The Crying Game

Take Time

One of the prevailing features in the music of avant-garde pop-collagists THE BOOKS is laughter. The sense of wonder and play might be one of the reasons they're not taken seriously, in a form that applauds grim seriousness and esoterica.

The proof to the importance to THE BOOKS, I believe, lies in their self-produced music videos. Since the band had always used audio samples in their music from found video clips, it made sense to source a lot of that audio back to its original video for visual accompaniment when playing live. When I saw the band play live along with this clip, I was completely floored. THE BOOKS manage to take on all of experimental video, found footage, and collage art, and come out on top with one of the most strange, uplifting, and joyful pieces of cinema I've ever seen.

TAKE TIME is certainly one of my favorite little movies ever. This, and more by THE BOOKS are collected on the PLAY ALL DVD.

Battle In Heaven

Trailer for the CARLOS REYGADAS film BATTLE IN HEAVEN, 2004.

Oh, Calypso

A scene from Taiwanese director TSAI MING-LIANG' s 1998 film THE HOLE. Throughout this poetic urban fairytale, the characters re-enact musical numbers from legendary Chinese actress GRACE CHANGE. The original, below:

All My Life by Bruce Baillie

Part of the original wave of New American Cinema in the 60's, BRUCE BAILLIE's work was beautiful in it's simplicity and poeticism, always arriving at a deeply personal awareness of the image.

ALL MY LIFE, made in 1966 on 16mm film, is famously the all-time favorite film of my all-time favorite teacher of film.

...then let's make a vow

The opening scene of MIRANDA JULY's debut feature film YOU AND ME AND EVERYONE WE KNOW is the perfect bridge from her open-hearted, yet noisy video art into the more narrative-concerned world of cinema pursued here on in.

JULY's vision of life and art as a personal act of radical theatricallity and her rejection of an abstracted love, unfortunately, is still a point of contention for a lot of artists and filmgoers. Her dedication no less hindered, the trouble with the work of MIRANDA JULY is certainly not in its absence of unveiled beauty. Rather, we should rejoice in art so willfully transparent.

KEECHIE by No Age

Ever since I saw ANDY BRUNTEL's music video for BONNIE 'PRINCE' BILLY's CURSED SLEEP, I have been paying attention to his every move. Unlike most promos made by bands and labels, BRUNTEL approaches the music video as a distinct art form, somewhere between a short film, and experimental video. He brings his surrealist visions to the small screen with impeccable set design and cinematography, and with an incredible consistency among various projects.

This clip, of one of the noisier tracks from your little brother's favorite band NO AGE, is a good argument for the re-consideration of the possibilities of the music video among artists.

The Limits of Control

Featuring music by Japanese metal band BORIS, the new film by JIM JARMUSCH is a wonder of texture and variations on a filmic theme. While the "momentary" camera-work by CHRISTOPHER DOYLE is a delight, the soundtrack (that's including the pure music of the dialogue), is one of the richest in recent memory.