1. I’ll Believe in Anything, Wolf Parade
2. Lost at Home, The Sun
3. 7/4 (Shoreline), Broken Social Scene
4. Koreandogwood, Devendra Banhart
5. Middle of Nowhere, Hot Hot Heat
6. A Track And a Train, Shout Out Louds
7. Chicago, Sufjan Stevens
8. Loneliness Shines, Malcolm Middleton
9. Against The Tide, The Radio Dept.
10. Still in Love Song, The Stills
11. Mountains, The Spinto Band
12. Helicopter (Whitey Version), Bloc Party
13. Peacock Tail, Boards of Canada
14. Which Way to Happy, The Magic Numbers
15. Fools Gold, The Stone Roses
16. All the Way, Ladytron
17. It Beats For You, My Morning Jacket

Soon I hope to be streaming. But I'm working on it....

Contact info@filmvibes.com if interested in a copy.

Posted by Ross :: 3/20/2006 11:50:10 PM :: comments

Since I started listening to indie pop - one of my generations best singer/song writers eluded my iTunes library until I discovered his music last spring. His name is Sufjan Stevens. I don't read magazines really but browse and study names is top 30 sections. His name stuck and milled around in my head. His name you ask - is -- Sufjan Stevens. His poignant lyrics and depressive yet moving riffs keep the mind pondering about how life is mundane yet strange and enlightning. Religious themes to creepy chilling lyrics of John Wayne Gacey - his music evolves album to album. Seven Swans to Michigan to Illinios. A creative genious able to offer sad and real truths about people in a way no other artist had or done. His story's are real and poingnant. His messages are light and dark. His voice is soft and haunting. His music is intelligent and creative. If you haven't heard by now - he's going to be appreciated where ever he goes. Head to the Sasquatch Musical Festival at the Gorge - May 26-28 - to see him live. I am and I'm already stoked!

Here is his story -

Sufjan Stevens was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in the chilly upper reaches of the Lower Peninsula. A self-taught musician, the young Sufjan pounded out elaborate Mozartian sonatas on a toy Casio, and by college became proficient on the oboe, recorder, banjo, guitar, vibraphone, bass, drums, piano, and other instruments too numerous to mention. Somewhere along the line he also started to sing, though at the time his friends didn't encourage it. He bought a 4-track tape cassette recorder and painstakingly composed 90-minute concept albums for The Nine Planets, The 12 Apostles, and The Four Humors. He read William Blake, William Wordsworth, and William Faulkner. At that time, in college, the world loomed large and daunting, and Sufjan's music came to sound like a medieval woodwind ensemble waving swords and torches at the twelve-headed dragon of death. During his last semester in college, Sufjan pruned, picked, and assembled a selection of these songs to produce the inaugural release "A Sun Came" on Asthmatic Kitty Records, a home label Sufjan initiated with his step-dad Lowell. A thousand copies were manufactured and shipped to a dark, dank closet somewhere in the vacuous black hole of the universe, where they shifted and snored in their sleep for several years to come. Sufjan then moved to New York City and lived bohemian style, with three other college graduates, in the unfashionable financial district, commuting by bike to The New School for Social Research, where he was enrolled in the masters program for writers. There he met Jhumpa Lahiri, harassed Philip Gourevitch on the telephone, and tried unsuccessfully to complete an epic collection of stories and sketches about backwoods Midwestern kinsmen—Christian Fundamentalists, Amway salesmen, crystal healers— all set in a small rural town in Michigan. Hmmmm. No one seemed very interested. Sufjan went back to the 4-track, tired of "words, words, words," and set out to complete his most ambitious project to date: a collection of programmatic, symphonic songs for the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. There were no lyrics, but more than a few cymbal swells, flourishes on the oboe, and ambient organ drones, all accompanied by computer-generated techno beats, and digital noise. The result was enterprising, but not quite flattering. He sent a few copies to press, which fell on confused ears. "…A hyper-modified Atari battling a souped-up Colecovision in a chess match/battle royal," one writer noted. Feeling inspired, Sufjan dropped off a copy at New York's favored record store, Other Music, only to find it in the used section, reduced price, two weeks later. Sufjan took this as a compliment. His label did not. Write songs, his step-dad insisted. Write something with words and melodies.
Sufjan went back to the books, mainly his own unwritten one. Taking bits and scraps of unfinished stories (character sketches, plot lines, penciled diagrams) Sufjan began to arrange his misshapen fiction into the bold mechanics of song, making friends with line breaks, meter, and rhyme scheme. These things led to melody, odd time signature, and a litany of jingle jangles on the drum kit, which had been taken out of storage once and for all. Here and there, on weekend trips, in quiet gasps of free time, Sufjan carried around his 8-track, recording songs in people's homes, in cinderblock basements, in barn houses and rehearsal rooms. The vibraphone in Massachusetts, the electric organ in New Jersey, his sister's husband's grand piano, upstate Michigan. Word by word, note by note, everything came together like one great cosmic shuffle, the Big Bang. The result was a lushly orchestrated road trip through the backwoods of The Great Lake State, from motor-city to the winter beaches of Lake Superior. Now this is more like it! his step-dad said. This sounds pretty good! They decided to release it to the public, to act like a real record label. They found a distributor, a publicist, a booking agent, a make-up artist, a mime. Things were looking good. People lent an eager ear. The critics lowered their knives and their critical brow. Other Music put it in New Releases, top shelf! Europeans weren't offended! Sufjan began to feel gallant and bold and confident about this great place called Planet Earth. This is just the beginning! he proclaimed over loudspeakers. This is just the tip of the iceberg! Galvanized by tourist brochures, road atlas maps, and the spirit of Walt Whitman, Sufjan began to intimate at other songs for other states, the American Dream, the national anthem, the continental rigmarole, the Delaware shuffle, Florida flamenco, California swing, all dramatized in song, the great epic symphony, in 50 movements, in 50 years! Lord help us!
Once the clang and clamor of patriotism subsided, Sufjan's musical inquiry fell fast on the Land of Lincoln, stirred, perhaps, by sentimental recollections of his rebellious young adulthood on Clark Street in Chicago, Wrigleyville, the beachfront parks, the homeless kids with their pets, the abandoned school house, where he slept on a desk. During the winter of 2004, Sufjan spent four months in isolation, reading books and biographies, memorizing the unfashionable poems of Carl Sandburg, laughing and shuddering through Saul Bellow's novels. He uncovered police blogs and books on tape. He solicited correspondence from old friends, Illinoisans once lost or estranged; he studied travel guides; he quizzed chat rooms; he made stuff up. All research, he decided, begins with your imagination and with your intuition, relying heavily on the convictions of the heart. During those long winter hand-clapping, piano-playing, drum-rolling months, Sufjan's heart began to expand, leaving its fist-shaped mark on a series of songs that not so much pay homage to the Prairie State, but rack and rend its characters through potato farms, steel factories, street fairs, marching parades, convoluted rivers, and centuries past and present. The result was something bold, flashy, and ripe with advertisement, like the Goodyear blimp, but not without Sufjan's tender rendering of the imagination. When all was said and done, Sufjan felt irrevocable changes taking place within his body, like a second puberty. His shoulders broadened, his mind quickened, his heart began to beat with quiet, patient thumps in a rhythm as fluid and faithful as the Chicago River.
And so on and so forth.
Sufjan's other interests include graphic design, painting, running, knitting, crocheting, weaving, quilting, cleaning, photography, haircutting, and dry wall installation. He collects stamps and wheat pennies. He cooks legendary omelets and can whip up a sushi feast at the drop of a sake glass. In high school he played second string guard on a district champion basketball team and created his own language, now spoken by only two other people. His brother Marzuki is a nationally recognized marathon runner, elite status. His sister Djohariah has the most complicated, most whimsical, most monumental laugh in all of mankind.

Posted by Ross :: 3/8/2006 3:40:18 AM :: comments

Posted by Ross :: 3/8/2006 2:33:52 AM :: comments

This site has been stagnant for way too long!

Time on Battlestar and working everyday takes me away from even thinking about writing about new stuff that enlightens me. So - I was contemplating ditching this blog and starting something completely new.

But I changed my mind.

No more news on film. I'll let the professionals handle that. Plus - I really suck at it! :P

For me - this site will concentrate on new music that i'm listening to and movie reviews. Perhaps at the end of the year - I'll put together a cool double compilation CD that you'll be able to purchase with proceeds going to a charity.

As time permits, I'll try to update this site as often as possible.

Lastly - The Spinto Band is my favorite flavour of the week. They have reached TV as The 'ever-so-hip' OC has used them in an episode for Season 3. I didn't know about them through the show as I never get to watch TV. :(

Instead  - a buddy, Justin who I've worked with on a couple shows, gave me his iPOD to ripp music and he had these guys and a bunch of cool shit that I haven't been able to absorb.

'Oh, Mandy' is my favorite of the bunch. Its layered and weird reminding of an opening from a MEW song I can't remember the title to. Listening to it - really reminds me of a 17 year old kid performing at the 'Battle of the Band' singing his heart out to his school crush. Its cute, fun and fast. Got to love the INDIE-POP these days.

Here's a bio I ripped off the Spinto Website. I'm too lazy to write one up myself.

So hopefully - Round 2 at this site will be a little more successful.

Enjoy!

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The Spinto Band Biography

In early 1996, the world was seemingly reconciling some of its evolutionary hang-ups. Gary Kasparov defeated Deep Blue in one of the most epic chess matches of all time. Scientists discovered the possible evidence of life on Mars. President Clinton appointed the first female US Secretary of State. And in one cluttered basement in Wilmington, DE, the Spinto Band began to materialize. Spinto, huh?

 

The story actually begins deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, where band member Nick Krill was rummaging through the personal effects of his late grandfather, the guitar player Roy Spinto. For years, Roy had penned lyrics on the inside of Cracker Jack boxes, and in one simple juxtaposition of time and fate, Nick found the lyrics that would inspire the creation of the Spinto Band. And they hit the ground running. The energy was undeniable, and it wasn long before Jon Eaton, Thomas Hughes, Nick Krill, Joe Hobson, Sam Hughes, Jeff Hobson and Albert Birney (who has since left the band to pursue the visual arts) found themselves with a massive musical proliferation at hand.

 

Eight years and seven self-released albums later, the Spinto Band is in the prime vein of musical prowess. Utilizing an indie-pop sensibility that brings to mind the Flaming Lips and Pavement, their songs can send you careening into the heights of lysergic bliss or provide the catchiest vibes to shake your tail feather to. Either way, this six-piece outfit has the goods to deliver us all from the doldrums of banality.

 

Currently teamed up with Nashville producing duo, Robin Eaton and Lij (of Alex the Great recording studios), and preparing a May release through Bar-None Records, the band sound exudes a finesse that belies their youth (their ages range from 19-22). With rich, textured guitars, and multiple-part vocal harmonies, the Spinto Band repertoire is a maelstrom of indie perfection. It quirky, energetic, radiant, and aptly engaging.

 

The Spinto Band has performed with such acts as the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, and Of Montreal. It an inevitable transgression beyond the words on this page; the Spinto Band excels. Thank you, Roy.

 

Credited - http://www.crackerbox.net/audio/spintoband/

Posted by Ross :: 2/10/2006 8:19:43 PM :: comments

If you are fans of Sonic Youth, Joy Division, Gang of Four and the Cure, the South London art-punkers Bloc Party will make you forget about Franz Ferdinand. Consisting of singer/guitarist Kele Okereke, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist/singer Gordon Moakes, and drummer Matt Tong, the band was formerly known as Angel Range and Union before settling on Bloc Party. Under the name Union, the quartet issued a demo in early 2003; later that year, they switched their name to Bloc Party. Their debut album Silent Alarm appeared early in 2005 and was released by Vice Records in the States.

Thanks to http://www.allmusic.com Image taken from http://www.blocparty.com


The music is so tasty and reeks of talent guilty of constructing post punk new wave material with angular pop sonics. Matt Tong is a sick drummer and Kele Okereke is blessed with great vocals that makes him sound like Chris Martin at times, but not as clean. Okereke's lyrics are blessed with poetic political messages, social sadness, and aggressive angst.The best tract is "Like Eating Glass". The build is sick. The best ballad is a toss up between "This Modern Love" and "Blue Light" - )by the way - I have a great video idea and want to do it for shits. So Kele - if you stumble on this - leave a comment and I'll tell you about it. )

These guys have exploded in North America and Europe. They are festival favorites and sll out club. Most indie rock snobs that I know - like  bloc party . If you haven't heard of them - download tracks from apples' itunes music store. You'll find all the tracks including some live recordings exclusive to iTunes.

Download iTunes here : http://www.apple.com/ca/itunes/

Pick up Silent Alarm - their debut studio full-length album or their Remix edition - a RAD remix from such artists as - LADYTRON and DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979.  



Become a member of the House of Blues. http://www.hob.ca to receive ticket news and pre-sales.

---

Finally A Bloc Hits My Head


After hearing about the March 27th performance at Richard's - I knew that tickets were going to go quick.  I was already to buy tickets then all of a sudden worked picked up and I lost track of time. By the time I found time to buy tickets the damn concert was sold out. Turned that Sunday - I had to work at Ginger 62 and could've still gone without a ticket in hand. The Oscars were on as well. It was a weird time in my life. 

I missed out. 

I eventually did get to see Bloc Party on May 29 at Vancouver's Commodore. Honestly it was the best show/performance I had scene.  Only the Magic Numbers compared to BP's sheer joy and graciousness to perform for excited fans who knew all the lyrics. 




Kele invited a fan up to sing the "Price of Gas" and spoke to the bouncing crowd through out the concert. His words were kind and thankful and the band's energy draw the crowd to electrifying cheers. I feel Matt Tong stole the performance with his sick drum display. His out of the world play much impressed and wowed the audience with his solos and aggressive native like beats. In the end - Matt Tong threw his sticks in to the audience - the band followed with a group bow and the whole crowd was - "ACE." - Kele Kele Okereke

Posted by Ross :: 2/22/2005 3:45:29 PM :: comments

For Donnie Darko fans, the long awaited Director's Cut is the highlight featuring a 253 minute cut of the film. The film is about a disturbed 16-year-old named Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is influenced by visions of a six-foot tall bunny named Frank. Extras include -

Commentary by writer-director Richard Kelly and director Kevin Smith
Production diary with optional commentary by director of photography Steven Poster
"They Made Me Do It Too: The Cult of Donnie Darko"
Storyboard-to-screen featurette
#1 Fan: A Darkomentary
Director's cut theatrical trailer

I can't wait to see it, the original was so shattering, hypnotic engaging film.

My last guess recommendation is Saw. It stars Danny Glover - one of Hollywood's nice guys - as a "Police Detective". The trailers were scary but I've never seen this film. I just think it will be good for a scare.

Here is the synopsis (stolen from www.tribute.ca) -

Obsessed with teaching his victims the value of life, a deranged, sadistic serial killer is abducting morally wayward people and forcing them to play horrific games for their own survival. Faced with impossible choices, each victim must struggle to win back his/her life, or else die trying...
My friend Jeremy Smith, also an assistant to producer, said he hated it too. But then again, he hated films such as Open Water.

My last pick is The Motorcycle Diaries. I haven't seen it, but I've only heard nice things. Its in my top ten Rentals to see.

Here is the synopsis (stolen from www.tribute.ca) -

In 1952, two young Argentines, Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado, set out on a road trip to discover the real Latin America. Ernesto is a 23-year-old medical student specializing in leprology, and Alberto, 29, is a biochemist. The film follows the young men as they unveil the rich and complex human and social topography of the Latin American continent.

With a highly romantic sense of adventure, the two friends leave their familiar surroundings in Buenos Aires on a rickety 1939 Norton 500. Although the bike breaks down during the course of their eight-month journey, they press onward, hitching rides along the way. As they begin to see a different Latin America in the people they meet on the road, the diverse geography they encounter begins to reflect their own shifting perspectives.

They continue to the heights of Machu Picchu, where the majestic ruins and the extraordinary significance of the Inca heritage have a profound impact on the young men. As they arrive at a leper colony deep in the Peruvian Amazon, the two are beginning to question the value of progress as defined by economic systems that leave so many people beyond their reach. Their experiences at the colony awaken within them the men they will later become by defining the ethical and political journey they will take in their lives.

For all you Valentine Couples out there, rent The Notebook. It is one of the most romantic films I've seen this year.

Here is the synopsis (stolen from www.tribute.ca) -

A man (James Garner) reads from his faded notebook to a woman in a nursing home (Gena Rowlands). The story he tells follows the lives of two North Carolina teens from very different worlds (Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams). Though her upbringing takes place in an antebellum mansion and he grew up in the kind of house where musicians jam on the porch, that doesn't stop Noah and Allie from spending one indelible summer together before they are separated, first by her parents and then by WWII.

After the soldiers come home, everything is different. Allie is engaged to a successful businessman and Noah lives alone with his memories in a 200-year-old house he lovingly restores. But when Allie sees an article in a local paper about Noah's handiwork, she knows that she's got to find him and make a decision once and for all about the path her life and her love must take.

Happy Valentines Weekend!

Posted by Ross :: 2/11/2005 2:01:17 PM :: comments

Sketch Fest Vancouver - Canada's only sketch comedy festival at the Waterfront presented a dynamic sestet of Asian comedic actors and writers together performing a brilliant over the top exxageration of the Asian stereotypes. They are called Assaulted Fish - Diana Bang, Marlene Dong, Kuan Foo, Yumi Ogawa and Nelson Wong. Eash performer brought a different element of Asian stereotype from the obnoxious Japanese tourists to over-dramatic annoying over-bearing Chinese mother, to Jackie Chan. The skits are original as they come especially the musical 'movie theater skit' where Diana Bang gets her revenge against the annoying Asian highschool couples. There is a term for this sketch but I don't remember, but really well put together as the music went well with the action. The best original skit was the last in which all six performers wake up and find out that a mystery man has attached a electronic collar to their necks. The freak tells them if they are not funny, they will die a horrible shocking death. Marlene steals the moment by crying that she hates that all her characters are the straight guy and always the butt end of the joke and never funny. She goes into a rant and kills over. The rest of the skit is filled with inside jokes and real theater/acting fact, some stage play and just some fine comedic acting by the whole team. Yumi Ogawa one of the more prominant players was hilarious as she started to show off with Nelson Wong who equally was great especially his portrayal of Jackie Chan and the mock host of "What Not to Wear". Diana Bang, small in stature, but huge in slap-stick and facial expressions. She made me laugh so hard with her crazy Asian mom routine. As a whole, Assaulted Fish was a hit and I hope they stay together and make a huge name for themselves. The writing was great and very entertaining. Props to Assaulted Fish and I hope that they win this year!

Rosser's Ratings - 4/4 Entertainment

Check out www.sketchfestvancouver.com for more information.

Posted by Ross :: 2/11/2005 3:55:59 AM :: comments

Touching the Void is a film I wanted to like. Everything about the story struck fear - most notably my fear of heights. Climbing massive mountains on the Andes and falling hundreds of feet is a 5 pound ball in the pit of my stomach.

Another reason I wanted to see this film relates to one year ago this time when I received passes to see Touching the Void. It was a morning screening @ 10AM and trust me I wanted to go. The day before, my friend Fawn Macdonald, a production coordinator called me to work on a film called Pool Hall Prophets - more or less some rip off Pool Hall Junkies that had a hard time selling to America. So I went to work and missed the movie. When I look back on it, I wished I said that I was busy, so that I would not have to write this review today.

I simply was disappointed in this movie. I expected to be scared out of my wits, but just could never get into it because of its journalistic documentary style. It was really broken up with multi narration. For me, I usually enjoy narration because it adds an interesting element - sometimes working and sometimes just missing the mark. Nice try though, right?

So within this film, what I really wanted was not to know the end within the first minutes of the film. As Joe narrates his part of the story, I realized that the ending would be moot. Also, the third guy (the camp watcher) basically tells that Joe is an asshole and that he was some sort of arrogant bastard who only drinks at the finest English Pub in Wales. Ok...yes - exaggeration is allowed on this blog. Thanks, I really wanted to care about the climbers, but can't really now that I know the ending.

What I wanted was a dramatic reenactment with real actors and dialogue with good thrilling music. I almost would have to say that Stallone's Cliffhanger was more entertaining than Touching the Void.

I think I was scared twice. Once when Simon fell and lived and when Joe fell 100 ft into the crevice void and lived to brag about. Come on guys - where's your sense of storytelling?

Lets tell everybody the ending in the first five minutes! Bad idea! Giving away that they both survive ends the thrill of it all. Using professional climbers in the reenactment was a good idea, but having them act was bad. Ok - the acting wasn't so bad, but its not so hard to look like you are in pain.

The best part of the movie is by far the cinematography. The scope of the Andes mountains and the tight shots that the climbers were in were very impressive however method they used to achieve such mastery. My only question which will definitely end up being researched is their filming location. That is sad in a way since no one has ever been able to duplicate Simon and Joe's climb and the real Andes mountain is not even featured. So which fucking mountain did they actually climb in the fucking movie? Now Ross is getting mad! ARGH! That my Haggar impersonation. You know that viking comic strip in the Province's sunday Funnies?

So my rant is so obvious, eh? As for entertainment - it bored me so its a 1.5/4. As a whole as a film, its potential could have been so much better and there was nothing innovative. I wanted so much more scare and thrill and I wanted to care about the climbers. But when you tell us that they live, what's the fucking point? Big losers to me. and only rent this movie if you have nothing better to do. 1/4 - nice, eh?

I stole this write up from IFCFilms.com. This is the basic overview with no opinion. I wonder why Kevin Macdonald?

Two twenty-something mountain climbers descending one of the world's highest peaks face the ultimate tragedy in this stunning true story from Oscar®-winning director Kevin MacDonald.

Joe Simpson and Simon Yates set out to climb the west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. It was 1985 and the men were young, fit, skilled climbers. The west face, remote and treacherous, had not been climbed before. Following a successful 3-day ascent, disaster struck. Simpson fell a short distance and broke several bones in his leg. With no hope of rescue, the men decided to attempt descent together with Yates lowering Simpson 300 feet at a time in a slow, painful process that could have potentially been deadly for both. One further misstep led to Yates unknowingly lowering his injured partner over the lip of a crevasse. With the gradient having gone from steep to vertical, he was no longer able to hold on. Certain they were about to be pulled jointly to their deaths -- the only choice was to cut the rope. Based on the international bestseller, "Touching the Void," which combines dramatic and documentary techniques, is directed by Kevin Macdonald, the Academy Award-winning director of "One Day in September."

Release Date: January 23, 2004
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Cast: Joe Simpson, Simon Yates

I'll be checking out the extra features later - hopefully I'll have something good to add...

Posted by Ross :: 2/10/2005 4:42:50 PM :: comments

Eric Wagner is writing from Seattle, Washington. Enjoy his review. I know that I want to see it soon before it hits DVD. Well he did not include ratings, but as far as I can tell, he recommends it and likes it lots. He along with the rest of Hollywood are on its Oscar bandwagon... :D

Enjoy!

After watching "Million Dollar Baby" one feels like they've put on the gloves to get worked over, patched up, and worked over again for good measure. Clint Eastwood's latest offering is a beautifully shot, well-written, and superbly acted epic devoted to that "sweet science" of, essentially, beating someone to a pulp. How fitting. Eastwood plays Frankie Dunn, an old, irascible gym owner in Los Angeles. Frank's been around the block a few times and is content to train his small-time fighters, counseling patience until they inevitably leave him for less risk-averse, big money promoters. In the meantime, he reads Yeats in Gaelic, harasses his pastor, and writes letters to his estranged daughter that she always returns. His only confidante is Scrap (the magnificent Morgan Freeman), a former prize fighter under his tutelage, and half the fun of the movie is watching the two veteran actors growl back and forth at each other, sparring like an old married couple.

Their gruff routine is interrupted when Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) shows up with dreams of being a fighter. An Ozarks castaway with nothing to lose, she becomes a gadfly at Frank's gym, refusing to go away despite his refusals to train "girly." She and Scrap form a clandestine partnership--the wash-up and reject--until her doggedness and questionable technique compel Frank to step in. With Maggie's arrival, the film sets out on a rather standard underdog trajectory--surrogate love, self-discovery and respect, redemption, grit, and so on--before Eastwood throws a wrench into the whole affair. Of course, to go into further detail would spoil everything, so I won't. Suffice to say, although not exactly a surprise, the turn of events is handled with such dignity and grace such that, while a blow, I didn't feel suckered.

As a filmmaker, Eastwood excels in taking relatively standard genres, tweaking them to his taste, and letting his actors drive the product with powerful performances. Such a reliance is liable to make the film seem obvious at times, and the charge could certainly be made here. However, I'm more willing to forgive Eastwood this sin than I would other directors, simply because he cares so much. Scenes that would seem hackneyed in another film here are endowed with palpable weight, as characters beautifully fade in and out of shadows, lugging their complicated histories on their backs. Such moviemaking harkens from an earlier era, when people said, "I don't got nobody but you" without smirking at the camera, and the result is as emotionally powerful a film as you'll see all year."

Posted by Ross :: 2/9/2005 6:15:47 PM :: comments

Riley is a 3rd Assistant Director in Vancouver. I met him on my last show 'life as we know it'. His next big project will be the third chapter of the Final Destination series. He'll be working with 1st AD, Jack Hardy and 2nd AD, Roger Russell.

Here is his review that should have been up long ago:


On the weekend my wife and I went to see Robert Zemeckis’s Polar Express. I knew that Tom Hanks was a voice in this movie, but other than that I had no idea what to expect. When we first walked in, the theatre was jam-packed with excited children and their parents. The only seating available was at the very front, much to our disappointment. However, having said that I can honestly say that from the opening to the end credits this movie captured me and every other person in that theatre-- so much so that when the end credits started to roll children and adults alike began to applaud. It would seem that this movie has done justice to the original book authored by Chris Van Allsburg.

This movie was amazing in so many ways, from the acting, the story line, to its animation and the special attention given to its realistic detail such as when “the Conductor” [Tom Hanks] walks through the snow you can actually see ripples in the snow as it’s being pushed away from his foot. Or the exhilarating ride the audience is taken on as the “Polar Express” speeds out of control through the peeks and valley’s of the “Glacier Gulch”, it’s like being on the world’s greatest rollercoaster ride.

As much as we should marvel at the achievement of the animators of this Christmas classic, they do deserve much praise for their work; the greatest aspect of this movie is the story. The story, which I unfortunately have not read yet, is laced with subtle lessons and reminders about having the courage to still believe in yourself and the things that mean most to you. The lesson here isn’t about “what” we believe in it’s that you “do” believe in something no-matter what anyone else says or believes.

This to me was a wonderful and touching story and not only to be enjoyed by the “family” but by people of all ages, the message is universal and is intended to remind us all about what the true spirit of Christmas is. I’d elaborate on this but I’m sure it means something different for everyone, so if you’re in need of a little reminder I suggest you give this movie a chance. See it by yourself, with a friend or the kids either way I do believe you’ll enjoy it.

Posted by Ross :: 2/8/2005 2:03:35 PM :: comments