I don't really follow movie news like I did a few years ago and I don't go to the movies as much, either. There are several reason for this, but one is that it is depressing to read about great movies knowing that you probably won't get to see half of them, because they never open here. And another is that most movies that make it over here are mediocre at best, so I only get excited about seeing a handful of movies a year, which might be because I'm even more cynical and jaded than I was five years ago or it might just be that movies sucks these days.

But unfortunately not reading reviews and following news about film festivals and such means that on occasion a pretty good movie will fly under the radar with me. That's what happened with The United States of Leland, which I watched tonight. I think Ryan Gosling is one of the most interesting actors around right now, so I'll definitely try to catch the next couple of movies he makes. In this one he's so sad all the time and he just does it so well. In case you haven't heard about the movie it's about the murder of a retarded boy, who is the younger brother of the girl Gosling's character is in love with. There's a lot of stuff going on and a lot of famous people in small parts (Martin Donovan, Sherilyn Fenn, Lena Olin, and Kevin Spacey), but the backbone of the movie is the relationship between an aspiring author (played by the always cool Don Cheadle) and Leland P. Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling) after Leland is arrested for the murder of the boy.

The movie focuses on a lot of sad issues and although I think it was supposed to have sort of a positive spin towards the end the sad stuff was what I took with me from the movie. Leland has a brutally honest and realistic (some may say pessimistic) view on things, which makes him introspective and I guess depressed as well. He's definitely a likeable, but also a very troubled character, which I think makes his story interesting. The movie is edited in a non-linear style, which isn't done in a fancy Tarantino-like style, but a very matter-of-fact way, which works really well. And you have to love a movie, which opens with Gigantic and has another track by The Pixies on the soundtrack along with tracks from Frank Black, Ron Sexsmith, and a really good song by Bob Pollard called There are Other Worlds. I thought The United States of Leland was a really good movie, so if you're in the mood for a movie about broken hearts, crumbling family relations, and murder, you might want to check it out.

I'm currently reading Brave New World, so it was funny when I was watching Seabiscuit the other day to see the movie start with a segment on Henry Ford and the invention of the T-Model Ford and the assembly line. Actually, the addition of segments about The Depression, the Wall Street crash, and other historical elements added a depth to the story, which I honestly hadn't expected to find. Sure, the movie's too long and really corny towards the end, but it was still a lot better than I'd expected. Maybe it's me but it seems like Jeff Bridges has become a much better actor since The Big Lebowski. I definitely like the movies he's making these days a lot more than the ones he made before. He's very cool in Seabiscuit and so is Chris Cooper, who seems to put in a good performance every time.

The final thing I'll mention is that I'm going to see Air tomorrow night. They were the only band I really wanted to see at the now cancelled Midtfyns Festival, so I'm really excited that local club Train managed to book them right away. Their new album might not be as impressive as the remarkable "Moon Safari", but it's a lot better than their last one. And I'm really curious to see how they'll manage to recreate their beautiful tunes into hopefully equally beautiful live versions. And I think their show will play a lot better in a relatively intimate club setting than it would have on a large outdoor stage in the pouring rain. So chances are this will be huge.

Oh, you can listen to the new album by The Cure at VH1's website. I haven't yet, but I will.