Adventures From My Netflix Queue: Linda! Linda! Linda!
While watching the Jets/Colts AFL championship tilt, I have some time to jot down some thoughts on this film. Usually, I would write a review for a movie that had moved me, good or bad. I liked Linda! Linda! Linda!, but not moved enough. I’m writing this just to ponder some of the comments I have read on the internet about the movie.
Comments about it being slow and boring. Hmm. What they are most likely criticizing is the static nature of the shots in the movie. The director, Nobuhiro Yamashita< eschews the normal medium shot-close up-reaction cross-cutting. What he does do is just set up the scene in a medium shot and let's it roll. In fact, I wanted to see the interaction between the characters: their reactions or their emotions, but was hardy treated to it close up. I can see that this static set up can make the movie seem slow, less dynamic, but it can't be boring. It's about girls doing rock and roll that can't be boring! Linda! Linda! Linda! is about rocking out. The movie’s plot is about a music club (K-ON!) upon loosing members still wants to participate in the fall school festival. They’re search gets them a lead singer, the Korean exchange student, who’s comprehension of Japanese gets her into hilariously awkward situations. They’ve got three days to come together as a band. The rest shows them practicing and going about their high school lives: preparing for the school festival, warding off love confessions, etc. It’s a fine movie culminating in the rocking cover of The Blue Hearts, “Linda Linda,” the namesake. It’s a movie that inspires the awesome episode of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, “Live Alive!” K-ON! also seems to be inspired by it. 4 of 5 stars.
