Posts Tagged ‘music’

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The Music Lovers

The Music Lovers

Monday, September 7th, 2009

I keep stopping myself since watching this and being like, “wait have I really finally seen that movie now?” because, to be honest, it didn’t really strike me the way, after years of wanting desperately to see it, I expected it to. My mum has always called this one the most awful movies she had ever seen and that, combined with its seeming hard-to-findness, had kind of given it some kind of cachet for me that maybe no film could live up to.

I’m inclined to go with one of the first IMDb reviews that came up for me when I visited its page while watching, that simply stated that it had many boring moments but many brilliant ones too. I talked to my mum since watching it and found out that I correctly guessed the exact moment which for her was the “too far” point, a moment during a final scene in a mental asylum that she described, 36 years later, almost perfectly. I can’t deny that the best images in this movie are truly that vivid and memorable but I think that fact speaks volumes more than I could guess. I think, too, the real impact of this movie for those who would react in such a way is that it genuinely begins and continues for almost a whole hour as a perfectly decent musical biography … tamer even than Milos Forman’s Amadeus. Any nauseating sensations until Ken Russell really piles on the makeup come from dizzying camerawork and editing. It’s a movie I would certainly watch again and would almost certainly benefit from a freshly scrubbed up DVD or Blu-Ray release. This was a very worn VHS copy, though I must admit when you get those long forgotten tracking lines on a movie as infamous as this it kinda adds to the experience.

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Hannah Montana: The Movie

Hannah Montana: The Movie

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

If you know me, you’ll know that I came to this wanting to love it and that there was a lot I hoped for from it. I’m a big fan of Hannah Montana, but I’m no dumb blind follower (well, maybe a little … hehe); I’m aware of the kinda massive problem that lies at the very heart of the concept and the reason why a lot of people are blindly agin it. When I saw the first trailer for the movie that flatly set up the movie’s central dilemma (She’s Always Had The Best of Both Worlds. Now She Has To Pick One), I got pretty darn excited. Could a live action Disney movie based on a TV show in this decade actually do the right thing by its target audience?

The movie begins perfectly, exploding the confines of the TV screen setting up the blonde wig as a fully fledged cinematic icon and a plot point as Robbie Ray stares in deep thought at it mounted on a static wig stand as Miley battles with security outside to get into her own concert. Within the movie’s first few minutes Miley/Hannah bonks her head a few times not to mention having a coconut fall on her head and a ball thrown at her. Any fears that as Miley grows she might leave her goofy streak behind are quickly brushed aside here.

My heart sank briefly at the introduction of our villain, a tubby British tabloid pap almost as cringeworthy as Richard O’Brien’s in Spiceworld (hmm, I liked that too, incidentally :) ) but soon enough the real heart of the movie just started to get me and get me more. They sell Miley’s dilemma here almost shockingly well. It would be easy for the movie to sound as whiny as the show’s naysayers think it would be, “Oh it’s so hard being a megastar!” etc … but the real fight here is really about the wants of the masses vs. the higher needs of the few. When Hannah troops ahead into an impromptu concert at Miley’s best friend Lilly’s party because she’s not given the space to become the right person, the situation is entirely believable. You feel Lilly’s hurt off camera as you watch Hannah going through the motions, and you can see Miley’s eyes under that wig scanning the crowd torn over what to do: not just in the moment but with her whole life. All through the movie there’s a sense of pre-occupation about Miley – she’s really going through the decision of her life here.

There are lowlights, of course. The Tyra Banks shoe fight, Rico’s exploding cake, Jackson getting bitten on the butt by an alligator are among the flashes where I felt a little let down by the proceedings but I know you couldn’t really release this movie without them. Some of the slapstick stuff really had me laughing in spite of myself: the celebrity plate rack, for instance – you see it coming as gramma places Elvis in pride of place but I didn’t quite see it coming the way it ultimately does, lol.

Most of all it’s about Miley. Despite the title, there’s a lot more Miley here than there is Hannah, and I for one believe the things she’s been saying in interviews about the Miley in this movie being closer to the “real” Miley than we’ve ever seen. I say this in the best way possible, but this girl with all the gloss stripped away has a really funny face and some of the ways she twists it in this movie, combined with the time the camera spends on them (even in slow motion in parts) … they’re not the faces you generally get from a soulless megastar worth billions. They’re beautiful. It’s this goofy streak in Miley that always brings me back for more and its here, thank mercy, in spades.

Which I guess brings me to the ending which comes in two parts, neither of which I’ll entirely spoil for you because I had managed to avoid the details and I’m glad. I did not see the big moment on stage at the end coming at all here. It’s a moment I wanted to see in the movie right from the start but that I never once dreamed would actually be there. I had a lot of moments during the movie where I almost cried, but this was the moment where I really let it come. However. This is unfortunately followed by the real ending … which kind of, pretty much, actually entirely pushes the reset button TV style. I’m trying not to focus too much on this part of the ending because the rest of the movie just pleased me so much, also, I think if I think about it some more later on I might find a way to love it anyway (something to do with – the way the little girl says “Hannah is a part of you, don’t let her go,” which is something I hope the real Miley never does, ie, never speaking of it in 10 years time in an embarrassed way).

Anyway, in short, it was everything I hoped it would be and more – though some of the more was questionable. The songs are great, in fact, they’re growing on me (my first listen of the soundtrack a couple of weeks ago was a little disappointed), there’s more Lilly than I initially feared. Miley outdoes herself acting wise though the real performance I loved here was that of Margo Martindale as gramma. The director and cinematographer do a great job of keeping the screen alive right from the aforementioned wig moment onward and though there are the inevitable gags for less advanced pre-teens, they pass quickly enough as not to impact the larger experience.

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Girls Rock!

Girls Rock!

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

Just to get the obvious comment out of the way first … shyeah, like I needed a movie to tell me this :-P This is a documentary I’ve been looking forward to seeing for over a year now. The short form of this review, sadly, is: plenty of girls … not a lot of rockin’. I’m trying to think if I even saw a single male face in the movie … there may have been a dubious character glimpsed in one of the older girl’s bands at home but I’m pretty sure the whole thing is XX which makes sense. I won’t get into an argument over, “what about transgenders, or just plain old equality,” because I know nobody’s allowed to even think anything like that in these situations.

But I will say I find something in creating an “anything goes” haven for girls like this with no boys allowed just as much a problem as the one it’s trying to solve. There is something about the place, too, that calls to mind a movie like Jesus Camp, like these girls are somehow being recruited to fight some kind of undeclared war. There’s a point where you realise a lot of these girls aren’t gonna live up to what the rock camp teachers want from them anymore than they are to the things society at large supposedly wants from them. Facts are inserted scatter-dash onscreen, with innocuous statistics like “70% of 11-17 year olds watch MTV” given equal weight to sadder ones like the number of girls who vomit to lose weight or have been “sexually harrassed” by classmates. And for all the desire to get these girls to break the mould and really “rock“, when they actually make anything that sounds like music (aside from the rather noisy ending where I’ll admit, some of them do kinda rock), it sounds a lot like the girl pop they claim to be trying to avoid.

Like in another documentary about kids, Mad Hot Ballroom, there’s another point where you realise the camp is probably as much for the teachers as it is for the girls; one of the camp staff even admits this to camera. In short, I think everybody’s heart is in the right place here, but I think it’d be nice if people would just focus on teaching kids the simple act of being themselves and fearless. The self-defence stuff here truly made me gag … at least until Palace made me giggle.

It’s not a bad doc, don’t get me wrong … I was just kinda disappointed by the way a place like this functions. You’d think an offbeat anti-status-quo camp for a creative medium, full of the most interesting creatures on earth, would be much more interesting … much more different. Aside from the simply adorable Palace, I’d really rather watch a double bill of Mad Hot Ballroom and Rock School / School of Rock. Then truly rock out to a Smoosh CD :)

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hounddog

hounddog

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

“I can’t shake no more …”

It’s unfortunate that a movie like this encountered such difficulty in being released, because it results in the awkward situation of people “excited” to “finally” see something that really those words should never be associated with. This unfortunacy I’ve been pondering for months now while waiting. What’s more unfortunate, however, is that in the last couple of months I’d pretty much finally heard enough to know this wasn’t anything to get excited about anyway. As I wrote in my review of The Secret Life of Bees, I’ve pretty much decided that Elle is the far more talented of the Fanning sisters. And though I’d read plenty of reviews way back on its first limited showing that it was a waste of time (though Jodie Foster’s praise of Fanning’s performance was encouraging), it was the comments from people whose opinion I more fully believed would match my own lately that kind of made me give up the anticipation.

What to say but that to begin with, at least, it is even worse than all that preamble suggests … it’s seriously wobblier than Elvis’ knees. The lack of any kind of direction in the first half hour leads me to believe that the film makers fully intended audiences to come to it as “the Dakota Fanning rape movie” and therefore sit through any duration to get to that key scene, which is just … I don’t even need to say how blank that is. Aside from a laugh-out-loud lightning incident that made me start to wonder, “wait, is this a comedy now?”, literally nothing happens until the rape. Following that scene, it must be said that the movie admirably approximates the tone and theme of Terry Gilliam’s Tideland – that a surprising amount of strength and forward momentum can come from the worst mankind is capable of, especially where children are concerned – but I’m quick to point out it never comes even close to that movie.

As to Fanning … the problem is, if this role was a challenge for her it wasn’t because of any of the sexual content. It’s because she’s portraying what amounts at best to a regular kid, at worst a simpleton, for the first time in her career – whether she succeeds or not is moot, because anybody who’s followed her work so far simply won’t believe it, because all her main roles to date have been played off her precocity. To go back to Tideland, there was something about Jodelle Ferland that worked for the similar character Jeliza Rose – she has precocity and even burgeoning sexuality like Fanning, but there’s more of a sense that she’s less aware of it or something. I won’t deny that Fanning has her moments here, most particularly her longer singing scene following the rape – something that begins looking slightly ridiculous turns into something that almost makes the movie into something worthwhile. But it’s really got nothing on her past performances.

Anyway, the short version is, it wasn’t worth waiting for. Lay the absolutely awful twangly score on the top of all this and you almost have just about the worst movie I’ve looked forward to seeing in a long time, to be honest. Maybe if it weren’t for Tideland and the wait I’d be more lenient … but what can you do?

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The Killing of John Lennon

The Killing of John Lennon

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

It almost pains me to report it, so much was my love for Chapter 27, but this may actually be the better of the two movies – I’d heard as much but I’d put it down to general Lindsay hatred and the fact that this one just came first.

While they’re actually both similar in far greater ways than I’d thought – even down to the Jude character played by Lindsay in 27 who I hadn’t actually realised at the time was based on a real girl, Judith Stein – this one seems to me to do a better job of at once displaying fascination for what went on in Mark David Chapman’s head through the months, days and hours leading up to that moment of madness whilst at the same time making no such podium for the man himself.

I would have to see 27 again to be more sure of this, but I know that this movie made me genuinely despise Chapman more than the other movie, even while I was intrigued by his reasoning. It seems perhaps this is why 27 was threatened with boycotts etc while this one slipped out relatively unnoticed – the star cast of the other, particularly the presence of Lindsay when she was at her worst, can’t have helped either.

I know a lot of people think both these movies should be ignored because they give the killer, “what he wanted.” It’s a toughie, I have to admit – and again, it was in this telling that I gave that feeling more thought, where I realised more: Chapman’s still alive, and Lennon is dead. The guy broke history, the world, art, in two when he pulled that trigger, like if there are parallel universes just imagine how vastly different the one is where this didn’t happen. But my conclusion is always – we can’t not talk about it. And amazingly, like I said despite my thinking 27 was an amazing piece of work, it seems that the need to talk about it is so great that there actually is room for more than one movie – even one so strikingly similar in places as this – about it.

I wouldn’t recommend watching them both in tandem or anything – it would likely be either overwhelming or confusing and in any case diminish the impact of both – but if you have any kind of interest in Lennon, “Catcher in the Rye”, the mind of an assassin, then you owe it to yourself to see both eventually. I personally find them both phenomenal, but for now for the way and degree to which it made me feel the “right” sentiment towards the killer, this one just has the edge over 27.

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The Jazz Singer [1980]

The Jazz Singer [1980]

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Wow, there are some pretty awful things said out there about this lol. It seemed like a perfect partner for the Streisand Star is Born and I wasn’t far wrong. I certainly wouldn’t go as far in damning this as some have – even in the area of Neil Diamond’s “performance” I found nothing to really despair over. People have called it bad acting. I’d say, thank god he didn’t act, because, it’s true, he clearly can’t. What he gives in front of the camera is importantly not acting, and I think compared to a lot of so-called “acting” over the years – even, dare I say, some of Streisand’s stuff in the aforementioned Star is Born, deserves the bad-mouthing more – I honestly have to say, he’s not that bad at all. This is one case where the Kermode “I’d rather an actor who can sort of sing than a singer who can sort of act” rule is well-broken in my eyes, maybe because I’d always rather the writer of the songs sang his own songs rather than anybody else … that this in itself is a whole part of the story here makes Diamond the only honest choice for the part.

The only real problem with this movie is, like A Star is Born, the way it feels so by the numbers over the story. The conflict is shattered the moment Diamond’s father gives him his blessing way too early in the game (I haven’t seen the original of this – yes, spank me – but I thought this familial conflict was like the whole point of the story? lol, here it’s like, “no, no, no … oh, okay …”) … and as such, the great songs notwithstanding, I have to say I was probably moved more by the Krusty the Clown version on The Simpsons lol …

But the songs are great, and it’s great to see Diamond singing them. It deserves to be repeated how great a double bill this and A Star is Born are too. Despite how disappointed I was with both of them, there’s something about the very idea of their existence that makes me know I’ll still do it again one day, probably more than once. They certainly feel like great movies because of the giants behind them, and there are definitely glimmers of their genius that break through the iffy surface.

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Across the Universe

Across the Universe

Monday, March 31st, 2008

I can’t not give this movie less than 5 hearts anymore – perhaps particularly since I changed my ratings from stars to hearts lol. Even the corny jokes (not to mention gag Bono) worked more on me third time around here and the good here is so good you just can’t help but surrender. It owes a terrific debt to one of my all-time faves, Pink Floyd: The Wall, not just in “Strawberry Fields” as mentioned below but also the whole “I Want You” scene is pretty much “Another Brick in the Wall”; and though Julie Taymor can’t (yet) hope to entirely compete with Alan Parker, it’s certainly a worthy comparison.

It’s all about the freedom the movie has – leaping from a Bono cameo to Eddie Izzard pretty much sums it up (incidentally, as I commented while watching it this time with my sister, it’s not so much the mere appearance and singing from Bono that wows here; it’s when he speaks following the song when you truly realise how it’s perhaps the most selfless thing he’s ever done); from a gorgeously scored climax intercutting Vietnam and Colombia University to the completely random but equally beautiful women in the sea over the eponymous song sequence. It’s a movie that’s undeniably “all over the place” and yet you can’t quite fathom how it could be any other way. I’ve watched it more now than any other film of the past year, and that stat will only increase as time goes on, so the watchability factor definitely comes into play in the rating too. And if I haven’t said enough about how incredible Evan Rachel Wood is, then mark my words I’ll have plenty more to add in the future, she blows my mind, nevermind every movie or scene I see her in, every frame.

January 10th, 2008:

I really need to start half stars here, I think, lol. That I couldn’t resist watching this again so soon should speak well of the movie in itself. When it’s good, like in “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Strawberry Fields” as mentioned below, or the exploding newspaper over the instrumental climax to “Day in the Life” – not to mention just about every second Evan Rachel Wood occupies the screen – it’s great. When it’s bad, though – and I’d be amazed if even the most ardent of fans don’t feel this during at least some portion of the movie, though I’d personally cut half an hour or more – it’s even worse than I thought on the first viewing. I still really don’t know what to make of the rollercoaster of love and hate this movie takes me on. I’m often tempted to use the phrase “flawed masterpiece” but more often than not I ultimately fall down on one side or the other … but here … I really don’t think that phrase has ever applied more to a movie. I think I’ll be coming back to this many more times.

7th January, 2008:

Ah Julie Taymor :) First, this movie tackles the whole High School Musical thing into the dirt in just one 2-3 minute scene (“I Wanna Hold Your Hand”). There follow a plethora of standalone interpretations of Beatles songs set loosely to a little love story (rather than the other way around as some plot summaries will tell you :P ) but I’m not sure it ever comes together in quite the way it should and for a Julie Taymor movie, no matter what anyone tells you, it’s really not that startlingly visual. Okay, no, it comes close to Pink Floyd’s The Wall during “Strawberry Fields” but that’s all I’ll give it; let’s face it, for the title track alone she had the Rufus Wainwright/Dakota Fanning and Fiona Apple/Paul Thomas Anderson music videos to contend with.

It’s just so about the Beatles songs; even the ones that aren’t sung come in in lines like, “She came in through the bathroom window!” and “when I’m sixty-four …” … by the time a character called Dr. Robert walks in, you’ve practically cringed yourself inside out so it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m quite the pushover sometimes, so by the time it came to the two girls singing “love, love, love” to a couple of police officers on a rooftop as the hero (Jude) sings out for his Lucy (yeh), I can’t deny I was emotionally armless and I for one will be returning to this again one day, just to see if I was just another sucker or if there’s actually something here.

Watch if you can’t get enough of Beatles covers, pretty people and good lipsync; but don’t expect a whole lot more. For the visuals, I’d personally sooner watch Julie Taymor’s Titus again; for the music, I’ll keep praying Cirque du Soleil will tour their “Love” show or at least produce a DVD, in the meantime I recommend I Am Sam. Though it has its moments, this movie is in places so cheesy and simplistic in the worst way. I think it could’ve been much much more.

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Once [2006]

Once [2006]

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

“Take this sinking boat and point it home, we’ve still got time …”

Spoiler Warning I guess – not that you could possibly spoil this one.

Y’know, call me dumb just one more time but even at the Oscars after seeing the movie 3 times, I didn’t fully listen to that lyric until now. As the last couple of reviews might’ve shown, I’m still bobbing up and down a little off the ripples left by the wave of depression Enchanted left me with, and I couldn’t help but notice that this movie ends quite the same way as that one with the “lovers” at the outset not ending up together; but, I don’t know, here I bought it with tears in my eyes, perhaps because I believed they made the right choice … perhaps because I believed they knew there was still some work ahead … perhaps because in the end, it’s a matter of consistency, and this movie is 100% so.

While so many things now tell you, “if it’s f*cked, move on or replace it,” this movie presents us with a character who brings a lowly hoover for a busker to fix rather than simply buy a new one because all she can even afford to give him for his songs is 10 cents. It simply asks people to make an effort, all the while telling the inspiring story of someone far too old by society’s standards to be still living with his pa finally taking the steps to making a name for himself as a singer-songwriter in tandem with fixing an old and clearly dear relationship.

Again I find myself commenting on the thing I should find annoying about this movie that proves the movie’s brilliance by the sheer fact that it doesn’t annoy me. There’s a whole sequence that basically shows how everyone is trying to be a musician; from the trying to get the loan and the bank guy breaking into song, cutting to the street and a random busker drumming, to the party where it’s a requirement that you sing. I hate this kind of thing normally not because it’s false – on the contrary, it’s the truest and mostly most beautiful thing there is – but it’s very demoralising to anyone (in which case I guess, lol, everyone) wanting to get their songs heard. But like I say, it’s amazing that this really never gets to me like I’d think it would in this one.

Then there are the peripheral characters. The man in the clothes shop telling Guy, “You’re gorgeous,” the aforementioned bank guy, and my god, the studio guy – that in itself is the series of shots I’d personally say define this movie, him going from “these bunch of f*ckin …” to the total childlike enthusiasm at the mixing desk when he realises how good they are … it’s just an astonishing few pieces of film.

I’m just amazed by how much more I got out of this movie this viewing after seeing it at least 3 times already … you get this initial feeling like it’s that typical variety of indie movie where they just point the camera at two people and improvise or something, in this case perhaps buoyed by the quality of the songs … but, simply that whole thing about the hoover, I’d just never realised the significance of it as it compares to the big picture, the whole idea of fixing something that, in general, in today’s world, is more often just slung out for a new model, it just really shows how beautifully written and considered it is. It’s such an important message for the world right now.

December 3rd, 2007:

I’m slightly annoyed I didn’t get to see this a lot earlier than I ultimately have, because as soon as it began I realised that no matter what it did, it would be a miracle if it lived up to the expectations I’ve built up for it over the months and months of hype and general gushing of those who had seen it. It sounded perfect – in a nutshell, as a more recent review I read put it, it’s the Irish, musical, Before Sunset. The songs are beautiful even if, like me, you’ve heard them dozens of times before the movie begins.

For almost the whole first 85 minutes, I had that feeling. It’s not living up to what I psyched myself into expecting, etc, all the while cursing the destructive power of hype. “It’s good,” I thought – the music’s great of course, the story well-paced, the performances perfect – “but it’s not overwhelming me.”

But it’s all in the ending. When it all comes together, in at most 3 little shots. And it was literally like one second I was dry and the next my face was streaked with tears, and they didn’t stop till the last credit rolled off the screen. This movie is just too beautiful for words.

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