EVERYTHING is ILLUMINATED or How I discovered GOGOL BORDELLO!

Do you believe in destiny? Do you believe "We will meet someone when we are supposed to meet"? Let me apply that theory to movies. I sometimes feel some movies come into our lives exactly when we are supposed to. Not before, not after. After all if some of us had not seen the right film at the right time we would not have left everything to chase our dreams in technicolor.

The reason i'm saying all this is because last night I was blown away by the film EVERYTHING IS ILLUMUNITED. Its a 2006 film. I remember seeing the trailer & decided to let it pass. I feared it might be too arty farty in a pretentious way or too smarty pants.I have seen this DVD at my local library from time to time but never picked it up. This weekend when I was at the library I finally did take it more because of have seen most other films there than the desire to watch this film.... And then I watched it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tSUOYY4oukc

The film is based on the book with the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer. Its the story of a young Jewish-american guy's search for the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazi's in ukraine during the War. Its more like a road movie. His Ukrainian hosts are
1) Alex - A premium Ukranian guy who loves american pop-culture, esp the negros.
2) Alex's crazy anti-semetic grandfather who "thinks" he is blind. Hence the need for the third character in the form of
3)"Seeing Eye Bitch" - a demented dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.



The book has been acclaimed as a work of genius. It was reccomended to me by my ukranian friend when the film came out. But no one said anything about the film. I wasn't interested in watched another film about another "Jewish American Kid searching for his roots in the Eastern Block". But I have to say its a great film. It is one of the finest adaptations i have seen in recent years. I thought the script was just perfect. They added & delected things from the book which worked perfectly. It is one of the best directorial debuts by an actor in recent years. I have not seen much of Liev Schnieder's work but I didn't expect such a great film from him. The script sure helped.

Acting was on the mark by everyone. The grandfather is hilariously deranged. Eliah Wood plays the passive & scarred american tourist perfectly. But the real star & hero of the film is Alex. He steals the movie from everybody. It helps that the film is narrated by him also. Alex is played brilliantlly by Eugene Hutz. And thats how I discovered his genius.



http://youtube.com/watch?v=3Jv3b0VKec8&feature=related

Eugene is the father of GOGOL BORDELLO, a NY Gypsy Punk Rock Band. He is also a DJ & now an actor. His personal story turned out to be more fascinating than the film itself. His family fled Ukraine during the Chernobyl meltdown. They reached US after surviving various refugee camps for seven years. He is also a groundbreaking DJ who has recidance at a Bulgarian bar MEHENATA. Liev met Hutz to discuss the music for the film & thats how he decided to cast him.
Also if you have seen Wristcutters, The Russian Rocktster character EUGENE who lives with his mom & dad is based on him.

I think the next New York PFC meet should happen at Mehenata. What say New York?

Song of the Week

Its been a long time since i partied @ www.hypem.com
thats where i been discovering new music.
So this week I found another gem. Its mixed by ma man CALVIN HARRIS whose song MERRYMAKING IN MY HOUSE has become one of my fav dance song of last year.
This is the perfect mix of Hip Hop & Electronic music.

The song is

Dizzee Rascal - Dance Wiv Me (feat. Calvin Harris)

Dizzee Rascal - Dance Wiv Me (feat. Calvin Harris)

What i'm reading June 2008

Finished -

GUNS GERMS & STEEL by Jared Diamond

http://tinyurl.com/6pwx7e
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns%2C_Germs%2C_and_Steel
Pulitzer winning work. The story of civilization from a Biologists perspective. Highly reccomended. It gets boring at times. And you can tell Diamond has only only one good book in him. This is that book.
Why Eurasians conquered the world? And How?(The answer is diseases).
Why Man could not domesticate Leopards(My fav part of the book). Etc etc

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The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill
by Ron Suskind
http://tinyurl.com/4fmbww
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Price_of_Loyalty
The title says it all.

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Reading-

CHRONICLES: Volume One By Bob Dylan
http://tinyurl.com/3fdldj
I've just started listening to the audio book. Its narrated by Sean Penn.

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The ARGUMENTATIVE INDIAN by Amarta Sen
http://tinyurl.com/4goxdr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Argumentative_Indian

Just finished the 1st Essay. Great book.

School of Rock

I never thought I would include this film in my all time favs. And that also is the reason why I never bothered to watch it. But last week I saw the trailer of this film in the DVD of another film. So I got this film from the library & started watching it. I had a blast. You know the movie worked its magic if you are laughing out loudly with nobody around you. That I think should be the test for comedies.
Last film I laughed so much was Superbad. And just like Superbad, when i was at the last part of the film I realised that i'm so much fun, I was having this conversation with myself.

Me- wow i'm really enjoying this film.
Mainak - Yes you are
Me - So does that mean Its one of my fav comedies ever?

Then I think of some of my fav comedies like Office Space, Superbad for comparisons.

Mainak - Yes it can be one of your fav comedies....

10 minutes later -

Me - Man this movie rocks, I wish I had a Rock n Roll Teacher. I think I might go as far as calling it "One of my fav films ever".
Mainak - hmmmm
Me - Its not some high art for sure. Nowhere near some great films thats in my top 10, but this film has touched my heart.
Mainak- I think you are right.

And since then SCHOOL OF ROCK has become "One of my fav films....ever".
And if you love Hard Rock music of the 70s, man this movie is "Redonkulous". It took me back to my college days when Led Zep was all I was listening to. It made me wish I had a teacher like Jack Black in school. It brought tears & goosebumps at the same time when the band finally plays their song in the climax. I watched that song 10 times since last night.
I'm going to post the Music Video of that song. The actual song in the film should be seen only after knowing all the kids in the film.


And the kids are so amazing. My fav was the Japanese kid who is a Classical Piano Player - Robert Tsai. His Solo in the finale is priceless. Joan Cusack is as usual - amazing. The amazing acting among kids has to be by Joey Gaydos Jr. He plays a very stiff & shy guitar player who is chosen to play the lead. He was perfect. I thought maybe thats how he is in real life since all the kids were musicians 1st & not actors. But when I saw the special features it turned out that he is a total rockstar. But this film belongs to Jack Black. He runs over everything in this film. I think every kid should be shown this film.

In the special Features of the DVD was this video of Jack Black begging Led Zeppelin to let them use "IMMIGRANT SONG". Its hilarious. Check it out.


ROCK ON!

The Talented COEN Brothers

I just saw the trailer of BURN AFTER READING last night in a theater before SEX & THE CITY.
The new Coen Brother Film. Its insane. I mean to make 2 such great movies back to back in a year. The trailer just kicks fuckin ass. It has the regular Coen Brother people like Francis McDormand, Clooney. Plus Brad Pitt & Tilda Swilton. Its really amazing how talented these brothers are. I'm just blown.
How can they do it? Most people cannot make more than one good film in their lifetime. These guys are doing it back to back.



I cant wait to watch it.

Journalism?

I'm a very lazy person. Since i realised i would keep delaying my 1st blog, i have decided to give it a small start. And hopefully i will pick up pace on the way.
These days I'm obsessed with the 2008 Elections. I'm a Obama supporter. So you will find a little more of political stuff than anything else. I just found this amazing video on The Huffington Post

"At the National Conference for Media Reform 2008, a producer for FOX's The O'Reilly Factor, Porter Barry, ambushes PBS's Bill Moyers and questions his "refusal" to appear on O'Reilly's show. Moyers disputes FOX's "facts" for the record and asks to interview someone at The O'Reilly Factor about Rupert Murdoch's claim that the War will make 20$ a Gallon. . The journalist crowd then reacts, chasing down Barry and intentionally giving him a dose of FOX-style bullying reportage. "

Its awesome!