Slashdot Mirror
Movie Review: Gigantic
The documentary is a solid mix of band history and irrelevant pieces (would you expect anything different?). While I can not say that I got a good history on how the two Jon's actually started playing together from the documentary, I did learn a lot about their early successes and the director did a wonderful job of putting together scenes from different periods to give the audience an idea about how the band's early years were. The documentary does reveal how "Dial A Song" got started after a biking messenger accident left Linnell unable to play. We even get to see some photos, complete with price tag, of the actual machine. Flansburgh talks for a bit about how personal "Dial A Song" is and the entire experience of getting to be one with the machine.
The documentary was shot in video and in places comes out a little grainy. Some of the concert scenes definitely show off some of the short comings of the medium (this is not Lucus style digital filming). Despite this the film had a fully packed house during its opening in Seattle and the theater had to turn away 150 people at the door.
The director mentioned that their last showing of the film at SXSW had similar sized crowds. Hopefully this will mean that some distributor will pick up the film so the more people will get a chance to see it. If you are lucky enough to live in one of the cities that it will be playing in, and you love the band's music I can easily recommend going to see it.
"...even two hours worth of staring at a black screen, and as long as they played some music I would have loved it."
Doesn't this make your review pretty worthless?
It bothers me when people refer to people as 'terrible musicians'. Music, like many art forms is subjective. I never got the appeal of Picasso, but I don't think he's a 'terrible painter'.
The thing about TMBG is you have to have very eclectic taste in music to appreciate them. Their style is all over the place, and you can't just hear one or two songs and know what they sound like. If you were to play 'Boss of Me', 'Particle Man', and 'A Self Called Nowhere' next to each other, a newcomer would be hard pressed to believe it's the same band.
The depth of their songs comes from figuring out what exactly they're about. Their songs are rarely simply nonsense, they just don't ever directly tell you what they're supposed to mean.
'Birdhouse In Your Soul' for example. Here's a song that seems to make very little sense at all. The trick is that if you pay attention, it's a song written from the perspective of a nightlight shaped like a canary.
Someone once told me song lyrics are like poetry with a learning disability. TMBG lyrics are like poetry with a severe case of insomnia that can't stop giggling...
*Everybody* wants a rock to tie a piece of string around.
They aren't about being funny. They are about making the music they want to make. They cover many styles of music across their 9 albums. Their songs sometimes describe very odd people or settingsm but they usually tell a story too. In fact, "I've Got a Match", for example, is a song about a guy fighting with his girlfriend and finally leaving her. He's calling insensitive and hurtful, and tell her "I've got a match - Your embrace and my collapse". They tend to use somewhat silly lyrics, but they get the point across.
(BTW, the original phrase is "I've got a match - your face and my as*")
it's pretty amazing isn't it. it's a real shame they will only sell posters for the movie on the website. i would love to get a video cd.
-- john
We can't watch this movie? It's only played twice? Then why the heck is it being reviewed??? So some elitist Ebert wannabe can brag about how cool he is, that he got in when others were turned away? What's the point of this review? Might as well review a 9.5mm silent movie from the 20s.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
TMBG used to have an inovative service called "dial-a-song". You call a phone number which is answered by a restored vintage answering machine and listen to an unreleased song. A computer hooked up to the answering machine changes the song to another unreleased song once an hour.
The album liner notes always said something like "Remember, the call is free if you call from work".
I just noticed that they now have a dial-a-song webpage, which is also free when you connect from work!
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
It does'nt say where the movie will play or when.
/.), why would somebody make a website for a movie that I have no chance of seeing?
It does'nt provide a link or instructions on how to write to encourage my local theatre to play it.
As a fan, if they showed it anywhere near here, I'd go see it.
Unless I missed something (which I'll admit is possible.. the site is slow due to
The Internet is generally stupid
I work for Seattle International Film Festival and from what I know, films such as Gigantic will do the festival circut in attempts to pick up distribution. I was speaking with the director of Who The Hell is Bobby Roos last night, and he was telling me about how rough it is to get your film picked up, even getting a deal for video.
So depending opon the response at the festivals, and the eyes that see the film, it may or may not get picked up.
Forget about the movie...This reviewer's AMAZING!! I mean, he's 100000000^23 times better than Katz!! I hope we have a replacement on our hands.
"You know you don't act like a scientist, you're more like a game show host." Dana Barret
Hm, I would pay cash money for a DVD or even a Divx or mpg download of this film... TMBG are pretty innovative with the eMusic thing and all; perhaps they might distribute it on line?
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
There will be a DVD available eventually.
I used to really like TMBG, and I still do but just not as much in a daily-quoting, obsessive kind of way.
John F. had a really great idea back in the 90's to send out ten CD EP's a year (by new artists and old) for $42, and he even threw in a cool extra now and then. BUT: like all mail-order, problems happen, only some of which I can blame on him and the lady who ran the operation with him. One year I didn't get the extra goodie, which was a CD by TMBG, and I let her know that it hadn't arrived. I don't know if she thought I was trying to scam an extra copy out of them or something but they wouldn't send a replacement. I signed up for the next year anyway, but at the end of that year when I tried to re-up no luck even though I left them messages several times. Hello CD-of-the-Month still existed for another few years but I guess they didn't want to sell any more to me -- and by association, I became somewhat disillusioned with TMBG's output.
Still wish I had the rest of the Hello CDs, though.
hey.
i've got a mirror going:
mirror
the movies are here:
movies
have fun.
-- john
TMBG are pretty innovative with the eMusic thing and all; perhaps they might distribute it on line?
Thats very true, and a lot of the filmakers I have talked to see that as a viable option in a world of tough distribution.
It was actually pretty cool. Those guys are total geeks, in every sense of the word. The only catch with the movie is the ending scene, those of you who have seen it know what I'm talking about. The director should have cut it.
Some guy commented about Austin's SXSW being "elitist". I'm not sure what he's talking about, there were a few empty seats for the premiere! Anybody could have gone for 8 bucks.
If you're a big fan, go see the movie!
Tips and Tricks for Mozilla
a value added movie? cripes, where on this planet do I escape marketers?
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
They could always sleep their way to the top, but I'll bet their alarm clocks always wake them right up...
There are exactly 42,935,718 letter sized sheets in a square mile.