WTF

I was checking out the Normal-Bloomington, IL paper, the Pantagraph looking for news on Illinois State basketball (there’s surprisingly little there).

Anyway, while I’m looking at the home page I come across this news category.

It is a section entitled, “Weird Trivia and Facts,” or, as shown on the page, WTF (in case you don’t know, most the kids use WTF to stand for What the F$#@?!).

The interesting thing is that which ever abbreviation for WTF you want to use, it actually works for the news articles in that section.

DD – IWL comparison

I was thinking about movies on my way to work the other day. Somehow I got to thinking about Donnie Darko (I’m assuming that it had to do with the 80’s radio station that I sometimes listen to).

Anyway, I starting think about DD and trying to boil it down to its simplest form. Then it struck me.

Donnie Darko is the opposite of It’s a Wonderful Life.

***I’m going to throw out spoilers now because otherwise the analogy won’t work***

Anyway, let’s take a look at It’s a Wonderful Life. Even if you ahven’t seen all of the movie (like me), you know the plot. Some dude hits a rough patch in his life and wishes he was never born. At that moment an Angel shows up and shows him exactly how his life would have played out if he wasn’t born. The dude realizes that everyone is better because he lived and decides not to committ suicide. Then a bell rings and some little kid annoys the audience.

Now let’s look at Donnie Darko. Some weird kid gets called outside by a giant bunny (about as believable as an angel). While the kid is out hanging with the bunny, a part from a plane lands on his bed (which would have killed him). While out with the bunny, the kid is told the world is going to end. The story progresses as the kid approaches the end of the world. Right at the end of the world the kid travels back in time. He is back in his bed the night the airplane part crashes. This time he is killed. So, essentially, if Donnie Darko’s life went on past that one moment, the world would be a worse place (in the fact that it would come to an end [and that the good lookin' Jena Malone would get ran over by a car]). So, the kid decides not to live after the bunny shows him what would happen if he did live.

Thus, Donnie Darko is the anti-It’s a Wonderful Life story.

Am I insane or do I make a valid point here?

Once

In case you are wondering, I don’t like musicals.

Anyway, last night, I received Once from Netflix. I knew going into it that it was a musical, but I decided to go ahead and make the rental. Chris had done some hyping of it and Netflix predicted I would give it a 4 star rating.

Anyway, the movie is about some Irish dude who plays a guitar and sings songs for fun. He also works as a vacuum repairman. One day while he’s out on the street, some Czech chick stops by. They talk and she gets the dude to fix her vacuum. While hanging out the dude finds out the chick can play piano and sing. The record an album with some other musicians off the street.

There really wasn’t much to the plot. Guy and girl meet then play songs together and then the movie ends. When watching this movie, the lack of plot isn’t as obvious because of all the filler. By filler I mean they play out complete songs in a “walking on the street singing” music video fashion.

The music isn’t too bad. Kind of reminded me of Eliot Morris, but nowhere near as good.

Overall, the title is pretty aptly named, because Once is worth watching once. I wouldn’t watch it again, but I would be willing to listen to the soundtrack if it was sitting around. I ended up giving the movie 3 stars out of 5. A pretty high rating for a musical (no where near the ultimate musical, Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny).

Check out Once if you want, but it is far from necessary viewing.