The story is told by David Aames in flashbacks to a prison psychologist as he is awaiting trial for murdering his girlfriend. David seems to have everything: money, fame, friends, women. But all of that is shattered when he falls in love with a Sofia, captivating young woman and a jealous ex-lover, Julie, drives him off of a bridge, killing herself and disfiguring him. Soon, David’s world is spiraling out of control and he can’t seem to discern or trust reality.
Posted by: Cobra Number 12 on my list of Top 20 Films is the 2001 cult film, Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell, Penelope Cruz, and Jason Lee.
The story is told by David Aames in flashbacks to a prison psychologist as he is awaiting trial for murdering his girlfriend. David seems to have everything: money, fame, friends, women. But all of that is shattered when he falls in love with a Sofia, captivating young woman and a jealous ex-lover, Julie, drives him off of a bridge, killing herself and disfiguring him. Soon, David’s world is spiraling out of control and he can’t seem to discern or trust reality.
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Posted by: Cobra La La Land has generated a lot of critical praise and awards, and this past weekend, I finally got the chance to see what all of the buzz was about. Emma Stone plays Mia, an aspiring actress working as a barista on a movie lot in Hollywood. Unlike most characters who are aspiring actresses, there’s never the impression from Mia that she feels everything is immediately going to go her way. She’s grounded, and while she never says it, she probably know that her dream is a long shot. She tells Sebastian about growing up with her actress aunt with whom she watched old movies and expresses a love for a classic style of filmmaking. Ryan Gosling plays Sebastian. He’s a jazz enthusiast struggling to make it as a jazz pianist. He gets fired from his job playing in a restaurant/club because he improvises and doesn’t stick to the setlist of Christmas songs the manager has set out. When he meets Mia, he finds out she hates jazz…until he takes her to a jazz club and shows her his passion for it. And his passion shines through. Sebastian doesn’t like the direction jazz is headed. He feels it’s taking away the soul of the music and adding unnecessary flash and bang to sell itself to a younger crowd. His former classmate tells him that the kind of jazz he likes is listened to by 90-year-olds in clubs, but it’s not the future. He convinces Sebastian to join his band, and it’s clear that Sebastian hates the style of it, but he takes the job in order to work toward his dream of owning his own jazz club. This commentary on the lost art of jazz is a major theme explored in the film, and it largely speaks to the lost art of art in general. It could be any genre of music, any form of performance, or any form of art which has sacrificed quality and artistry for the sake of commercialism. It’s explored more in the world of jazz in the film than it is in the world of filmmaking, but the point is well made. Even the film has an old soul to it…an older style. There are no doubt familiar themes and motifs explored in the film: the relationship between two seemingly mismatched people who share a lot more in common than they initially think, that point at which they fight and you wonder if they’ll break up, the moment when one is ready to quit their dream: but the film manages to explore it in a unique and original way and it feels very fresh. The score and the soundtrack of the film are especially strong. I’m not usually the type to watch musicals, but this one felt completely natural. La La Land is a wonderfully made film with outstanding performances.
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were heartbreak numbers just the same and they were among his biggest hits.
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In 2015, Ryan Adams surprised his fans with a track-by-track recreation of Taylor Swift’s 1989, covering the entire album in its entirety. It was a much different album than Swift’s…it gave each song a more brooding feel and was performed in Adams’ unique style. Now, Adams has returned with his first album of original material since his 2014 self-titled album. In promoting and preparing his fans for the album, he hinted at an 80s style rock. So, the question is, did the album live up to expectations? Was it worth the wait?
Posted by: Cobra Continuing the countdown of my Top 20 Films, we now reach #13, a 1992 drama, Glengarry Glen Ross. David Mamet wrote this brilliant screenplay, based off of his own stage play and James Foley directed a mammoth cast which included cinema legends Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce, Kevin Spacey, and Alec Baldwin.
Posted by: Cobra A while back on Facebook, I posted a collage of my Top 50 Favorite Music Albums. I kept the rules simple:
I tried to avoid compilation albums as much as possible, but I stuck one soundtrack in there because of the sheer greatness of it. Below, view the collage, captioned with the list of albums.
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On May 29th 2007, the third season finale of House aired on FOX. The end of this episode featured a song called “Good Man” by an artist named Josh Ritter. It was a song from Ritter’s, at the time, most recent album The Animal Years.
Something about the song struck me. I loved it. The melody, the songcraft, the lyrics. It was a simple song, but undeniably amazing. I immediately had to find out more about this artist. I sought out the song and discovered this album, The Animal Years. I listened to it. And then I listened to it, again. I was in love with this album. As I sought out more of Josh’s music, discovering what an amazing musician, an amazing songwriter, and amazing singer, an amazing man, this was, I always returned to The Animal Years as my favorite of his albums. If I were a professional musician, this is the kind of album that would influence my music: it’s the kind of album I would dream of making. Posted by: Cobra Some people like to say their favorite Christmas movie is Die Hard. My favorite Christmas movie is Number 15 on my Top 20 Films list, In Bruges.
There’s very little setup for In Bruges. The film throws you right into the story. Hitmen Ray and his senior partner Ken are sent off by their boss, Harry, to Bruges, Belgium to await further orders. It is only later where the full reason why they were sent away is revealed: while on a job, Ray was to kill a priest. But he botches the job, and in the process of killing the priest, a young boy is also killed. Posted by: Cobra Biopics are tricky films to do right. It’s tough to balance presenting a factual piece while also adding in enough drama to keep an audience invested in the story as a film. Music biopics are even trickier, because of the task of presenting the actors and actresses as singers. If you overdub the singing with the actual subject’s music and voice, it sees off, and if you overdub it with a third party who is neither the singer nor the actor/actress, it seems off as well. Finding actors and actresses who can not only sing, but convincingly sing as the characters they are portraying is a daunting task.
Posted by: Cobra Number 17 on my list of Top 20 Films is a 1993 neo-noir thriller Red Rock West. Red Rock West premiered at a film festival to widespread acclaim, but was relegated to a direct-to-cable/direct-to-video release before it ended up receiving an actual theatrical release. At this point, it became ineligible for the many awards that committees wanted to nominate it for due to not having been originally a theatrical feature.
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LINKS
Here are some links to other pop culture websites and blogs worth checking out:
- Saving Country Music - Country Perspective - Farce the Music - Country Exclusive - This Is Country Music - Country Music Minds - Matt Lynn Digital Pop Culture Potpourri Writers
Cobra is a Human Resources professional from the Greater Cleveland Area with a love of good country music and a disdain for pop, rock, and rap mislabeled as country music. His favorite artists include (but are not limited to) Wade Bowen, Randy Rogers Band, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Turnpike Troubadours, Hayes Carll, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Trisha Yearwood, Dwight Yoakam, and Johnny Cash Archives
December 2017
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