Category Archives: Music

tick, tick…BOOM!

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tick, tick…BOOM!             4 ½ stars

tick,tick…BOOM! takes us into the world of Broadway musical theater in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s movie directorial debut. We are introduced to aspiring playwright Jonathan Larson played exuberantly by Andrew Garfield (who we just saw portray Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye). This musical was actually written by Larson about his own life when he was writing his first musical, Superbia, a futuristic never produced play he has been working on for eight years. Larson went on to write the musical Rent, the hugely successful production but unfortunately he died just before it was performed. tick,tick…BOOM! captures the ambition and desperation of Larson as he struggles to become a success at age 29, hoping not to be just a waiter with a music writing hobby. His behavior is so manic he puts off his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) and alienates his childhood friend Michael (Robin de Jesus) who recently left the theater to pursue a successful career in advertising. The performances and music nearly rises to the level of In the Heights, the Miranda creation from last year. The joy and inspiration of the movie is balanced by the tragedy of many of Larson’s friends dying of AIDS. This is 1990, during the height of the epidemic, so there is plenty of sadness going around. There are some very well staged musical routines here with Andrew Garfield being worthy of his Academy Award nomination. I have enjoyed every role I have seen him in including the first film I remember him in, 2010’s Never Let Me Go.

Turning Red

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Turning Red                        4 stars

Pixar’s 2022 animated film Turning Red takes a different twist on the coming-of-age theme. This first full-length Pixar film to be directed by a woman (Domee Shi) tackles the subject of puberty and menstruation in a teen-age girl by using a metaphor in the form of a giant red panda. 13-year-old Chinese Canadian Mei lives with her immigrant Chinese family in 2008 Toronto and is a normal kid, though anxious and an overachiever in school. Her mother, Ming (Sandra Oh) is very controlling and likes to keep a watchful eye on her only daughter. Mei likes to hang out with her girlfriends and talk about their favorite boy band. Things seem perfectly normal, that is until she experiences a sudden change in her mood and finds herself very attracted to a certain boy in school. It is then that she discovers that feeling strong emotions makes her transform into a giant red panda with extraordinary strength. This is symbolic in movie terms of something powerful going on in her body, making her temporarily lose control of her emotions, a common occurrence in teenagers. Naturally, she tries to hide the transformation from her friends; that is, until she finds it can be a way to be more popular. Then the trick is to hide the change from Mom and her family. The girls secretly scheme to use Mei’s gift to raise money so they can attend a concert of their favorite boy band, 4 Town. (Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell wrote much of the original music that makes the boy band seem genuine.) But then there is more to the story when it is revealed that the giant red panda is really a sort of family curse that is visited upon all the female members of this family. Traditionally, they must perform a ritual that will keep the panda in check. The movie is a tactful yet amusing way of presenting the change that will relate to teenage girls while likely be over the heads of, yet be fun to much younger viewers. Turning Red adds to Pixar’s list of successful films dealing with certain human conditions that includes Coco, Soul and Inside Out. In a way, Inside Out 2 addresses the same subject as Turning Red but is a little more abstract. Unfortunately, for Pixar, they were forced to remove the movie from theaters and show it exclusively on streaming platforms because of pressure put on them from concerned parent groups who found the subject matter too controversial for their sensitive tastes. But at least young audiences have a way of seeing this colorful, action-filled film from Pixar. Domee Shi is an Academy Award winner having previously made the animated short film, Bao, about Asian parents becoming empty nesters.

Cyrano

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Cyrano                  4 ½ stars

In Cyrano we get a reimagining of the classic tale of Cyrano de Bergerac, the poetically gifted man who thought himself too hideous to be loved by the woman he adored. This latest version stars Peter Dinklage as the man of wit who is also an expert swordsman able to fight off ten men at once when challenged. The story has been done on film innumerable times with the title role taken by Jose Ferrer, Christopher Plummer, Gerard Depardieu and Kevin Kline among them. There have been adaptations such as Roxanne, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Megamind and most recently The Half of It. Usually the story is told as a romantic comedy, but here director Joe Wright tells it as a tragic love story with dire consequences for all those involved. We get the added feature of it being a musical with melodious songs sung by Dinklage and Haley Bennett as Roxanne, the object of affection. The singing really adds a new dimension to the story especially with the rich voice of Dinklage, who also has one of the most expressive faces I have seen in the movies. Bennett, previously known for The Girl on the Train and Swallow is effervescent as the woman who is smitten by Christian (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), a common soldier, but is forever just friends with poor Cyrano. One of the opening scenes at the theater introduces us to Cyrano and the mood of the film where he ridicules a popular actor on stage to the point of humiliation and then proceeds to kill another man in a duel in a sword fight on the stage. We know then that this is no light comedy. Besides the musical numbers there are some interesting dance numbers with swordplay by soldiers to music. Cyrano is a welcome addition to the musicals of the past year that includes West Side Story and tick, tick…BOOM! Without giving too much away the movie is tragic, but with a ray of hope by the time we get to the end.

CODA

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CODA                    5 stars

I finally found the movie CODA being shown at a local theater and had the chance to see it before the Academy Awards. It has been showing on Apple TV+ and before that it was at Sundance where it won multiple awards. For those who haven’t heard of it before, this is the movie about a young girl who is a CODA; that is, Child Of Deaf Adults. Ruby, played by Emilia Jones loves to sing, but she only does so privately, such as when we first see her singing “Something’s Got a Hold On Me” on her father’s fishing boat. Her parents, (Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin) as well as her brother Leo are all deaf leaving high schooler Ruby as the only hearing person in the family making her indispensable as a way for the family to communicate with the world. The conflict is set up when Ruby joins the high school choir and the music teacher recognizes her talent and encourages her to try for entrance in an elite music school. The question then becomes whether her family can recognize Ruby’s desire to pursue something they cannot even hear and allow her to leave the family and the fishing business, something she has been a part of her whole life. It is a story using a formula that makes it a family hit and is aided by fine performances including those of Jones, Kotsur and Matlin. Eugenio Derbez is also effective as the music teacher who spends time coaching Ruby after school. Derbez is a well-known actor in his native Mexico. Everyone should see this favorite from Sundance that many have predicted to be the Academy Award Best Picture winner. And surprise! Last night CODA went on to win the Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscars.

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)       5 stars

Probably the movie of last year that most needs to be seen by everyone is Ahimr “Questlove” Thompson’s documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). The film takes us back to the summer of 1969, a very tumultuous time in America, when a series of concerts were presented in Harlem’s Mount Morris Park where many well known black and ethnic artists came to perform in front of thousands of spectators. The concerts were free and open to the public featuring some amazing performances that included B. B. King, The 5th Dimension, Sly and the Family Stone, Mahalia Jackson and a 19-year-old Stevie Wonder. The performances were all professionally recorded and preserved by Hal Tulchin who hoped to show the recordings to the world as what he called the “Black Woodstock”. Sadly, he found little interest in the project in a country that was reeling from assassinations, riots and the Vietnam War in the past year. So the footage sat in his basement for 50 years until it was recently discovered. Questlove has put together a beautiful documentary that shows us some of these performances and puts them into the context of the events of the late sixties. Included are many eye witness accounts from some of the people who attended over 50 years ago and who describe what the concerts meant to them. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in what had to be one of the easiest choices of the awards. If you haven’t seen it look it up on Hulu.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga                  2 ½ stars

I doubt that many people have heard of the Will Ferrell movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga that came out near the beginning of the pandemic. I had not heard of it until 2021 and just now looked it up on Netflix. This comedy starring and written by Ferrell tells about the dimwitted Lars Erickssong, a native of Iceland who has dreamed of winning the annual competition of the Eurovision Song Contest since he was a boy and sings as part of the group Fire Saga. There is plenty of stupid comedy which is pretty similar to anything that Ferrell has done in the past. The other half of the Fire Saga dual is Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) who worships Lars and is “probably not” his sister. She does a creditable job at comedy in what is not a typical role for her. Even though they are not all that talented the pair manage to qualify to be Iceland’s entry into the annual event featuring performers from over forty European countries. The musical numbers are overproduced and the movie gets a little too involved in its ridiculous plot. A bright spot is Dan Stevens who portrays a self-absorbed Russian singer who does some overly sexualized musical numbers with his male performers and is too interested in Sigrit to suit Lars. It’s a good one for Will Ferrell fans but it has a few dry spells where the comedy falls short.

Elvis

Elvis                       4 ½ stars

The new movie Elvis promised to be a grand extravaganza about the legend, the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley and in the hands of Baz Luhrmann, it is all that and so much more. Luhrmann has previously brought us visually stunning movies like Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby. He does it again in this biopic about Presley and his longtime manager Colonel Tom Parker, telling it in a very nonlinear style that highlights the triumphs and tragedy that this relationship brought to them both. Tom Hanks portrays Parker as the carnival promoter who is always looking for the next big act that will make him rich, and the man who would exercise power over Elvis through his entire career. The transformation of Hanks into this bloated master manipulator is amazing. Look for an Oscar for the Makeup category for this one. Austin Butler who has had several small movie roles takes on the challenging job of capturing the spirit and energy of Elvis’s performances and his inner conflicts and I would say he just about has it. The movie hits all the major points of Elvis’s life, his rise to stardom, the controversy over his hip wiggling performances, his stint in the army overseas, the Hollywood era, the Las Vegas Elvis and his addiction to barbiturates and alcohol that shortened his life. But it also effectively shows how he was influenced by the Black music that he was surrounded by growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi. His performances are interspersed with those of B. B. King, Rosetta Tharpe and Little Richard and many others, so we see that without these Black artists there would have been no Elvis as we remember him. But the main story of the film is of the ties between Elvis and Parker as told through Parker’s eyes starting with his memories commanding that “The only thing that matters is that that man gets on that stage tonight.” This one deserves to be seen on the big screen. Next year look for Austin Butler as the notorious villain Feyd-Rautha in the sequel to Dune!

Back to Black

Back to Black      2 stars

One genre of film that I really like is movies about the making of music. These are the ones where we see the process of coming up with and writing a good song. They can be either fictional or about a real artist. Unfortunately, we don’t get that in the new Sam Taylor-Johnson biopic called Back to Black, the movie about the rise and tragic end to British pop star Amy Winehouse (starring Marisa Abela) who died of alcohol poisoning back in 2011. Instead, the movie focuses mainly on her troubled romance to husband Blake (Jack O’Connell) who was addicted to drugs and alcohol and played a major part in allowing Winehouse to share in the addiction. We do get several stage performances of Winehouse and her disagreements with the record producers. (She could certainly stand up for herself.) But I didn’t see enough of her composing music and feeling it in the process, other than one scene early in the movie. Abela does a decent job portraying the singer, even using her own voice in some of the songs. (It’s unlike Elvis then where Austin Butler only did lip syncing.) Much better examples of artist biopics were Rocketman (Elton John), Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddy Mercury) and even Ray (Ray Charles). We also get too many scenes of her getting more tattoos, but we do see how that enormous signature beehive hairdo came to be. If you saw the documentary, Amy, from 2015 you would see some significant details that are left out of Back to Black. The movie treats her father, Mitch (Eddie Marsan) far too sympathetically as he in reality only returned to Amy’s life after she became famous and did little to help her out of her addiction. Her record producer and band members are treated as mere background characters, and her bodyguard is left out altogether, even though in the movie she is hounded by the paparazzi. In the end the movie is reduced to one about a bad romance and I think we already have plenty of those.

Tár

Tár                          4 ½ stars

I returned to the theater to see Todd Field’s long awaited treatment of a successful female first class orchestra conductor who may be a monster in Tár. Cate Blanchett takes on this challenging role in what must be one of her best performances as the talented and arrogant Lydia Tar who conducts the Berlin orchestra and fills in her time with a book tour, writing original compositions and teaching at Julliard. The movie starts with her doing an interview with The New Yorker about her conducting. Most of the time I couldn’t understand what she was talking about, but Blanchett makes you believe that she is an expert, so convincing is her acting. After seeing examples of how she can control and damage the lives of those around her, including her assistant Francesca (Noemie Merlant), events catch up with her and her world begins to unravel. Much of the movie will make you feel uncomfortable which is what Fields is going for. Some of the scenes are meant to make you believe that Tar is mentally not well. Two of Field’s previous works are In The Bedroom and Little Children, both telling stories that are unsettling. The success of the movie rests on Blanchett who commands your attention every minute she is on screen. It is hard to imagine her not winning the Best Actress Oscar for this performance.

Marry Me

Marry Me            2 ½ stars

I have seen a large number of romantic comedies including some that are really thin on plot. Marry Me starring pop icon Jennifer Lopez and talented funny guy Owen Wilson has to count among the lightest of them. From director Kat Coiro, we get the Cinderella story of recording superstar Kat Valdez (Lopez) who is scheduled to get married to equally super popstar Bastain (Colombian superstar Maluma) during a live concert. This is done to promote her hit song, Marry Me. But moments before the planned ceremony word of Bastian’s infidelity spreads leaving Kat at the altar. What can she do but shout to a single dad in the audience and say she will marry him, (literally some guy)? The guy happens to be Charlie (Wilson) who is a middle school math teacher who is there to accompany his tween daughter, Lou to the concert, along with a work friend (Sarah Silverman). Charlie actually goes ahead with the ceremony in front of everyone, but later has doubts about what he has done. But who wouldn’t want to marry a famous popstar? Kat’s production team is all over the plan as it is great for publicity. The rest of the movie is entirely predictable as the unlikely couple go from reluctance, to being friends, to involved only to run into the inevitable crisis that will bring about the moment of truth. It is good to see these two, who are among the most likable stars in the industry today, but they both deserve more interesting material than Marry Me. Both of them have done better in romantic comedies in the past. I do look forward to seeing Owen Wilson in his upcoming movie, “Paint” later this year.