MP3 Frou Frou - "Let Go"
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is by far my favorite film of 2004 (thus far), though the most exciting piece of film I saw this past year may be the teaser trailer for Garden State that I first saw before Eternal Sunshine. Backed by this lovely Frou Frou song, which first appeared on the group's 2002 Details LP, the trailer was full of gorgeous images that were warm & funny, eye-catching & well-composed. The music set a perfect tone of optimistic melancholy, and the editing was spot on. I was facinated.

I was already a Zach Braff fan (I'll have more to say about that in the near future), but after seeing this trailer I became insanely curious about his debut as a writer-director, which has now been documented conveniently by Braff's blog for the movie. Unfortunately, the beauty & simplicity of the trailer ended up making the resulting film, which I wound up seeing opening nite in NYC, somewhat of a letdown. I should probably see it again.

IMO, the trailer & especially this song helped to create a lot of buzz around Garden State, which has had a very nice theatrical run & whose soundtrack has now become a big hit. "Let Go" also manages to take me back to a very specific time & place in 2004, and I can appreciate that kind of nostalgia.

BTW: To be clear, this isn't my #2 song of the year. It just fit well after...

Track 01: The Arcade Fire - "Wake Up"

can't you see that all that stuff's a sideshow

In other movie-related nonsense, I finally got around to seeing Alexander Payne's new film, Sideways. While the film is great, and probably one of the year's best, I can't help but feel like it's having a little too much smoke blown up its ass. It's been all rave reviews thus far, and people are talking Oscar, but I didn't quite see what all the hubbub is all about. It's a really nice movie (with a helluva performance from Paul Giamatti), but it's not the second coming IMO. Of course, I've been lukewarm in the past about many of Payne's films, so please feel free to disagree (oh, how I luv feedback).

Lastly, Pitchfork has news on what the Friedbergers will be up to in 2005.

This entry was posted by mr gilbert at 12/02/2004 01:00:00 PM.