The Band's Visit / Final 4

As you can probably tell by the title of this post, the Final 4 is set. For the first time in history, all 4 #1 seeds will face off in the Final 4.

Indeed this was a year of great parody in college basketball, so this is quite unexpected. Memphis was absolutely dominant over Texas in what easily became the biggest surprise of the Elite 8. We all know that Stephan Curry is an inhuman shooter and that Davidson can play as well as any team in the country, so the fact that they played Kansas closely all night was no surprise. What was surprising though was the fact that they wasted the last 16.8 seconds and showed an uncharacteristic lapse in judgment to ultimately lose the game by 2. I picked UNC as my champion and I still feel strongly that they will win in a championship game matchup against UCLA. As March Madness winds to a close, I tip my hat to the Wisconsin Badgers for an excellent season and Stephan Curry for the single most outstanding performance by a player I have ever seen.

Now then, I'd like to speak a moment about The Band's Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret). This is a truly delightful film with a genuine message. Written and directed by Eran Kolirin (Israel), The Band's Visit tells a simple tale of a group of Arab musicians. Hailing from Egypt, The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra has been invited to play at the opening of a cultural center in Petah Tikva, Israel (a major center of culture). Due to a miscommunication, the band mistakenly arrives in Beit Hatikva (a fictional village far out in the desert) on the last bus of the day and is left no choice but to stay a night in this quiet, rural village. The film deftly avoids the obvious conflicts between Arabs and Jews and instead develops into a quiet, poignant, snapshot-of-life comedy. The characters and conversations are well developed and heartfelt. Indeed, just like real life, sometimes you will laugh and sometimes you will cry. Both the people from the village and the members of the band have much to say. Expressing a wide range of human emotion, the beauty of music, and the pain that resides in every one of us, this beautiful film is not one to be missed.


I highly recommend The Band's Visit; it is the first truly great film of 2008. If you'd like further proof, head on over to Rotten Tomatoes and take a look at this film's summary page. Any film that scores over 80% is fairly remarkable, but with a score of 98%, The Band's Visit is truly something special.

Cheers.

Blu3