The State of the Cabins (8/4/10)

Movies watched for the first time (non-theatrically) since last week:
* Harold and Maude
This is a movie that I'd felt like I'd seen long before this past week. Turns out there was an excellent reason for that - much like Annie Hall, it's been aped time and again by filmmakers who grew up watching it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, either, as the resulting films influenced by Maude are some of my favorites - among them Rushmore, Better Off Dead, and Garden State. In fact, if this flick ever were to be remade, it would HAVE to be done by Wes Anderson, right? His persona is practically that of a grown-up version of Harold, and he was even so cool as to cast Bud Cort in The Life Aquatic (I'd forgotten and/or never noticed that Cort was also John Doe Jersey in Dogma).

I'm happy to say that H & M lived up to my expectations. Relying on comedy darker than the night sky and the kind of attention to detail that must be appreciated (i.e. Harold wearing the same exact clothes as his shrink), it's tone was right up my alley. Throw in some sweet Yusef Islam tunes, Tom Skerritt (credited as someone else, but damn I knew it was him) and one hell of a fucked up final 20 minutes, and you have the makings of a classic.

Fletch's Film Rating:

	Expectation: "It's in the hole!"
	Reality: "It's in the hole!"

* In the Loop
And people think Inception is a mind-bender.

This was recently described to me as being "two hours of excellent writing, though I'm not sure if I really know what it's about." Pretty apt, though I think that's essentially the point. Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, Tom Clift's British look-alike, Steve Coogan, Sledge Hammer and the girl from My Girl will chat you to death if you're not careful, but that's just fine with me, as this is some of the sharpest writing around. Even better, no one comes out unscathed - Brit pols, American pols, the Army, the media - all are lampooned for your comic enjoyment, and (just about) all come out smelling like dung.

Fans of action shouldn't touch this with a ten-foot pole, but all others are encouraged to check out one of the funnier pictures from last year.

Fletch's Film Rating:

	Expectation: "Darn tootin."
	Reality: "It's in the hole!"

Music I'm currently obsessed with:
* I have a weakness for accordions. Short of their inclusion in Mexican "oompah" music, I'm a sucker for them. Fortunately for my wife, this affinity has not made its way to polka music...yet (her Dad is a fan). But French music with accordions gets me.

I first heard this song playing at the end of Wes Anderson's (yes, him again) Darjeeling Limited short pre-film, Hotel Chevalier.



It played again on Sunday as I was working on a construction project. That's right, something manly, with lumber and nails and a hammer and a mitre saw. (Hopefully, that offsets the accordion thing.) It's been in my head ever since.

* Something else that's been in my head for a long time - the (500) Days of Summer soundtrack, which I finally purchased and received this week. They had me from the start with the Regina Spektor song "Us," but the great songs don't stop there. Two awesome Smiths songs (and I was never all that big a Morrissey fan or anything), some Simon and Garfunkel, Wolfmother, a pretty good cover of the Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man," the "Mushaboom" song by Feist, and even that awful/awesome Hall & Oates song made re-famous by the movie. Far and away my favorite soundtrack of the last five years.
It's been nearly a

Book I'm currently reading:
Still on A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. About 100 pages left. The plot is really starting to thicken. I sure hope this ends with Ignatius getting his head bashed in...what a character.