scene but not herd

I wake up today and pretty soon after I turn on the TV. I see a listing for something called YOU SEE ME LAUGHIN'. Why does that name sound familiar? Ah, it's the documentary I wanted to see last year about Fat Possum records. It was playing at the Arclight during their run of music documentaries, but unfortunately it was only playing in the early afternoon on a weekday so I was unable to go and see it. I watched a little bit of it and it looks pretty interesting. This is the type of blues I like. I don't really like B.B. King or Buddy Guy or those type of guys. I hate that "white boy blues " sound as well. Don't care about Eric Clapton or Kenny Wayne Shepard, et al. I love the repetitious and hypnotic quality of many of the artists on Fat Possum like Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside. I taped this so I'll have to give it a good look soon.

I went to see SIN CITY today as well. I'd never read the graphic novel it is based on, so I went into the screening completely cold. The trailer looked very interesting just based on the look of the film. I want to interject something here first, though. Am I wrong in thinking of ONE FROM THE HEART in relation to SIN CITY? ONE FROM THE HEART is considered to be a bad movie, but it is one of my favorites. I'll agree that it is not a great film, but there is so much going on visually (which should be a priority in filmmaking, n'est ce pas?) that it over rides the mundane storyline. I was wondering if SIN CITY would be the same type of thing and to a certain extent it is. Based on the trailer I was expecting some kind of film noir type of storyline and basically that is what I got. The storyline in the film is bare bones pulp noir to the point of cliche. I would say it is more of an homage to that type of literature and film. Here is where I feel I can compare ONE FROM THE HEART to SIN CITY. The plots take a back seat to the way these relatively common type of stories are depicted visually. Both of these films are eye candy, but I don't mean that negatively. There is true imagination at work here. I remember the first time I saw ONE FROM THE HEART in a film class at Santa Barbara and how in awe I was of what I was seeing. SIN CITY almost gave me that same feeling although today's technology doesn't usually make me all that impressed. Digital effects just don't do it as much for me as do in camera effects. Still, the look of SIN CITY is quite impressive. I've read that they basically took the panels from the graphic novel directly to the screen. At this point I would love to see how those two compare and I imagine that this could be a very interesting feature on a future dvd. What I really wasn't expecting from the film was its visciousness and what I believe to be a certain subversiveness. This is a pretty nasty film and given the world we live in today I'm surprised it was given an R rating. I suppose the violence is somewhat subdued because of the comic book graphics look of the film, but it is still pretty extreme. I have a feeling quite a few people are going to be unpleasantly surprised by the film when they see it. The film actually is quite an affront to "bourgeois values" and I see that as a positive. The worst villians are those in power, especially those in government and religion. I kind of get a kick seeing a movie that is definitely meant to be a box-office blockbuster show the pillars of society in a bad light. I definitely enjoyed this one and it has much potential, in terms of presentation and extras, when it comes out on dvd.