I think I'm getting canned today...

"Working" from home

What a good day.

Wristcutters: A Love Story

I found this movie randomly at the video store and now it's one my favorites.





Starring Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) and Shannyn Sossamon (The Rules of Attraction), with nice surprises Will Arnett as Messiah King (in a role that is essentially Gob from "Arrested Development," had Gob killed himself during a magic trick ... sorry, illusion) and a very funny Tom Waits as Kneller. Directed by fellow dirty Croat Goran Dukic and based on the novella "Kneller's Happy Campers" by Etgar Keret, which was later adapted into the graphic novel "Pizzeria Kamikaze."

It starts with Zia (Fugit) lying in his bed, devastated after a break up. His room's a mess and he looks worn out. He puts on a Tom Waits record. The lyrics "and now she's dead, dead and lovely forever" crack softly in the room as Zia begins methodically cleaning. Once finished, he goes into the bathroom. As the sink fills with the blood from his wrists, he collapses onto the tiles and the last thing he sees alive is a dust bunny in the corner.

Now Zia is dead -- and working at Kamikaze Pizza. He lives with an Austrian control freak and cottage cheese fanatic. He spends his days listlessly listening to records and watching t.v. Zia's in an after life solely made up of people who committed the old Dutch act; drowners, jumpers, cutters, pill-poppers; they're all there.

Turns out the after life isn't much different from life, just greyer. It looks like a Croatian ghetto where people smoke, shoot pool, work, fuck in alley corners all while wearing their visible death scars and unsmiling ('cause they physically cannot).



Zia then meets Eugene (Shea Whigham), a Russian rocker who lives with his family, all of course who committed suicide. They go to the bars, drink and smoke, hit on girls to no avail ad infinitum until Zia catches word that his ex-girlfriend, who inspired his suicide, also lives in the Slavic death-shuffle purgatory. Excited and unsmiling, he convinces Eugene and his hoopty of a car to go.

So they begin their post mortal coil road trip to find her. On the road, the scenery passes by with broken down cars and authoritative signs littering the landscape. They listen to Eugene's band on a boom box, the music done by Gypsy punk rock band Gogol Bordello from New York. Also on the soundtrack is Joy Division, Lord Screaming Sutch, and more. Kick-ass music and completely fitting of the film.

They pick up hitchhiker Mikal (Sossamon), who immediately seems out of place in this ho-hum wasteland. She chews gum and vandalizes signs. She states that she's there by mistake and is looking for the PIC -- People in Charge. Her story comes later and I wouldn't want to ruin the suspense.

As they travel along to find the PIC and Zia's ex, they encounter Kneller, who has established a strange camp where minor and unimportant miracles happen and dogs are collected. They meet an Alaskan mute who is a "throat singer," an evangelical fraud (synonomous, I know), a misdirected half-wit (redundancy continues) and so on. With every person exposing their suicide in a neatly compacted flash back. And Zia finds himself falling in love with Mikal when he finally reunites with his ex-love.

Seems that love triangles transcend even death and continue to be the most easily used plot device.

I won't describe anymore, even though there is plenty more to describe. The movie is perfect. It's simple. It doesn't necessarily have anything profound or super important to say. It's a cool idea placed in a perfectly photographic setting with endearing actors, addictive music, and a really nice end.

Just fucking see it already.





http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wristcutters_a_love_story/reviews_users.php

Feeling apathetic

Burroughs Speaks

WSB: Do you know that famous story about the Zen Master who appeared before the Emperor with his paintings? He bowed three times and disappeared into his paintings.
SE: ah ya. (laughs) do you think that will ever happen to you? Or does it often happen to you?
WSB: I hope. I hope. Yeah. (long pause) You know… I think the only really important function for people is to feed their … cats.
SE: (slightly uneasy laugh)
WSB: That would bother me more than anything else ... when I pass. If I should die? That’s what would deter me from suicide … My cats …my cats… what would happen to my cats?
SE: (an audible sigh, and then quickly…) Not that you’re gonna…. (Simultaneous with his reply…)
WSB: Not that I ever … everyone looks at me reeel funny when I say that I have never considered suicide.
SE: Never considered it?
WSB: Never considered it.
SE: … huh.
WSB: Never considered it.
SE: But you’ve haven’t always had cats, William?
WSB: uh… oh….no… well… I

Thanks Swill Merchants, I Feel Better Now

Worse things than being alone...

Like crying alone with somebody next to you.

What the Youngsters Go For: Rock and Roll Specialists

Remember, keep a nice, open mind.
"Peggy Sue" by Buddy Holly & the Crickets





Sweet moves, Reg Presley.
"With a Girl Like You" by The Troggs





"Money, Money" by The Kingsmen

(This last one was the favorite song of mine when I was a kid. I even had a winter wool hat that was dark red with white letters in the front reading "Wooly Bully" ... which I later found out was just some sort of outdoor clothing brand. Depressing. But I always thought of it as my Sam the Sham Hat.)

"Wooly Bully" by Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs

24 Hour Party People

I saw it again recently. Goddamn is this movie good. Steve Coogan for Prime Minister.

It's about Tony Wilson -- record label The Factory owner, TV show host, nightclub The Hacienda founder and manager, and journalist. Mr. Manchester brought the town to cult level status by backing such famous bands as Joy Division, Happy Mondays, A Certain Ratio, and The Durutti Column. His label combined with his club helped produce the New Wave and punk rock scene, dubbed "Madchester."

Wilson never made money off his lucrative establishments.

The movie does a good job of capturing the humor and frustration of the time. From Ian Curtis' suicide to Shaun Ryder's drug addiction, the story ultimately isn't about anyone in particular. As Coogan as Wilson states, "I'm a minor player in my own life story." The story is about music.