Once again, it's Waits Wednesday...

MP3 Tom Waits - "Jockey Full of Bourbon"
The opening sequence of Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law, which co-stars Tom Waits, moves throughout the streets of New Orleans LO set to the thumping, shimmying beats of "Jockey Full of Bourbon". It's hard to start out a movie better than that, I must say. Those interested may want to pick-up/Netflix/whatever the outstanding Criterion Collection dvd edition of the film. Those unfamiliar w/Jarmusch's pacing may want to prepare themselves to be a little patient, btw. This song can be found on 1985's excellent Rain Dogs LP.

MP3 The Fever - "Artificial Hearts"
When I saw NYC's The Fever back in April, this song made enough of an impact on me that I recalled my reaction to it several weeks later when I heard it again on Red Bedroom, the debut LP that dropped mid-May. Maybe it's just all the synth (it certainly isn't the breakbeat), but parts of "Artificial Hearts" make me think of the classic 80's film, Real Genius. Was Val talking about this blog when he said, "It's yet another in a long series of diversions in an attempt to avoid responsibility." Sounds accurate enough.




I finally got to see Jim Jarmusch's Coffee & Cigarettes when it opened here in Mpls last Friday. The film is a collection of black & white short films, shot over many years between features, featuring actors/celebrities in various scenes, each of them involving said cancer-sticks & caffeine-juice in one way or another. I saw the first couple of shorts back when I was at NYU, as instructor Melody London was Jarmusch's early editor. I really liked the shorts back then, so I was pretty excited to see more of them.

I really enjoyed the film. It may not have a cohesive story, but that's kind of inherent in its structure. I liked Jarmusch's leisurely pacing, clever dialogue, and high-contrast cinematography, as well as the performances. The first short got things off to a good start w/a weird, yet funny exchange between Steven Wright and Roberto Benigni. Other highlights for me included Cate Blanchett pondering the trappings of stardom w/herself, an awkward meeting between Waits trying to slyly corrupt Iggy Pop, and Bill Murray suffering from "serious delirium" diagnosed by GZA & RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan. Coffee & Cigarettes is different, & personally I like Jarmusch's brand of different.

Here's a link to the film's official site, as well as one to what appears to be the official french site. Over in Europe, Jarmusch is just a film director, not an "art-house" film director. I could care less.




In other film-related news, there are a couple new online trailers you might want to check out. In multiple previous posts, I've mentioned Zach Braff's upcoming directorial debut, Garden State. Well, there's a new internet trailer over at the Quicktime trailers site that you might want to watch. This time around, it's MP3 "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service that the editors decided to cut to.

Also worth a look is a new trailer for Will Ferrell's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, which looks hi-f**in'-larious, ladies & gents.

This entry was posted by mr gilbert at 6/02/2004 06:45:00 AM.