Plot: The extraordinary odyssey of a U.S. musician of Cape Verdean ancestry to
Tannu Tuva, in central Asia, where nomadic people throat sing more than
one note simultaneously, using vocal harmonics. A bluesman, Paul Pena,
blind and recently widowed, taught himself throat singing and was by
chance invited to the 1995 throat-singing symposium in Kyzyl. Helped by
the "Friends of Tuva," Pena makes the arduous journey. Singing in the
deep, rumbling kargyraa style, Pena gives inspired performances at the
festival, composes songs in Tuvan, washes his face in sacred rivers,
expresses the disorientation of blindness in foreign surroundings, and
makes a human connection with everyone he meets.
My rating: 7/10
Will I watch it again? No.
You can't help but like Paul. He's humble and talented as hell. Seeing him on his trip to Tuva and his being among their people is just special. It's something he never expected and his journey from when he first heard Tuvan throat singing on ham radio to being in Tuva performing at a throat singing competition is just remarkable. I got a little choked up a few times. It's a beautiful country, with beautiful people and beautiful music. I am glad to have spent time with them and Paul.
Tagline: GIT SET FER THE WILDEST RIP-ROARIN'EST SCREENLOAD OF CORNBALL ACTIONS and EXCITEMENT YOU EVER EYE-BALLED!
Plot: Charles Glore plays a country western singer who goes back home to the hills of
Carolina where he gets caught up in a feud between some local
moonshiners and "the Revenoores".
My rating:
Will I watch it again? No.
I've said it before but it's worth repeating. I get a sense of how others feel when their nationality is stereotyped in movies when I see crap like this. I grew up in the Deep South and seeing Southerners depicted in such a cartoonish way is painful and embarrassing. The accents are so bad that it hurts hearing them. The comedy is dumb, the characters are dumb and it's shot like what you'd expect from HGL. He made this one right on the heels of the movie he's most famous for, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS (1964). That had dumb yokels, two but at least that one had lots of gory kills (and like this one, sadly, there's no nudity...what the hell did that man have against boobs?). I'd say skip this one unless you're torturing yourself to sit through every HGL picture he made and that's a lot.
Plot: This anthology of classical pieces is paired with wordless stories through special effects.
My rating: 7.5/10
Will I watch it again? Yes.
I had no idea what to expect going into this and I'd only ever heard of Rybczynski and knowing nothing about him except he is a filmmaker. The music is among the most popular classical music that most people would be familiar with or would've at least heard. The visuals are so much fun and creative. Special effects are involved in each story and there's a lot of inventive and cleverness to the visuals but most of all, it's a fun film. There's no dialogue. It's beautifully made and it's more than just what you see and hear. It's actually funny in spots. There's also a lot of sensuality which surprised me. This is simply a pleasure to watch and it's readily available to see online.
Tagline: All she wanted was a break. All they wanted was her body.
Plot: A young country girl has aspriations of being a country music star and finds that the road to stardom is paved with bastard sons of bitches.
My rating: 7/10
Will I watch it again? No.
Jesus, most of the men in this movie are fucking assholes. This well acted and well made flick is so much better than you'd expect and I didn't expect much. I was thinking I was in for a cheap hicksploitation picture that used the standard road to stardom to frame a bunch of boobs. It starts out like a decent 70s exploitation flick but that's just the first few minutes. Once things start moving for Jaime (Gayle) the more I realized that I was in for something very different. For a music drama like this there is a good deal of nudity but at least some of it is not exploitation-y. It's still a nice addition. She meets a lot of assholes as she's trying to get into the music business in Nashville and it continues throughout the rest of the picture. The songs are average but the one she sang repeatedly during her auditions is really good. The last few minutes had me thinking this could suddenly jump back into exploitation mode (like the first few) but it doesn't. It does end on a powerful upbeat.
Writers: Heinz Reichert, Ernst Marischka, A.M. Willner, Guy Bolton, Alma Reville
Composer: Johann Strauss (both of them), duh.
Starring: Jessie Matthews, Edmund Gwenn, Fay Compton, Esmond Knight, Frank Vosper, Robert Hale, Charles Heslop, Hindle Edgar, Marcus Barron, Betty Huntley-Wright
Plot: Johann Strauss the younger wants so much to have his father's respect in any way. One day he finds inspiration to write what will become one of the most popular tunes in history and falls in love with a beautiful woman.
My rating: 6.5/10
Will I watch it again? No.
Not a bad picture. It turns the younger Strauss' inspiration into writing The Blue Danube Waltz into a romantic comedy and it does it quite well. I laughed out loud a few times and one time was a silly fight Strauss has with an older man. They're both slapping and hitting each other until they stop and try to unhook a scarf from a jacket button. That moment was very British and I loved it. The ending was nice, too, with the older Strauss accepting his son's accomplishment. I'm sure there's no truth in anything in this picture but that in no way should detract in one's enjoyment. It's a cute romantic comedy period piece that centers around the making of one of the most recognizable tunes in history.
Tagline: A White-Hot Drama about a Red-Hot Jazzman!
Plot: A young trumpeter enjoys highs (musical success, fame, and fortune) and
lows (sour marriage, death of his mentor, bout with alcoholism).
My rating: 7.5/10
Will I watch it again? Probably.
I've seen this a few times over the last 40+ years, for as long as I've been playing the trumpet. Douglas does well in the role but he fails as a fake musician. If you're not familiar with the horn then you won't see all of the little things he doesn't get right but getting it right isn't likely possible considering how there are bigger things to worry about. He does as good as you'd expect for a big time Hollywood actor. Now, as the story goes, it hits the beats from a rags to riches to rags story. I recall hearing all those years ago that this was inspired by Bix Beiderbecke who had his promising horn career throughout the 20s cut far too short. Harry James is the cat you hear playing the horn when Rick (Douglas) is on it. Aside from Douglas not owning looking like a musician, the only issue I take with the film is how little of a transition Rick has going from an enthusiastic and nice guy to being a dick. It bugs me when movies skip over this part of a character's arc. I guess we're supposed to buy it without questioning it. The Warner Bros. DVD looks great. The only extra is the trailer.
Starring: Carol Doda, Jack Elliott, Georgina Spelvin, The Hotlikcs, Serena, Dan Carter, Jim Haynie, Brmuda Schwartz, Chris Cassidy, De Wood, Mike Smith, Amanda Blake, Naomi Eisenberg, Maryann Price
Tagline: They Thought They Were Hard Men ... But She Became Too Hot to Handle
Plot: Former stripper turned aspiring country singer Bette Barnette gets a gig
performing at a seedy tavern run by the no-nonsense Georgia. However,
poor Bette can't get the rowdy male patrons to take her seriously as a
singer. Meanwhile, evil local businessman Sam Diamond plots to get his
greedy hands on Georgia's place, feisty and ambitious younger singer
Dolly Pop doesn't take it lightly that Bette has taken her job, and
Bette's sister Doris Ann has problems of her own with her wannabe
daredevil boyfriend Danny.
My rating: 6.5/10
Will I watch it again? No.
So I knew nothing about this except for the poster and IMDb said this was an action/comedy/drama. They got the drama right. Now I figured this was the 70s so I could be in for some outrageous fun. Well...it was kind of fun. I don't know how someone could consider this a comedy or an action flick. It's not funny (nor is it trying to be) and there's some bar fight and another fist fight so that's weak to say it's an action movie. But there are two things this movie is loaded with and that honky tonk style country and western music (and some of the tunes are good, too) and...
YOWZA! The nudity in this picture is top drawer! After the movie I started reading up about the cast and director and it suddenly made sense. A lot of these folks (including director/writer Webb) worked in porn. The only name I recognize is Georgina Spelvin. But here's the kicker, everyone involved with this picture were earnest and made a good, mainstream movie...with a little bit leaning to the exploitation side of the drive-in movie crowd. The nudity is sprinkled about but it doesn't feel all that gratuitous. Where the boobs are on display there's a logical story-driven reason why. It works. I was pulled into this under false pretenses but I ended up enjoying it. I don't listen to C&W music and you don't have to to enjoy this.
The poster says Doda was the 1979 winner of the Dolly Parton look alike contest. I believe it.
And here she is from her glory days as a stripper at the Condor in the 60s...
Tagline: BOBBY DARIN . . . in the era of cool he was the soundtrack.
Plot: The biography of 1950s pop singer Bobby Darin and his wife, movie star Sandra Dee.
My rating: 7.5/10
Will I watch it again? Maybe.
Kevin Spacey's just got it goin' on all over the place. In this picture he directs, writes, stars, sings, dances and he probably was in charge or craft services or drove the trucks. He's a performing tour de force. It's got a lot of what you'd expect in any music biography but Spacey does play a little with the format so it's not stale like so many biopicks. There's lots singing and dancing along with some conflict but you do get a sense that even at the worst of it, it's all going to be OK and that Bobby & Sandra loved each other despite the hiccups. I'm not familiar with Darin's life but the end of the film has a title card that covers the bases on how this film took a lot of liberties. The one thing that stood out as the best scene was at the end when Bobby is singing the last song, The Curtain Falls, to the film's nightclub audience and we get a montage of a few events that include his death, and the scene that indicates he's dead is brilliant. The entire sequence is brilliant and beautifully handled. Loved it.
The Lionsgate DVD presents the film in anamorphic widescreen and the extras are a 17 minute making of featurette that gives you some neat behind the scenes tidbits, a commentary track with Spacey and producer Andy Paterson and some non-anamorphic widescreen trailers for movies with no relation to this one (Madea? Really? If you liked BEYOND THE SEA, you'll love...? Wow.)
Starring: Alan Rickman, Malin Akerman, Justin Bartha, Richard de Klerk, Johnny Galecki, Kyle Gallner, Ashley Greene, Rupert Grint, Estelle Harris, Taylor Hawkins, Ryan Hurst, Stana Katic, Joel David Moore
Plot: A look at the New York City punk-rock scene and the venerable nightclub, CBGB.
My rating: 6.5/10
Will I watch it again? No.
I've always heard of the club CBGB but I never knew much about it. This picture does a good job at showing you how it all began, the people involved and some of the antics that went on. Rickman plays Hilly, the man who made it all happen. He's in very laid back mode, something he was so good at. The music's good, of course. It's interesting but it's also trying to do the difficult task of condensing years into minutes. I would rather have watched a documentary, frankly. This picture felt like it was missing something. To offset the dour Hilly, comic book panels sprinkle the film with humor and names of the bands and members. It sometimes works but it's also somewhat at odds with the rest of the picture. A really good doc would give you the same info and so much more.
Plot: Girl band Le Tigre is best known for their sociopolitical lyrics,
electronic beats, and choreographed dance moves. Shot over the course of
the band's final tour , Le Tigre: On Tour, follows Kathleen, Johanna,
and JD's 10-year herstory of celebrating the legacy of feminism.
My rating: 7/10
Will I watch it again? No.
Never heard of them? They're an electronic feminist punk band that look and sound like an edgier Go-Go's. I first learned of them when one of their tunes was used in the British TV comedy, IDEAL (2005). They've got some really good tunes. This documentary spends time with them on their final tour, exploring their music, message and purpose. Periodically we get to see them perform a song in its entirety so if you're not familiar with them you get a good sampling of their music in this 72 minute film. It's fun spending time with the glas. It's not heavy but it's far from being a fluff piece. Fans of the band will want this Oscilloscope DVD. You get a 30 minute sit down with the band, 7 performances, 2 outtakes (5 minutes), a live show in Vienna (22 minutes), the band interviewed by Rattina the Puppet (3 minutes) and trailers for 5 other Oscilloscope films.
Starring: Scott Walker, Damon Albarn, Dot Allison, Marc Almond, David Bates, Jean-Daniel Beauvallet, Ed Bicknell, David Bowie, Al Clark, Jarvis Cocker, Cathal Coughlan, Rob Ellis, Brian Eno, Gavin Friday, Brian Gascoigne, Alison Goldfrapp, COlin Greenwood, Johnny Greenwood, Richard Hawley, Sara Kestelman, Ute Lemper, Lulu, Dave MacRae, Johnny Marr, Angela Morley, Ed O'Brien, Peter Olliff, Evan Parker, Simon Raymonde, Philiop Sheppard, Sting, Peter Walsh, Hector Zazou
Tagline: The long-awaited film about the most influential and enigmatic figure in rock history.
Plot: Scott Walker: 30 Century Man is a rare glimpse into the creative world
of the most enigmatic figure in rock history, and will trace the
undeniable impact he has had on popular music through casual interviews
with some of his biggest, highest profile fans. We explore his
fascinating trajectory, from jobbing bass player on LA's Sunset Strip,
to his domination of the British pop scene that began in the swinging
summer of 1965, to his transformation into a composer of true genius; an
uncompromising and serious musician working at the peak of his powers.
At age 63, over the course of 2005, he went into the studio again,
working on what could be his greatest artistic statement yet - and we
were invited to document part of this process - a privilege no filmmaker
has ever been granted.
My rating: 8/10
Will I watch it again? Maybe, but I'll definitely check out this guy's records.
For the first few minutes I thought that maybe this guy didn't exist and that I was watching a mocumentary but taken more seriously. It didn't take long before I realized this guy is for real. He's got an unusual singing style that's just wild. At first I wasn't digging it but then it started growing on me and before I knew it I was really into this guy's music. I was completely sold when it came to his solo output in the late 60s and even more so the more records he made. Now I'm really hooked and I'm thrilled that I saw this film AND that Walker isn't so reclusive that he wouldn't have participated. I can't stand it when artists refuse to discuss their work and career. This guy is cool. I want this cat's entire catalog. This picture has lots of interviews with people in the music industry as well as the bulk of the film with Walker. Naturally his music is everywhere and it's wild. Before this film I'd never heard of him. The Oscilloscope DVD has a few extras including extended interviews with 12 people including Walker (57 minutes), 2 extended bits from Walker's recording of his 2006 album (16 minutes), 9 minutes with the guy who has an AMAZING collection of Scott Walker (and the Walker Brothers) memorabilia (9 minutes) and trailers for 12 Oscilloscope pictures, including this one.
Starring: Steve Cochran, Mamie Van Doren, Ray Danton, Fay Spain, Louis Armstrong, Margaret Hayes, Jackie Coogan, James Mitchum, Cathy Crosby, Ray Anthony, Dick Contino, Irish McCalla, Vampira, Billy Daniels, Maxie Rosenbloom, Charles Chaplin Jr., Norman Grabowski, Bil Hickman, William Schallert, Guy Stockwell, Sid Melton
Tagline: Behind the Weird "Way-Out" World of the Beatniks!
Plot: A detective is assigned to track down and capture a crazed serial rapist.
My rating: 7.5/10
Will I watch it again? Yes.
Man, what a cast! The film starts off with Louis Armstrong and his band performing the title song and it's off to the fun from there. The Beatniks get made fun of plenty but without this being a comedy. It's part social commentary, crime, drama, serial raping, action, music interludes, poetry and abortion discussion. It's a wild scene! Can you dig it? This picture looks like it's just another cheapie crime film with some weirdo kids hanging out at a coffee house but it quickly turns into trying to catch a Beatnik serial rapist doing the deed on the detective's wife and all kinds of unexpected shit starts happening. This is a wild picture. What's more, it's tackling some really heavy subjects and throws in some fun music numbers to mix it up a bit. Did you see that cast? Ray Danton? Mamie Van Doren? Louis Armstrong? Vampira? And that's just getting started. There are a lot of familiar faces in this thing. It's pretty well acted. Some of the Beatniks over do it a little but that's OK. They're playing stereotypes of the day. The ending just. Keeps. Going. And. Doesn't. Stop. The filmmakers throw an incredible amount of material in the span of 95 minutes. You really get your money's worth. I taped this off of TV eons ago. I see now that it's on Blu-ray for around twenty bucks. As soon as it drops below fifteen I'm picking it up and showing it to the gang. They're going to love it. Why have I never seen this before? I never realized I missed so much. Find this one and watch it. It really is out there. Watch the video below. The rapist is about to do the number on the detective's wife while the detective is at a beat club waiting for the rapist to show up. That's Vampira reading the poetry holding a rat and the bald guy sitting next to the detective is Jackie "Uncle Fester" Coogan!!!!
Starring: Dan Conway, Ray Sager, Tom Tyrell, Ron Liace, Dennis Hickey, Ralph Mullin, Chris Wolski, Lawrence J. Aberwood, Neil Julien, Don Logay, Jack Horner, Colonel Harland Sanders
Plot: A sleazy record promotor tries to make it big with a local Chicago
garage band and plans to make them famous while keeping the profits for
himself.
My rating: 6/10
Will I watch it again? Maybe.
Horrible poster, fun trailer that tells you nothing. Man, there's so much potential here but the low budget, crappy filmmaking keeps it mired in semi-boredom. You get some groovy tunes, a despicable villain and a good story but you also get lots of bad acting (not necessarily a bad thing), lots of stretched out dialogue (these actors, especially Dan Conway, playing the evil record producer Boojie Baker, needed some advice on tightening up his lines) which drags the scenes down. Lewis could've done something about that. I dug the ending. It's got a Beatles/Monkeys fun vibe to it. The film is presented with a not too dirty non-anamorphic widescreen print. It's part of a Something Weird Video double bill with JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT
(1968) and, naturally, there's a ton of extras that are often better
than the films they support, although a commentary track from Lewis would be most welcome for this picture.. You get 10 trashy trailers, 2 fun and
trashy shorts, 3 intermission shorts, a gallery of drive-in exploitation
art with radio spots (usually I don't include galleries as an extras
because they generally stink like mad but SWV does it right and makes
them entertaining as hell) and this disc has a drive-in mode that mixes
the extras and the films together for one long night of fun. On that
alone this disc is a solid recommendation. That and a cameo by Col. Fuckin' Sanders!!!
Starring: Tony Adolescent, Art Alexakis, Tony Cadena, Rob Chaos, Chris De Wolfe, Joe Escalante, Fle, Lars Frederiksen, Josh Freese, Chris Gorog, Jack Grisham, Brett Gurewitz, Tony Hawk, Greg Hetson, Mark Hoppus, Jim Lindberg, Kevin Lyman, Michael McDermott, Tim McIlrath, Fat Mike, Mark Mothersbaugh, Duane Peters, Joe Sib, Nato Thompson, Rick Thorne
Tagline: Sometimes a little anarchy can be a life-changing experience.
Plot: What happens when a generation's ultimate anti-authoritarians -- punk
rockers-- become society's ultimate authorities -- dads? With a large
chorus of Punk Rock's leading men - Blink-182's Mark Hoppus, Red Hot
Chili Peppers' Flea, Rise Against's Tim McIlrath - The Other F Word
follow, Jim Lindberg, 20-year veteran of skate punk band Pennywise, on
his hysterical and moving journey from belting his band's anthem, 'Fuck
Authority', to embracing his ultimately pivotal authoritarian role in
mid-life, fatherhood.
My rating: 7.5/10
Will I watch it again? No.
Well here's something you don't see. It's interesting to see punk rockers of the 70s and 80s all grown up with families and adult responsibilities. It's not surprising that they all seem well adjusted. Flea had a heart-felt moment when talking about his rocky childhood as did some of the other guys. It's no surprise that these cats gravitated toward the punk lifestyle. They were practically born to it. It's good to see that many of them have stopped the cycle to be there for their children. Some still live a watered-down version of that lifestyle but they're having their children be a part of it. It's rather touching hearing these guys talk about their kids and family life. What a great idea for a film. The Oscilloscope DVD has some extras including a commentary track, 2 outtakes and an outtake compilation (13 minutes), A solo performance from Art Alexakis (of Everclear) singing "Father of Mine" and one from Tim McIlrath (of Rise Against) singing "Swing Life Away", 2 music videos from The Black Pacific ("Living with Ghosts" and "The System"), a SXSW Q&A (15 minutes), the theatrical trailer and 5 trailers for other Oscilloscope pictures.
Composer: song score mostly by Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean
Starring: Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Bob Balaban, Paul Dooley, Jim Ortlieb, Paul Benedict, Floyd Van Buskirk, Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Parker Posey, Christopher Moynihan, Jim Piddock, Don Lake, Deborah Theaker, Fred Willard, Ed Begley Jr., Larry Miller, Jennifer Coolidge
Plot: Mockumentary captures the reunion of 1960s folk trio the Folksmen as
they prepare for a show at The Town Hall to memorialize a recently
deceased concert promoter.
My rating: 8/10
Will I watch it again? Yes.
I absolutely adore Guest & pals' earlier film, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996). It's fucking brilliant. That means that I'm on board with everything else they do. I've seen them all a few times but I always go back to GUFFMAN. A MIGHTY WIND is VERY funny. Not only is it a great premise and story but the gags are all over the place and it's got a great original soundtrack. These people are so talented it's scary. The songs are fantastic. Yeah, they sound like they came from the eras they're depicting but they're also very well-written songs. "A Kiss at the End of teh Rainbow", as sung by Levy & O'Hara, is a beautifully touching song that plays an integral part in the heart of the film. When we reach the climax, we're not sure how the song is going to go down and it makes for a very sweet and suspenseful moment. My only real criticism of the picture is Levy's performance. He takes the goofy too far. I would have preferred that he toned it down a bit and not play it like a SCTV/SNL character. Grounding that character more would have made this picture that much more special. He does have his moments of funny but my eyes roll whenever he takes it too far. The Waner Bros. DVD has a few extras with a commentary, 15 additional scenes with optional commentary, 4 "vintage" TV appearances by the fake groups The Folksmen and Mitch & Mickey (with optional commentary), the PBN TV broadcast of the concert (with optional commentary), the theatrical trailer (anamorphic widescreen) and a soundtrack spot.
Plot: Tom Jones sings his hits in this TV special featuring sequined jackets in every color and sexy moves leaving not a single dry seat in the house.
My rating: 7/10
Will I watch it again? No.
I LOVE Tom Jones. He's one helluva singer and he can belt 'em out like nobody else. He's such a comfortable performer in the way he effortlessly sings and moves. Anyway, this DVD gives you the following songs (for laughs I've included what color of sequined jacket he wears):
1. Green Green Grass of Home (blue)
2. Daughter of Darkness (black)
3. Delilah (green)
4. Georgia On My Mind (no jacket, hahaha)
5. I Can't Stop Loving You (still no jacket)
6. She's a Lady (red)
7. Love Me Tonight (dressed like real estate salesman)
8. Spanish Eyes (red)
9. What's New Pussycat? (black)
10. You Are the Sunshine of My Life (green)
11. He Stopped Loving Her Today (green)
12. Endless Love (Theme from) duet with Dionne Warwick (blue sports jacket)
13. Unchained Melody (no jacket)
The man sure loves his sequined jackets. Naturally, Tom Jones is great. My only real issue is these arrangements (the music as arranged for the band/orchestra) aren't the same as the original recordings we all know and love. They're cheaper as if dumbed down for a cheap TV variety show with fewer performers. There's even a synthesizer playing some parts reserved for other instruments. The result feels cheap. I've searched and searched and I can't find any information as to when this was filmed. It had to be made after 1981 as that's when Endless Love was first recorded by Lionel Richie (who wrote the tune) and Diana Ross. The Tango Entertainment DVD runs 37 minutes and features 13 songs (not 12 as is listed on the DVD and the menu!). It also comes with trailers for MIKE HAMMER, CRACKER, ZULU DAWN, WILD GEESE, 1st & TEN seasons 1 & 2, AT LAST THE 1948 SHOW and DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET.
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