Sunday, March 21st, 2004

Where Is My Mind?

This is turning out to be quite the weekend for freebies for me. Have you seen the trailer for the Dawn Of The Dead remake? The very end of it where the film starts melting and then you see zombies trying to claw through the screen? Well that happened to me yesterday. The film melting, not the zombies. The print of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind I was watching was awful crappy for being only a day old – not only was the sound all fucked up in spots (though I thought it was a deliberate effect in the film), but the film actually disintegrated halfway through. How on earth does that happen? Either way, it was only out of commission for about five minutes and I got a voucher for a free film at the end of it all. Cool beans.

Oh yeah – the movie? Fantastic. The mind of Charlie Kaufman must be a wonderous place, because not only does he consistently come up with the most original and creative premises, he manages to deliver them in a way that’s still totally comprehensible though heavy on the quirk. Take Eternal Sunshine – after learning his girlfriend has had her memories of him erased after an argument, a man decides to undergo the same procedure but changes his mind halfway through. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are both terrific as the couple, with Carrey delivering his most low-key and convincingly human role yet – he’s really very good, and this is coming from someone who would never claim to be a fan. Also excellent is director Michel Gondry, best known for his amazing music videos for Bjork and The White Stripes. He keeps the film’s visuals off-kilter enough to convey the experience of having one’s memories selectively wiped, but doesn’t go over the top and artistic indulgence stays very firmly on the back burner behind telling the story. Bravo. I really enjoyed this movie and want to see it again – ideally without the soundtrack fucking up or the film immolating.

And the fictional memory-wipe company has a website – Lacuna Inc. Check it out.

J Mascis finally has his own official website.

The Toronto Star’s Ben Rayner reports on the Canadian invasion of SXSW.

np – Tift Merritt / Bramble Rose

By : Frank Yang at 9:55 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. James says:

    Pfff. Dawn of the Dead looks to suck bad. Us Brits are all going nuts over top zombie parady ‘Shaun of the Dead’, the website of which you can find at the cutely-named http://…/

  2. RSL says:

    you should check out the michel gondry dvd. it’s really wonderful. some hysterical short films/documentary stuff as well as his amazing vision for making music videos!

  3. christina says:

    haha, judging from what he’s saying, i don’t think ben rayner’s seen stars live for over a year.

    would you happen to know who the girl in the photo is?

    i wanna see eternal sunshine so badly.

  4. Frank says:

    I think that’s Amy Millan from Stars in the photo – it’s certainly not Emily Haines or Leslie Feist. I can’t be 100% certain though – Amy looks different in most of the pictures I see.

  5. christina says:

    definitely not amy millan. oh well.