Rewind #31

Pram: The Moving Frontier (2007)

I guess this band has been making music for thirteen years or something like that, although back when I thought I was cool and listened to a bunch of cutting edge groups in the early-to-mid-nineties (like these guys), I'd never heard of Pram. I was blown away when I discovered them this year. How was it possible for below-the-radar music like this to travel outside my periphery? This is exactly what I am constantly looking for, especially since I met Xtimu and expanded beyond the normal college radio indie cliche. Blossoming from the roots of acid-jazz it reaches for the length of the sky but one filled with stars. With haunting wistful energy, it cascades across the desert night and the roar of ancient oceans thrum beneath the sand, a life still wanting in the husk of ivory death. In the end I find myself huddling close to the fire while outside the ring of light, I can feel the omniscient presence of the of the universe breathing close, reminding me of the infinite expanse deep within my very self.



Michael Clayton: Tony Gilroy (2007)

Ah, what to make of a movie about corporate lawyers who struggle to deal with some heavy corrupt disgusting crap with one of their largest clients. Heres' the gist; one of the partners has an revelatory breakdown of sort when he finally comes to see the devastation some of his corporate clients are inflicting upon the world (especially young pretty teenagers), which doesn't bold well for the firm or the client. George Clooney cruises around in his self-deprecating way (oh, he's so good at that) as he tries to clean up the mess, only to discover that the murky existence that they've been wallowing in for so long has one ending. BOOM! yeah, that's your car exploding in the background. It doesn't really sound like a great movie when you hear about it and it's not the most original idea in the book, but what helps it all is that everyone involved in the film seemed to want to make something of quality. You can feel it in the production value, to the script, to the acting and the directing. It looks and feels like a superior product. But what ultimately takes this movie up a notch is the performances by a couple of the actors (don't be shocked, it's not Clooney). Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton are astounding in this film. Swinton took the academy award for her portrayal of a company lawyer out of her element and she absolutely deserved it, but is their really an actor out their who is on the level of Tom Wilkinson? Whenever I see him in a scene, the screen just seems brighter. It glows, that's how good he is. Check him out in the movie "In The Bedroom", one of my favorite movies of all time.