The best of the best are below.
Movies: Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, LeThis is obviously a very well regarded classic, and something I'd seen before and quite liked. However, recently I've grown quite obsessed with Yann Tiersen's brilliant score for this film, so I borrowed Hannah's DVD of this to see if my love for the score would spread to the movie as well now.
Sure enough, it absolutely did as I pretty much fell in love with Audrey Tautou and her incredible character. Not only that, but the cinematography blew me away this time. The visuals in the film are absolutely stellar, really accentuating the fairy tale, fantasy world Amelie lives in. Everything about what is happening on the screen is magical, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet succeeds in crafting an awesomely quirky and marvelous total package.
Definitely a must see.
Music: The Week That Was - Self Titled
This band rose from the ashes of Field Music, as it features most of its lineup plus a lot of friends (11 band members!). It's a really hard album to describe, as it isn't really similar to anything else and doesn't stick to any real genres.
The word that probably describes the album best for me is atmospheric, as the instruments and vocals are presented in a very haunting manner. It's almost as if the music doesn't fight for your attention, you have to dig into it to really find the brilliance within it. Other tracks feel ripped from the 80's, reminding me of growing up listening to Genesis while driving with my mom. But not in a bad way - good Genesis.
For the best example, try "It's All Gone Quiet," which in my opinion is not only the standout track on the album but one of the top tracks off any album this year.
Mignola. Mignola. Mignola.
For the past two years, I've been reading the mini series that Dark Horse has been releasing in the Hellboy 'verse, and I've been really enjoying them. They really are some of the best books on the market, although I obviously had some major holes in my knowledge base. To be honest, I was getting by, but I wasn't understanding everything that was happening because of missing the first decade plus of its publishing history.
Enter the library.
With my new found discovery of many graphic novels at the library, I went hog wild picking up Hellboy books. To be blatantly honest, after reading through a majority of them, this is really one of my all time favorite series. The attention to detail creator Mike Mignola follows, the personality of the characters, the outlandish plots, the little feeling in the back of your brain that this is all leading somewhere big. It's fantastic. Plus, it's really, really funny. For a good example of that, read Mignola's simple story "Pancakes" that tells of Hellboy's first experience with the delicious breakfast food. You can check the two page story out here and here.
Video games: Rock Band 2
We're bringing the band back together, and it's glorious.
I'm pretty bad now after not playing for months, but good god, it's so good to be back.
Puma Town for life!