Aqueous Diversions

The Seu Jorge gag works well enough the first time in The Life Aquatic, but when the pirates attack and he launches into his fifth David Bowie cover, there is absolutely nothing left in the Irony Tank. The covers themselves are all acceptable enough. I was pleased to hear my two favourite Bowie songs covered, one of which is "Five Years". And I'm always keen to hear a cover that makes me like a song that I've never had any use for, "Rebel Rebel" (a song that deserves another entry entirely concerning Theoretical Rockers like "Brown Sugar" and "Hells Bells": songs that should rock but don't). Stripped down to words I can't understand and a base accompaniment, the melody of the song is quite affecting. It was nice to see Seu in a new film after City of God, where he played Knockout Ned. I just wish he'd had more to do in this one aside from provide the LE Side chic.

The second time I laughed out loud during the film (it only happened twice) was during the counterstrike on the pirate stronghold, where the kooky techno tune"The Dance" gets an orchestral arrangement as Team Zissou makes its move. It's a nice opportunity for Mark Mothersbaugh to remind everyone that before he was scoring Wes films and Rugrats episodes, he transformed punk by coming straight out of Akron in Devo.

The final indication that ol' Wes isn't firing on all cylinders was the invocation of Sigur Rós during the moralistic appearance of the jaguar shark. Let Cameron Crowe do his thing, and you do yours, Wes. It's not that he's got to stick to precious pop obscurities, but the music cue was the embodiment of the floundering of the entire film. Still, it's always pleasant to hear the lads from Iceland sing in Hopelandish, and it made me recall their early efforts, before they helped Tom Cruise emote, before they wrapped themselves in paranthesis, before the new music establishment embraced them at BAM. Von was no masterpiece to be sure, but there was plenty of promise. On a song like "Hun Jord" you start off thinking, "reverse beats, are you kidding me?!" But by the end, you're hooked. Or at least I am.