He Has the Schwartz

I have always enjoyed Jason Schwartzman’s subtle acting style. One of Director Wes Anderson’s stock players he has showcased his acting chops in movies like, Rushmore, his breakout role and more recently in HBO’s Bored to Death. In the past few weeks I have discovered two things, one being Board to Death and the other being Schwartzman’s one man band called Coconut Records. While I’m sure many of you already know the joys of Bored to Death or maybe Coconut Records, this is for those who don’t have HBO nor knowledge of good shows that never get the publicity they deserve.

Board to Death starts out typical, Schwartzman plays jilted boyfriend who gets all emo, questions life, and whines about writers block. The twist is that he picks up a copy of a Raymond Chandler novel and decides that in his spare time he will moonlight as a private investigator, unlicensed of course.  While Schwartzman is great as Jonathan Ames, his character only really becomes unique through his supporting cast. Ted Danson plays George, Jonathan’s boss at a generic version of GQ magazine. Danson is essentially doing Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock but not as confident. Jack Donaghy is not as reliant on Liz Lemon as George is on Jonathan. In fact their relationship is a type of role reversal of a father and son, with George constantly calling Jonathan for help for all sorts of kooky occurrences, one being where he asks Jonathan to punch him in the face so his gigantic herpes sore does looks more like the result of a fight than unfortunate sexual encounter. The other is Zack Galifinakis as Ray, his best friend who is in a weird co-dependent relationship with his girlfriend that involves him constantly indirectly asking for sex. His banter with Jonathan is priceless, “What do you mean you don’t know what a falcon hood is?” Jonathan’s moonlighting as a private detective allows for other characters to supplement the chemistry between the leads and explore what  are probably things real people would call a private detective for (Not all crime is a glorious and ridiculous as portrayed on  CSI: NY CSI: DES MOINES CSI: FARGO etc..). The running time is perfect, a half hour time slot. An hour might be a stretch for the content but damn, I could watch those characters interact for a while.

I came across Coconut Records on the Yeasayer Pandora station one day. The song was West Coast and it was effen amazing. It made me feel nostalgic, happy and glad to have come across a great new band. I instantly created Coconut Records Pandora station which continued to play excellent songs that reminded me of summers past.  A song’s hook, and or chorus if you will are very important, but so is that occasional point in a song that is lightly completely different from the rest of it and this band had it down. I decided to investigate the bands origin on Wikipedia only to find out that it was just Jason Schwartzman.  “Really? Just him?” I was in shock but was able to instantly create a new found respect for that short actor in all the Wes Anderson movies. There are currently two albums out, his first outing, Nighttiming and the newer, Davy. If you looking for some new music check out Coconut Records, they totes have “The Schwartz.”