A Song That I Listen To When I’m Sad | I Have Not Forgotten Them

Wes Anderson has a way of invoking emotion through his use of music. His movies can be charitably described as whimsical, or less charitably as overly stylized, or least charitably as unbearably pretentious.

His carefully curated soundtracks bear this out. Even when there are scores as such in his films, he gets more use from pop songs to serve that purpose, to help heighten the mood.

So when Richie’s usual escort from his days on the circuit arrived by way of the Green Line bus (as always, late) and walked toward him while that plucked out guitar line started to play and that melancholy voice sang about the things she wished she’d done and how it should have been different… well, it’s tough not to get the message.

When I’m feeling like I’m usually feeling about myself, listening to Nico sing this song hurts. “Please don’t confront me with my failures; I have not forgotten them.”

And I probably won’t.

I frequently wish I wasn’t able to be brought low so easily. Little things will have a big effect. Something that’s really nothing will grow into something that’s way too much, and I’ll lose all perspective on what’s actually going on.

“These Days” can do that for me. So I only listen to it when I’m already low. I love it, but I don’t want to feel the way it will make me feel if I’m not already. If that makes sense.

I sometimes wonder how much sense I’m actually making.

Take Me Back to That Place Where Stars Glow

After about eight years of citing American History X as my favorite movie without any serious consideration that anything else might even compete, I’ve come to a realization: it’s been supplanted.

Midway through the (estimated… and I’m totally serious about the number) hundredth or so viewing of the usurper earlier tonight, I realized that it has done what I thought impossible: it’s come to mean more to me than American History X.

When Margot told Richie, “I think we’re just going to have to be secretly in love with each other and leave it at that,” through the tent flap, it hit me: The Royal Tenenbaums is my new favorite film.

This is a big fucking deal to me.