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Sky Captain, Election, and System of a Down

Tuesday Jan 24, 2006

With netflix I'm getting caught up three classics or busts at a time. This week's feature, Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow.

Since the film was universally panned I had little to no expectations. Upon viewing I see that the critics vantage point had some validity but this film was not as far off the mark as they would have had you believe. Sure the visual effects were mostly unmotivated and actually obscured their technical mastery, but there was a decent story and some charming performances mixed in.

While it is clear that they did miss the boat and might have had a series on their hands if the execution and script had been better, this film was entertaining and reminded me of a 90's film, The Rocketeer. Perhaps that is because both films involve post war German people and inventions still trying to take over the world. Not a bad bag of popcorn on the couch flick.

Speaking of Flick, Carla and I watched Payne's (Director/Writer of Sideways) breakthrough film Election. While I had seen this many years ago, it was infinitely more disturbing seeing it further into my adult years and after my stint in education.

Like Sideways, this film features very real and characters with tangible pain and a comedy of errors and lies that elevate the conflicts and internal qualms. The most interesting aspect of this film is that despite the fact that Mr. McCalister (Matthew Broderick) has the most screentime, several characters are given first person voice over narration suggesting that perhaps no one is our protagonist. He opens the door for you as a viewer to pick which side you'd like to be on instead of steering your opinion. If you haven't seen this one, I fully recommend it as long as you are prepared for some disturbing things.

And last but not least I'd like to talk about the band System of a Down. I do not have a ton of familiarity with their work but for the second time in as many weeks I heard a song on the radio that was unlike anything I had ever heard before and felt it meritted some commentary and further exposure.

It would seem to me that S.O.A.D., a metal-band, blends Beatle-esque harmonies with simplistic but multi-layered melodies. They take these vocal refrains and pass them through several different genres of music, typically beginning with metal, and passing through alt and pop rock, polka, Eastern European-Jewish traditional sounding, theatrical, Eastern-Asian, and back again.

Though I myself do not like the screaming parts of these songs, their artistic merit and accomplishment cannot be denied and so I may be purchasing their entire body of work. Also like Radiohead it seems that they have a tremendous amout of output as I see several albums completed over just the past two years.

In summation: Sky Captain - ehh but entertaining, Election - Awesome but disturbing, and System of a Down - Scary but beautiful.