Joel and Ethan Coen, �Raising Arizona — the screenplay�
God I hate to say this but... The last couple of Coen Brothers movies kinda sucked. The Man Who Wasn�t There was interesting, but it was pretty below par. Then there was . Intolerable Cruelty which was fucking lame except for one scene toward the end. I blamed that one on the fact that it was the first one that was written mostly by other people, and in that film you could see the exact points that had the Coen Brothers mark on them, as they were the only parts that didn�t suck the life out of you. Then I saw, . The Ladykillers, and while I did laugh at plenty of the parts, it felt more like a remake of a crappy movie, which is exactly what it was.
Over the last six months, I showed The (ex)Girlfriend three Coen Brothers films: . Miller�s Crossing, .Raising Arizona, and . The Hudsucker Proxy. All of these are ones I love, though Arizona is low on the list of best Coen Brother films.
But there�s something about having the main character using bigger words than they should that I find extremely funny for some reason. Whether it�s Tom Reagan saying, �Don�t get hysterical. I�ve had enough excitement today without a dame getting all weepy on me.� Or Ulysses saying, �Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin�?� Or the cops in Barton Fink. The convicts in Raising Arizona. Every single person in Fargo.
But I suppose I ought to get used to disappointment. After all, everybody else that I loved failed me. Scorsese did it with . Casino, Tarantino with . Jackie Brown, Sam Raimi with, well, nearly everything after . Evil Dead II.
And it�s not just film directors — with the proliferation of punk bands giving it one more shot for the big time, and the vast majority of them sucking, I should be used to this. So it was stupid for me to get excited about seeing Alice Donut again.
Except for the fact that they fucking ruled! From the first song on, it was like being an excited little kid again, And even the new songs which I didn�t know, were fucking great! I got the new album �Three Sisters� and it�s the best since Untidy Suicides. Of course, Alice Donut always had the problem of having half an album being fucking amazing, and the other half being kind of crappy. But I wholeheartedly endorse this new album, which probably doesn�t mean much, as I�m known in San Jose as the guy who likes bands that no one else likes. Really, does anybody get excited when Victim�s Family plays besides me?
Though I still can�t get the comparisons out of my head to Beef from Phantom of the Paradise when I listen to them now, but I still don�t care.
So I�m in the front row, rocking out with a big goofy smile on my face as they play, not having to watch the pit, as everybody just seems glad to be there, and forgets about concentrating on how tough they are. I look to the right of me and see Jello Biafra with the same goofy grin. I�m not sure, but I think he told me to fuck off again.
So at least some things remain consistent.
