Review: The National - I Am Easy to Find (2019)

The National - I Am Easy to Find (2019)

So this post is not the norm for me, but it happens to relate film to one of my other passions - music - and, additionally, it encompasses an interesting story about the fantastic band, The National.

According to recent interviews, The National had recently become burnt-out and was on the verge of taking a break (/possibly breaking up) when director, Mike Mills (20th Century Women), contacted them asking if they would be up for him directing a music video for them. That music video turned into the short film, I Am Easy To Find, which Mills wrote a screenplay for and directed, and the band wrote the music for (which they developed into their new album). Mill's story for the short is centred around the life cycle of a woman (Alicia Vikander). Interestingly, the band - whose normal dark, rhythmic and melancholic sound hinges upon lead singer, Berninger's, deep, baritone voice - felt that they had to change up their style for this female-centric story. And so, the band brought in a number of female singers for the songs, with Berninger taking more-or-less a backseat role (in both singing duties and writing duties, as his own wife, Carin Besser, wrote many of the lyrics). For those interested in short/experiential films and alternative rock music short film, I highly recommend checking out I Am Easy To Find, as well as The National's new same-named album!

Comments

Review: Sound of Metal (2020)

Sound of Metal (2020) TLDR: Easily one of the best films I have seen in a long while. Grounded by an absolutely stellar performance by Riz Ahmed (and co-star, Olivia Cooke), Darius Marder's Sound of Metal is a moving and deeply-empathetic look into the journey and struggle to find peace with one's self through the lens of a musician who loses his hearing. Have no doubt, if you are not yet familiar with the names Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke you are about to be. Both actors - Ahmed in particular who leads the film - are transcendent in Darius Marder's Sound of Metal. Ahmed plays Ruben, a heavy metal drummer, in a duo group led by guitar/singer, Lou, played by Cooke. The two are as much a pair off-stage as they are on it. It is clear from early on that they are all that the other really has in life and they are content to travel across the country in their RV together playing shows and making ends meet as best they can. However, all goes awry when Ruben - who batters his eardr

Review: Soul (2020)

Soul (2020) TLDR: For a year where many may feel like they have lost a little piece of their own, Soul has arrived to remind us all what's most important in life. This is a Pixar film that is arguably more important for adults to watch than kids: it is beautiful - in both story and art, it is quirky, it is heartfelt and, as these trying times endlessly push on, it reminds us that there is still a lot of good in this world to enjoy and reflect upon. Note: some spoilers below. It takes a little bit of time to ease into Disney/Pixar's Soul. Though the film starts out in a lush and beautifully rendered NYC filled with delightful jazz music as we follow Joe around his everyday boroughs, things very quickly run astray. Suddenly, we are thrown into an abstract world filled with Picasso-like wiry characters and massively heady existential concepts like 'where do we come from', 'the great beyond', and much more. If it's not immediately apparent, it soon becomes clea

Review: The Before Trilogy (1995, 2004, 2013)

The Before Trilogy TLDR: As a whole, and in each of its separate parts, Richard Linklater's 'Before Trilogy' is the cinematic experience in its absolute finest form. The story of Celine and Jesse speaks to the core of the human experience - surprising joys, inevitable obstacles and eventual pains, and, most importantly, the mystery and intrigue of love - and it does it in an affecting way that, almost unlike any other film, is simultaneously theatrical and also remarkably raw and realistic. "It's just, people have these romantic projections they put on everything. That's not based on any kind of reality." - Jesse, Before Sunrise Even more than the multitudes of other incredible introspective bits of wisdom and philosophy that Celine and Jesse converse in across the three movies, this quote perhaps sums up the trilogy best of all. What are romance movies other than certain individuals' projections of what romance - often, idealized romance - is. Most o

Mike Goes To Movies

Search This Blog