Word: balladeer
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...film thus offers a test to the audience looking for simple, sentimental entertainment. It seems to declare it is aiming at the moviegoer's heart from its opening credits, scored to an unusually soupy Tom Waits ballad. It builds with its closeups of three attractive youngsters and the mostly helpful adults around them. But the film isn't pushy; it doesn't manipulate feelings so much as caress, massage them, allow them to grow naturally, and them challenge them, in the mind and heart of the sympathetic viewer...
...some interesting experiences, but I wasn’t falling in and out of love triangles, climbing in and out of people’s windows, staving off one catastrophe after another only to be rewarded with magical moments that last a lifetime (cue the latest emo ballad...
...anti-materialist satire brings the album to a cringing standstill, especially coming right after the delicately melancholy “Thoughts for the Unknowingly Bored.” “Thoughts” is appealing in its quiet simplicity, though even in the context of a mournful ballad, A + P manages to get bitten by the meta bug again: “The best band’s onstage, and you’ll never see them,” Wilkins sings wistfully...
...Ballad of Jack and Rose isn’t just another teenager/drugs/sex flick (even though Jena Malone is in it, and she seems to be floating farther and farther away from little star-gazing Ellie of Contact). It surely isn’t the usual romantic movie (so don’t go into the movie expecting a kissy comedy, no matter what you dream about Day-Lewis). It doesn’t fit into the usual artsy category either...
Unlike the usual shellacked and blissful blockbusters that cover up reality’s grunge, Ballad is memorable for exposing the true condition of the characters and their world. For those who are willing to face such brutal honesty, this film’s message and vision are unforgettable...