Going once...

It seems like I am constantly hearing, "Oh, man, this is just like that hilarious scene in (X MOVIE)...what do you mean, you've never seen it?  No way.  EVERYONE's seen it."  Fill in the blank with the pop culture flick du jour...Wedding Crashers...Dude Where's My Car?...Independence Day.  I have standards, you know, although that's usually not the reason I haven't seen them.  I just miss a lot of movies.

Anyway, I saw a cool film this weekend called Once.  (Aside: my step-daughter gave me the DVD for Christmas two years ago, and then it disappeared -- or went to college for a good while with her -- and then it mysteriously reappeared when she was visiting recently.  This is one reason why I am cinematically-challenged.  But just ONE of the reasons.)

It has a slow-moving, low-budget, cool bio-pic vibe, but (thankfully) there is a minimum of crappy handheld camera work.  What's weird is this bizarro parallel-world convention, in that it features REAL singer-songwriters Glen Hansard (Irish) and Marketa Irglova (Czech), playing REAL Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova tunes, whilst spinning itself as a fictitious tale about life and love in the helter skelter world of Dublin's busker music scene -- the same scene that the REAL Glen and Marketa once knew before acting school and Oscars.  But the movie Glen and Marketa don't have names; they are credited as "GUY" and "GIRL," and it isn't really about Glen and Marketa.  See, wink-wink, the characters in the movie could be Declan and Irina, or Patrick and Yana, or Danny and Marta, or...  Well, anyhow.

Check out the film if you come across it.  While you're at it, check out Glen and Marketa on disc; well worth the listen.