Two movies

Here's one of many overdue posts. (I still want to discuss a couple of concerts and my 2007 year-in-video games.)

On January 19th, I saw I'm Not There, a very good Bob Dylan biopic. It was really good, and the method the film used to tell the story--with several interlaced Bob Dylans (none of whom was actually called "Bob Dylan") from different stages of his life who would occasionally show up briefly in the same scene in a clever manner (in some ways like what was done in Sin City)--was absolutely fantastic. Cate Blanchett was the best Bob Dylan! (She was robbed of an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.) Heath Ledger (RIP, sadly) did his usual solid job as well.

More recently (on February 24th), I saw Be Kind Rewind. I have to say that I was disappointed by this film. It's not that it was bad or anything---it was somewhere between pretty good and good, and it had occasional moments of brilliance---but I expect much more from Gondrey. After the brilliance of movies such as The Science of Sleep and (to a somewhat lesser extent, IMO, though I guess that's sacrilege in some parts) Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, I wanted more than what mostly felt like a generic comedy that had Jack Black once again playing an "ambitious" (this doesn't feel like quite the right word) screw-up with dreams of grandeur. Haven't I seen him play the exact same character before? Many times? The use of Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters theme in the trailer sold me on the film (and the fact that it was by Gondrey, of course), but at the end of the day it wasn't anything special and that's why I was disappointed. Ah well.

Update: There's one more thing I meant to write in my review of Be Kind Rewind. It put me in the mood to watch some of the Lloyd movies again. Of course, they require a proper audience to watch correctly. ("Use the string!")