen, ink, and water color paints. There is a scene where he is messing with a large group of very well worn easels. Who must've painted on those? The movie even offers a glimpse into Salvidor Dali's house; I just squealed with delight! You'll know it when you see it! The director Joann Sfar is an artist and clearly the person to make this fabulous tribute. This goes on my really short of list of best movies I've seen so far in 2012. Warning: scenes from this movie will stick in your mind for days; that's a good thing

"Moonrise Kingdom" and "The Harder They Come"

It might have been at the beginning of year, can't remember....but when I heard Wes Anderson was ready to release a new movie, I was chomping at the bit; it finally made its way to Indy last month.  Wes took a different creative path with this one. He's utilizing a very muted color palate, like some faded Polaroid photo found in a shoe box, and he's toned down the quirky factor with the characters. MK is not "The Royal Tennenbaums" or "The Darjeeling Limited". Steering away from the art ascpect, Anderson is able to capture that pre-teen innocence in Suzy and Sam. This is not about sex, but about finding someone who "gets" you.  Coming from very different  backgrounds, and against all odds, they have found each other and they're not letting go. It's not a coming of age movie - it's the opposite. It's a movie about staying true to your beliefs and staying young and free.

Gary had a Cult Night Movie during the week and his choice: "The Harder They Come".  I'm a sucker for movie made in the early '70s anyway. I'm always calling out the names of cars, like some kind of Automobile Rainman. Really good story, sound track, and camera work. Just like the characters in "Moonrise Kingdom", Ivanhoe Martin hung on to his dreams, albeit, his story had a different sort of ending.