The teaser trailer for Cloverfield, the latest film from geeky wunderkind producer, J.J. Abrams, sent fanboys into a frenzy when it premiered before Transformers last summer. Shot in an amateurish, vérité style, the trailer depicted a typical party full of young people in downtown Manhattan interrupted by the sounds of explosions. The party spills out onto the roof just in time to see a huge object come flying through the air and crash onto the street—it takes a few moments to realize it’s the head of the Statue of Liberty. After that, the screen webt black. What was that? Read more…
You Kill Me is a clever little film filled with fresh characters and great dialogue. Though its premise, the everyday life of a hired killer, has been done before, rarely has it been done with as much humor and wit as this black comedy puts into it. Besides the great script, the performances delivered by the cast are pitch perfect. Ben Kingsley as the alcoholic hit man, forced by his boss into AA, is simply amazing. Kingsley plays the character as smart and witty, which only leads to great one liners and interaction between the other characters. Tea Leone as the dark and moody love interest is also a highlight of the film. The chemistry between the two characters is both charming and strange, but aren’t most memorable relationships like that anyways? Read more…
Once is the familiar story of when boy meets girl, boy falls crazy in love with girl, and all the complications that come along with that. The movie does not have an overly complicated plot, but rather, allows the audience to believe they’re watching two talented musicians fall in love, while listening to the beautiful music they make together. Once is shot in a style that gives it a documentary-like tone, which serves to add to the illusion that the film’s stars, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, are two real people and that we’re actually watching them fall in love with each other. Every glance that the two characters give each other, every conversation they have feels real, rather than coming off as typical movie dialogue. Read more…
Happy New Year, Sparklife readers! 2007 felt, at once, like the longest and the shortest year ever. I mean, it seems like just yesterday that I discovered the expansive, chaotic pop of Menomena’s Friend Or Foe, though it has lived on my iPod since its release last January, and yet I feel like that new Radiohead has always existed for me, though I only downloaded my copy in October. There were so many great records that came out this year from folks like longtime indie stalwarts Spoon and the late Elliott Smith, so the following mix is just a smattering of some of the best songs of the year. Defining them was a tough conundrum—what makes something “the best?”—so the following six songs simply represent my soundtrack to 2007. When I look back on the year and think about all the events I witnessed both personal and national—where were you when you saw that Britney Spears had shaved her head?—these are the songs that were playing in the background, they scored my life. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Read more…
If you caught previews for Tim Burton’s new film Sweeney Todd over the past few months, you would have never guessed that the goth-est film of the holiday season was, in fact, an adaptation of one of the most respected stage musicals of the 20th century. I was a bit perplexed that Burton would decide to take on Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, but the bleak subject matter and dark sense of humor seemed to gel with Burton’s recognizable style.
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