We're pushing the frontiers of transcendental perception.

So, I didn't really intend for this blog to become so movie-centric, but it's what I love so it's what I talk about.

So. Latest movie to love: Across the Universe. It's a musical, so not everyone will. (love it, that is.) But, it's a musical featuring Beatles music, thus making it much more palatable to the general public. Yes, they generalize and gloss over much of the politics of the late 60's...but the music is the point. And they do it well. It's interesting how they can take popular Beatles songs and transform them, sheerly through style of delivery. I never realized how sad/angry/helpless/political/f-ed up some of the more well-known Beatles hits are, masked as they were by pop-y tunes.

Examples: 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' is changed from a feel-good tune to a song of pure longing and perhaps loss. 'Revolution' is a snarling challenge. 'If I Fell' is an intimate reflection upon the potential risks of allowing love in.

...'I am the Walrus' is still a ridiculous acid-trip, but at least it's a ridiculous acid-trip starring Bono.

and there are some incredibly choreographed sequences. 'I've Just Seen a Face' is just flat fun. 'Come Together' (a Joe Cocker cameo) is very groovy. 'I Want You' is particularly awesome, as we watch a legion of iron-faced military recruiters send their drafted men through an identity-stripping assembly-line process before packaging them and shipping them off to Vietnam.

and what Beatles musical would be complete without the ultimate (possibly cheesy but still heartwarming) conclusion that 'All You Need is Love'?