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Ry Cooder - Long Ride (MP3), My Blueberry Nights movie review

Jude Law and Chan Marshall


Norah Jones and Natalie Portman


Jude Law and Norah Jones

Ry Cooder - Long Ride (MP3) | mirror

If there's any doubt that Ry Cooder is the greatest slide guitarist of our time, just take a listen to the above. His material is the perfect contribution to a road movie. My first exposure to Ry Cooder was his excellent and haunting theme to one of my favorite movies: Paris, Texas. (In fact, some elements of the tune above seem to be improvised riffs from the Paris, Texas theme). Ry's been around since the days of Captain Beefheart and The Rolling Stone's "Sister Morphine", and he also has an extensive body of other collaborative, solo, and soundtrack work. (Note: Amazon lists the above track as being by a band called My Good Eye, but they are mistaken).

"My Blueberry Nights" is Wong Kar-Wai's latest movie. The soundtrack features three contributions from Ry Cooder. MBN served as the opener for last year's Cannes film festival. It did not win the 2007 Palme d'Or as Paris Texas did in 1984. That honor went to a depressing but highly recommended Romanian film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Part of the reason for some difficulty with critics may have been that the movie is a departure for Wong in many ways, being his first movie using an English script and American American and British actors (i.e. Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman) and one of his few movies without Tony Leung (he and Leung are like Scorsese and De Niro.) Another big risk was casting Norah Jones as the lead actress since she had no prior acting experience. She is decent, but unspectacular. David Strathairn and Rachel Weisz give really good performances, however. Of note, the movie features Chan Marshall (Cat Power) in her acting debut (I won't give away her role in the film).

I recommend "My Blueberry Nights" if you like Wong Kar-Wai films, arthouse films, or road movies in general. It's certainly not his strongest film -- it's not as energetic as "Chungking Express", as poetic as "Happy Together", or as visually gorgeous as "In the Mood For Love". However, it is enjoyable and accessible, unlike the beautifully confounding "2046". Limited US release begins April 8, 2008. The soundtrack, which also features a contribution from Norah Jones and two from Cat Power, will also be released in early April.

Labels: indie rock, movie, mp3

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