Damien Jurado -Caskets

Damien Jurado, "Caskets" from Matt Daniels on Vimeo.
This is a little disturbing and also really great.

some movies i saw

I've been really bad at keeping up with the movies I've been watching. Here's a couple that have stood out:

Picnic at Hanging Rock
This is one of those films that after I saw it, I couldn't believe that I had waited so long to see it. Girls at a boarding school in Australia go on a picnic and several of them disappear. It reminded me a lot of The Virgin Suicides: all the white dresses and repressed teenage sexuality; the scores are even very similar. Creepiest movie I've seen in a long time. Loved it.


Milk
I knew I was going to love this and I did. I saw The Times of Harvey Milk a few years ago in my documentary film class and it was one of the few times I was moved to tears at school (I think the other times may have also been in that class). Even though he's been called a douche by a lot of people, I've liked Sean Penn since Sweet and Lowdown and thought he was great as Harvey Milk. All the actors were fantastic actually, especially James Franco. And while I'm not always crazy about Gus Van Sant's films (although he's grown on me recently) Milk blends enough of his artsy stuff, that can be somewhat off-putting, with his way more basic storytelling style he uses in films like Good Will Hunting. The story is sad of course but it's infused with a good deal of hope and I left the theater feeling inspired. Definitely would see this again in the theater.

Cape Fear
I loved Robert Mitchum as the evil preacher in Night of the Hunter and he is almost as terrifying as Max Cady in Cape Fear. I haven't seen the remake, but I am betting if I did I'd probably be a bit snobby about it and not like it much. De Niro and Nick Nolte just don't compare to Mitchum and Gregory Peck.