It was a weekend full of Lady Tigers softball and movies for me. In addition to 21, which I reviewed in my last entry, I saw The Fountain and Gone Baby Gone. I liked both of them, but they were both very different than what I expected.
The Fountain is from the same guy that directed Requiem For A Dream, Darren Aronofsky. I had been led to believe it was a movie about time travel or something silly like that, so I was hesistant to see it. When I finally did watch it, I found out that it really had nothing to do with time travel. There were three concurrent storylines going on in three different times, but it was essentially about the same thing. It stars Hugh Jackman as a researcher desperately trying to find a cure for his dying wife. It is quite the strange movie, and in the end it kind of turned into a Tool music video with a lot of strange (and I think, unnecessary) visuals. Still, I liked it. I'm not sure it's for everyone, though.
Gone Baby Gone is the surprisingly complex directorial debut from Ben Affleck, starring his brother Casey Affleck as a private investigator trying to find a missing girl. The movie takes quite a few surprsing turns before coming to a very interesting moral question. I won't spoil it for you. Ben did a good job putting this one together! I never thought I'd say it, but I'm looking forward to Ben Affleck's next movie.
I also got the new Ashes Divide CD, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright. Ashes Divide is the new project from Billy Howerdel, the guitarist of A Perfect Circle. Billy sings and plays most of the instruments on this disc (with Josh Freese from APC playing drums). I can definitely hear Maynard James Keenan's influence in Billy's vocals. I don't think Billy's voice is quite as strong or confident as Maynard's, and I don't think the lyrics are quite up to APC's level, but there are still a lot of APC similarities. There's a mixture of slow, brooding songs; some upbeat stuff; and some mid-tempo jams. If you're a fan of APC, it's worth checking out. I'll be talking with Billy tomorrow afternoon about the disc, so listen in.
