When you get engrossed in too many mawkishly pleasant films like Spike Jonze’s I’m Here, your worldview gets tainted and soon enough you’ll grow up believing that your life will be a picturesque whirlwind of overcome awkwardness and inevitable love. “Stop being shy and embrace life!” “Just talk to that girl you like, you never know what might happen!” and so forth. It’s dangerous stuff but it worked out for Sheldon, the shy, generous and likeable main character in I’m Here. “The past is a grotesque animal and in its eyes you can see how completely wrong you can be” goes that supreme first line of Kevin Barnes’ masterpiece “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal.”
Sure enough, why would Sheldon want to go back to his worthless life after the experiences he has? But looking at the film as whole is it worth it considering the end result? “I don’t care…let’s just have some fun” continues Barnes and he couldn’t be more spot on. Instead of trying to make the future happen exactly how you want it, instead you should be ignoring your plans and letting it all just happen.
For what it’s worth, there are some greatly apt lines sang bluntly by Barnes on this reworked version of the song made for I’m Here. Gone is a the psychedelic and dizzying 12 minutes jam and it with the help of The Lost Trees its length is cut in half and it’s turned into a different kind of monster. It’s still got momentum but it’s condensed something that lavished on being so spread out. The conclusive “All of our secrets are physical now” line comes way too early without any sort of effective release even though we’re treated to a scratchy and distorted guitar instead of spacey synths. The instrumentation is still solid though but it’s working off something that was golden to begin with so it would be hard to make this anything but interesting, especially when you’ve still got Kevin Barnes in the driving seat (who does in fairness sound like he’s having good fun at points like he’s dispensed with the song’s actual meaning but still chooses to sing like the words mean everything to him). In all honesty I’d still go for the original over this version but there’s nothing wrong with enjoying it when it’s playing. After all you’ve can only really live in the present and while you’re here, you might as well have some fun as Kevin says.
