CurtBlog

Following, an early film from Christopher Nolan (director of Memento) is an interesting little movie that I got to watch last night.  Shot in black and white in London, it tells the story of a strange man who takes to following random people, under the auspices of gathering material for his writing.  The less you know about the plot the better, so that's all I'll say about that.  The film clocks in at a brisk 70 minutes and there is some cool grainy cinematography, at times taking on an almost cinema verité feel. At other times there is definitely directing and acting going on. The film hints at Memento with some non-linear story-telling, but his use of this technique in Following is similiar to many other films and not nearly as radical as the structure of Memento.  That being said, in some ways it is a bit more immediately engaging in some ways. It reminds me a bit of some of the French new wave stuff like Godard's Breathless. If you enjoyed Memento, this is worth checking out sometime.

It appears Amazon.com is getting into the DVD online rental market, prompting Netflix to lower their rates effective next month.  From their site:

Our new pricing is as follows:

• 2-at-a-time, 4 rentals per month: $11.99/month
• 3-at-a-time Unlimited: $17.99/month
• 5-at-a-time Unlimited: $29.99/month
• 8-at-a-time Unlimited: $47.99/month
  
  

Last night I got to see a much anticipated (by me) show from Interpol at the Riviera Theater.  I had a chance to see them a couple summers ago at a neighborhood fest and they were good there, but it was outdoors and so the sound wasn't amazing, although still good.  So I was looking forward to seeing them at a real club and they did not disappoint.  Great stage presence and lighting and they are so tight live, you can tell these guys like playing together and they know what they are doing.  Just excellent musicianship all around and one of the better rock shows I've seen in awhile.  I don't know if it's just me, but the caliber of live rock shows seems to be on the rise as I've seen a lot of really amazing shows in the past couple years.  They played a lot of stuff off the new record, as well as a number of favorites off “Turn on the Bright Lights”.  My only complaint was that it was an all-ages show and in Chicago, you have to quit at 10PM or soon after, so they had time for a 2 song encore and then the lights came on.  The crowd definitely wanted more, but all in all they played a lot of stuff.  The Riviera is a really cool old theater, something Chicago seems to be blessed with and a reason I'm glad I live here.  It definitely adds to the experience.  The place was packed as well and it was good to see so many people out on a Sunday night supporting good music.

I just did a bunch of updates to my movie pages, both the Film Noir page and the main Movies page.  The main movies page now has links to Netflix if you are looking for some good suggestions.  If you are a movie fan and don't have a Netflix subscription, you're missing out.  You can click to get a free trial from either of those pages.  Added a few new things to the Music page as well.

Another great show from Sam, with mostly the same set she played when I saw her a few months back.  The cool thing this time is the The Section Quartet opened for her and then joined her onstage for a number of songs. Since Sam tends to use a lot of strings in her music, it was great to hear that live.