All day yesterday I was chipping away at a lead piece about Jacques Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped but it never quie got there. One of the hang-ups was trying to explain in plain terms the half-feral, curiously charismatic quality that Romain Duris brings to his lead role. I guess I’ll post next Wednesday (7.6), but in the meantime know that this reimagining of James Toback’s Fingers is truly one of the year’s best. (Along with Hustle & Flow, Cinderella Man, Grizzly Man, Mad Hot Ballroom Crash, Cronicas, The Beautiful Country and …I’m a little surprised I’m including this…Last Days.) In her 7.1 review,
New York Times critic Manohla Dargis called it a film with “beautiful images, strong emotions and the joy found watching a movie aimed straight at the heart and head. Summertime is meant to be the season of the adult moviegoer’s discontent, one reason The Beat That My Heart Skipped is more than just a well-timed gift — it’s essential viewing.” While you’re reading her piece click and listen to “Monkey 23” by The Kills (off their Keep on Your Mean Side album)….which is heard twice during Audiard’s film. It’s purchasable for 10 cents at www.allofmp3.com, or you can just buy the CD, which I highly recommend by the way.

In an interview with MTV News’ Benjamin Wagner, Elzabethtown director-writer Cameron Crowe says “the movie’s still a little long.” Wagner goes “no!” and Crowe says, “The guy who runs the focus group asks, ‘What would you cut out?’ And the group immediately starts arguing. One person says, ‘Well you can cut this’ and someone else says, ‘Are you crazy? You can’t cut that!’ Then this girl says, ‘Well, you know, it’s really hard to know where to cut ’cause it’s long and important.’ So we’ve been joking about that. We called the cut ‘long and important.’ But it can’t be that long, or that important. We’re gonna cut it down.” Oh, no! When I read this, I quickly wrote Crowe and said, “Please…puhleeeze don’t honor the legacy of Walter Parkes in any way, shape or form with the editing of this film. I want to see…no, thousands of us want to see the long and important version of Elizabethtown, and not the Brad Grey or Robbie Friedman version. C’mon, man.”