Last Shop Standing (2012; Blue Hippo Media; directed by Pip Piper) is an intriguing film that documents the breakneck rise of independent UK record shops in the 1960s, 1970s, and the 1980s; their downfall in the 21st century’s aughts; and their curious resurgence in a paradoxically digital age.
Typically, I don’t find myself wishing to foray into the worlds of film or television criticism. Though it is a craft that I admire from afar, my inexperience and general lack of knowledge on the subject usually stop me from ever making a comment myself. However, after watching (and subsequently re-watching) the new trailer for Baz Luhrmann‘s film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, I feel as if I have something to say. Here are my (brief) thoughts:
What a perfect amount of whimsy in the trailer to Wes Anderson’s latest creation, Moonrise Kingdom. Not to say that whimsy is something to be lauded at by the gods.
Whimsy can be bad sometimes. Like, you wouldn’t want to find “whimsy” in a church service dedicated to worshiping the Almighty God. You wouldn’t want to find it beleaguered in a heated discussion during a committee meeting aimed at balancing a budget. Or what would be the point of whimsy during passionate lovemaking. Okay, maybe sometimes it might prove interesting.
But what would a Wes Anderson movie be without whimsy?
As I’ve fervently opined heretofore, the American studio adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo‘s cyberpunk anime classic, Akira, was a fantastically terrible idea, particularly in how the studio was set to dumb down its stirring and cerebral philosophical underpinnings; as well as attenuate its inherently violent aesthetic to better suit mainstream, PG-13-friendly audiences in the Occident.
Imagine my schadenfreude when confirmed news of the adaptation’s demise leaked through the InterWebs yesterday, beginning with Borys Kit’s report via HollywoodReporter.com.
