Alright then...one more post before I'm off to school:

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to see the new film by Jim Jarmusch "Broken Flowers" starring everyone's favorite satirical deadpan comedian-Bill Murray. I'll start off by coming right out and saying it was excellent. Murray delivers and oscar-worty performance and let's hope he actually wins one before he has to settle for one of those crappy lifetime achievement ones, because everyone knows those are for losers.

Overall, the movie is a film of awkward silences, which I suppose is Jarmusch's schtick. If you've ever seen his film "Coffee and Cigarettes" (in which Murray also had a bit role) you'll know what I'm talking about. However, it's those silences that really make the film. Most mainstream films are heavy-handed in the way they present what the characters are thinking, but "Broken Flowers" lets the viewer decide on their own. The characters are thinking whatever you're thinking. Also, the fact that no real background for the characters is given adds to the audience's ability to piece things together for themselves, which is where the success of the movie lies. There are scences where no dialouge is spoken and literally nothing happens. Yet these scenes are not throwaways. They somehow all come together to create a more concrete identity for the characters.

Doing nothing seems easy enough, but it took some impressive performances to pull it off in "Broken Flowers." As long as we're on the subject of performances, Murray's role in this film will doubtlessly be compared to his work in "Lost in Translation." Certainly the characters are similar (this is definitely not the Bill Murray from "Life Aquatic"), but with the different directors the movies become incomparable, although Murray deserves acadamy award nominations for both. And the character of Winston seals the movie.

In the end, I'm no movie critic, so I'll let the professionals sum up what I've been trying to say. This is from the great Roger Ebert:
"No actor is better than Bill Murray at doing nothing at all, and being fascinating while not doing it. He has the uncanny ability to invite us into his performance."

There you have it. Check it, yo.