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Friday Night Lights
I’d just like to make a post promoting Friday Night Lights. Originally a book chronicling a small town high school football (not soccer) team’s journey to the championships, that account was turned into a movie and eventually into a television series that takes the basic premise of the story and fictionalises it. I think a lot of popular culture tends to sideline the jocks or the popular crowd because it’s more interesting as a plot point to place your protagonists as outsiders or misfits, and I like that Friday Night Lights doesn’t shy away from showing high school football as a very big thing in a small town. Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) is both socially awkward and the lead quarterback, and it’s an interesting dynamic.
It thankfully doesn’t bother too much with portraying the potential politics of a conservative Texas town, and while the storylines are particularly original (but then again what is?) I enjoy the fact that not everything has to break down into histrionics and even when there are fights physical or emotional they tend to be understated, not overblown or punctuated with “emotional” music. It’s the down to earth nature of the show that keeps me watching episode after episode.
And of course there’s Kyle Chandler, an old favourite from Early Edition and last seen in an Emmy nominated role as bomb squad leader Dylan Young on Grey’s Anatomy (a really good two-parter, by the way). Here he plays Coach Eric Taylor and together with Connie Britton playing his wife Tami they form the bedrock of the ensemble cast. Chandler doesn’t have a Southern accent and it shows (I suspect few of the cast really do, actually) but you forget that fact after awhile as he pulls off the role really well.
I wasn’t a fan of the shaky camera work at first (doesn’t seem to make sense if you’re not actually shooting an action sequence) but they’ve either toned it down or I’ve gotten used to it.
I’ll admit that there’s a certain season two storyline that sort of comes from nowhere and doesn’t really gel with how the series has been going so far but for now I’m enjoying season one. And you should too. I’ll eventually have to read the book and/or watch the movie too I guess.
Pass the kacang puteh
KacangPuteh@Selegie
Originally uploaded by e-chan.
Rounding up the movies this year so far…
Robots in the sky
Reviews of both the animated and the live action movies at UsDudes.
Technorati Tags: transformers
Life and Debt
With all the recent talk about Special Economic Zones (SEZs) recently I thought it fitting that this turned up on Google Video. I watched it about four years or so back during the Singapore Film Festival Under the Radar; a showcase of documentaries showing the underbelly of labour abuses. Life and Debt is a documentary on the SEZs in Jamaica, and the reason why they’re becoming increasingly popular is because these zones are allowed to circumvent laws and regulations that might apply elsewhere in the country. I don’t think I’m anti-capitalist in any fashion, but I’ve never subscribed to the notion of so-called free market economics as a cure-all for economic woes. It’s a shame that the interests of people are often sidelined in the name of profit. Life and Debt is 80 minutes long, so you might want to let it load before watching it.
Life and Debt at VideoSift
Life and Debt official site
from the depths of Google Video…
I haven’t watched all of these, but I just wanted to put them up here as a sort of bookmark and to share with whoever might be interested in viewing them. Stand up comedy from some of my favourites, with a couple of old skate videos at the end. Oh, Not Safe For Work I guess because of the language, but also since they’re all at least half an hour long or so.
Dave Chappelle - For What It’s Worth
Dave Chappelle - Killin’ Them Softly
This is not a tribute…
…this is the greatest song in the world.
Radar has some sample photos from an upcoming photo book of the DC scene during the 1980s called Punk Love, with Henry Rollins doing commentary for the photos. Worth it to see Rollins and Ian MacKaye in their Häagen-Dazs uniforms. Also, going to see American Hardcore on Thursday.
Thanks to That’s How It Happened for the link.
***
Something relevant I think for this time.
…when people who are songwriters say, “That’s my property and if you give it away for free then I lose my incentive,” then, well, good riddance.
Technorati Tags: american hardcore, fugazi, punk love
Grindhouse
All of Quentin Tarantino’s movies are ultimately tributes to what would be considered B movies of the 1970s. That having been said, his movies are also highly enjoyable and I’m looking forward to what his collaboration with Robert Rodriguez has to offer. If it comes out here. The directors and the stars made their rounds on the late night talk shows circuit to promote the film in the US and still no word of if and when it’s being released in Singapore.
Note: I’m fond of both Rose McGowan and Rosario Dawson and this really isn’t the best picture of either one of them, although it’s a cool image.
Technorati Tags: grindhouse, tarantino, robert rodriguez, rose mcgowan, rosario dawson
Planet Earth documentary
If you’re not already doing so, I highly recommend the documentary series Planet Earth, currently showing on Arts Central on Wednesdays at 10pm. It features some of the highest production values I’ve ever seen in a nature documentary, shot entirely in high definition and has some incredible footage, both in terms of innovative camerawork and the locations and animal behaviour being captured. If sometimes we forget or we’re in denial of the majesty of this planet or the beauty of God’s creation and it takes a television series to remind us, so be it. I’m just sorry the Youtube video does this excellent series no justice.
Planet Earth BBC
Planet Earth Discovery Channel
Planet Earth wikipedia
Technorati Tags: planet earth, documentary, bbc, discovery channel
300
Went to watch this with Nurul out of a lack of anything else to do.
Visually stunning, but I couldn’t honestly recommend the film beyond that. I studied the Greco-Persian wars in school but I’m not demanding historical accuracy here or in any other movie (and as somebody mentioned on CBR, being true to life goes out the window when you see a fucking goat man playing the flute). It’s simply that I didn’t care about anything that was going on and the action sequences just made me want to laugh. I can understand subordinating plot and characterisation to action in films like this but no plot or characters worth mentioning at all? And apparently these are inherent in the source material (Frank Miller, not Herodotus). The background of the battle is left out almost entirely, substituted instead with a betrayal story that’s not only unsubstantiated historically but doesn’t add anything to the movie as a whole.
Sorry, way too much empty machismo for me.
Rating: 
300 Official Site
300 @ IMDB
300 @ Rotten Tomatoes
300 @ Metacritic
Wikipedia: Battle of Thermopylae
Wikipedia: Greco-Persian Wars
The Kallang Wave post 2
THE KALLANG WAVE is the story of Singapore told through the dreams and pain of the nation’s footballers and the fans and staff who stand behind them. Glory, frustration, and a mounting sense of despair colour an impassioned debate about the heart of sport and the realities of economic prosperity. From interviews and match footage to history and coverage of significant events, THE KALLANG WAVE gives a voice to the people behind the scenes, and tries to give credit to the unsung heroes of Singapore’s football legacy, whom after years of tearful effort now find their values and achievements abandoned by the new generation of Singaporeans. THE KALLANG WAVE is a film about passion, pride, identity, priorities, and a society coming to grips with its place in a cold and unfamiliar new world….
Kallang Wave review @ MovieXclusive
