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| Subject: Once | |
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Author: Mr. Bungle |
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Date Posted: 18:33:16 04/05/08 Sat Author Host/IP: ip68-0-125-244.tu.ok.cox.net/68.0.125.244 It's not my preferred genre, the musical. At it's most distasteful it summons to mind shit like Oklahoma (we don't have any fucking elephants here, assholes), Guys and Dolls, or any other number of big Broadway production numbers, transposed to film. It's not even the gayness factor of musical choreography (I heard an excellent point by Jeremy Smith that this doesn't even make sense, since it only depends on your orientation and if you ain't gay you'll just be banging the shit out of many well-toned women with exquisite balance and,um...muscular control. But still the association of gayness and musical theater exists.), so much as the stories of most big, old-school, Rogers and Hammerstein-type musical productions, just bore me to a welcome death. Sweeney Todd avoided this fate, and maybe I just need to watch more musicals. But there are muscials I love. They just aren't what you would (mostly) mostly think of as musicals. The Blues Brothers is a Blues Brothers movie. It has lots of cool music, but in only one sequence is music used for exposition (Aretha Franklin, annihilating with Think). I consider Repo Man somewhat a musical, in that some of the songs inform characters. When Emilio Estevez rolls down the street listening to Pablo Picasso Was Never Called An Asshole, that song's lyrics are a mirror into Otto's head. Granted he's not a very deep character, but that is still the quintessential punk movie and its soundtrack is integral (and very awesome). You'll notice neither of those films is the least bit romantic. Neither has an emotionally moving story. They are comedies and great ones in my book. I tend to avoid these things though when they become earnest. I can only appreciate a musical when it's funny or creepy or, even better, cynical. Once opens with a guy playing guitar on a Dublin sidewalk, acoustic jamming his way into whatever pittance passersby toss into his open guitar case. Credited as "Guy", Glen Hansard immediately makes his talents known. He can sing like a lark, and has the songwriting skills to boot. He's a gentle guy, who won't even beat up a dodgy prick who robs him though he chases his crack addict ass down and makes him apologize. But his musical stylings catch the attention of "Girl" (Marketa Irglova), an earthy Czech, well, girl who notices Guy plays more personal songs at night, and she uses the pretext of Guy being a Hoover Fixer Sucker repairman to come back the next day. With her vacuum. Beyond that I don't want to give up much because the way their relationship develops and the reality to which it played is one of the haunting things about Once. It's a wonderful film on a lot of levels, chiefly the way it constructs its narrative while using and subverting the conventions of its musical nature. In one scene where Girl is asking Guy what other Girl inspired the song she heard on the street (they're on a bus ride) Guy throws together a quick blues number called Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy that is totally hilarious, and though it is exposition, comes off totally natural. If you know any lifer musicians, especially the acoustic variety, it achieves an unaffected reality. Then he busts out some acoustic metal where he says "fuck" a lot as he apologizes to the old woman sitting nearby, even though she is smiling from the charm. It's a love story that' says much about the music that joins them together as it is the ways it separates them. Shot in a quasi-documentary style Guy and Girl are better musicians then actors, and that actually makes this movie work better. Director John Carney makes the most of their natural chemistry, and the resulting performances are something you can't learn. If you look at Juno in this light it suffers. In a lot of ways they are similar films. A love story that seems unrequited (between musicians even) who have created the only thing that seems to bind them together despite circumstance. And where Diablo Cody has carefully constructed the characters and relationships to fit the story, its themes, and the roster of great actors in that film, Once constructed its loose story and let it run on the abilities of its non-actors natural chemistry. The result feels very real. And then there is the music. The bulk of the music in Once are acoustic/piano pieces, until later in the film (though I can't tell you why). Initially it's just Guy and Girl, but the way the film paces its music not only builds the relationship between them but offers some brilliant songs.Falling Slowly won the Academy Award, but Lies grabbed me immediately. It's an incredibly earnest song, but it taps into something that for all I know might be an Irish thing. I always heard they (or the Scots) knew how to put together a heartrendingly sad melody (primarily because life sucked) better than almost anyone, and Lies put a lump in my throat. But the best thing about Once is that the music is pulling the strings and not the film itself. It's not schmaltzy. It's a story of that's as confused about what love is as love is confusing, and marks the sad truth that it doesn't always conquer all. 9.0 of 10 Mr. B [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
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