The Womb

Sigur Ros, Still from Heima

I finally got around to seeing some movies that have been in the cue, and not the online cue, but the local video store one. Not that I have anything against online rentals, but I'd like to prevent a 4th nail salon and 5th kid clothing consignment store from popping up on my 6 block central area. The first off was Heima, the tour documentary of Sigur Ros. They are from Iceland and make some of the most comforting music that I'd like to refer to as womb-like music. Similar to the land from which they all originate from, their music can be sparse with a lot of open spaces while still being grand and unlike anything else you've ever witnessed before. The movie centers on the band going from town to town to play free concerts in areas where they hardly ever get to see live music and in settings that show off the beauty and natural surroundings of Iceland. The visual settings are a perfect match for the music.

I got to see Darjeeling Limited and Margot At The Wedding which were somewhat expected disappointments. Noah Baumbach's Kicking And Screaming and Wes Anderson's Rushmore are two of my favorite movies, but after the above mentioned movies, it seems like a steady downward fall into mediocrity is the course of their careers. I couldn't even finish Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding. The overly neurotic, completely self absorbed nature of each character made me want to turn off the movie, as my sudden kill would be the only way to give these characters any type of self respect. Darjeeling was better than Anderson's Life Aquatic..., which I saw in the theaters and thought was a complete waste of my time. And that movie was written by Anderson and Baumbach. I guess you need to take each offering as-is and you can't always rely on the reputation of the director, similar to music. I know Paul Thomas Anderson, like Radiohead (except the first album) have never failed to disappoint.

The last movie which I've known about for awhile now, and for whatever reason have been avoiding is Once. Well.....what a movie. A story told mainly through music, and how the music can connect people without words. A musical, yes, but a story first with music as the primary source of feeding the story. There were great songs throughout the movie and I particularly liked how the movie was set in an imagination that was more real than the fairy tale ones usually seen in movies today. There were many gray areas left up to the viewer. Things aren't always perfect and endings are never definite, but the movie somehow communicates a feeling that life goes on.

Sigur Ros - Hoppipolla (Ehteral)

Sigur Ros - Staralfur (Etheral) - from the Heim release for Heima.