Half of the time we're gone but we don't know where

[raybear]

So, what was the big deal with the movie Napoleon Dynamite?

It struck me as just a rip-off of a Wes Anderson film. Or better yet, if Rushmore and Superstar had a baby, it would be this movie, except not in a good way. How about, if DNA merged from Rushmore and Superstar was cloned and it didn't quite turn out right, it would be this movie. I don't think I hated it as much as dommeyourass did (I laughed sveral times, I don't think she laughed at all). But there wasn't much redeeming about any character -- it lacked a certain poignancy I think the subject-matter needed. And a plot.

When I got obsessed with The Postal Service last summer, I downloaded everything I could find. And one of my favorite songs was Such Great Heights. And I downloaded what I thought was just an acoustic version of the song, but it turned out to be a cover by the darling band Iron & Wine. Ok, cool, I can dig it. In the past few weeks, there have been references to this song ALL over livejournal. And now I know why. Garden State came out on DVD.

Today, as part-two of the hipster double feature, we watched this movie. I was a little hesitant at first, in part because so many people around me loved it and it got built up. Especially after the experience with Napoleon Dynamite (save for mintwaster and cocolola, who I believe left the theater before it ended?) Anyway, yeah, the soundtrack is good, but this is because the soundtrack is every song I'm already listening to, so this is pretty neutral fact for me. It almost made me NOT like the movie, actually. I know, I'm weird about music, if by weird I mean picky, and I guess I just hate when film directors use songs in lieu of actual dialogue, scenes, acting. [e.g. most any use of Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah in any television show ever.] In my opinion, Zach Braff kind of hovered near that line, never crossing it, or at least not for too long, but I was still overly aware for the music at all times. It didn't seem to be built into the narrative as tightly as I like, but then again, first time director and this has a hint of a vanity project. The movie wasn't "a film for my generation" or whatever the tagline is, and at times I found it to be contrived.

But damn, if I wasn't crying like a baby at the end. Ok, ok, you got me. Despite the flaws I just laid into, it was pretty well acted and written.

So in the end, neither film completely lived up to the hype, but at least I didn't want my money back with one of them.

Comments

[totallysofast.livejournal.com]

napolean dynamite might have been better if they'd been a bit more subtle. it was way overdid. however, i have to admit that i have a slight crush on kip.

Garden State

[drinkasyoupour.livejournal.com]

"first time director and this has a hint of a vanity project."

How can a film that one writes, directs AND stars in NOT be a vanity project? Ha! I still love it, though.

[cocolola.livejournal.com]

yes, me and mint and bowdownza walked out of ND. i thought it was so boring and i really don't get the appeal either. everything was Quirky! with a capital bleah.

i haven't seen garden state yet, but yeah - the soundtrack has lots of good bands. iron and wine is one of my favourite bands, and i love their version of such great heights about ten million times more than the postal service one, which is fine but not as perfectly lovely.

daaaaaaaang.

[louche.livejournal.com]

i'm a lover of napoleon dynamite. LOVER. it's a movie i am going to buy, even. i rarely buy movies. anyway, here's a quote from a really good review of it:

But more than anything, the film is an epic, magisterially observed pastiche on all-American geekhood, flooring the competition with a petulant shove. (from the villagevoice.com -
http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0423,atkinson,54121,20.html)

i loved the characters. each of them. yes. quirky. to the core. and solid. by no means am i saying this movie is an epic classic, but it's really really smart. gorgeously photographed. subtle in this way that beats you over the head in its hugeness, but yet quietly subdued in the same way (those neverending landscapes that dwarf the people and community, for example). i love the triumph of the geek. the unfounded yet found confidence of napoleon (he's gonna rule the world and gonna have babes real or imagined at his side always, AND he's a brilliant artist if only of the LIGER). i could go on. but i think have taken up quite enough space.

long live napolEON!

oh, and...

[louche.livejournal.com]

as for "garden state," i loved that movie, too! sheesh! and i do think it was, in a way, 'a film for our generation' if only for the fact that our generation is plagued by medicating our feelings. i like the message of facing feelings at whatever cost. i guess it could've gone further, but i liked it okay.

i will give this criticism (which nearly everyone i know has given): the ending totally sucked. had it ended five minutes earlier, it would've been a much much better film.

I'm glad someone else hated it

[chicagocowboi.livejournal.com]

I heard ND talked up too. When I finally saw it, I hated it. I'm only grateful that I didn't rent it. Somone else paid for it. Maybe I just don't like movies without story lines or something, but ND sucked worse than Shiner. At least Shiner in it's ametuerish style had a plot even though it was still only worth fast forwarding to the nude scenes.

[gloeden.livejournal.com]

"e.g. most any use of Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah in any television show ever"
I fucking hate that so much I can't even tell you.
And I don't even LIKE that song so much!
It's just so fucking...facile...to use that song. It's like when in movie commercials they play recent hits, that aren't actually in the movie or on the soundtrack, to pull in the teenage suckers.
In that same way, using Buckley is like a short-hand for "look how cool we are, we want to move you with something hip that only you music nerds will know,cause your cool, just like us!"
Ugh.

[mintwaster.livejournal.com]

So in the end, neither film completely lived up to the hype, but at least I didn't want my money back with one of them.

I want my money and your money back for both of them.

Other songs to add to Hallelujah: Cannonball by Damien Rice, The Blower's Daughter by Damien Rice, Volcano by Damien Rice, Cold Water by Damien Rice....