This is a good example of a strong film nearly bleached out by its precious New Age score. It’s worth seeing, but the neat script tidys things up perhaps too much, and it casts a shadow of self-importance offset by Cheadle’s mournful expression. Can a critic complain about a literate script that doesn’t quite live up to its ambitions?
If were an arts editor I’d have my music writer dive into the two scenes where pop music surfaces as a theme that goes beyond racial taste. The opening car-jack sequence has Ludacris decry rap as “the white man’s weapon…,” which will send us back to his CDs searching for “niggahs” and such. And the Merle Haggard scene near the end where Ryan Phillippe betrays his better nature. What are these songs? My hunch is they were far more effectively interwoven with the script than the larger score, probably even chosen by different ears.
WELLSTONE’S SEAT
After boldly predicting the doom of podcasting, I hereby post Air America’s
podcast feeds, our last best hope.
YEAH, PORTIA DE ROSSI MARRIED THIS GUY
David Cross
reviews
for Pitchfork:
Give a listen to Turndown Service, the forthcoming album by DotCom.com. Hopefully this foray into the electronic sector of the British no-fi/wi-hi scene (with apologies to Dr. Reverend Billy) is only a temporary diversion and not a full-fledged career move for Bix Xhu and friends. With a nod to early Creatures via the Monks, DotCom.com manages to wrench what little empathy one might have for the entire British working class (nothing you wouldn’t find at an “Alive With Pleasure” show) and sashays it right up and down Trafalgar Square.