(*A work of fiction by Nick Juarez)

With the addition of She and Him and Charlotte Gainsbourg to the lineup, Coachella appears as if it is being taken over by Hollywood. Although this isn’t at all old news, I’ve been noticing a trend in cute-as-a-button female actresses moving into the indie music spotlight. Zooey Deschanel of She and Him is still riding high from her adorable role in 500 Days of Summer, which I thought was a modern day Annie Hall, and Charlotte Gainsbourg is….recovering….from her emotionally draining and brutal role in Lars Von Triers’ Antichrist. Each of the actresses’ musical forays shouldn’t suffer or be ignored because of their cinematic fame. Each teamed up with an indie rock giant, Deschanel with M.Ward and Gainsbourg with Beck, and have created great records.

While these starlets are creating fascinating music, female indie songstresses aren’t taking all this spotlight stealing lying down, but are testing the waters in Hollywood.

Linus and Lucy

Screenplay: Woody Allen

Director: Wes Anderson

Starring: Victoria LeGrand (Beach House), Joseph Gordon Levitt, and Owen Wilson

Summary: A moody, aspiring poet, Lucy (LeGrand), and her lovably pathetic twin brother, Linus (Levitt), return to their hometown after their childhood friend (Owen Wilson) has committed suicide. Unable to cope with their current artistic, romantic, and financial failures, the twins are forced to face their past. Things are hilariously somber and not a whole lot happens, except for some Truffaut and Fellini references. Everyone is monotone and Lucy reads a poem at the funeral. It goes like this:

Where you thinkin’ that you gotta run to now

With the beating of a tiny heart?

Hang on to the things that you’re supposed to say

Billions of stars that open to your fate.

Noooooooor-way- ey–ey-hey

Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear makes a cameo as childhood friend, Schroeder.

 

There Will Be Eternal Sunshine of the Machine Dreams

Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring: Yukimi Nagano (Little Dragon), Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Summary: Sarah (Nagona), a lonely woman spends lonely nights full of lonesomeness all alone pinning over her ex-boyfriend (Philip Seymour Hoffman), altering her memories of their relationship while also starting a plunger business. She meets David (Gael Garcia Bernal), a strange man in a blue suit  who is obsessed with Sarah and says odd things like “I could never have what you have,” and “rather be a bandit than a lover.”

Sarah starts to question what is real and what is a memory/halluciation/drug trip and things quit making sense.There is a cameo by Wayne Coyne as an evangelical minister who wears a white suit drenched in blood and obsesses over space, robots, and love.

Coming Summer of 2011.