Can’t wait for this documentary, directed by Scott Shuffitt, to come out.
As someone who lives in a town that has one (chain) bookstore and one (chain) record store this film hits close to home. Everyone loves the convenience of the download, but I also love the wonderful feeling of time slipping away with the browse. And losing time sitting at a computer is not the same as losing time in a shop.
The quote from the trailer that sums it all up for me:
“You can find whatever you want online, but in a record store you find what you don’t even know you want.”
Keep tabs on the film’s release. And … if you’re ever in Louisville, Ear X-tacy is one pretty cool place to go.
The good news is that it will shed further light on the original, which is a Hollywood gem. The Thin Man, based on the Raymond Chandler book, starred William Powell and Myrna Loy, who played off of each other with banter worthy of anything written in Hollywood today. Powell’s drunken detective-turned-man-of-leisure is as comic as anything.
I was first exposed to this movie in college (no, I didn’t see it in theaters on its original run), and have watched it pretty regularly throughout the years. It may not move as fast as today’s movies, but the writing is superb. (The trailer doesn’t do it justice).
The bad news? Well, any re-make has the potential to shine a fading light on the original. I say “fading light” because while the original will get noticed, that light will fade and get eclipsed as the re-make will take center stage. And remain there, forever keeping the original in the dark.
If I sound a little bitter, I may still have that whole Charlie and the Chocolate Factory taste in my mouth.
Depp certainly has the suave looks that can do Powell’s Nick Charles justice.
Depp also can play a drunken character, as his past 23 pirate movies have attested.
But, really, do we want Jack Sparrow as Nick Charles?
It would be almost easy to look at it and wonder where the originality on Tarantino’s part comes into play. However, the originality is the ability to take disparate parts and make it into a coherent whole.
It reminds me of the not-safe-for-work All Day album from Girl Talk. This one-track, 70-minute spin-fest was dubbed “The 373-hit Wonder” by the New York Times. It’s a little addictive … but very “R” rated.
There’s a book I like that says, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”
If that’s true then, it’s how we put the puzzle pieces together that make things interesting.
Here’s my quick take on Immortals:
