Friday, May 16, 2014

Random notes: Petunia, Jarmusch, Blowing Wild

Been too busy to blog a bunch. 

Haven't seen Under the Skin yet. Want to.

Saw the new Jarmusch. Liked it - thought of Brian Jones, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Burroughs... vampires as junkie rockstar elitists hiding in the shadows of decaying Detroit and Tunisia. I have pretty low expectations of Jarmusch - he usually finds a way to subvert his own movies with self-conscious silliness - but this is the film of his I've enjoyed the most since Dead Man. Nice to see John Hurt still workin' - I keep expecting him to retire, so I get fonder of him with each role (speaking of actors who haven't retired yet - Max von Sydow is in the upcoming Star Wars film? Really?).

Excited about the Petunia and the Vipers show next weekend at the Imperial Theatre, wrote about it here. Will also be seeing Red Herring the night before at the Prophouse; Stephen Nikleva will be on guitar both nights! Sorry to Ani Kyd - I will be missing her Fuel Injected .45 show at Funkys...

Finally: I found a rather familiar-seeming old classic on Blu-Ray with an unfortunate title and a plot similarity to The Wages of Fear (and thence Sorcerer): Blowing Wild. At least part of the plot involves the trucking of nitroglycerine across treacherous South American terrain to put out an oil well fire; I gather it also "borrows" a bit from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I'm not sure if it's any good but Barbara Stanwyck is in it and I'd watch her in a cat food commercial. Gary Cooper and Anthony Quinn co-star.

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