Has the world gone mad? Mystic River, the Clint Eastwood directed murder/mystery starring 80s actors who made it through the lean years (Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins) has been racking up all kinds of critical acclaim: 5 star reviews, lots of nominations etc. etc. Yet, after seeing it last night I can objectively confirm that it was a piece of utter, utter shit. So shit that its shitness is beyond a matter of opinion - it just was. Shit dialogue, plot, direction. Over-acting all round. Misguided forays into psychologising ("in a way I feel like we all died that day, the day they took Dave away"), totally obvious plot twists and hitting-head-with-brick symbolism. Three quarters of the way in we were like: "is this parody? Please let it be parody...". Can someone tell my why this film is critically acclaimed? Am I missing something? If anyone has had a positive experience with this film, please let me know.

In more positive news, I have Peaches tickets (props to Marty!), and just bought This is Not a Test! which is looking very, very good.