Devendra Banhart & Beck – Life During Wartime on YouTube
An audio track making the rounds of the interweb this week comes to us from the pen of Todd Solondz, the piano of Marc Shaiman and the mouths of Beck and Devendra Banhart.
Life During Wartime is featured in Solondz’s new film of the same name, both in the closing credits and in a delicate scene in which Shirley Henderson’s character Joy plucks it out on her acoustic guitar as she sits alone in the mansion occupied by her sister, egotistical screenwriter Helen (played brilliantly by former Brat Pack-er Ally Sheedy).
Some have been quick to call the film a sequel to Solondz’s 1998 film Happiness, while others have been more hesitant to do so, considering all the roles have been re-cast. Having caught the film at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, we would say the film is 70% a sequel and 30% a reunion with the characters we fell in love with in Solondz’s entire catalogue, including Welcome to the Dollhouse’s Mark Weiner (who also popped up briefly in Palindromes).
