It Was 40 Years Ago Today

40 years ago on this day the Beatles released their amazing masterpiece so not even their 5th best record the life-altering Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

We thought we'd use this opportunity to laud the real forebears, the prefab four, the Rutles.

Download: The Rutles - "Cheese and Onions"
Download: The Rutles - "Doubleback Alley"
Download: The Rutles - "Piggy In the Middle"

Luc Besson and "La Femme Nikita" Soundtrack

Luc's Besson's heavenly "Angel-A" romantic comedy opened up in New York and Los Angeles last week and we assume in a short while, the film will open up in more cities. Meanwhile Besson and his fetching "Angel-A" star Rie Rasmussen have been making the press rounds (the trailer is here.)

Besson dispelled the premature rumors that he was going to retire stating that a filmmaker only has so much time to make films (perhaps a reference at his near 6 year absence from making films after "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc"; though he was incredibly prolific in the areas of writing and producing). "[All] I was saying [was] that after thirty years and ten films you don’t have the same strength and energy," he told MTV.

In the same interview he also blamed the American failure of his "Arthur & the Invisibles" kids adventure movie squarely on Harvey Weinstein's asinine marketing plan. What happened exactly? "It was a disaster. Harvey Weinstein [happened]. That’s it. Everybody knows it. Everybody says it to me. It’s true that it’s a different market here but here sometimes they want a film to fit in a certain box which is just wrong. People would rather see “Triplets of Belleville” if it’s real even if it’s from France. That’s why this is the only country where the film didn’t work."

Besson also being known for things other than his writing and hoped the dialogue intensive, "Angel-A" might change that. "Most of the people when they talk about my films, it's always about the vision and the frame and the color and the music and the sound, and I always feel a little frustrated, because what I want to say through the films are often more important for me than the shape," he told Coming Soon.

The "Angel-A" score was mainly composed by Anja Garbarek (daughter of the contemporary jazz composer Jan Garbarek), but it's not out in the U.S. Instead we have the score for his breakout hit, and heavily influential action du intelligence, "La Femme Nikita." While released in 1990, the film was shot in the 1989 and is still very much a product of that era. This is further evidenced by the icy, synth-heavy and slighly cheesey score by Eric Serra (who also did the scores for almost all of Besson's films, including "Subway," "Leon / The Professional, and "The Fifth Element." Imagine what the Cure might've sounded like had they attempted making film scores in the late '80s.

Download: Eric Serra - "Let's Welcome Victor"
Download: Eric Serra - "We Will Miss You"
Download: Eric Serra - "First Night Out"
Download: Eric Serra - "Josephine and the Big Dealer"

Random Bullshit: Pineapple Expres, the Police, Robert Downey Jr.

- At the dawn of the "Knocked Up" summer domination, shooting wraps on Seth Rogen's next Judd Apatow produced stoner comedy, "Pineapple Express," shot by artisan David Gordon Green. [Coming Soon]
- Meanwhile the New York Times' A.O. Scott writes, "It may be a bit, um, premature to say so, but Judd Apatow’s 'Knocked Up' strikes me as an instant classic; a comedy that captures the sexual confusion and moral ambivalence of our moment." [New York Times]
- Sting wakes up to his morning coffee and remembers exactly why he quit the Police in the first place. [Yahoo!]
- An "Iron Man" set visit yields one of the most awkward and stilted interviews with Robert Downey Jr. ever. [MTV]
- Do you believe in Harvey Dent for district attorney? The campaign starts now. [IGN]

Tegan & Sara Leak: Our Own Con

Canadian wonder twins Tegan & Sara's new album has leaked earlier this week.

While their songs haven't been used much in film (though "My Number" was used in the Keanu Reeves/Charlize Theron romantic vehicle "Sweet November") , their songs have been widely used in that slightly smaller, but similar medium called television. Their songs have appeared on the soundtracks to Grey's Anatomy, The L Word, Veronica Mars, One Tree Hill and Medium.

"Walking with a Ghost" was also featured on the soundtrack to the Jane Fonda-hates-her-ethnic-daughter-in-law movie, "Monster-in-Law" although it does not appear in the film. Close enough. Here's some clips from The Con.
Download: Tegan & Sara - "Soil Soil"
Download: Tegan & Sara - "Back in your Head"
Download: Tegan & Sara: "Knife Going In"

Snoop Dogg Pulls A Mr. Snrub

A fully incognito Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr takes his young son, Cordell Dogg, to the Stanley Cup Finals game on Thursday night (May 31). Props to Chris.

Cannes Clips: Coen Bros. Gus Van Sant, Wong Kar-Wai; More

The French websites are on it. Want to see some sneek peeks of films that played at Cannes? Cannes 2007 (and Comme Au Cinema) have many advanced scene clips, photos and more. They can't be embeded, but they can be seen here:
Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant)
Persepolis (graphic novel adaptation by Marjane Satrapi)
My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar-Wai)
Boarding Gate (Oliver Assayas w/Asia Argento & Michael Madsen)
Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrara)
Une Vieille Maitresse (Catherine Breillat)
No Country For Old Men (Coen Brothers)
We Own the Night (James Gray w/Wahlberg, Duvall, Phoenix)

Note: Time Out says of music related news at the recently finished film fest: "Cannes 60 may be remembered as the one with the grooviest soundtracks, which enhanced gems like Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park," and Harmony Korine's "Mister Lonely" and elevated stinkers like James Gray's genre dude "We Own The Night.")
No word on what those songs are as of yet though.

"Half Nelson" Team Get 'Calamity Physics'

According to Variety, the "Half Nelson" team of Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden ("Nelson," which starred Ryan Gosling as a crack-addicted highschool teacher who befriends his student, was a 2006 Playlist fave) have scored a deal with Miramax to adapt the 2005 Marisha Pessl novel, "Special Topics in Calamity Physics." Ryan will direct and Boden will executive produce alongside Miramax's Scott Rudin (an extremely successful, apparently ruthless producer who allegedly has had anywhere between 120-250 assistants in the span of about four years)

A Washington Post review said the premise of Pessl's book revolved around a "self-absorbed scholar and a young girl [who] crisscross America by car, flitting through college towns where they endure ill-advised sexual encounters, heartache and a potent dose of popular culture."

"Half Nelson" was such a left field indie-hit (it scooped up a couple ISP awards and earned Gosling an Oscar nomination), the duo are practically the toast of the town now and have a slew of projects to juggle. Before they even get to 'Calamity Physics,' the pair will co-direct "Sugar," a baseball drama about a Dominican prospect who heads to the U.S. with Major League dreams. They are also set to adapt the Mirimax (how convenient) teen depression novel, "It's Kind of A Funny Story."

As we've blathered on many times before, Broken Social Scene music was liberally incorporated into "Half Nelson" (about 12 songs mostly culled from their first, mainly-instrumental record, Feel Good Lost) and two songs by K.C. Accidental (a truncated, pre-Broken group whose core was Kevin Drew and Do Make Say Think's Charles Spearin). The song, "Someone's Theme," is not on any of their albums, and could be a song written exclusively for the film (which was rumored to happen), but it could also be alternate title for "Her Disappearing Theme."

While the movie utilized tons of BSS, the soundtrack only represented three, fairly well-known songs (aside from, "Da da da da" from Bee Hives), so we decided to post some other BSS songs not on the soundtrack disc.

Download: Broken Social Scene - "Passport Radio"
Download: K.C. Accidental - "Save The Last Breath"
Download: Broken Social Scene - "Mossbreaker"
Download: Rosey Grier - "It's Alright To Cry" ("Half Nelson" soundtrack)
In sort-of related internet news, the R.Kelly, Broken Social Scene mash up of "Flirt" (from Kelly's recently released Double Up), and BSS's " 7/4 Shoreline," has been making the rounds and it's surprisingly respectable.

Download: R.Kelly Vs. Broken Social Scene - "Flirt Shoreline"

Morning Dailies: Vincent Gallo, Woody Allen, Manson, Titans, Deschanel; More

- Indie filmmaker / musician / fashion icon / actor / republican /asshole /Roger Ebert colon hexer Vincent Gallo has now added real estate mogul to his long list of accomplishments. [Radar]
- Marilyn Manson proves he is more desperate for attention than scenewhore Lindsay Lohan with oh-so-provocative statements about her crotch. Pathetic. [TMZ]
- Remember the Teen Titans? Yes, it's the inevitable comic-to-movie adaptation of the crimefighting teenagers with emo problems to be written by the guy that wrote Joel Schumacher's infamous, near-franchise-destroying Batman movies and the "Lost In Space" remake. 'Nuff said. [Hollywood Reporter]
- Despite the critical roasting he received with his last dreadful movie, "Lady In the Water," (a film the Wallstreet Journal called, "a cloying piece of claptrap [that] sets a high-water mark for pomposity, condescension, false profundity and true turgidity") Shamalamading-dong is making another movie. Zooey Deschanel and Mark Wahlberg will risk their careers to star in it. Let's hope Shyamalan writes another self-righteous and oblivious book about how he bravely risked his career to bring audiences his courageous and one-of-a-kind fairytale. [Variety]
- Woody Allen's latest, "Cassandra's Dream", has been nabbed up by the Weinsteins. Always at his best (or at least in the recent decade) when tackling serious fare, the film is a suspense thriller starring A-list cast members Ewan McGregor, Tom Wilkinson, and Colin Farrell. The uber-prolific, Woody is already prepping his next flick, a Spanish-centered story starring Javier Bardem and Allen's apparent new muse Scarlett Johansson (yeah, you'd cast her too). [Variety]

Former Alterna-Rocker: Amorous For Many Places And Things

Perry Farrell: "I don't wait on the music industry to qualify me or give me my paycheck. I go about my business as an artist and I believe that my value is in my product and in my art form, and that's why I can't be stopped."

A/V Club: Is it hard to maintain idealism and also be in the music industry, which in many ways is morally bankrupt?
Farrell: I find now in the last eight to 10 years, my head has come around to really loving life and loving people and loving the world. It's something that I find comes quite naturally, as a man. I enjoy it.

We remind you that Perry Farrell now has the distinction of designing the worst album cover in the history of modern times:

The full interview (though I really wouldn't bother) here.

Judd Apatow Hearts Loudon Wainwright III

World dominating comedy force Judd Apatow loves Loudon Wainwright III.
Uber-dorks will remember this affection goes back a few years now: Apatow cast Wainwright as a divorced loser in his short-lived TV college dramedy "Undeclared."

Anywho, when Apatow– who has a strong predilection for working with a familiar cast of character – was planning the music for the upcoming comedy blockbuster, "Knocked Up," he sought Wainwright to do the entire score. According to Apatow's liner notes, he had seen Wainwright perform, "Grey in L.A.," and asked him to record a version without vocals. At the time, Wainwright was working on a solo album with Joe Henry (the musician only famous for being Madonna's brother-in-law; and a long-time Wainwright devotee) and he rounded up a cast of characters, famed British folky Richard Thompson, renowned pedal steel player Greg Leisz, and Beach Boys Smile collaborator/session musician Van Dyke Parks to cut the score.

The resulting album, Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up, is more than your average soundtrack and acts as a two-for-one: it serves as a new Wainwright record and it acts as a sort-of soundtrack album.
The pre-existing songs that Apatow eventually used in "Knocked Up," were all instrumental versions (aside from "Grey in L.A". and "You Can't Fail Me Now," which bookend the film's open and closing). Strange Weirdos, is those songs in their fully-realized vocal versions (got it? great; hence the "inspired by" tag). Additionally some songs are material that Wainwright had written before the film score that the director wanted to use (but didn't), while others use thematic inspiration from the film.

There will be a quiz at the end of this post, ok?

Wainwright also re-cut "Lullaby," a song from the 1973 album Attempted Mustache (which was also used for another comedy, Noah Baumbach's "The Squid and the Whale" in 2006; we also used some Wainwright in our If I Were Noah Baumbach Soundtrack playlist).

Incidentally, "Knocked-Up" features a hallucinogenic-induced driving scene set to Britney Spears' "Toxic" (Apatow originally wanted the song for "40-Year-Old-Virgin," but her people wouldn't agree to it).

Download: Loudon Wainwright III - "Lullaby"
Download: Loudon Wainwright III - "Dilated To Meet You"
Download: Loudon Wainwright III - "Drinking Song"

Distorted Distortions: When Good Songs Go Bad

We're big fans of the Clinic song "Distortions," so much so that we're almost posting this without any contextual movie soundtrack tie-in (however, the song is in our upcoming Mike Mills Soundtrack Series playlist, to reveal some sort of context).

The quasi-ballad, not-a-ballad is a great, honeyed, but not saccharine track in the hands of aloof rockers Clinic. Then Chris Walla vanillafied it (good god, stick to producing) with his Dave Matthews-like version and just recently the Arcade Fire took to butchering it live. Stop the bleeding people, please.

Watch: Arcade Fire - "Distortions" (from a "Neon Bible" medley)

More Shortcuts In Lieu Of Real Posting: Von Trier, Seth Rogen, Tim Burton; More

- The Times uses the new Lars Von Trier film, "The Boss Of It All" to posit that minor film works can revitalize bloated big budget filmmakers (Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Soderbergh). "You don’t need to know how it ends to see that “The Boss of It All” was a freeing step for him creatively," the paper writes. [NYTimes]
- The A.V. Club: What led to you getting into stand-up comedy so early?
Seth Rogen: Um… I don't know. Hatred of myself?
Rogen wrote for Sacha Baron Cohen's "Da Ali G Show"? Apparently he wrote a lof of "Bruno" skits. You learn something new every day. [A/V Club]
- Marilyn Manson: The Movie? Tim Burton says he'd love to make a movie out of Manson's relationship with now ex-paramour, burlesque star Dita Von Teese. “I'm fascinated by Dita and Marilyn. They're like a living Brothers Grimm fairytale," Burton said. Perhaps the filmmaker is unaware that the rocker is now banging Hollywood jailbait, Evan Rachel Wood.[Buzznet]
- Movie-utilizing pop music aficionados, the Weitz Brothers ("About A Boy," "In Good Company," "American Dreamz") are going to adapt author Michael Moorcock’s “Elric” fantasy saga [Empire]
- Luc Besson is looking to float his film company on the Paris stock exchage. [Yahoo]
- George Clooney tackles football nostalgia [MTV]
- Jut-jawed Aaron Eckhart will play a widower in Universal's "Travelling." "He falls for a woman at a seminar and is forced to confront the fact that he hasn't come to grips with his own loss," sounds deep, like this entire post. [Variety]

Morning Whoo Ha: Spector, Moore, Lucas, Pirates & More

- The corner at the Phil Spector trial is waaaay too enthusiastic about declaring Lana Clarke's death a homicide. To the left he gives an inappropriate thumbs up. [Yahoo]
- “Are the editorial pages of the New York Times journalism? Yes. But they're opinion. They're opinion based on fact. In my case, it's going to take somebody 20 or 30 years to figure out what I came up with, because while it's journalism, it's also satire coupled with a large sprinkling of opinion to create a work of art.” —Michael Moore, on his slippery idea of "journalism." [EW]
- Pirates of the Caribbean Trois has raked in over $400 million worldwide. We're kind of hoping the jackasses that declared the $153 million North American opening weekend rake-in a "disappointment" are cleaning off their desks as we speak. Must be nice to live in that world. [Variety]
- Nerd Alert. George Lucas' "Star Wars: The Clones Wars" animated series trailers are online. [StarWars.com]
-Trainwreck re-entered rehab again. Big surprise. [Variety]

"I'm Here To Shoot A Pilot" - 10 Things You Don't Say In An Airport

Even in entertainment-aware Los Angeles, airport security are oblivious to matters outside of homeland security. Director Mike Figgis learned the hard way that not everyone in L.A. understands industry-speak when he was detained for hours in LAX for telling security, "I'm here to shoot a pilot." In TV speak this obviously means, to direct and shoot the first episode of a potential TV show. In an airport this means, guns a blazing, ask questions later and land in an interrogation cell for 5 hours. Which is exactly what happened to Figgis. Apparently he was exhausted and not thinking clearly. He might want to think about trimming the wild and wiry, "I could potentially be a terrorist" hairdo. [AOL]

Weinstein's Take "Control"

Variety reports today that the scrappy Weinstein Company have acquired the North American rights to the Joy Division/Ian Curtis biopic, "Control." The info comes on the heels of the film winning a best European film nod at the just-wrapped Cannes film festival. The film has been long-rumored to open in September stateside.

Joy Division/New Order bassist Peter Hook recently talked "Control" at Cannes:

"Talking about 'Control' for me is difficult because it's like reading a diary," Hook said in the above clip. "I'm stuck in a quandary because I know it so well and associate with it so much. The only thing I can say to people is that I'm very proud of what Anton's done, very proud. The guy has put his heart and soul into it." Hook also says in the clip that he has found old Warsaw tapes (the pre-Joy Division band) with Ian Curtis singing on them from 1977 that he is going to feature on his Myspace page. Grow up, Hooky.

Knocked Up Crew Spoof 'Huckabees' Freak-Out

Speaking of Judd Apatow and his crew, the "Knocked Up" cast has made a brilliant little send-up of David O. Russell's infamous "I Heart Huckabees" tantrum. In the clip, they've pretended that "Knocked-Up" star Seth Rogen was originally played by "Arrested Development" 's favorite son Michael Cera (George Michael Bluth on 'AD'). Well played and sure to be popular piece of viral video (smart marketing). More backstory and details at Cinematical.

Indie-Rockers Channel '80s Popcorn Flicks For European Tour

Unfortunately for Menomena, "The Neverending Story" was banned in Eastern Europe due to its capitalist/freedom inciting themes. Still, pretty clever posters for an indie-rock group.

Judd Apatow: Buddy Comedian, Family Man

While you were bbq'ing this weekend and polluting your body with gallons of Miller lite, the New York Times ran a quadrillion page cover story feature on buddy comedian Judd Apatow and his comedy posse in the Sunday magazine.

Anyone paying even minor attention to this crew knows they are the worst kept secret in Hollywood and are milliseconds away from being household names. Apatow, a producer writer of underappreciated comedy fare ("Freaks & Geeks," "Undeclared") has been slowly rising over the years ("Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy") and it wasn't until last year's break-out hit, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," and it's equally successful follow-up, "Talladega Nights" that his juice in the movie world started to seriously rise.

This summer he's poised to reign over the thickheaded blockbusters with "Knocked Up" (a pregnancy quandary comedy) and "Superbad" (a filthy, R-rated coming-of-age teen comedy).

Apatow has a devoted repertoire cast he takes with him wherever he goes (Paul Rudd, James Franco, Steve Carrell, Will Ferrell), but his right-hand man and secret weapon might be the unlikely leading dood, Seth Rogen (who also co-wrote "Superbad"). According to the accompanying video piece, the writer Stephen Rodrick spent a year and a half following Apatow and Rogen around. That's some serious dedication. We hope you saved all your receipts.

Seth Rogen: If I told you I was going to spend a year and a half to produce 6 pages what would you say?
Judd Apatow: That you were an idiot?

Some various highlights of the piece include (so you don't have to read the goddamn tome):
- “Knocked Up” features much of Apatow’s familiar troupe: Jason Segel, Martin Star (“Freaks and Geeks”) Jay Baruchel (the lead in “Undeclared”) and Jonah Hill (“Virgin,” "Superbad")
- “If you’re walking with Judd and say, ‘Hey, look at that hot chick,’ he gives you the death stare,” Adam McKay, the director who had Apatow produce his comedies “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights,”said. “You can say, ‘Hey, I still love my wife; I was just looking,’ and he still hates it.”
- A boring Vegas night suddenly get interesting when Apatow suggest, “Let’s go around and have each person tell their most embarrassing penis story.”
- Before his success, Apatow was known as the guy who unsuccessfully sued over a writing credit on Jim Carrey’s “The Cable Guy” and attaching an obscenity-laced note to a Time magazine rave of “Undeclared,” and sending to the Fox executive who was about to cancel the show.
- Jake Kasdan's latest film, “The TV Set,” a satire of network television, is a not so thinly-veiled version of his experience as a producer and director on “Freaks and Geeks.” David Duchovny plays a thinly-veiled surrogate for Apatow, who is the film's executive producer.

Rogen: Personally, no one I know reads the [New York Times Sunday magazine]. I thought it was a newspaper. It's a magazine? What is it?
Apatow: It's usually articles about Iraq and stuff... about genes or DNA evidence getting a guy out. It takes the whole day to read it.

More highlights and notes:
- Superbland girl next door, Anne Hathaway was originally supposed to be the female lead in “Knocked-Up,” but she eventually dropped out. The lead went to Grey’s Anatomy hottie, Katherine Heigl. "Hathaway dropped out of the film because she didn’t want to allow us to use real footage of a woman giving birth to create the illusion that she is giving birth,” Apatow said.
- Apatow started audiotaping “Saturday Night Live” when he was 11, transcribing the show and then trying to discern and deconstruct what made it funny.
- His post college friends were Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller.
- Apatow did a last minute script polish of "Happy Gilmore."
- After taking in the Circus Du Soleil’s Beatles show the group of friends agreed they would never listen to the Beatles’ “Blackbird” the same way again.
- Many references to Rogen's chronic pot smoking.
- Many references to Apatow stealing his personal family experiences for his films, hence our headline which is strangely contextually absent in this run-down.

Apatow: I'd like to apologize if there's anything in [the article] that hurts your career.
Rogen: Thanks.

Oh and we forgot to mention: Apart from his triple threat producer/writer/comedian skills his world domination includes a hot piece of Hollywood tail.
Watch: "Knocked Up" trailer

Watch: "Superbad" trailer

The Long Weekend Wrap-Up: Cannes Winner, Nelson Reilly, Bijou, And Lynch

- After more than a decade away from the film world Jennifer Lynch (daughter of obtuse surrealist David Lynch) has returned with her sophomore film, "Surveillance" (critics savagely roasted her 1993 debut, the severely detestable amputee romance, "Boxing Helena"). Lynch's disappearing act from the world of film apparently featured years of drug and alcohol abuse. Her new film stars Bill Pullman. [New York Times]
- After 12 days of self-congratulation, French-style, the Cannes film festival awarded the Romanian abortion crowd-pleaser, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," the coveted Palm d'Or top prize.[E!Online]
- Other Cannes prizes went to the Japanese film, "The Mourning Forest," (Grand Prix; runner-up prize), Julian Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Best Director), and Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park" (a special 60th Anniversary Prize). [Yahoo]
- The Joy Division film, "Control," also won two awards at Cannes despite being out of main competition. [NME]
- Charles Nelson Reilly, one of the most annoying entertainers in the history of civilization, is dead. [Reuters]
- Hollywood is sad. Their blockbuster tent-pole franchises are only doing great million dollar business, instead of mega-million dollar business. These terrible underperformances are disturbing many. Only the media is stupid enough to make a thing about it. [Reuters]
- It's official, the Beastie Boys are far superior funk instrumentalists than the are rappers. Let's dispense with the hip-hop so we can continue liking these amiable rappers, er... musicians. [YouTube]
- Former cokehead party girl Bijou Phillips -- who routinely plays sluts, drug addicts and eventually sheds her clothes within 15 minutes of being on screen and who is routinely photographed partying with celebutantes like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton -- wants to be taken serious and would like to stop being typecast as the bad girl partygoer. May we kindly suggest some new friends, a complete makeover of your lifestyle, closer attention to your film choices and a deep look into the mirror? Phillips recently wrapped the shooting of schlocky B-movie, "Hostel II," in the Czech Republic; the people of which she called, "fucking assholes." [Reuters]
- Police drummer turned film composer turned Police drummer Stewart Copeland says the normally Machiavellian Sting could have "raped" him and guitarist Andy Summers on their upcoming mega-million dollar tour revenue split, but uncharacteristically chose to split the profits three ways. [Yahoo]

The Final Word on "28 Weeks Later": The Score, Plus 28 Months Later?

We've written a lot about "28 Weeks Later" and the original '28 Days' and strangely enough there wasn't a lot of soundtrack info out there. But as we initially reported, John Murphy again wrote the score to this sequel and the filmmakers in fact did recycle some of "28 Days Later" more memorable pieces (The rumors of Brit-pop in the movie were totally false and the Muse song used in the trailer is not actually in the film).

Fans of the original will definitely remember the very Godspeed You! Black Emperor-esque "In The House - A Heartbeat," which basically becomes the theme to the very, very terrifying and stressful, "28 Weeks Later." The capsule review is this: more of the same, but extremely well done and the scope is much bigger. It's still horrifying and alarmingly unnerving. As the Onion A/V Club aptly puts it: "Any fears that a studio-financed sequel to 28 Days Later would forfeit scrappy immediacy for something slicker and more expensive-looking are erased from frame one."

Incidentally, it looks like their will be a third installment in this franchise. 28 Months Later?

Download: John Murphy - "In The House - A Heartbeat"
Download: John Murphy "Then There Were Two"

Hal Hartley's International Espionage Star "Fay Grim" A Winner

Fay: The school calls and tells me that Ned's been caught getting a blowjob from these two sixteen-year-old girls right down the hall from the principals office.
Now he's expelled.
Simon: (long pause) Wait a minute, back up. They actually said Henry's dead?

For anyone looking at the Playlist today not from North America, it's a holiday weekend, so not much posting, but we did catch a few movies this week. There seems to be some debate whether Hal Hartley's "Fay Grim" is the return to form that some claim it is. I am happy to report it is and Hartley is back on track. Parker Posey was fantastic in it as was the very hilarious Jeff Goldblum.

The score was again composed by Hal Hartley (who incidentally has done away with his Ned Rifle moniker) who won't ever take the easy overly- saccharine route. As usual, he's restrained, whimsical with peaks only in the choice moments. We mentioned in our first "Fay Grim" blog entry that "Henry Fool's" Thomas Jay Ryan wasn't in the film, but without revealing any major spoilers, he does make a brief appearance ('Grim' is the decade-later sequel to 'Fool').

The soundtrack isn't out, but in lieu I thought I'd post some songs from "The Book of Life" - Hartley's 1998 biblical comedy starring PJ Harvey.

Here's the trailer again if you missed it the first time we posted it.