Once

Sarah and I signed up for Blockbuster's DVDs through the mail program ($3.99/mo. - not bad) and once in a while I even let Sarah choose the movie. On a recommendation from my brother Nate and his fiancee Emily, we gave Once a shot. It's a low budget film set in Dublin and is probably classified as a musical, but the songs feel natural. A street musician/vacuum repair guy meets a piano playing flower seller and they assemble a rag tag band to lay down some tracks so the musician/vacuum repair guy can go to London to pursue his dreams. All the actors are professional musicians and I think all the songs were written by the actors. I really liked it (4* out of 5, if you noticed my little list on the right). One reviewer called it a valentine to music, but it's also about romantic relationships, friendship, and the whole process of the singer/songwriter.

No Country For Old Men

I finally saw the Coen brothers' "No Country For Old Men" today. It is in the "Fargo" vein, but more intense, darker, and even better. I am a huge fan of the Coen brothers ("Big Lebowski", "Oh Brother Where Art Thou", the aforementioned "Fargo") and I think this is their masterpiece. I don't think I moved a muscle whenever Javier Bardem's psycho-killer was on screen. For more info, check out this review from the LA Times:

The story of stolen drug money and the horrific carnage it precipitates, "No Country for Old Men" doesn't celebrate or smile at violence, it despairs of it, despairs of its randomness, pervasiveness, its inescapable nature, of the way it eats at the soul of society and the individuals in it.