How did this all get started? Was it back in ’97, watching “Done By Law” with Parson Brown? That’s possible, but I have to tell you that I did not get that movie. At all. That didn’t stop me from watching “Coffee and Cigarettes.” (Or is it “Cigarettes and Coffee”? One is the movie by Jim Jarmusch and the other is a song by Otis Redding.) I’m not sure I got that movie either, but then again I am not sure how much there was to get. It all makes an easy path to “Broken Flowers.”
Except that I avoided “Broken Flowers” because I figured I would not get it either. Instead I would listen to or read about music. Then I read about this band called Dengue Fever, which sounded interesting because they combine Cambodian pop music and American psychadelic surf rock. Interesting but a bit outside my comfort zone, I thought. Better to stick with jazz. International jazz is good, like that Ethiopian jazz which film guy Pete Lutz turned me onto.
A song of which showed up on my Pandora mix the other day, except it did not sound the same. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t the same. So I look at the screen, and who should be playing the Ethiopian Jazz but Dengue Fever! Spooky, right? Wait, there’s more. You’re never going to guess what soundtrack they were performing on. Never. Go ahead. Ok, you’re right, “Broken Flowers.” Now I have to see the movie.
So I see the movie. Bill Murray is great. Playing Bill Murray straight except better than “Lost In Translation.” He’s not an asshole or arrogant, he’s just a guy who at least used to be good with women. And he might have a son. And he might have looked up the boy’s mother. Or maybe not, but the idea of being a father changes his life forever. I get that.