Category Archives: Music

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.

Coming 2 America

Coming 2 America            2 stars

It took thirty-three years for a sequel to be made of the Eddie Murphy/Arsenio Hall comedy Coming to America. The original movie was a hilarious fish out of water story about Prince Akeem, an African prince from the country of Zamunda who comes to Queens and meets Lisa (Shari Headley), his true love and brings her back home to share his life in the royal palace. This time around in Coming 2 America it is his illegitimate son, Lavelle (Jermaine Fowler) of Queens who must make the journey to Zamunda and assume his place in the royal family, something that seems like a dream come true at first. The hitch is that he has been promised as a mate to the daughter of the general (Wesley Snipes) from the neighboring country of Nexdoria in order to prevent the two countries from going to war. The main draw of the original movie is the many comedic moments involving Murphy and Hall which includes various other characters played by the pair thanks to the HEAVY use of makeup. This is especially true for the gang from the MY-T-SHARP barbershop in Queens. These old men appear again in the sequel but their roles don’t seem as significant, though they are very funny. There certainly are some very funny moments, but this movie just doesn’t measure up to the original which was the second most popular movie of 1988. I certainly do credit the appearance of Leslie Jones as Mary who is just as funny as I remember her from Saturday Night Live. There is also a great scene with Colin Jost appearing briefly as a racist hiring manager that I found quite hilarious. Somewhat distracting were the flashback scenes that made use of de-aging CGI to feature younger versions of the prince (Murphy) and his assistant, Semmi (Hall). I recommend that you see the original movie again and skip the sequel as it is a less funny imitation of the first film.

Flora and Son

Flora and Son                     4 ½ stars

I returned again this week to a film that appeared at Sundance but missed at the festival. Flora and Son is the latest creation of writer/director John Carney, who previously brought us Begin Again, Sing Street and his masterwork, Once. Again, the Irish filmmaker has created a simple story about conflict in a relationship that centers around and is resolved by the process of song writing. This time the story is about a young, Irish, working class, single mother, Flora (Eve Hewson (daughter of Bono)) who is struggling to raise her 14-year-old son, Max (Orén Kinlan) in a small Dublin apartment. Max, unfortunately has a habit of stealing and getting into trouble at school and is facing the prospect of being sentenced to a juvenile facility. In an effort to keep him out of trouble, she recovers a discarded guitar, has it restored and gives it to the troubled teen, hoping to get him interested in music. Max wants no part of this plan, but Flora is drawn to the guitar and goes in search of online guitar lessons, and in so doing finds Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a musician in Los Angeles who hires himself out for personal lessons online. The pair discuss the chords on a guitar and what it means to write a good song and before long Flora is critiquing Jeff’s songs and suggesting ways to make them better. The discussions get quite personal as they discuss the feelings created by a song and refer to song terms like the verses, the chorus and the bridge, something you only see in a John Carney movie. Occasionally, Jeff is shown in the same room with Flora to show how they are connecting over their discussions. (The viewer must ignore the fact that performing music together via Zoom is not practical due to the time delay.) Carney is always interested in his characters getting closer together, but also in the process of writing good music which I love to see. And ultimately there is hope for her son, Max as he reveals some musical talent as he learns to use a synthesizer to create rap music, and mother and son find that they do have a common bond in music. The movie has the right amount of humor and successfully dealing with family conflict without getting too sappy though it is probably not Carney’s best movie. Flora and Son is newly released in theaters so I suggest you see it there while you can. It is also available on Apple TV+.

Dicks: The Musical

Dicks: The Musical                           3 stars

The title of this movie leads you to believe that it is about dicks. This screen adaptation of a musical play first performed in a basement in New York does deliver. It has two of them. The screenwriters, Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson play Craig and Trevor, two self-obsessed straight men who are in love with themselves and don’t care who they screw over to get what they want. But then one day they meet each other for the first time, discovering that they are competing to be the best salesman for the same company, Vroomba, selling parts for this mysterious machine. They each have one half of a locket they each got from their parents, making them separated identical twin brothers. Of course they look nothing alike which only adds to the bizarre nature of the comedy. They set about to reunite their two separated parents, Harris (Nathan Lane) and Evelyn (Megan Mullaly) by donning wigs and switching places and persuading the two to arrive at a restaurant for a prearranged meeting. (Has anyone heard of The Parent Trap before?) Evelyn is now a wheelchair bound recluse in an apartment filled with odd knickknacks and horrendous looking wallpaper, and who keeps her vagina in a purse. Huh? Harris has come out as gay and has a secret as he keeps two bizarre looking creatures that he rescued from the sewer, referring to them as the Sewer Boys. Besides the bizarre nature of the premise the movie is going for shock and screams, containing almost nonstop references to sex acts (both straight and gay) and genitalia and plenty of use of the f word. It’s all done to music that is more memorable for the content than for the tunes themselves. There is no doubt that it succeeds in being outlandish, offensive and gross. It tries to reach a status of a cult movie, but I doubt it will be another Rocky Horror Picture Show. There are two other roles that are quite notable. Megan Thee Stallion is excellent as Craig and Trevor’s boss in a boiler plate office where she emasculates all the male employees in “Savage” style. And Bowen Yang of SNL does an admirable job as God who narrates much of the story as only Yang can. Dicks: The Musical is not the funniest movie of the year, but it is easily the most irreverent. It is fun just to see how offensive it can get.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour           4 ½ stars

Concert films are one type of film that I very rarely see, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to see Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in the theater. Since I can’t remember seeing any specific concert film before I can say that this was the best concert film I have ever seen. But seriously it is an experience you shouldn’t miss if you have the chance. The film is taken from a single performance, Taylor Swift’s final stop of the Eras Tour in Los Angeles. The show is extravagant to the maximum, lasting over two and a half hours with amazing sets, a myriad of costume changes and accompanied by a dance troupe with Taylor at the center of it all. She performs songs from throughout her seventeen year career broken down by periods of inspiration that she calls her eras. How she has the energy and stamina to go so long including well staged choreography is beyond my comprehension. The film is heavily edited with closeups of her and many shots of the adoring fans in the audience. So call me a Swifty now. I loved it.