Once: Best Musical Ever?

Matt's Movie Minutes for the Month of January

These minutes be a one-time thing, but it's award season, so here's my go at making ridiculous comments on films I've seen lately.

• Once: for fans of Irish indie band The Frames, this is your music music music answer to the talk talk talk of Before Sunrise. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Maybe the best musical ever? (No votes for Dancer in the Dark, please.)
• No Country for Old Men: the obvious literary pick for best film of the year. Cormac and the Coens--a new band name? This is one two-hour long bad-ass chase scene. Best movie since last year's Children of Men.
• I am Legend: Butterflies? What? How did that woman drive in and out of Manhattan when the bridges had all been blown up? Nonsense.
• Enchanted: I said I would never see this one, but sometimes you have to listen to your woman. Good when it's making fun of itself. Bad when it's not. That's two musicals in the last month. I must be going soft. The ending here unravels what could have been a much better movie.
• American Gangster: Would have been better if they let Russell Crowe be more Gladiator, but Denzel pretty much makes up for it. It's like the charisma show. And who's got more of it than Denzel Washington?
• Me and You and Everyone We Know: the Miranda July film. Quirky, and just the right amount of talk about poop. Or maybe there should have been more? But I'm getting tired of the ensemble/see-how-all-the-characters-are-connected movies, even when this well-written. I'd rather read her fiction.
• Reign over Me: Why did I see this one? All it made me want to do was buy a motorized scooter. And see a better movie next time.

Seeing all these movies (and more actually, but I'm tired of typing now) is what happens when I'm in Korea with Cathreen and she works until 11 at night. Props to Laura van den Berg, winner of the Dzanc Prize and author of the forthcoming What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us.