FILM REVIEWS

by Larry Carlin

Movie Magazine International

I wrote and recorded film reviews for MMI from December, 1991, until the show came to an end in the spring of 2022. Below are my more recent reviews followed by some from the early years. I wrote over 100 critiques in my 3+ decades, but at least half of them were on a (pre-computer) typewriter, and transposing them to digital a digital format is a long, slow process. Enjoy!

Dingo

March 30, 2022

All my fellow musicians were inspired to learn an instrument after seeing someone else play somewhere. And they all had dreams. Whether it was just to be good enough to play for their family and friends, or maybe at the local bars in town or to hit the big time while performing in concert halls and stadiums. Achieving this dream takes years of practice and experience, and more often than not, the reality of making a career in music becomes elusive. But this doesn’t keep folks from trying, and such is the goal of the protagonist in the 31-year-old Australian film called Dingo.

The story begins in 1969, in the fictitious town of Poona Flat in the outback of Western Australia. Three young kids are playing in the unpaved street when a private 747 plane carrying a band on tour has to make an emergency landing at the town’s tiny airstrip. It’s such a momentous event that the entire town jumps into jeeps and trucks and dashes out to see what is going on. The plane had some mechanical issues, and while it is being repaired the progressive jazz band sets up on the tarmac and plays some songs for the bewildered populace. Young John “Dingo” Anderson was so mesmerized that then and there he decided that he wants to learn how to play the trumpet like band leader Billy Cross. After telling Billy, “That was the best music I ever heard,” Billy says, “If you ever come to Paris, look me up.”

Fast forward twenty years later, where the grown lad leads his own band called Dingo and the Dusters that plays at the local town hall on weekends. During the day he does handy work and tries to trap dingos that are attacking sheep. He’s got a wife and two young girls, and they live in a funky house out in the sticks. But he’s never forgotten the jazz players he saw two decades before, so he secretly stashes money away, and one day, while on his way to a job to repair fences, he changes his mind at a crossroads and flies to Paris instead where, in less than 24 hours he is staying at his idol’s house and they go out to a jazz club where Billy arranges for Dingo to sit in with a smoking band where, of course, Dingo blows everyone away, before he then flies back down under without his family knowing where he’s been.

Yes, the premise is farfetched, as the story is basically a modern day fairy tale with so many holes in the plot that our handy-man hero could make a lot of money just patching them up. But the characters are endearing, the role of Billy Cross was played by jazz icon Miles Davis, and the soundtrack itself – by Davis and legendary French composer Michel Legrand – is worth the price of admission.

The film was originally released in 1991 to little acclaim, and it will have a limited theatrical re-release before becoming available on digital video in April. It plays out more like a fantasy TV movie, but fans of Miles Davis will love seeing and hearing him play on the silver screen for his last time in Dingo.

Blues on Beale

February 16, 2022

It may come as a surprise to listeners that some of us here at this show have to work elsewhere to support our movie reviewing habit. While I have been on the staff for 30+ years now, for the past 28 I’ve been singing the workingman blues on my day job in a high-rise office building on Beale Street in downtown San Francisco. So, when I first heard of new film called Blues on Beale, I was right on it, thinking that someone made a documentary about me! However, much to my surprise and satisfaction, while both streets are named after the same guy, this film is about another Beale Street, the one in Memphis, Tennessee.

While Nashville is known in some quarters as “Music City, USA,” Memphis, 200 miles to the west, has the title “Home of the Blues.” There are at least 20 nightclubs in and around Beale Street, and once a year The Blues Foundation hosts the International Blues Challenge, and the subject of this film is the event that took place in January of 2020, just before COVID shut down the clubs. There was no festival last year, and the next one will take place this coming May. The Challenge is a worldwide search for blues bands and solo/duo acts that are ready for the national stage but haven’t yet had their big break. Performers come from all over the world. Two years ago, there were 232 entries from 17 countries, and what the makers of this documentary did was to pick ten acts to follow during the quarterfinals. There are shows and interviews with the chosen bands as well as clips with former winners, club owners, record labels, writers, and more. But man, there was an abundance of artistry on the stages, and having been a talent judge for a different genre of music, I’m sure glad that I did not have to pick any of the winners here.

If you’re a fan of the blues and want to get a behind the scenes look at some fabulous upcoming acts before everyone else does, then you’re going to love watching and bopping to Blues on Beale. Make sure that you watch the credits at the end, as there is an all-star jam interspersed with are some hilarious outtakes.

The Tender Bar

January 19, 2022

It’s an age-old lament: “The book was much better than the movie!” Yet, Americans tend to watch way more movies than read books, because the former can be completed in an hour or two and at much less the cost, while the latter can sometimes take days to finish. Here’s a caveat that I am going to proffer right now: If you are going to watch a film after reading a book, wait a while, instead of doing what I did, which was to cue up Amazon Prime literally one minute after having read the memoir The Tender Bar.

“Coming of age” stories are grist for the mill in Hollywood, and people never seem to tire of them. Yet, rare is the time that the kid in these tales spends most of his youth in a bar. In this case, it’s Pulitzer Prize-winning author JR Moehringer who, while living in his grandparent’s house on Long Island with his single mom in the 1980s, got to hang a lot with his Uncle Charlie – played, ironically, by Ben Affleck, who has had well-documented issues with alcohol – and who was the main bartender at a nearby joint named Publicans in the town of Manhasset. JR’s absentee father was a ne'er-do-well deejay of some renown that the kid mostly got to know from hearing his deadbeat dad’s voice on the radio. His crazy grandfather – and who better to play such a part than Christopher Lloyd? – was hardly a good role model for the young JR either. So, it was left to Uncle Charlie and his denizen friends at the local gin mill to show the kid the ways of the world, and JR, who, at a young age, aspired to be a writer, was presented with a lot of material to write about after making his way, against all odds, through Yale and years of imbibing.

The Tender Bar was directed by George Clooney, and while there were countless changes made to the story from the book – including the ending! – in the end, it really doesn’t matter, as the gist of the story is still there, and as a result, Clooney and Affleck may be in the running for Oscar nominations in a couple of weeks. The teenage JR is ably played by Tye Sheridan, but one of real stars of this film is 10-year-old Daniel Ranieri, who plays the young JR. The kid, who had never acted before, got cast after Clooney saw him on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. Do a Google search for this, and you will not be disappointed.

If you’re looking for a wonderful new film that has no cartoon-like action heroes, explosions, car chases, serial killers or Adam Sandler in it, sidle on up to The Tender Bar. And while I highly recommend reading the book, just don’t do it right before watching the film, because you’ll get a terrible case of the DTs with all the changes.

Oh, and as for this Moehringer guy? If you’ve never heard of him before, you will soon, because he’s also been hired to write Prince Harry’s coming-of-age bio.

30 Years As a Reviewer/Swiss Family Robinson

December 15, 2021

December 11th marked my 30-year-anniversary on the show Movie Magazine International. Yeah, I know. Three decades. That’s a long time for anything. The average marriage in the US lasts eight years. Athletes are lucky to log 20 years in their sport. Few in Generation X will only ever work for just one company. Even longtime network news anchor Brian Williams left NBC last week just shy of 28 years. And while I feel fortunate to have been part of this show for this long, producer Monica Sullivan, co-producer Steve Rubenstein, webmaster Randy Parker, and reviewer Mad Professor Mike Marano have been here longer than I have. I’m proud to be part of this dedicated staff, and I look forward to many more years to come.

How did this all begin? Just by happenstance. In 1991 an acquaintance, who had been doing reviews for the show, had a last-minute conflict, so she called me in a panic to see if I could cover a forgettable film called The Last Boy Scout for her. I said, “I don’t know anything about writing movie reviews!” She replied, “You know how to write, you love films, you have an opinion, and you don’t have anything going on in your life.” Well, she was correct about the latter three. I’m still trying to figure out the first quip. 30 years later, I guess I must be doing something right.

Since the 11th was a cause for celebration, I tried to come up with a special way to commemorate the date, so what I did was I went and re-watched the first film I ever saw, and this took me back 60 years, when, as a wide-eyed seven-year-old, I saw the Disney pic Swiss Family Robinson at the Anthony Wayne Theatre in the town of Wayne, Pennsylvania. And rather than review it just as a jaded adult six decades later, my goal was to watch and imagine seeing it through the eyes of that impressionable red-headed kid from back in the day. By doing such, I was not disappointed.

The story is based on an 1812 novel that centers on a Swiss family of five that left Switzerland to escape the Napoleonic Wars and was headed for a new life in New Guinea. Their ship was attacked by pirates, the crew abandoned them, and in a storm, they end up – 150 years before Gilligan and the gang – on an uncharted and deserted isle, where in short order Father (he is never called anything but here) and his three sons – Fritz, Ernst, and Francis – use the remains from the shipwreck to build a magnificent tree house for them to live in while Mother provides for their daily well-being. It’s an action/adventure story that includes an array of jungle animals, pirates, danger, camaraderie, and even the introduction of a love triangle when a wayward girl becomes an extended part of the family. And the wrestling scene where Fritz is attacked by a giant anaconda? I had never forgotten this. The cast is first rate, with acclaimed actor John Mills as Father (he was also the real-life father of renowned Disney actor Hayley Mills), Dorothy McGuire as the always-perfectly-groomed-in-the-jungle Mother, James (Danno from Hawaii Five-O) MacArthur as the oldest boy Fritz, and Disney regulars Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran as the other two boys. From a seven-year-old’s point of view, this is a wonderful film for the whole family. If you can get your hands on the two-disc version, it’s well worth it as the bonus material is some of the best that I have ever seen.

But when viewed by a caustic and crusty critic? There are many issues. The family was locked below deck on the crashing ship by the wayward crew? How did they keep their clothes clean? What did they eat for food? How did the guys stay clean-shaven? If they were Swiss, why did Father speak with a British accent while the rest of the family sounded American? The last time I checked Robinson is an English, and not a Swiss, name. How did they get a pipe organ from the wrecked ship up into the tree house? What did the two dogs eat for food? And how did the young girl Bertie fit perfectly into Mother’s clothes while she was a good two inches shorter? If this film were made today animal rights activists would howl at the treatment of the animals, and there’s no way that the pirates would have been portrayed as stereotypical-for-that-era cutthroat Asians.

But such is one of the many marvels and mysteries of movies. They can be viewed differently depending on the era when they were made and by the age of the viewer. While I loved Swiss Family Robinson 60 years ago, after 30 years as a critic I’d have many questions.

All in all, I’ve had a wonderful time here on this show, I’ve covered about 150 films, and I’m not going anywhere. And, with any luck, I’ll still be here another 30 years from now.

Okay, probably not. But if movies keep getting made, and the good folks here are willing to let me offer up the occasional film review, I will continue and contentedly be signing off with the words “and for Movie Magazine, I’m Larry Carlin…”

tick, tick…BOOM!

December 8, 2021

It may seem kind of odd for me, as a musician, to admit that I am not a fan of musicals. Anything Goes, A Chorus Line, My Fair Lady? Even Hamilton? Nope. Zero interest. So, when I heard about a new biopic/musical about composer Jonathan Larson, who gave us the popular production Rent – which ran for 12 years on Broadway 25 years ago – I was ready to hit the snooze button. But then on November 19th I got an email from my friends at Netflix that said, “Larry, we just added a movie you might like,” and when I saw the unusual title, I remembered that I had also seen the West Wing actor Bradley Whitford recently on a talk show saying that he was going to be playing Stephen Sondheim in a new film, so curiosity got the best of me, and the next thing I knew I was cueing up tick, tick…BOOM! on the TV. And bam! I was hooked!

The story begins with the then 29-year-old Larson sitting at a piano in a theatre in 1990, describing the torture he was going through while trying to complete his first musical in just eight days before his impending 30th birthday. Since Sondheim had his first major production on Broadway at age 27, and Lennon/McCartney had already written their last song together by the milestone date, Larson feared that if he didn’t complete his dystopian musical Superbia by age 30 that he’d be done as a musical writer and would forever more be serving breakfasts at the counter at the local Moondance diner, where he worked to pay for his musical habit. The rest of the film shows him, his girlfriend, and others singing and dancing their way through the next eight days of agony with rehearsals, rewrites, rejections, and much more, including a couple of interactions with the renowned Sondheim. But this is all that I will say about the story. You will have to watch the film to find out what happens. Spoiler alert: If you don’t know anything about Larson, do not look at his bio until after you have seen the movie.

Speaking of Hamilton, this pic was directed by the amazingly talented Lin-Manuel Miranda in his directorial debut. Singing, dancing, acting, writing, and now film making? If this production is any indication of things to come, the 41-year-old Miranda has a bright future in Hollywood. But the real star here is Andrew Garfield – who played Spider Man twice and was also in the Social Network – as the driven and slightly maniacal Larson, and Garfield should garner a Best Actor nomination for performance. He also took singing lessons for a year so that he could play this part. The supporting cast is also fabulous, most notably Alexandra Shipp as Susan, Larson’s dancer and frustrated girlfriend. And while Whitford’s part is very small, he adds gravitas to his role as the now late/great Sondheim, who died on November 26th. Small and hilarious sidebar: When Sondheim was told that he was going to be portrayed by Whitford, his caustic reply was, “Never heard of him.” And, late in the film, that is the real Sondheim on the phone answering machine.

‘Tis the season to be jolly, so instead of wasting time watching holiday twaddle and blockbuster busts, head on over to Netflix to see the merry, mellifluous, and melodious tick, tick…BOOM!

Without Getting Killed or Caught

September 15, 2021

Love it, leave it, or hate it, the state of Texas has been in the news quite a bit lately. In my lifetime it’s given us a couple of presidents, taken one away, produced successful sports teams, hosted space ships to the moon, supplied the country with a lot of oil, etc. But to me, one of its best exports has been their singers and songwriters, from Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings to Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith and Steve Earle. All either are, or were, commercially successful, but there is one more guy to add to this list that many people may not be familiar with, and he is the subject of a wonderful new documentary titled Without Getting Killed or Caught.

Born in 1941 in the West Texas town of Monahans, Guy Clark started playing guitar at an early age, and was part of the ‘60s folk scene in Houston for many years, where he met and befriended another likeminded Texan named Townes Van Zandt, and they remained compadres for the next 30 years. In 1970 Guy hooked up with artist Susanna Talley, and the threesome soon moved to Los Angeles for a while – where Guy penned his signature song, “L.A. Freeway” (the title of this film is a line in the chorus) before heading to Nashville in 1971, where he and Susanna married a year later and lived for the rest of their lives. The triad had an unusual relationship – Susanna always said that Townes was her “soul mate” – while all three of them had hit songs recorded by others, which enabled them to live comfortably as artists and musicians. Guy recorded about two dozen albums but it wasn’t until his later years that he was finally recognized by his peers in 2005 by winning the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for songwriting, and then in 2013 he won a Grammy for Best Folk Album titled “My Favorite Picture of You.” As Emmylou Harris said at the Americana event, “In a town of writers, he really is our poet laureate.” Clark died in May of 2016 after a long battle with lymphoma.

Based on the diaries of Susanna Clark and Tamara Saviano’s 2016 superb book Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark, this is one of the finer music documentaries that I have ever seen. Not only are there excellent photos and video footage from over the decades, Tamara also had the luxury of having recorded interviews with Guy and Susanna, so the latter two essentially narrate their own documentary after they’ve been gone for many years. In a stroke of casting genius, the filmmakers got actress Sissy Spacek to read some of Susanna’s words, and she sounds exactly like her. Plus, there is some great artwork and animation by Mel Chin, a friend of all three of the main characters. Included in the documentary are insightful interviews with musicians Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Verlon Thompson, Vince Gill and multimedia artist Terry Allen, who created the crow sculpture at the end of the film that contains ashes from his late songwriter friend. And the song sung by Rodney Crowell while the credits are rolling is a co-write with Guy titled “Caw Caw Blues.”

Similar to Clark’s concert touring schedule, the film is now traveling the country and being shown in art houses in various cities, and for folks in the San Francisco area you can see Without Getting Killed or Caught at the Balboa Theatre from September 17th-23rd, with an added bonus of an appearance by the filmmakers after the 7:30 p.m. show on Saturday the 18th. You can safely attend without catching – or being killed – by COVID, as everyone must present proof of vaccination for all the shows.

Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something

April 21, 2021

Musicians and artists spend their careers trying to be as successful and creative as possible, hoping to become stars or, at the least, be the best at what they do in order to remain relevant and earn a living. Some use their fame to create spinoff ventures in order to further enrich themselves, and others use their notoriety to dabble in politics. But then there are the few that use their eminence to help others in worthy causes, and one of the musical heroes of our time was the late, great storyteller and singer/songwriter Harry Chapin, whose personal credo is also the title of a new documentary called When in Doubt, Do Something.

It was almost 50 years ago, in 1972, when Chapin took the music world by storm with his first big hit – a tune titled “Taxi” – that, at 6:44, was easily twice as long as the normal AM radio song. Two years later his classic “Cat’s in the Cradle” – that was co-written with his wife Sandy – shot to number one on the charts and made Harry a veritable star. But he wasn’t content with just playing concerts and making money. At the height of his career, he and his friend – radio host Bill Ayres – began lobbying long and hard to combat world hunger, something that became a cause célèbre for both of these men. About half of Harry’s concerts turned into benefits. In the late ‘70s he was one of the most socially active performers in America. But Harry and Bill felt that just doing concerts wasn’t enough, so they created the Why Hunger organization and also went before Congress to help establish the Presidential Commission on World Hunger. The tireless, handsome and charismatic Chapin was a tour de force, who, according to his musician/brother Tom, “wanted to change the world.”

However, the world was changed tragically 40 years ago this July 16th, when Harry, at the way too young age of 38, was killed in a fiery collision with a tractor trailer on his way to a benefit show in NY City. But his legacy lives on. The fight to end world hunger continues four decades later, and Harry was the inspiration not only for the Long Island Cares Harry Chapin Foodbank, but also major anti-hunger events such as Hands Across America, Live Aid, and USA for Africa.

Writer, producer and director Rick Korn’s documentary about this dedicated and transformative performer is inspirational and very well done. The photos and early film footage of the Chapin family are very endearing, as are all the video clips and interviews from his later years with family and friends. However, tissues will be needed about two-thirds of the way through this film even when you know what lies ahead.

On Harry Chapin’s tombstone are these inscribed words from a song he wrote:

Oh if a man tried

To take his time on Earth

And prove before he died

What one man’s life could be worth

I wonder what would happen to this world

Harry Chapin certainly proved what one person can do to change the world. We can only imagine how much else he would have accomplished if he were still with us today. When in Doubt, Do Something is a movie title – and five words – that should and will inspire everyone.

Zappa

November 25, 2020

I’ve been a small time musician for most of my 66 years, and coming from the world of country and bluegrass, I can honestly say that I’m not very familiar with rock, jazz and classical music. Sure, I knew some names of bands and artists, but until now I knew very little about the subject of a riveting new documentary with the title of just one word – Zappa.

No first name is needed, because just about everyone knows who the subject was. For the young or naive, we’re talking about the legendary late composer/artist/guitarist Frank Zappa, who was a tour de force on the rock scene from the ‘60s until his untimely death at age 52 in 1993, when he lost his battle with prostate cancer. In his teen years he was writing greeting cards and making short films decades before there were Smart phones, while listening to avant garde composer Edgard Varese and Black R&B singers, and leading his first band, a racially mixed ensemble called The Blackouts. In 1965 he formed his most well known band, The Mothers of Invention, and dozens of players were members over the years while the iconic Zappa led the ensembles while putting on theatrical productions on stage with his noncommercial discordant songs. While having just one wife and raising four kids in a suburban setting in Los Angeles, the haughty, hirsute hippie never used drugs during a career where he was constantly creating and experimenting with new sounds and concepts. He was very prolific, having put out 62 albums while alive, and 53 more since his passing, and his one big commercial hit was “Valley Girl,” an accidental tune he wrote in 1982 with his daughter Moon. When he was dropped by Warner Brothers, he started his own record label, Barking Pumpkin Records, something that was unheard of back in the day. He appeared before Congress and fiercely fought against censorship of rock lyrics in 1985, and in 1989 he was such a huge hit in the Czech Republic that he was named Czech Cultural Representative to the US during the Velvet Revolution. Ironically – and something he probably would not have cared about – two years after his death he was inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame, and in 1997 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award.

Director Alex Winter had unbridled access to the Zappa archives, and along with endless footage that Frank himself shot, there are countless scenes of him playing on stage along with interviews on TV shows and commentary by his late wife and many of his ex-band mates. He recorded and saved everything that he ever did, and the vault of tapes that he had in his house would fill a small town library.

While this documentary is not for everyone – nor is it going to be drawing huge crowds into theatres during the pandemic – it will also be available On Demand, Amazon Prime, and other online outlets, and Zappa-tistas are going to love every minute of this two-hour-plus retrospective.

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band

February 26, 2020

Over the decades, there have been groups of musicians that created a musical sound so unique that their impact lives on much longer than the time they played together. The ‘60s/’70s were a special time in rock and roll history, with groups like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and the Grateful Dead, whose recordings will be with us forever. One other ensemble of note from back then was the mostly Canadian group called The Band, and they are the subject of the phenomenal new documentary titled Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band.

Lead guitarist and main songwriter Robbie Robertson first started playing bass with drummer Levon Helm as members of Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks at the age of 16 in 1960. Other players that soon joined the Hawks were Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson. In 1964, they all split from Hawkins, called themselves Levon Helm and The Hawks, and in 1965 Bob Dylan hired them to be his backup band when he first went electric. Following this, after moving to Woodstock, NY, in 1968, they put out their first album – “Music From Big Pink” – and renamed themselves The Band, and their career took off. With ensuing classics such as “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Shape I’m In,” and “The Weight,” they became one of the premier quintets on the touring circuit. But like many combos, excessive use of drugs and alcohol began to take its toll, and this, combined with creative differences, led to serious sibling rivalry and a farewell concert in San Francisco in 1976 titled The Last Waltz, a show that was documented on film by Martin Scorcese.

Three of The Band members have since passed from either suicide, overdosing or cancer, and while keyboardist Hudson still performs, Robertson has gone on to have a successful career writing film scores and books. In 2016 he released an autobiographical treatise titled Testimony, which is about his musical career up until The Band’s final days, and this is what the documentary is based on.

This presentation, narrated mostly by Robertson, is a fabulous film that includes priceless footage and interviews, a sensational soundtrack, and commentary by Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Taj Mahal, Jan Wenner, and many others.

If you came of age in the ‘60s and ‘70s, if you’ve ever sung along to one of The Band’s songs, if you’ve seen The Last Waltz, or if you are simply a fan of great rock and roll music, then you and your family of friends will love Once Were Brothers.  

Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones

January 15, 2020

1969 was a momentous year in musical history. The Beatles played their final gig, Woodstock took place in upstate New York, Johnny Cash had a hit with “A Boy Named Sue,” The Who released their single “Pinball Wizard” and rock opera Tommy, and the Altamont Festival happened in Northern California. Perhaps a bit overshadowed by all these events is the fact that the Rolling Stones also fired one of their founding members, who, as fate would have it, mysteriously died a month later, and this is the topic of an intriguing new documentary titled Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones.

Unlike his blue-collar-background future band mates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Brian Jones came from a wealthy middleclass family, and as a young boy he played clarinet and piano. In his teens he took to jazz and blues, he switched to guitar, and in 1962 he ran an ad in the Jazz News, inviting musicians to audition for a new R&B group, and this is how one of the greatest bands in rock and roll history came to be. Before long they added bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts. In 1963 they had their first big hit with “Satisfaction,” and from there their career took off. But along with success came excesses in the form of alcohol, drugs, arrests, and more, with Jones being the most undisciplined band member. By June of 1969, fed up with Jones’ antics, the band fired him and replaced him with Mick Taylor. A few weeks later Jones was found floating at the bottom of his swimming pool. At this point – about two-thirds of the way through the documentary – this would have been an excellent film about the tragic life of an out-of-control rock star who was the first of many notables (like Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Cobain and Winehouse) to die at the early age of 27.

But, as noted above, the film does not end here. As it turns out, Jones died while having a party at his house that included some shady characters. And there were conflicting reports as to how he met his maker, which has led to decades of conspiracy theories. Was his death the result of asthma, as was first reported? Or, as the autopsy states, of a combination of prescription pills and alcohol? If so, how was there fresh (and not chlorinated) water in his lungs? Was there a fight or horseplay in the pool between him and a building contractor who he had fired earlier that day? Why did the police insist on calling it a “drug death” if there was a fight? Did the Stones have him offed so that they wouldn’t have to pay the $100,000 pounds he was owed?

All these questions and more are intricately detailed by writer/director Danny Garcia, who, along with using fabulous footage from the ‘60s, interviews Jones’ friends and acquaintances from back in the day. Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones is a fascinating look at the early years of the Stones with the multi-talented Jones that turns into a murder/mystery that, to the dissatisfaction of many, may never be solved.                                                  

David Crosby: Remember My Name

July 24, 2019

50 years ago, on May 29th, 1969, an eponymous album of folk-rock songs was released titled Crosby, Stills and Nash, and the music world was changed for the better. The recording had a profound effect on this 15-year-old fledgling musician, it paved the way for the singer/songwriter movement that followed, the trio played at Woodstock ten weeks later, and the album is listed at #262 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The members of the group have had their ups and downs with each other over the decades, and the main instigator in this category is the feature of an insightful new documentary titled David Crosby: Remember My Name.

From his early days in the Byrds, to the CSN&Y years, and as a soloist – his first solo recording, from 1971, is titled “If I Could Only Remember My Name” – David Crosby has had an amazingly successful career, as he still performs today at age 77. But it’s also amazing that, like Keith Richards, he is even still alive, considering all the drugs and alcohol that he consumed while also having two heart attacks, eight stents put in his heart, a liver transplant, and being a diabetic.

The movie begins with him talking in his living room with the film’s producer and longtime friend Cameron Crowe, and after a while they get into a car to take a tour of famous places Crosby played and lived in Los Angeles, before he goes on the road to play some shows with his band. His voice is still strong and he has released four albums in the past five years. Along the way he talks openly about songs that he wrote, women that he’s loved and lost, his long battle with addiction, his nine months in a Texas jail, and his contentious relationships with his former band mates. He admits that he made many mistakes along the way, and he says, “I have regrets about the time I wasted. And I’m afraid of dying.”

A bit worse for wear at this point in his life, the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is still here and, love him or hate him for his foils and the many breakups of the famous band, this documentary is an incisive – and hopefully, honest (with the diabolic Crosby, you just never know) – look into a complex and creative artist who has clearly left his mark in American musical history. The film flows easily, and besides the beautiful soundtrack there is a never-ending supply of fabulous footage that can’t be seen elsewhere. But don’t expect any CSN&Y reunions anytime soon, as way too many bridges have been burned over the decades, mostly lit by David Crosby, whose name surely will always be remembered.

Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation

May 29, 2019

1969 was a tumultuous year in American history. Richard Nixon was sworn in as the 37th president, Ted Kennedy drove a car into a lagoon in Chappaquiddick, Charles Manson’s gang massacred a bunch of people in Los Angeles, Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon, the Stonewall Riots took place in New York City, hundreds of thousands demonstrated against the war in Viet Nam, and perhaps most notable of all – at least, for this discussion – is that the Woodstock Music & Art Fair took place in August in upstate New York. 50 years later, in honor of that amazing gathering on Yasgur’s Farm outside the town of Bethel, there’s a wonderful new documentary titled Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation.

For those of you that are maybe too old to remember or too young to care, the three-day concert was put together by a group of guys that wanted to showcase some of the local musicians that lived in Woodstock, such as John Sebastian, Bob Dylan and Tim Hardin. Some of the guys had a recording studio, and they thought that putting on a concert would be great promo. Concerned about the hippie element that would be coming, the nearby town of Wallkill put the kibosh on the event, so the promoters scrambled to find another location on short notice, and they ended up 60 miles away in Bethel, but kept the “Woodstock” name, since posters and ads had already been made. Expecting maybe 50,000 people, 400,000 turned out for what became the greatest music concert in rock and roll history.

Instead of spending time talking with musicians or showcasing performances, award-winning director Barak Goodman combines previously unseen archival and festival footage with interviews of attendees, promoters, journalists and doctors. This is a behind-the-scenes look at the planning of the fest, how it happened, and how it forever affected the lives of those that were there.

“But wait,” you may be saying. “I already saw the three-hour 1970 documentary called Woodstock, which featured many of the acts that played the festival. Why would I need to see this new documentary?” While this is a valid question, I can guarantee you that you won’t be disappointed by this magical mystery tour back to a seminal moment in American musical history. And if nothing else – for all of you skateboarding, video game-addicted millennials out there – Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation will show you that you will never be as hip or as cool as your grandparents were. 

Horn From The Heart

October 4, 2017

The early 1960s were a turbulent time on the American music scene. The folk revival was starting to wane, the Beatles arrived in 1964, and Bob Dylan plugged in and played electric for the first time at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Amid this cacophony there was a young white harmonica player from Chicago playing the blues in a style not heard before. His name was Paul Butterfield, and he is the subject of the new documentary titled Horn From the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story.

Born to middle-class parents in the Hyde Park section of Chicago in 1942, Butterfield had a “Leave It to Beaver” style upbringing, playing flute in the school band and excelling in sports. He earned a scholarship to Brown University for track and field, but a knee injury early on sidelined his sporting career, so he headed back to Chicago, where his life would take a dramatic turn in another direction. Back home, while attending the University of Chicago, he met guitarist Elvin Bishop. He started hanging out in blues clubs, watching legendary African-American players such as Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter and Otis Rush, and he was inspired to start singing and playing the harmonica. Before long, Butterfield started his own band, hiring Wolf’s rhythm section – which gave him instant credibility on the blues scene – along with Bishop on rhythm guitar and the young phenom Michael Bloomfield on lead guitar.

They played clubs in Chicago and New York, and at the last minute they were booked to play at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, and it was there that they really made a name for themselves. Some of the bandmates were hired by Dylan to back him up for his set at the fest with their electric instruments, and that was a watershed moment in the folk music world. From there Paul’s groundbreaking multi-racial band began touring the country, and their debut album, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, was a huge success. They also got to play the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969, while band members came and went, and more albums followed. By 1971 the band dissolved, and while Butterfield formed new ensembles in the ensuing years, he never again attained the success he had in the late ‘60s. In 1980 he was diagnosed with peritonitis, and this, combined with excessive alcohol and drug use, led to his early demise at age 45 in 1987.

There’s an amazing amount of footage of Butterfield playing from his early days until the end, and filmmaker John Anderson has spliced it all together in this highly informative and entertaining documentary of a driving force in Chicago blues. Included here are interviews with Elvin Bishop, Bonnie Raitt, Maria and Geoff Muldaur, Nick Gravenites, former band mates, and family members.

Paul Butterfield was an amazing talent who lived hard and literally played his Horn From the Heart.

Chavela

October 4, 2017

As a working musician for the past four decades, I like to think that I’ve been around the block a few times while being part of some memorable shows. But my alleged musical career is just getting started compared to that of Chavela Vargas, who is the subject of a wonderful new documentary simply titled Chavela.

Born in 1919 in Costa Rica, Isabel Vargas Lizano was unloved as a child by her parents for being a tomboy. She left home at age 14 for the streets of Mexico, where there were more music opportunities than in her home country. She soon changed her name to Chavela, which is a pet name for Isabel. She played guitar and sang on the streets for many years, and she even had a brief friendship with the legendary painter Frida Kahlo. After turning professional in the 1950s, singing rancheras in her own unique style while dressing in an androgynous fashion, Chavela soon was filling nightclubs. She befriended well-known ranchera singer, Jose Alfredo Jimenez, one of the biggest stars in Mexico, and he helped her career immensely. Besides touring the world, she also performed for many years in Acapulco, a resort town where many artistic Americans went on holiday.

Along the way got to hang out, and party hard, with intellectuals and the elite of Hollywood, but eventually the heavy drinking started taking its toll on her. So much so that she disappeared from the music scene for 15 years while dealing with her demons. In 1991, she returned to performing at a nightclub in Mexico City, where a wealthy Spaniard saw her sing. He took her to Spain, where she caught the attention of longtime fan and noted filmmaker Pedro Almodovor, who was in love with her singing. He cast her in some of his films, and he helped promote her career, setting up shows in theatres in Spain, and even going so far as underwriting her debut – at age 83 – at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She continued to perform until shortly before her death in 2012 at age 93. Along the way she recorded over 80 albums, and to the surprise of no one, came out as a lesbian at age 81 with the release of her autobiography titled And If You Want to Know About My Past.

Chavela had a long and illustrious 75-year career, the likes of which most musicians can only dream of. She even overshadows Tony Bennett, who, while still out there singing at age 91, has only been at it for 68 years.

After all of this, if you are still scratching your head and wondering just who this amazing and fascinating singer was, not only do you have to go on line to search out her music, you also need to get out and see the new documentary Chavela.

We Are X

October 26, 2016

As a working musician for the past 40 years, whenever there is a music-related movie about to open I often get the call here at Movie Magazine. Playing mostly acoustic music, I was more than happy to cover the recent Glen Campbell, Carter Family, Leon Russell, and Wrecking Crew documentaries. But it was with much trepidation when I agreed to review a documentary about a mostly unknown – at least, in this country – Japanese glam rock/metal band called We Are X.

The band known as X Japan was founded in 1982 by childhood friends Yoshiki and Toshi. With wild hair, garish makeup and outlandish outfits – picture a combination of early David Bowie, KISS, and AC/DC – and you’ll get an idea as to what the band looked and sounded like in their early years. They went on to become the most successful band in Japanese history, selling more than 30 million albums at home and while touring the world. Yoshiki – the handsome, charismatic, and waif-like drummer and composer who has defied the odds having multiple physical ailments that would sideline most people – is one amazing drummer who often literally gives more than 100% during their shows.

And incredible lead singer Toshi will astound you while singing in English, which he can barely speak while being interviewed offstage. But bands are tough to keep together for more than 30 years. Along the way, some bandmates committed suicide, and when Toshi joined a cult in 1997, the band split up for ten years. But now they are back together and touring again, and a big part of this documentary was the four-day build-up to their epic show at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 2014.

We Are X was an Official Selection at the South by Southwest Film Festival, and it won for Best Editing at the Sundance Film Festival. And included here are comments by Gene Simmons of KISS, Marilyn Manson, cartoonist Stan Lee, and even legendary producer of the Beatles, George Martin.

Whether or not you are a fan of X Japan and their music does not matter. This documentary is totally engrossing from start to finish, a visual masterpiece that is very well done, with interviews, old photos, and amazing footage of the band playing on stage. While you may not be inspired to rush out and buy one of their albums after watching We Are X, you will be amazed and entertained from start to finish. Speaking of which, make sure you stay until the final credits, as this is when actual footage of the New York show can be viewed, along with some special guest commentary.

Older Than Ireland

August 17, 2016  

2016 marks 100 years since the Easter Rebellion in Ireland, an uprising that was short-lived yet led to the birth of the Irish Republic as well as the beginning of the end of England’s centuries-long rule of the Emerald Isle. To commemorate this occasion, filmmaker Alex Fegan got the clever idea to interview about thirty Irish centenarians that were born before the uprising began, and the result is his wonderful new documentary titled Older Than Ireland.

The Irish are known for having "the gift of the gab," and Fegan's subjects don’t disappoint here. A series of questions were presented to the folks, yet you never hear them being asked. They just talk very naturally, as if they are speaking directly to you. Questions such as what is the secret to living a long life, what are your memories of the Civil War, how have things changed over the years, where did you meet your spouse, what was the happiest moment of your life, what is your saddest memory, do you have any regrets, and how does it feel to live to be 100?

The interviewees are from all walks of life, and as you might imagine, their answers vary, with many having vivid recall of events from many decades ago delivered very forthrightly. Some of the folks still live on their own, some still drive, and almost all of them are sharp as a tack. The numerous Celtic accents are really thick here, but fortunately subtitles have been provided by the filmmaker. Most have fond memories of a long-lived life, and their stories are told with touches of humor and sadness, but with very few regrets.

Full disclosure: I am of Irish/American heritage, so I may be a wee bit biased when I say that I absolutely loved this documentary. I see my parents and grandparents in many of these characters, so I feel a kindred spirit with a lot of them. The film features no famous people, no actors, no special effects, zombies or cartoon action heroes, no car chases, and no script written by a room full of writers. With their lives spanning a century, and often times with a twinkle in their eyes, this is just real people telling stories of their lives. And while everyone here is literally Older Than Ireland, we can only hope that we will be as witty while having the luck of these Irish in our own lives.

The Winding Stream

 April 20, 2016

Lovers of bluegrass, old-time and early country music certainly know of, heard of, and have even sung songs by Johnny Cash and the legendary Carter Family from the 1920s. Some have even read the excellent book about the Carters from 2002 titled “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music.” But even if you have done all of the above, or if you have no idea who any of the family was, then you need to see the excellent new documentary called The Winding Stream: The Carters, The Cashes and the Course of Country Music.

In August of 1927, after seeing an ad in the newspaper, A.P. Carter, his wife Sara, and A.P.’s sister-in-law Maybelle Carter, borrowed a car and drove from Maces Spring, VA, to Bristol, TN, to record some songs for New York record producer Ralph Peer, and three months later the first Carter Family records were released. They got paid $50 for each song they recorded and a percentage of each copyrighted song and record they released. So A.P. went around to various towns and hollers in VA to collect more songs, and between 1927-36, they recorded around 300 songs.

Their big break came when they got a show on XERA Border Radio in Del Rio, TX, where their songs were broadcast all over the US. It was on XERA that a young Johnny Cash, in Kingsland, AR, first heard the Carters sing. Maybelle had three daughters called The Carter Sisters that also sang, and years later, after the Carter Family split up, Maybelle and the girls toured, and this is how the hot new country singer named Johnny Cash met his future wife and singing partner, June Carter Cash. They each had singing daughters from previous marriages, as well as a son they had together, and all of the offspring still carry on the Carter/Cash Family music tradition today.

The Winding Stream, produced and directed by Portland filmmaker Beth Harrington, weaves classic early film footage with cleverly animated sequences of the Carter Family singing their songs, along with using voiceovers and interviews with many family members such as Rosanne and John Carter Cash, and notable performers such as Mike Seeger, Jeff Hannah, Jim Lauderdale, Grey DiLisle, and Murry Hammond. There are also some scenes of current performers singing Carter Family songs and great outtakes from TV shows and concerts of Maybelle and The Carter Sisters, Johnny and June, and other members of the extended family. Most poignant of all are the clips of the late Johnny Cash in one of his final interviews, before he died in 2003 at age 71.

If you liked O Brother, Where Art Thou? and High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music, then you will absolutely love The Winding Stream, which will take you on a marvelous meandering journey through American musical history that you will never forget.

A Poem Is A Naked Person

July 8, 2015  

Sometimes years of hard work go by into the making of a film, and then the finished product never gets a general release, maybe goes direct to video, or is never seen by anyone. You would think that a filmmaker with the track record of noted Berkeley documentarian Les Blank – who was the author of almost three-dozen films over his career – would have had no problem releasing his film from 1974 that is titled A Poem Is a Naked Person. But amazingly so, it took 40 years to finally get it out on the big screen, and now you get to decide if it was worth the long wait.

The subject of this very oddly titled documentary is Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pianist/singer/composer Leon Russell, who in his younger days was a member of the renowned collection of LA studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew. He played piano on dozens of well-known recordings by such notables as Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Glen Campbell and Joe Cocker. From there he embarked on a solo career of his own, and in the early 1970s he had hits with such songs as “This Masquerade” and “A Song for You.”

In this film, Les Blank followed Russell around for two years, shooting all kinds of footage that is interspersed with scenes of Russell playing a live show at an unknown venue. While the concert footage is some of the best part of this project, a lot of what is included here is pretty strange stuff with some even stranger people that are never identified – including a disturbing scene where some guy feeds a live chick to his pet snake. There is some nice footage of George Jones, Willie Nelson and folksinger Eric Anderson singing some songs, but it is never explained what they had to do with Russell. There are also some nice scenes of Russell singing and recording songs off of his country music project titled Hank Wilson Is Back, but I know about this because I have the recording. This part of Russell’s career is never explained here either. 

The release of this documentary was delayed for four decades due to supposed “creative differences and music clearance problems.” Blank died in 2013, and his son Harrod spent the last two years working on the clearances. The film was produced by Russell and his one-time music partner Denny Cordell, but they had a falling out in 1976, which could be one of the reasons this flick was never released. In 2011 Russell told the Billboard trade publication that he didn't like the film, and that he didn't intend to release it. But now that it’s here, after watching this, you might find yourself scratching your head and wondering what it was that you just saw. If nothing else, longtime – and hopefully fully-clothed – fans of Leon Russell will be cueing up to see A Poem Is a Naked Person, and hey, if you want to see him play live, he is still out there touring, and he is coming to Bay Area this August.

Landfill Harmonic

May 27, 2015  

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” We’ve all heard this line before. We’ve also maybe worn hand-me-downs from older siblings, bought things from yard sales, or maybe picked something up from a vintage clothing store. But very few of us have learned to play classical music from instruments made from garbage, and this is the subject of the wonderful new documentary with the catchy title Landfill Harmonic.

Outside the city of Asuncion in the South American country of Paraguay, there is a giant landfill in an area called Cateura where the poor people, known as gancheros, sort through the trash looking for anything that can be sold or reused. These people live in ramshackle shacks adjacent to the site, where sanitary conditions, as you might imagine, are not the best. Favio Chavez, a recycling engineer with a musical background, wanted to help keep the kids from playing in the landfill, so he got the idea to start a music school and he began giving them music lessons.

Of course, none of the kids could afford instruments, so Chavez and Nicolas “Cola,” one of the gancheros, began experimenting with making violins, cellos and drums out of recycled materials from the landfill. The instruments were made from oil tin cans, forks, bottle caps, x-rays, and whatever else they could find. Over time, the Recycled Orchestra was born, and the kids became more proficient on these homemade instruments. They got invited to play at an event in Rio in Brazil, and before long they became an Internet sensation. One of the kids wrote to David Ellefson from the heavy metal band Megadeth, and Ellefson went down to Cateura to visit the kids. Soon the Recycled Orchestra played a concert on stage in Denver with Megadeth, they toured some with Metallica in South America, and they have been featured on the TV show 60 Minutes.

But even though fame has come to the kids of Cateura, fortune has not followed. They still live in meager quarters, but their spirits are amazing. Some of the original members of the orchestra are now teaching music to the younger children of the town. As orchestra director Chavez states in the film, “Music is a unifying force, and it can change lives. Culture is a basic human need, and if you have talent and you work hard, it is possible to fulfill your dreams in life.” If you are looking for an uplifting and inspiring film to take the kids to this summer, skip the blockbuster BS and take them to see Landfill Harmonic.

Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll

May 6, 2015

April 30th of last week was the 40-year-anniversary of the fall of Saigon to the Viet Cong in Viet Nam, which essentially brought the fighting to an end. Almost 60,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives fighting an insane war over there, while close to 900,000 Vietnamese perished. While everyone of an advanced age knows about this lurid history, what few people seem to know or care about is that the country of Cambodia also suffered dearly as a result of this war, and there is a new documentary out called Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll that will help you remember.

From 1953-1970, under the benign tutelage of his father and then of Prince Norodon Sihanouk, Cambodia tried to remain neutral in the conflict that was raging next door, and the capital city of Phnom Penh – known as “the pearl of Southeast Asia” – was a thriving, Western-like metropolis that had developed its own pop and rock and roll music scene that evolved from influences by French, Caribbean and British musicians as well as by American radio that was being broadcast to the troops in Viet Nam. Sinn Sisamouth was a huge star who adapted and spanned many genres, and the lovely Ros Serey Sothea was also very popular.

But in the late ‘60s, with Sihanouk struggling to keep his grip on power, the prince started making deals with the devil in order to keep his job, and one of those devils was a monster by the name of Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, who ended up using Sihanouk as a tool in his fight to take over the country. When the Rouge finally succeeded in 1975, they soon outlawed pop and rock music. Many people either fled the city or were forcibly relocated to the countryside, and before long the Rouge, while encouraging the peasants to rise up against the rich, not only destroyed everything foreign, they also began eliminating schools and religion while executing the doctors, artists and lawyers. Some singers were lured back to Phnom Penh under false pretenses to sing patriotic songs, and while both of the singers mentioned here did return, they were eventually killed by the murderous Rouge for being too influential to the masses. And so were two million others. For more details, just rent the Oscar-winning film The Killing Fields

There is some great footage in this film showing how amazing the burgeoning music scene was in Cambodia before the Talibanesque murderers ravaged the country between the years 1975-79. Filmmaker John Pirozzi presents a harrowing and horrible tale of cultural genocide, and this film should be required viewing in all high school history classes, because as philosopher George Santayana once aptly noted, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Once viewed, Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock And Roll will always be remembered.

The Wrecking Crew

April 1, 2015  

Music has an amazing power that can take us back to revisit deep memories that we may not have thought about in quite some time. If you saw Alive Inside, the documentary from last summer, you saw what powerful effect music had on elderly patients in nursing homes. Well, now there is a documentary out called The Wrecking Crew that is going to cause most baby boomers to be making endless non-psychedelic trips down memory lane.

“The Wrecking Crew” was an unofficial name given to a collection of LA studio musicians in the ‘60s that played anonymously on hits for countless bands and performers. They were a group of about 20-30 players that would be hired by just about everyone to play on their records in the studio. While some went on to fame on their own – including Glen Campbell and Leon Russell – other notables of the core group include drummer Hal Blaine, bassist Carol Kaye, and guitarist Tommy Tedesco, whose son Denny is the director of the film. Tedesco started making the documentary in 1995, when his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and though it took him 20 years to get the project completed – including a Kickstarter campaign to raise money – The Wrecking Crew is well worth the wait.

There are wonderful interview clips with Brian Wilson, Dick Clark, Glen Campbell, and the aforementioned Crew members, along with priceless photos and endless footage of the players in the studio. There are also some bittersweet moments, like when drummer Blaine talks about living on top of the world before losing everything to ex-wives and bad money management. And while there is a little bit of narration by Denny Tedesco, most of the time the players speak for themselves, all the while playing tunes that you will recognize from start to finish.

Some of the songs that the Crew played on include hits by The Association, The Beach Boys, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Sonny and Cher, The Monkees, Mamas and Papas, and countless more, and they were also the musicians behind Phil Spector's “Wall of Sound.” They played on instrumental hits such as “The Pink Panther Theme,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Mission Impossible,” “No Matter What Shape,” and “Classical Gas.” And there were numerous TV commercials.

Essentially, the Wrecking Crew played the soundtrack to the lives of anyone born in 1945 until the Crew’s recording era started to wane in the late ‘60s, when rock bands more and more began to play and produce their own songs. But this film is a must-see for music fans of any generation.

When you do get to see The Wrecking Crew, make sure that you watch it all the way until the end of the credits, because you will hear many of the songs they played on as well find out a lot more information about the Crew itself. The last line is the best of all, when the words read “No musicians were harmed in the making of this film, and no drum machines were ever used."

Happy Valley

December 3, 2014  

Adhering to the motto that “If it bleeds it leads, if it thinks it stinks,” the bloviating talking heads on the 24-hour news networks were out for blood when the Jerry Sandusky story first made national news three years ago this November. And now, before the story has even been resolved, there is a new documentary out about the sordid ordeal that is facetiously titled Happy Valley.

For any of you living outside of Central Pennsylvania, the Sandusky story may be a distant memory by now. He was the former longtime assistant football coach at Penn State who was accused of, and then later convicted of, 43 counts of child molestation while living in the town of State College, which is also referred to as “Happy Valley,” hence the title of this documentary. When he was first indicted by a grand jury in November of 2011, it was national news for a quite a while. Within days of the indictment, the revered head coach, Joe Paterno, was fired from the university along with the president, athletic director and chief of security, as they were all accused of complicity in the sordid affair.

At one point along the way, Paterno was alerted to some wrongdoing by another coach who caught Sandusky in flagrante delicto with a young boy in the shower room. Paterno alerted the aforementioned higher-ups, but nothing was done about it. Paterno was axed with one game left in the season after 40 years of coaching there, and afterwards students marched in protest in downtown State College, causing thousands of dollars of damage. A special prosecutor was named, and in July of 2012 the Freeh Report was issued, laying blame with all of the previously named characters above, along with alleging a pattern of abuse in order to protect the hallowed football program.

There is plenty of archival footage here, along with interviews with some of the folks involved with or affected by the situation, with director Amir Bar-Lev laying out the scenario but not taking any sides. But there are no interviews with any of the main characters or the victims, yet there is one highly irritating football fan student who gets way too much camera time.

Since three of the major players here have yet to go on trial, and there are now doubts about many aspects of the Freeh Report, it seems a little early to be releasing an incomplete documentary before the entire story is played out. Watching this now is like reporting on the outcome of a football game with one quarter yet to play. Happy Valley will have a very limited audience, and it will only serve to harden the stances of all sides of the issue, and after reliving this squalid story on the big screen, you may feel like hitting the showers yourself.  

Foxcatcher

November 19, 2014

Rare is the time when a feature film comes along when the subject matter hits almost too close to home to a reviewer, and even rarer still is when a drama that is “based on a true story” sticks pretty close to the facts at hand. But such is the case in both instances with the new film called Foxcatcher.  

Just about everyone is familiar with the corporate name DuPont, a so-called  “World Leader in Market-Driven Innovation and Science” whose origins date back 200 years. In 1987, in the suburban Philadelphia town of Newtown Square – about five miles from where I grew up – there was a huge mansion and estate that was inhabited by two rather eccentric heirs to the du Pont fortune, one John du Pont, played by normally comic actor Steve Carell, and his elderly mother Jean, in a small role by the great Vanessa Redgrave. The name of the estate – and hence the movie title – was “Foxcatcher,” and lonely misfit John, while being extremely wealthy, spent most of his life trying to please his domineering mother. As an amateur wrestler, he convinced two Olympic gold-medal-winning wrestling brothers to come live at Foxcatcher with him so that they could train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. John desperately wants to be their mentor and patron, as he also hopes to share their glory. But all is not well inside the head of Mr. du Pont, and soon after younger brother Mark Schultz – played by the totally believable Channing Tatum – arrives, John starts to behave a bit erratically. After older brother Dave Schultz – played by Mark Ruffalo – shows up to train his muscle-headed kid brother Mark, du Pont the enforcer tries to manipulate the brothers against each other to do things his way. But the older and wiser Dave starts to see that all is not well in paradise, and he begins asking too many questions. At the finish, you won’t believe that…uh, well, let’s just say that this is not going to be a fun-for-the-whole-family holiday movie. Whatever you do, don’t spoil the ending for yourself by Googling John du Pont or Foxcatcher until after you have seen this film.

If nothing else, Foxcatcher is worth the price of admission if only because of the performances of Carell, Ruffalo and Tatum. Especially Carell, who everyone knows and loves from his comedic turns in the films The 40-Year Old Virgin and Crazy Stupid Love, as well as for the TV series The Office. Given a greatly enhanced nose, he eerily embodies the role and looks a lot like the real John du Pont, and the betting here is that he will garner Oscar attention next year. The same goes for Tatum, who is perfectly cast as the short-on-smarts-but-big-on-brawn former Olympic gold-medal winner Mark Schultz. And wrestling fans everywhere will simply love this film just for the endless amount of wrestling scenes.

If you are hunting for something to watch this weekend at your local octoplex, catch Foxcatcher while you can before the lines get too long.

Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me

November 12, 2014

By now just about everyone either has heard about Alzheimer’s disease or they have had personal experience with it, perhaps dealing with an elderly relative. And anyone listening to this show that is over 50-years-old has probably heard of the country/pop singer Glen Campbell, who had a string of big hits in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. But most people don’t know that he is now dealing with Alzheimer’s, yet very soon they will, when the new documentary Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me hits the theatres this week.

Back in the day the multi-talented Campbell was all over the place, with monster hits such as “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “Galveston,” “Southern Nights,” and “Wichita Lineman.” Before he became well known, he was also an in-demand session player who was once part of the infamous Wrecking Crew band of studio musicians that played on countless hit songs in the early ‘60s. His first solo success was with the John Hartford classic “Gentle on My Mind,” he won four Grammys in 1967 alone, and he had his own TV variety show for three years. He was one of the biggest stars of his era, and he continued touring until two years ago, about a year or so after being diagnosed with the dreaded disease. But rather than just disappearing quietly from the stage, Campbell and his family decided that he would do a farewell tour and have a film crew along for the ride in order to show the world the first-hand effects of the debilitating and deadly Alzheimer’s. And this documentary doesn’t gloss over anything. If the movie theatres are smart, they will have boxes of tissues near at hand.

The 78-year-old Campbell was married four times and he is the father of eight children, ranging in ages from 28 to 58, and he has been married to his last wife Kim for 32 years. His three kids from his current marriage were also members of his touring band, and all are featured in this film. And while it’s painful for them to see what their father is going through, they are all very supportive. For the farewell tour Campbell needed a teleprompter for lyrics, and while there were moments backstage when it looked like there was no way that he was going to be able to survive on stage, it is simply amazing at how well he could still sing and play the guitar once he was in the spotlight. But there are other heartbreaking scenes where he can’t remember his kids’ names, or even identify himself and other family members while watching old videos.

Whether you are a fan or not of the amazingly talented entertainer, this is a very powerful and poignant film that will touch you in the deepest recesses of your soul. The Campbell family is to be lauded for presenting this sad and agonizing story for the entire world to see, and look for Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me to be in the running for Best Documentary at next year’s Oscars.

Frank

August 20, 2014

2014 is shaping up to be the year of the first-name film. Noah, Godzilla, Hercules, Lucy and Tammy have already opened, and soon we will have Annabelle and Jessabelle. One more name you can add to the list is Frank, a rather dark film that is about a group of strange musicians trying to make it in the music biz.

In the beginning, young, dweeby piano player Jon works his day job in a cubicle all the while trying to write songs. On lunch break one day he happens upon a band whose keyboard player is having some serious personal issues. Jon tells the band manager that he plays keys, and a few hours later he’s sitting in with the highly dysfunctional avant-garde group at a local club. The lead singer in the band – a presumed genius named Frank – wears a giant papier-mâché head at all times. Before he knows it, the next day Jon is off in the van with the band to a remote cabin where they spend the next year trying to record an album of bizarre original songs written by the enigmatic Frank. Even though the band members hate one another and him, Jon perseveres because he thinks this is going to be his big break. Via the Internet he even gets them a slot at South by Southwest, the yearly music festival in Austin, TX. Without giving too much away, things don't turn out the way they hoped, and the band – whose name is unpronounceable – has to figure out what to do next.

To be Frank, one of Hollywood’s handsomest lead men, Michael Fassbender, had to wear a giant fake head for the entire film. I only have to wonder if he owed the director Lenny Abrahamson a favor or something, because it doesn't seem like a wise career move. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays the angry and controlling Clara, and Domhnall Gleeson – son of well-known Irish actor Brendan Gleeson – plays the innocent and idealistic Jon.

As a longtime working musician, I can identify with these characters and the situations they end up in, but I don’t know if the movie-going public will get a lot of the insider music jokes or if they will care about these not-ready-for-prime-time-players. There are some funny moments, like when Frank has to describe his facial expressions that you cannot see because of his big head. Or when the band thought they would be famous in Texas because they had 7,000 hits on their YouTube music video.

Frankly speaking, director Abrahamson’s homage to fake-headed singer Frank Sidebottom, the alter-ego of the late British comic Chris Sievey, really doesn’t hit the big time. While Frank is a very odd role for Fassbender to be have taken on, it is a nice starring vehicle for the young Gleeson. But if you really want to see a member of the renowned red-headed Irish acting family in a movie this weekend, you may want to see dad’s new film Calvary instead.

Alive Inside

August 6, 2014 

Everybody loves music. Maybe not the same kinds, but whether it be classical, country, bluegrass, folk, pop, or whatever, everyone has their favorite style that they like to listen to. Music can have a magical effect on people, and as a professional musician for 40+ years now, I never realized just how much power music can have until I saw the new documentary called Alive Inside.

Dan Cohen had been a volunteer at assisted living homes for many years, dealing with seniors with dementia, when he discovered how some of the patients reacted when they heard some music that they were familiar with from their younger days. He invited documentary filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett to come and follow him around for one day, and Rossato-Bennett ended up following Cohen for three years. There are many heartwarming examples of heavily sedated seniors sitting practically comatose in wheel chairs that can’t even tell you their names or recognize themselves in photos. But when Cohen slips headphones on them and plays music from their era on an iPod, their eyes and faces come alive with joy as the music takes them back to a happier time in their lives. A few years back there was a six-minute video going around on the web featuring 94-year-old Henry, one of the people featured in this film, and the video has since racked up over 10 million hits on YouTube. Henry didn’t even know his own daughter when she came to visit. But when Cohen plays him big band music from the ‘30s, you’d better have tissues nearby, because the way that Henry reacts is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes. And while brief appearances by Dr. Oliver Sacks and singer Bobby McFerrin give Alive Inside star power, the real stars of this story are the seniors.

Cohen has since founded an organization called Music & Memory, and through his tireless efforts – and all the while battling a moribund medical system that relies heavily on keeping patients medicated – he has now gotten music into over 650 assisted living facilities. But there is still a long way to go towards changing how we treat our elders. As filmmaker Rossato-Bennett states at the end of the film, “Together we’re going to bring life into the places where it’s been forgotten, and together, we’ll listen.”

Having performed countless times in retirement homes for special needs patients for the amazing Bay Area organization called Bread & Roses, I have to tell you that some of my most memorable and gratifying moments while playing music have been on these occasions. As the Greek philosopher Plato supposedly once said, “Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” This weekend, you will have the chance to witness this yourself when you go to see Alive Inside, the winner of the Audience Award at 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

Shadow Dancer

June 5, 2013

The heyday of the conflict in Northern Ireland – otherwise known as “The Troubles” – was from the 1960s until 1998, when the “Good Friday Agreement” was signed. While tensions still remain, the bombings and shootings have subsided, and rare is the time anymore when we hear about Belfast in the evening news. Now there is a new film called Shadow Dancer that takes a look back at how families were pitted against one another during this sad and unfortunate era of Irish history.

The film begins in 1973, when young Collette McVeigh witnesses the death of her little brother in a crossfire shooting. This one horrific moment has a profound effect on the rest of her life, as 20 years later the adult single-mother Collette, played by Andrea Riseborough, is caught up in the sectarian violence along with her other siblings. She gets captured by Mac, played by Clive Owen, of the MI5, the British Security Service, and Mac convinces her to become an informant on the Irish Republican Army in order to keep her from going to jail and to protect her son’s welfare. Before long Collette is in a constant state of turmoil as she gets caught up in a web of intrigue among her siblings and friends when a planned assassination goes awry, and suddenly the I.R.A. suspects someone within her family of being a snitch. Meanwhile, Mac has his own problems to deal with within the MI5, as he feels that he is being set up and used by his boss Gillian Anderson, who has her own plans for dealing with the feared I.R.A. It gets to a point where both Collette and Mac don’t know who to trust, and as you might expect in a story such as this, there can’t be a happy ending. And in this case, you will be shocked and surprised how things play out.

There are two definitions of a shadow dancer. One is “a person that dances alone,” which certainly describes Collette’s ordeal. And the other is “throwing shadows of dancers on a screen,” which describes the way Mac tries to manipulate Collette, though not always with the desired outcome.

Shadow Dancer, a joint UK/Irish production that has won multiple British and Irish film awards, was directed by James Marsh, whose documentary Man on Wire won an Oscar in 2008. This is a gripping, tautly written and superbly acted thriller that will make any family foibles of your own pale in comparison to living during The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

April 4, 2007

It’s time again for another Irish history lesson. Ten years back director Neil Jordan brought us Michael Collins, a film about one of the leaders in the Irish War of Independence that took place in the early 1900s. Now there is a new film by acclaimed director Ken Loach that covers the same period from a different perspective, and it’s called The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

The year is 1920, and the Irish are battling to get out from under British domination. The army has pulled back and the so-called “Black and Tan” mercenaries have been sent in to try and keep order with brutal force, fear and intimidation. Two young brothers, Teddy and Damien O’Donovan, get caught up in the struggle for independence. Damien is studying to become a doctor, and he is about to go to London to continue his education. The thugs come to his village, round up all the lads and end up killing his friend Michael solely because he purposefully spoke Gaelic to the goons instead of English. Then, once Damien sees the goons beat the engineer of the train that is supposed to take him to the boat that will get him to England, he has seen enough, and he joins with his brother Teddy and friends in the IRA. They both become leaders within the movement as they take up arms in the guerilla warfare against the oppressor. Along the way they get ratted out by an informant, they get captured, one of the brothers is subjected to brutal torture before they escape, and one falls in love with a local lass who hides guns in her mother’s house. Eventually, after meeting out justice against the goons and the informant, word arrives that a truce has been agreed to. Teddy wants to keep on fighting, and Damien insists that they let the Irish Provisional Government call the shots. But when the treaty is officially signed, there is outrage among part of the IRA because they will have to swear allegiance to the Crown and will not have total independence. One of the brothers says that the struggle for complete freedom must continue, and one says that they must abide by the treaty because it is the best offer available to them, thereby pitting sibling against sibling in an unforeseen battle that no one can win.

Never one to surrender to the lure of Hollywood, iconoclastic director Loach, director of other gems such as the gritty working-class send-up Riff-Raff and the political thriller Hidden Agenda, has created a powerful tour de force here with a cast of relatively unknown but excellent Irish actors. The film won the Golden Palm award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and it should get some attention for an Oscar nomination in 2007.       

The title of The Wind That Shakes the Barley comes from a traditional Irish folk song from the 18th century and seeing this film will more then barely shake you to bottom of your soul. 

Nashville

December 13, 2000

After seeing the film High Fidelity recently I was inspired to take a look at my own little top ten list, the one I made many years back for my favorite films. It was obvious to me that it was well past time for a recount of my votes, since I had not updated it in about 10 years. Yet there was one movie on the list that caught my interest, and I wondered if it still stood the test of time – 25 years, to be exact. So off to the video store I went to take a trip back to Nashville.

Nashville is Robert Altman's gleaming montage with a political backdrop that takes place over the course of a few days in America's country music capital. Politics, music, racism – they are all served up on director Altman's palette. There is a cast of 24 colorful characters, many of whom interact with each other, with wonderful performances by all. Keith Carradine, Karen Black, Henry Gibson, and Ronee Blakley play established country singers; Michael Murphy is a sleazy political hack who lies to everyone he meets; Jeff Goldblum and Shelly Duvall are wackos living on the fringe; Barbara Harris and Gwen Wells are marvelous as singer wannabees; and Geraldine Chaplin is delightfully irrepressible as "Opal from the BBC." Some of the actors – Gibson, Blakley, and Carradine – wrote some of the songs they sang in the film. Carradine's tune, "I'm Easy," won an Oscar for Best Song, and its hilarious when he sings it in Nashville, as there are four women in the audience who think the song is being sung to them.

Director Robert Altman – who has given us such classics as M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Short Cuts – released Nashville in 1975, and even at 159 minutes the film just flows right along. There is great editing in the recording session and bar scenes, and the musical performances -- especially Blakley and Gibson's parodies of famous country artists -- are right on target. Eerily, Hal Walker – the ominous Replacement Party candidate whose voice you hear throughout the film but whose character you never see -- has one promise in his platform that everyone would agree with today. He says, "I think we should remove all the lawyers from congress."  Too bad he wasn't running in the year 2000.

If you are as big a fan of Nashville as I am and you yearn for more info about this unforgettable film, there is a new book called The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman's Masterpiece by Newsday film critic Jan Stuart. Movies are often made from books, but rare is the time when a book is written about a movie. Any way you look at it, Nashville is well worth the visit.

The General

February 3, 1999

There have been a few fine flicks coming out of Ireland lately. You recoiled in horror at The Butcher Boy, you had some great laughs in Waking Ned Devine, and you might have shed a tear or two after Dancing at Lughnasa. There have been countless films about the IRA and The Troubles, but now there is a new film by John Boorman about an unusual subject -- an Irish gangster -- called The General.

Based on the real-life exploits of a modern day criminal mastermind, The General stars little-known actor Brendan Gleeson as the late Martin Cahill, a man who spent his life living outside the law while in full view of same. Reared in poverty as a child, Cahill was an enigma to most people in Ireland as well as being downright infuriating to the police, who are led by a vexed Inspector named Ned Kennedy, played by Jon Voight. Even though the police watched him around the clock he was still able to evade and embarrass them by pulling off some of the most spectacular heists in modern times.  A pudgy, balding fellow whose face was rarely photographed, Cahill lived a most unusual life for an Irishman -- he cohabited and sired children with both his wife and sister-in-law, he did not drink or smoke, and he also did not use drugs. With his army of hapless henchman the General defied the powers that be of the police and the church as well as the IRA and the Loyalists to the Crown. And all the while riding around Dublin on his trademark Harley-Davidson motorcycle! Eventually the police stepped back and let the IRA "take care" of Cahill in 1994 -- which does not give away any surprise ending, since this happens in the opening moments of the film.

The General is a fascinating film written, directed, and produced by filmmaker John Boorman, who won the Best Director Prize at last year's Cannes Film Festival. His credits include the films Deliverance, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, and Hope and Glory. Boorman knew of Cahill more than most people -- his own home was robbed by the guy and you see Cahill smashing Boorman's gold record that he received for the "Dueling Banjos" song. Brendan Gleeson, whose face may be familiar from the films Braveheart, The Butcher Boy and Michael Collins, has been described as "the Irish Depardieu," and he is marvelous as the cunning and conniving Cahill. Eamonn Owens, who starred as The Butcher Boy, plays the delinquent Cahill. And Jon Voight -- together again with director Boorman for the first time since Deliverance -- delivers as the irritated Inspector.

Filmed in color but printed in black and white, this is neither a happy film nor a glorification of a Gaelic gangster. More a character study of a true Irish character than an homage to a renegade, The General is worth saluting as one of the better films to come from the Emerald Isle.

The Butcher Boy

April 15, 1998

Art, as the saying goes, sometimes has a way of imitating life. In 1979, the film The China Syndrome came out at the same time that the Three Mile Island near-nuclear disaster took place in Pennsylvania. A few short months back the film Wag the Dog played in movie houses just before the President's supposed sexual forays became front-page news, and recently Primary Colors was released. And now, in a case of eerie timing after the shootings in Arkansas three weeks back, comes the tale from Ireland of a violent lad who commits a heinous crime without so much as a dash of remorse in the new Neil Jordan film called The Butcher Boy.

The setting is a small town in Ireland in the early 1960s. Young Francie Brady reads comic books and plays cowboys and Indians with his only friend Joe while his frail mother is on the verge of insanity and his useless father drinks himself into oblivion. An encounter with Mrs. Nugent, a snooty neighbor woman – who calls the Bradys "pigs" – sets Francie off in a downward spiral that he never recovers from. His mother is taken off to the "garage" (a euphemism for a mental hospital), his father drinks himself to death, his friend Joe tries to distance himself from the feckless Francie, he gets sexually abused by priests, and Francie blames all his bad luck on his neighbor Nugent, eventually exacting revenge in this darkly tragi-comic film that will both leave you laughing at, and loathing, the wee lad.

Director Neil Jordan of The Crying Game fame co-wrote the screenplay along with Patrick McCabe, who wrote the book called The Butcher Boy. Eamonn Owens, in his stunning acting debut, plays the menacing Francie, the 12-year-old with the out-of-control imagination, who is every parent's worst nightmare. Stephen Rea, who has made six films now with director Jordan, plays Francie's drunken dad and he also provides the voice of the adult Francie who tells the story in flashback. And in a stroke of sarcastic casting, Sinead O'Connor plays the Virgin Mary apparition who Francie turns to for advice throughout the film. The Butcher Boy is a well-written, well-acted tour de force that also won Jordan the 1998 Berlin Film Festival's Silver Bear Award for Best Director.

For those of you looking for the usual paddywackery found in far too many Irish films of yore – leprechauns, shillelaghs, and all-knowing clergy – you will not be amused with the antics of cute little Francie Brady. But for those of you who ask, "How could those boys in Arkansas shoot their fellow classmates?" The Butcher Boy may give you clue.

Some Mother’s Son

December 25, 1996

Judging by the numbers of people in this country who don’t vote in elections most Americans seem not to care too much about politics. Sure, there are those who get involved when something is about to affect them personally, but for the most part people opt out of the political process. So try imagining what it would be like to be so involved in a cause that you’d be willing to starve yourself to death for it, and you’ll begin to get an idea what the new film Some Mother’s Son is all about.

The year is 1980, and IRA prisoners in the infamous Maze Prison in Northern Ireland are trying to gain recognition as political prisoners by the Thatcher government in England. In order to bring world attention to their cause, some of the lads begin a deadly hunger strike, led by the late Bobby Sands. Against this backdrop two mothers from different backgrounds come together to face a situation that most parents hope they will never have to endure. Helen Mirren stars as pacifist school teacher Kathleen Quigley, and Fionnula Flanagan is the hardworking farmer and IRA supporter Annie Higgins, whose sons are captured by the British after blowing up a truck, and during their arrest a soldier is killed. They are sentenced to long terms in the Maze Prison, and shortly thereafter they become involved in the famous hunger strike that began with Bobby Sands and led to the deaths by starvation of Sands and nine of his comrades in 1981. The only way a hunger striker, after losing consciousness, can be saved, is if a parent steps in and decides to have him fed. Both Kathleen and Annie are faced, literally, with a life or death decision as to whether to save their sons lives or to let them die for the cause they are willing to die for.

Some Mother’s Son is brought to you by the makers of In The Name Of The Father, another powerful political film from Ireland from a few years back. Terry George and Jim Sheridan wrote Father, and Sheridan directed it. This time around George makes his directorial feature film debut. The main characters in this film are fictional yet there are nameless mothers all over the world, in Bosnia, Jerusalem, Lima and still in Northern Ireland today, who grieve over the losses of sons who died for some cause or another. The British have been railing against this film for being pro-IRA, though the deaths of ten hunger strikers seems as senseless now as it did 15 years ago.

Not a fluffy, lightweight holiday movie that will be forgotten by the New Year, Some Mother’s Son is a heavyweight film that may still be around come Oscar time. And coming on the heels of the other factually-based Irish political epic Michael Collins, it’s plain to see that in some parts of the Old Sod that little has changed in the ensuing 60 years between the two eras of the films.

Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision

November 1, 1995

The Vietnam War was a devastating and divisive issue here in the U.S. in the late 60s and early 70s. For some, the war has never ended, and for others, another major battle was waged in Washington, DC, in 1980 when the first steps were taken to create a Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The new film, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision is a documentary describing the drama behind the design of the controversial memorial.

Maya Lin was just a 21 year-old architectural student at Yale when she entered the competition for the design of the structure. She beat out over 1400 contestants, and from the getgo there was opposition to her work from right-wing elements who hated her proposal, and hated her for the fact that she wasn't a veteran, that she was a woman, and, worst of all, that she was Asian-American. Hearings were held, and such notables as former Secretary of the Interior James Watt and columnist-now-Presidential-gasbag Patrick Buchanan fought for changes. Eventually some minor compromises were made, and Maya Lin's work honoring those who served in Vietnam finally opened in 1982, and continues to this day to be a powerful reminder of the futility of war.

However, all of this takes place in the first third of the film. The rest of the time is spent watching Maya Lin design other works of lesser renown, and therein lies the problem with this documentary. It bogs down rapidly as we follow Lin for the next 10 years drawing at her desk, walking in her hometown, and directing construction workers on her subsequent projects. She speaks in a monotone, and unless you're an architectural student, you may find the second two-thirds of this film rather tedious.

And, amazingly so, this won an Oscar for Best Documentary in 1995! It must have been a slow year for that category, and the filmmakers have to be glad that Hoop Dreams was not chosen as one of the finalists.

For those of you who've seen the previews for Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision and think that the film is going to be all about the making of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, it's not. And that's too bad, because it would have made for a more compelling documentary. While Maya Lin may have a strong, clear vision about her architectural work, it may not be of much interest to you.

War of the Buttons

November 1, 1995

As war rages on in the Balkans most Americans scratch their heads and wonder what the fuss is all about. Without a scorecard it's hard to determine who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, and just what the heck are they fighting over. Unfortunately, kids sometimes learn bad habits from adults, and such is the case in the War of the Buttons.

Based on a French novel and produced by acclaimed filmmaker David Puttnam, War of the Buttons is a comedy/drama about the intense rivalry between kids from adjoining villages in the southwest of Ireland. Just why the kids hate each other so much is unclear. The good guys, and the poorer of the two, the Ballys, are led by the streetsmart Fergus, and the bad guys, the Carricks, are led by a sharp lad named Geronimo. Almost daily the kids do battle with one another, with the goal being the capture and humiliation of hostages. The harshest form of punishment inflicted by the victors is the cutting off of all of the hostage's buttons before he is set free. Ah! if only war was so simple in real life! Eventually the rivalry that develops between the opposing sides gets so heated that adults are drawn into it, and before the button war is sewn up young leaders Fergus and Geronimo learn some very adult life lessons along the way.

The War of the Buttons features a pack of new young Irish actors who, quite refreshingly, are not the usual cute/young/smart-aleck brats normally found in Hollywood movies. The only name actor in the film is Colm Meaney, and he has but a bit part. The screenplay was written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Collin Welland, who collaborated with producer Puttnam on Chariots of Fire, and director John Roberts marks his feature-film debut.

War of the Buttons, while not a great film, is reminiscent of John Avnet's film from last winter The War. And while this "war" film is a child's view of adulthood, there are more than a few adults -- whether it be Crips versus Bloods in L.A. or those Bosnian, Serb and Croation leaders meeting for peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, this week -- who could learn some serious lessons about the stupidity and futility of war by seeing the War of the Buttons.

The Bridges of Madison County

May 31, 1995

Most of you know the story by now. Or I should say that most of you women know it, as the book by Robert James Waller has been on the best-seller list for over three years. This summer the guys have Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Gene Hackman to fulfill their fantasies, while you gals have Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep to swoon over in the film version of the book The Bridges of Madison County.

For the uninitiated, here is a brief recap: brother and sister, now in their 40's, are rummaging through dearly departed Mom's papers and they find some revealing journals from 20 years back. Turns out that Ma had an affair while they were out of town with Pa. Flashback to 1965. Lost National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid, played by Eastwood, stops by an Iowa farmhouse to ask directions. Lovelorn housewife Francesca, played by Streep, falls for the photostud almost immediately. Sparks fly in the humid Iowa heat. Possible life-changing decisions need to be made. And hearts break, as things will never be the same again for our two star-crossed heroes.

Eastwood directed this schmaltzy saga about two unfulfilled lovers whose brief four-day fling will have you sappy sentimentalists sniffling silently while us cynics will be "unforgiven" by fans of the book for not being moved by this light-weight tale that contains more corn than the fields of Iowa. Eastwood is flat and wooden in this 1960's sensitive guy role. In the restaurant scene I was hoping he'd pull out a .45 Magnum and blow away the close-minded local yokels. Streep looks dowdy and her Italian accent sounds more Slavic than Mediterranean. And the actors who play Streep's adult children are incredibly awful.

The so-called Christian Coalition will rail against Bridges because it glorifies adultery. But you fans of the book won't care, although you may be upset with the changes the screenwriter made in the story. And the Iowa Tourist Board will make tons of money this summer off the faithful who want to see the real bridges featured in the film.

This bridge has been crossed a zillion times already in Hollywood, but if predictable cornball soap operas are your thing, then go see The Bridges of Madison County.

Crimson Tide

May 17, 1995

The summer season is almost upon us, and to moviegoers that means a blockbuster bonanza of big budget films will soon be playing at your neighborhood octoplex. I have no doubt that fans of this show can hardly control themselves knowing that Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and the film Waterworld will soon be here. In the meantime, the first action/adventure thriller of the summer has risen from the depths of Hollywood, and it's called Crimson Tide.

Unless you've been out of the country you've no doubt heard of this film already. Crimson Tide is yet another in a series of submarine movies, and this one stars Gene Hackman as the captain and Denzel Washington as the executive officer. A wacky Russian Nationalist -- not unlike real-life politico Vladimir Zhirinovsky -- and a rebel Red Army faction have seized control of a nuclear missile base, and they threaten the U.S. The sub, dubbed the Crimson Tide, is sent to the coast of Russia as a deterrent. A message comes that the rebels have decided to launch an attack, so Hackman gets the ship ready to strike first. But guess what? In a battle with a Red sub the Tide's radio goes down just as a second message is being received. Denzel says they can't attack because the interrupted message may be an order to disregard. Gene says he's going to nuke the Russkies anyway. And for the next hour, as the clock ticks away and tension supposedly builds, it's old-school vs. new-school, hawk vs. dove, seasoned-yet-unstable vet vs. rookie upstart. There's a coup. There's a counter-coup. Everyone's cooped up in the sub, and tempers flare while time winds down. If you haven't figured out the rest, you can pay seven bucks to find out who wins this "voyage to the bottom of the sea."

Crimson Tide set a box office record for 1995 and it will make a lot of money. While many of my movie critic cohorts are raving about this film, I'm going against the flow by saying the only tension I felt was from being cooped up in a crowded movie theatre. Directed by Tony Scott, who has given us gems such as The Last Boy Scout and Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide is formulaic and predictable. And do state-of-the-art nuclear subs still have one giant propeller for power? A more appropriate subtitle would be The Hunt For Red Fail Safe Aboard The Caine Mutiny. If you're really into "sub" stories, go rent Das Boot.

The Two-Minute Drill: A Film Reviewer’s Essay

May 23, 1993

Football great Joe Montana is known, among other things, as the master of the two-minute finish. When your team is down a few points at the two-minute warning mark, he is the guy you want out there to help you win. Similarly, when a radio show is only a half-hour in length and you've got lots of film reviews to cram into it, it takes some fancy footwork to say what you want to say before time runs out. Such is the challenge to a film reviewer for Movie Magazine.

"Doing movie reviews for a radio show sounds like a lot of fun," my friends say. Indeed, there is lots of enjoyment, but it is not as easy as they think it is. What follows is a typical blow-by-blow account of the work that goes into the two-minute reviews you hear on the show.

First, there is the going to the theatre. Most of the time critics get to see a film a few days before it opens. Openings are usually on Fridays, screenings are usually on Tuesday mornings (that's right folks – before lunch). Movie Magazine airs on Wednesday nights, so unlike print or TV critics, we've got one day to get our act together.

Second, there is the screening itself. During the film, one has to scribble illegible notes in the dark in order to be able to write about what they saw. Unless, of course, a reviewer has total recall or, worse yet, he relies on press release info, which some are known to do.

Third, there is the actual writing of the review. For me it means sitting at my desk, pen in hand, with notes and press info scattered about, and dictionary and thesaurus close by.  Sometimes it is easy to get started, sometimes it is very hard. If you really like or hate a film, the words flow quickly. But if you have mixed feelings, getting motivated can be difficult. And what do you say? For me, I like to start off with perhaps a tie-in to a topical event or begin whimsically, and then I give a short synopsis of the film without revealing too much. Actors are usually mentioned; maybe the director, then whether the film is worth seeing, and where it will be showing.

Fourth comes the editing. My toughest task is trying to take all that I've written and condense it into a crisp, concise piece that says all I want to say in a short amount of time. Self-editing is difficult, especially when you think you've written a masterpiece. Now I know why the job of editor exists and also why they are not the most beloved colleagues on a newspaper or radio show.

Fifth, there is the music selection. Regular listeners to Movie Magazine know that a musical background accompanies each review, and such is entirely up to the reviewer. Even this can present a dilemma, as finding the right theme to go with a review can take longer than the actual writing of it. Also, you may have the perfect idea of what to use, but then finding a copy of same can be hard, as the music library at KUSF is limited.

Last comes the biggest test of all – reading your review with the music playing and getting everything done without mistakes in less than two minutes. Problems arise when you go over. You can either try to spit the words our faster or get out the scalpel and start chopping away, hoping that by the time you're done your review still sounds intelligible.

All of this for a two-minute review on the radio! And you thought it sounded simple.

Actually, it's not as bad as it sounds. Like anything else, after doing it for a while it gets easier and easier. Still, every time I get the call for a screening, a clock starts ticking inside of me. And like Joe Montana in a close-scoring football game, I enjoy the thrill and always feel better after the final two-minute drill is over and, hopefully, I've come out on top.

The Last Boy Scout

December 11, 1991

Like a good Boy Scout, I was prepared to see lots of car chases, explosions, and dead bodies in the new Bruce Willis movie called The Last Boy Scout. And, I was not disappointed

Willis, in a real stretch, plays a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, unshaven private investigator named Joe Hallenbeck who, in his own words says, “I’m a real bastard...and then some." He is a former Secret Service agent who lost his job when he was young after offending a powerful politician. Willis just can't get no respect from anyone, including his partner, the police, the bad guys, his wife, and even his 13-year-old daughter, who obviously learned her vocabulary from Willis himself.

Willis takes on a case that gets him involved with Jimmy Dix, a former star quarterback, played by Damon Wayans from the TV show In Living Color. They begrudgingly become partners, and along with a little help from Willis's daughter Darien they go up against a corrupt senator and a smarmy good-o1d-boy professional football team owner, and before you can count 30 bodies, numerous explosions, and endless car chases, our two fallen heroes save the day in a ludicrous finale before 90,000 cheering fans at a football game at the L.A Coliseum.

This film is just another trite, predictable good-guys-versus-bad-guys story that, if it weren’t for the profanity and excessive violence, would be a TV movie of the week. But then, what do you expect from two TV actors?

If you’re a die-hard Bruce Willis fan, you'll love this movie. If you’re looking for action, go stand in line. Just leave your mind at the door. But then, if you're a fan of these kinds of films, you won't have to.

If you're thinking that this film is going to be about Boy Scouts camping in the woods and helping little old ladies cross the street, all I can say is, to quote Willis's closing line in the film, "Be prepared.”