06.30.07 Once

I’m a hypocrite.  While I like my music left of center and protest those in the middle form time to time, I like mindless dead-enter mass-appeal movies.  The NSync of films.  That’s my preference.

My friend Brian loves indie films, the kind that play in limited release at the hoity toity theatre on the wealthier side of Nashville.  You know the ones.  Long shots with no dialogue or motion, expressionless faces talking mumbling philosophically, usually melancholic, every scene unfolding at the speed of real life.  No real climax.  No real blockbuster ending.  No sexy stars from the cover of People.  I appreciate what these films set out to do - really - but as much as I try I just don’t usually enjoy them.

Yesterday my parents took the kids for the night (in town from Texas), and Becky and I saw two movies - a very rare thing. First we caught up with the rest of the world and watched the gratuitously computer generated Pirates of the Caribbean.  Ho hum.

Then, after a break for dinner, we went to a hoity toity theatre on the wealthier side of Nashville to watch the indie film, Once.

Yes, it was slow.  Yes, it looked like it was shot with a handy cam.  Yes, every scene unfolded at the speed of real life.  But I liked it, a lot.

It’s set in Ireland (my favorite place on earth) and centers around a single mother (played by Marketa Irglova) who plays piano and sings like an angel and a street musician/hoover repair man (played by real life troubadour Glen Hansard) who plays guitar and wails and dreams of making it big as a musician in London someday.  Both perform in real life on an album called “The Swell Season” (buy it now) - and on the soundtrack for this film (buy it now).

The film is one huge indie music video, full of left of center tunes and the kind of gut-wrenching emotive singing missing from pop radio these days.  It’s worth seeing if you love indie music...even if you don’t usually like indie films.

Here’s a taste:

My favorite song from the movie, “Falling.”

The official trailer: