Friday, August 9, 2013

Missed Correction


It's too bad HBO didn't green-light Noah Baumbach's The Corrections TV-show (based on the book by Jonathan Franzen) because they could have used this song on it.

Here's the scene: At a dinner party with other faculty members, Chip relates a story from his midwestern childhood with winking contempt for the generic American quality of the tale. Once he's done, a wistful expression replaces the sardonic look on his face and the buzz of dinner conversation is faded out so that this song can come in cleanly. Chip takes a sip of his red wine. While the song continues to play the corresponding video switches to a flashback of young-Chip genuinely happy amidst the story he just told. Then the episode ends, the screen cuts to black, and the guitar part of the song kicks the door down while the credits play. Or maybe you cut to Chip driving drunk, the moment before he slams into oncoming traffic, I don't know, I'm not a show-runner.

You might have to cut out one of the stanzas from the song to get the timing right but it would have been beautiful if they pulled it off since both the song and the book trace the dismal arcs of Missouri families, and both are awesome.