“Song One” 

Directed by Kate Barker-Froyland 
Starring Anne Hathaway, Johnny Flynn, Mary Steenburgen, Ben Rosenfield 

Another movie about songs and musician. Maybe this is just another Hollywood trend? I mean, besides remaking not-so-old superheroes movies or adapting survival-themed teenage novels into movie. Anyway, if you’re like me who would sometimes find myself watching some serious movies back-to-back and after that truly need a time to catch my breath but still feel like watching more, “Song One” is the answer. That doesn’t mean “Song One” is bad. It is just… not special. Well, the story is light, but seems familiar. With this kind of theme, I prefer “Frank”, it is weird and artsy and I love it. 

Anne Hathaway, as Franny in this movie, acted very well, but I think this must be nothing compared to her performance on Les Misérables. Well, if we look at her singing I Dreamed A Dream one more time… really beautiful. But, in this one, it was just okay. Maybe, that’s because of the story.

Anyway, I love the soundtracks! It is featuring Johnny Flynn (of course), Felice Brothers, Sharon Van Etten, Dan Deacon, Paul Witty, Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens, Nina Simone, America, and Anne Hathaway. Johnny Flynn’s songs are my favorite. I love his voice and it is just perfect for the movie. Another collection added to my iTunes, I suppose. 

Teaser Video of “The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel“ by Matt Zoller Seitz 

My friend and I are sooooo crazy about Wes Anderson, even before “The Grand Budapest Hotel” got 9 Oscar nominations and suddenly youngsters around us recognize and worship him like he’s the new Pop Icon or something. Can you imagine a couple of years back, no one understand when I was talking about Wes Anderson movie and then, 9 months after I watched “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and just right before The Oscars, some of them were asking “Have you watch the movie?”

I was like, “Dude, where have you been?”

Anyway, last year, my friend said he saw a book entitled “The Wes Anderson Collection” at Aksara. He didn’t dare to buy it because it was quite expensive here in Indonesia. He hesitated at first, but in the end, he decided to buy it. So, one day, he was at Aksara Kemang and I was at Aksara Plaza Indonesia, looking for this book. At Aksara Plaza Indonesia, there were only two books left, one book has the cover almost completely ripped off and the other one got a little damaged on one edge. I called my friend and told him the situation, turned out his was even worse. So, he stepped into the bookstore, walked right through the space where he saw the book, found nothing, he then walked to the cashier to ask about it, only to find that a customer had just handed out the book to pay. And that was the last one. 

So, by the time I was calling him, he said “Just buy the damaged one, it was just a little damage, right? It’s better than having nothing at all.”

I bought it and it was worth every penny. I love all of the behind the scene pictures and how it enhances the small details that Mr. Anderson sees through those creative eyes. Take a look at this page;

Well, we realized that the book was missing one movie, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and I was like “I wish Mr. Seitz got a chance to put that movie in this book”. I guess, he listened to my request, because last month we could start pre-ordering the book, which entitled “The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel” and it was finally being released on February 10th, 2015 (somehow, I’m still waiting for it to come to Indonesia). Just as his statement in the video above, he mentioned how he missed the latest movie and has written specially for it with complete details. And the video is really cute. I played it over and over again. 

Look at that! Isn’t that beautiful? I really can’t wait to hold that very book with my own hands. Anyway, we could order it through Open Trolley now. Isn’t it awesome?!

“Birdman” (2014) 

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. 
Starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts. 
Cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki. 
Music by Antonio Sánchez. 

I should’ve written this before the annual event took place but anyway, I am a proud #TeamBirdman. I was, and still am, tremendously happy to know that Birdman is now officially Picture of the Year.

First thing first, when Boyhood won Golden Globe for Best Picture in Drama Category, most of my friends (and probably including the world) would think the same thing; that Boyhood would achieve the same in The Oscars.

Nope. It didn’t. Birdman won.

Well, a long production process with a wonderful and on point choices of songs as soundtracks are not enough to make a movie win the title of ‘Movie of the Year’ compared to one unique, creative, out of the box, weird and insane movie that would left hanging and playing over and over in everyone’s mind after watching it. Was it based on Michael Keaton’s life? How did the camera work that way? How did they make it looks like one-shots and every actor gave a great performance without mistakes? The answer is here.

Three things I notice as the reason why, in my opinion, Birdman is truly this year’s movie are, first, the camera movement. They didn’t give us a chance to take a breath, to take a snack, or like “Wait, can I go to the toilet?” (except if you pause the movie). You’d realise the camera didn’t ‘blink’, it kept rolling, and it almost seemed like everybody were doing one-shots. Then I imagine, if one actor made a mistake, would they restart the whole process from the very beginning, since it looked like they’re doing it in one-shot? The setting was in a theatre, it was about an actor in a theatre production, and they made it in a theatrical way. You can feel the cut scene in other movie, but in this one, you’ll feel like they’re doing it from the beginning, in a clear sequence like a theatre.  

And then the acting. Each one of them gave a great performance. I love each and everyone’s monologue, especially Edward Norton and Emma Stone. They. Are. Wonderful. And. Powerful. And believable, of course. 

And last, did you notice the music? It was mostly on percussion and composed by Antonio Sánchez. Although it didn’t make it to Best Original Score nominations, Antonio Sánchez did a great job with it. It set the rhythm of the movie. It was unexpected. Also, I love how they’re playing with diegetic and non-diegetic sound. One moment you only listened to the music as background and the next moment, there he was, the drummer was playing it in the background. I love it!

In the end, Birdman deserves the title. Great acting, great technique, great choices of sound for scoring. It is wicked cool!

Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is.
Chip Kidd.