District 9
Have you seen this movie?
I was scavenging around the On Demand choices, looking for something to do my back exercises to, when I stumbled upon it on Starz. Yes, I get Starz, I get ’em all, and I pay for ’em too, and I never watch ’em, which was incentive enough to screen this flick. Along with the buzz.
In a music business focused on the first week, in an entertainment business focused on short term results, purveyors fail to acknowledge that the consumer is overwhelmed. The goal seems to be to ramp up hype to such a degree that we’ll partake in a frenzy. But I’ve sworn off the movies, since every time I follow the script I find there isn’t one, or it’s so basic as to appeal to the barely pubescent. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love a good film.
What convinced me to give up on going to the theatre was Nicole Holofcener’s "Please Give". I’ve been following her like my favorite band ever since "Walking and Talking", which not only had Catherine Keener, but featured Kevin Corrigan as the creepy video clerk. And Corrigan reappears in "Please Give", but as good as he is he can’t rescue this movie, which generates a feel but lacks a gripping story. Then we came home and flipping the channels found "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" on Showtime. Stunningly, it featured Rebecca Hall who was also in "Please Give", but in a totally opposite role, in a movie that was willing to deal with adult concepts and kept one thinking, however much Woody Allen might be a public pariah.
But "District 9" is something different.
Imagine going to Disneyland. What’s that ride that takes place in a flight simulator, Star Tours? I hate Disneyland, I’ve been once in thirty years, and that was only because I went with family… But imagine going on that ride, an enclosed space, but gritty instead of Disneyland clean, but instead of emerging into sunny Southern California when it’s over, imagine walking into an alien landscape where it’s every man for himself.
I felt like I had to hold on to the bed watching "District 9". That if I moved, I might be sucked into the screen, and then what?
I’ve never seen a movie quite like this. Yes, there was "28 Days Later". But this was even more intense. Shot in documentary form, with unknowns as opposed to Hollywood stars, set in Johannesburg, you got sucked right in.
Americans don’t only want to keep aliens out, they don’t want to travel to their nations. Under the illusion that no other country can compete, they miss Europe’s ubiquitous cell phone service, and South Korea’s blazing broadband and…
Johannesburg ain’t Europe. This has got the feel of the third world. Where you’re not safe. You want to believe you’re secure, in control, but you’re not. Hell, we’re not in control here in the U.S.A. either, but we deny that. Watching "District 9" you’ve got more questions than answers, you’re on edge. You’re trying to wrap your head around the situation, with the aliens in town for twenty years, and also trying to divine exactly where this movie is going, what is happening, what is the main story.
It does come clear. But it takes about an hour. It’s as if you’re going uphill on the roller coaster for that long, and then you start swooshing downhill for a seeming eternity. And the film devolves into battle scenes, and loses its magic, but I couldn’t stop marveling as I watched…how did they come up with this shit?
Everything in the music business sounds like what came before. We don’t test the audience, we want to make it easy for listeners. But when you do something outside, innovative, and good, you garner eyeballs, people are drawn to you.
Good… That’s a subjective term. But just because you make a movie that’s different from what came before, that doesn’t mean it’s good.
Good?
"Sgt. Pepper".
"Crime Of The Century".
"The Eminem Show".
Remember when the whole country was up in arms over Marshall Mathers? When we talked about him more than Steve Jobs? That was the last hurrah.
Em was doing something different. Injecting comedy and fantasy in hip-hop so well that he triumphed in a traditionally African-American medium.
I wouldn’t watch "District 9" alone. I wouldn’t watch it with the lights off. You’ll be too freaked out. You’ll have to stop.
But if you make it all the way through, you’ll be just like me, needing to connect with others, to tell them about it, to discuss it.
That’s what’s missing in music.
Lady Antebellum might be selling, but there’s nothing new in "Need You Now". Hell, if you don’t play it safe in Nashville you’re excommunicated.
And I won’t bother commenting on Ke$ha or rap acts buying samples and using the producer du jour.
Music is too often a vast wasteland, like mainstream movies.
But then you stumble on to something like "District 9" and you have hope. There might be a "District 9" musical act out there. The album could have come out months ago, maybe years. I’ve got my ears to the ground. When the buzz gets loud enough, I’ll find out.
