Movie Madness

It seems that I'll either go forever without seeing a movie or I see a bunch in a short duration of time. In the past week, I saw three good movies, all rented from Netflix.

A week ago, I saw Freedom Writers. It was a riveting film. You've all heard of that one. I would certainly recommend it.

Monday, we were going to see Juno. But with the whole Norton fiasco, we really couldn't leave him for even a couple hours. Plus, I pulled something in my back on Sunday. I'm still trying to recover, though I am feeling a lot better. Much of my time was spent on the couch this week!

So instead of Juno, we watched Waitress. Have you heard of it? A hit at last year's Sundance. Bittersweet and comedic both. Keri Russell plays the main character. The talented Adrienne Shelly wrote, directed and also starred in the movie before being murdered in her apartment by her contracter. What a sad story. Bittersweet. We really liked the movie though. It made us smile and feel, too. Rent it. I think you'll enjoy.

A couple months ago, I heard a particular song from a soundtrack I couldn't recall on one of my beloved public radio stations, WFUV. I loved the song so I spent months hoping to stumble across it on iTunes.



And guess what? The other day I found it! The song, Falling Slowly, is from the soundtrack to the movie, Once. And the song was nominated for an Academy Award also! So guess what? I rented the movie and bought the sountrack. It's a modern day musical filmed more like a documentary than your traditional romantic comedy. In a nutshell...

Boy is a street musician in Dublin. He fixes vacuums by day. He has an ex in London.

Girl is a Czech street vendor (living in Dublin). She lives with her mother and young daughter. She has a husband in the Czech Republic.

We spend a week with these two characters as they develop a friendship and "write, rehearse and record songs together." Their music is simple and lovely. His beaten-up acoustic guitar and her piano melodies. The chemistry is real and the story is touching.

I won't tell you what happens. See for yourself.
Wanna see Alvin sing the same song?