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Favorite Songs of 2013

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“I’ll explore the outer limits of boredom / moaning periodically”

Here’s a list of my top songs for this year, in an order that might be surprisingly mixable. These are not necessarily from 2013; I just happened to have heard them in the last twelve months.

“Tourniquet,” by Hem (Departure & Farewell)
“Run (Feat. Jennifer Nettles & Kristian Bush),” by Matt Nathanson (Modern Love)
“Someone Will,” by Dawes (Stories Don’t End)
“I Remember You,” by Rilo Kiley (Rkives)
“Entertainment,” by Phoenix (Bankrupt!)
“Metroland,” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (English Electric)
“We Sink,” by Chvrches (The Bones of What You Believe)
“Don’t Just Sit There,” by Lucius (Wildewoman)
“Out on the Town,” by Fun. (Some Nights)
“Black Sheep,” by Gin Wigmore (Gravel & Wine)
“At Seventeen,” by Janis Ian (Between the Lines)
“If I Ever Leave This World Alive,” by Flogging Molly (Drunken Lullabies)
“Fake Palindromes,” by Andrew Bird (The Mysterious Production of Eggs)
“Don’t Save Me,” by Haim (Days Are Gone)
“Lights (Single Version),” by Ellie Goulding (Halcyon [Deluxe Version])
“Love Is a Bourgeois Construct,” by Pet Shop Boys (Electric)
“Picking Up the Pieces,” by Paloma Faith (Fall to Grace)
“The Heart of the Matter,” by Megan Hilty (It Happens All the Time)
“What’ll Keep Me Out of Heaven,” by Brandy Clark (12 Stories)
“Without You,” by Harry Nilsson (Nilsson Schmilsson)

If I had to pick one song that was my very favorite for this year, it would be the Pet Shop Boys’ “Love Is a Bourgeois Construct,” a seven-minute romp that somehow never overstays its welcome.  It’s a playful song with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and a driving beat, the signature of these pop masters who’ve been making great music for more than twenty years.  May they stay boys forever.

Haiku and Review: Prisoners and Seven Psychopaths

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prisoners

Prisoners

Two girls go missing
One dad will stop at nothing
to find a whistle.

I’ve read a couple of reviews for this film, and one thing I find strange is that most critics think that the police officer played by Jake Gyllenhaal is the only one in the precinct with brains. I beg to differ — I think he’s just as incompetent as the rest of the uniforms. He grills Paul Dano’s character for hours on end to no avail, and it takes Hugh Jackman literally 10 seconds to get him to talk? And Jackman also finds the killer before Gyllenhaal does.

And by the way, I feel bad for Dano.  Seems like every movie, he gets the crap beaten out of him (or worse).  It’s like he’s the Jesse Pinkman of the big screen.

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Seven Psychopaths

Film about a film
Screenwriting navel-gazing
Also-ran Player.

I had high hopes going into this movie, because I adored In Bruges.  This film had its moments, but it really isn’t very good.  I wished I’d seen The Player again instead.

As the Heart Bones Break, by Audrey Chin

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I had the opportunity to read Audrey Chin’s As the Heart Bones Break in galleys, and as the title suggests, it is indeed a heartbreaker of a novel.  Taking place during the Vietnam War, it’s an emotionally challenging yet ultimately rewarding story.  It won’t be available in the U.S. until 2014, but a Kindle version is available via Amazon UK.  Check it out!

Haiku and Review: Before Midnight

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SONY-BDOS-01_Onesheet4.16.13_Layout 1

 Jesse and Celine
walk and talk and…fight and cry?
Next: Before Divorce.

A date movie this is not. Look out, really. If you and your significant other are having some difficulty in your relationship, I’d say steer clear of this movie, because it might be enough to doom you. The first of this series of films was without question one of the most romantic ever made. The second one wasn’t so far off, especially with that cute and promising ending. But this one? Midnight has never been a darker time of night.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a fine flick all around, but unlike Before Sunset, there’s not enough lift at the end, at least not for me. Sure, Jesse and Celine make up, and there is hope and humor in that final scene, but it can’t balance out the awful things they’ve said to each other for the last hour and a half.  I know that’s the point, that these two are now in the mature/spiteful part of their relationship and it is a mighty struggle to stay together, but jeez, I almost don’t want to see what happens to them in the next installment.

Haiku and Review: Gravity

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gravity

Yes, an astronaut…
In dreams I walked on the moon.
After this, no thanks.

You don’t watch Gravity — you experience it.  Much of this is because of the way it is filmed — every so often, the camera gradually moves away from the usual third-person perspective and into first-person territory.  Our intrepid avatar is Sandra Bullock, playing a scientist trying to fix the Hubble Telescope with George Clooney…until all hell breaks loose.  And when I say “hell” and “breaks loose,” I really mean it.

How wonderful it is to see a film set in space with no aliens or time travel or Sherlock Holmes–channeling–Mr. Roarke type of nonsense.  Gravity is a movie that must be seen in the theater, in 3D.  It’s an adventure of both mind and body, and it left me supremely satisfied.  I haven’t been this happy after seeing a movie in a long, long time.

Haiku: Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 16 – Felina

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Please, just get him home.
Walt must end what he started.
Let blue and red fade.

*

A pair of red dots
turns Elliott and Gretchen
into White trustees.

*

It’s Tuesday morning.
Lydia, my Stevia…
goodbye, fake sweetness.

*

Not for family
but for Walt himself, always.
He was good at it.

*

Walt says he wants this.
Jesse says do it yourself.
Time to walk the walk.

Only God Forgives & Man of Tai Chi

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The final night of my action-movie binge!

ogf Only God Forgives (2013)

Red red everywhere
Brooding karaoke cop
You’re not in good hands.

What a strange, strange movie. I’d say David Lynch echoes strongly here (Blue Velvet weirdness and singing), plus a dash of Terrence Malick (minimalist dialogue and cinematographic beauty) and maybe a smidgen of Takashi Miike (sudden gore a la Audition). This is an extremely uncompromising work; the sole focus group was the director, Nicolas Winding Refn. If you liked Drive (I loved it), you might be disappointed with this. But one thing for sure if you do see it — it’s a refreshingly original movie. Oh, and Kristin Scott Thomas steals all her scenes, but what else is new. She’s just amazing.

mot Man of Tai Chi (2013)

After all these years
Keanu directs his first
but he still can’t act.

What a terrible, terrible movie. Really, this is bad. The lead actor, Tiger Chen, never looks comfortable in the role. Even though he’s got all the moves, he just doesn’t have any screen presence, and he’s so small and slight…sometimes he looks like a teenager. And the less said about Keanu, the better. His acting has never been worse, though it is so bad here that it’s actually kind of funny. There’s a scene where he is supposed to laugh haughtily at Tiger (Keanu plays the bad guy, so it’s one of these bad-guy chuckles); it should absolutely win the Razzies for worst acting this year. Keanu Reeves, comprised of Meryl Streep anti-matter.

Faster Taken

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Over the past weekend, I hosted my mother. Unlike most women, she actually likes action movies, even the schlocky kind. So we ended up watching two of them: Taken 2 and Faster. Strangely enough, there was an actress who connected the pair of films — Maggie Grace. I remember her mostly for playing the part of Shannon, the quasi-incestuous sister to Ian Somerhalder’s Boone in the initially mysterious and ultimately lame Lost. In Taken 2, she plays a teenager in need of her driver’s license; in Faster, she is a sharp-shooting girlfriend/bride of a hit man who claims he has beaten yoga (I’m not making this up). I didn’t even know yoga needed a beating. In any case, a haiku for each, plus a smidgen of a review.

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Taken 2 (2012)

Liam the hero

of a road Taken once more.

Rob Roy this is not.

They really push the Muslims = Bad plot point pretty hard in this film. Every time you see the overhead shot of Istanbul (mosques and whatnot) and hear the Muslim chants, you know we’re supposed to juice up the hate. So sadly simplistic, but then again, this is a movie directed by a French guy with the fake last name of Megaton (again, I’m not making this up).

Unintentional moment of hilarity: There’s an extended scene of Neeson instructing his daughter to drive away from the bad guys while he shoots at them. For the next ten minutes, we see the daughter (who, mind you, failed to pass her road test) suddenly driving like a professional stunt car driver (clutch-popping, 180-fishtailing, the works). The dialogue is a blast. This is the actual excerpt:

Come on, go!
Right.
Back, back, back!
Come on, move!
Come on, Kim.
Go, go!
Faster.
Keep going.
Left!
Yeah.
They’re in the taxi!
Keep going.
Oh, no.
Shit.
Stay low. Keep going.
Come on, faster.
I can’t.
You can do it!
I can’t!
Come on, move! Move.
Dad!
Keep going.
Move!
Right.
Oh, shit.

“Oh, shit” is definitely an apt phrase for this film.

faster

Faster (2010)

The Rock wants revenge

so he murders the guilty

then learns to forgive.

Dwayne Johnson does a pretty decent job of acting in this film, looking hard most of the time but also believably vulnerable in the flashbacks when he was younger and more innocent (but still as wide as a semi). It also stars Billy Bob Thornton (where has he been lately?), and the previously mentioned hit man rounds out the trio of characters who prop up this movie. The film takes a curious turn in the final third act, suddenly becoming all about forgiveness. It’s almost as if the movie is ashamed of the violence that has come before the ending. It’s not your typical Charles-Bronson-like affair, so folks in the mood for some mindless brain-bashing may not enjoy this all the way through. I sort of liked it.