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Intellectual House o' Pancakes Webdiary

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2006-01-10 - 11:48 a.m.

Saw a preview last night of a film that Nick Cave wrote. Scared off a little from his non-musical forays, I wasn't sure what to expect, but the film is well-done and really compelling.

The Proposition explores the lawless beginnings of Australia, through the story of an outlaw (Guy Pearce) who, in order to save his 14-year-old brother from harsh imprisonment in an outback jail, must go out into the bush and capture his older brother--their psycho ringleader--and bring him back for his reckoning with the town sheriff.

A luminous, lemur-eyed Emily Watson plays the sheriff's genteel British wife who faints and gasps and is horrified by the endless violence all around her.

No amount of carefully choreographed TV violence prepares you for the relentless brutality of this film--we see a young man being publicly flogged, an aborigine getting his head blown clear off, a man having his throat stomped repeatedly, among other things. Flies buzz constantly around rotting carcasses in a huge blue cloudless sky.

Dog lovers take note: there is one inexplicably tender scene featuring an adorable mutt sleeping with his head on the psychotic brother's shoulder. I sat with clenched teeth waiting for something awful to happen to the dog, but he ends up faring much better than everyone else in the film.

Not surprisingly, the music is gorgeous.


The Strokes. Those boys. Their new album is fun and listenable and will do nothing to change your mind about them--if you already like them and their recycled Blondie riffs, you will continue to like them, and if you can't be bothered, you will not be moved to botherment now.

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