Week in Film #12: 3/14/16-3/20/26

Week in Film #12: 3/14/16-3/20/16

Film of the Week: Do the Right Thing
   Year: 1989
   Director: Spike Lee

       Race is a touchy subject in America. This is not a touchy film. It's a punch. It's not wearing gloves. Bloody knuckles, bruised and unabating. The best aspect of the film is it's not an attack on the viewer, politics, or society, really. Well, it is and it isn't. What is isn't doing is taking sides, and it isn't saying what's right or wrong or pointing fingers. It's simply happening, as it is and has across this country. And even in this sense it doesn't feel cold or remote. It's set on the hottest day of the summer and you really do feel the heat. You feel involved, to it's strength, coming from all angles. You may not agree with the people you encounter, but you see things from their perspective, because it forces you to. 

Rating: A

The Rest: 

The Death of a Cyclist
   Year: 1955
   Director: Juan Antonio Bardem

       A reasonably decent drama thriller with more drama than thrills; in fact, not many things that would constitute the title thriller at all. It's a thriller mostly on principle and the way it is directed, as the two main characters in the end have very little to be worried about, as the crime they committed was seen by no one. It's the lead up to this discovery (which they already knew, really) that has the suspense. What this really is is an investigation of paranoia that comes with romantic affairs, and the secretive suspicions that it causes. This climaxes in a rather fatal way, ironic due to the fact that not much of the events preceding really demanded that sort of thing to happen, unless you count on some cosmic, universal level. The whole thing could have been avoided, but it was there paranoia that was eventually there ruin. That and their morality (as well as lack there of). 

   Rating: C

The Thin Blue Line
   Year: 1988
   Director: Errol Morris

       Clearly a big influence on true crime stories on TV, except a much more artistic and well made version of that genre of reality show. It's surprising seeing this type of moviemaking outside the realm of fiction films. There's a kind of artificial artistry in the recreation scenes that would initially seem to be out of place in a documentary, but in the end works to the films advantage. The story itself is one of artifice too. That artifice, however, lies in the line between the world of ones appearance, and the truth hidden beneath. As the director continues to interview, the covers are slowly pulled away to reveal something twisted in the psyche of a murderer and possibly something worse in our society.

   Rating: B

Kanal
   Year: 1956
   Director: Andrzej Wajda

       What starts as an impressively shot war story eventually turns into an incredibly bleak and haunting horror film. The horror is, of course, not the type that comes dressed in capes and fangs or jump scares, but a much more real horror: that of war. As much as any film I've seen, and quite more than most of them, this film really brings to life those horrors. The second half of the film is a decent into the sewers of Warsaw, aka Hell. Down there hope is obliterated in many unforgiving, diabolical ways. It's a labyrinth of the grotesque and depraved areas of the human mind and world realities, and it is all directed and shot impeccably. There were quite a few scenes that made me think, damn, this really is ahead of it's time. 

   Rating: B+

A Few Good Men
   Year: 1992
   Director: Rob Reiner

       This is likely the quintessential standard hollywood 90s film. It's got the stars, the predictable plot, the contrivances, the glossy sheen, the overall competence and solidity that makes it serviceable, but nothing at all special in any way (with the exception of Nicholson). Sometimes bordering on the eye-rollingly sentimental and hilariously contrived, it at least has a solid cast and a good script to help take away the cloying sense of unoriginality and overriding banality of the whole thing.

   Rating: C-

All the President's Men
   Year: 1976
   Director: Alan J. Pakula

       Political films always have the potential to be a bore, so it's a feat in it of itself when one is this entertaining. It's visually rich and always engaging. Hoffman and Redford are on the top of their games. There is really not much to criticize here. A solidly made film about journalism and it's importance in our society. The good it can do, in opposition to the to the bad rep it usually gets. Would be a good double feature with Spotlight, both films about journalists who care more about doing the right thing than getting the flashiest headlines.

   Rating: B+

Repo Man
   Year: 1984
   Director: Alex Cox

       It may not be prestige or art house, but in my opinion it is as worthy of its addition in the criterion collection as a Lubitsch or Godard. It may not be a classic in the classic sense, but it has been deemed a classic in the cult variety and therefore earns its spot in the annals of the criterion spine. Relating it to other similar low budget sci-fi cult films, while apt, is also under crediting it to some degree. It's more than just that: it's a social commentary, foreboding warning, and a reflection of a time, place, and culture.

   Rating: B-

To Be or Not to Be
   Year: 1942
   Director: Ernst Lubitsch

       Nazi satire better than the Great Dictator, and a great example of the best the classic Hollywood era has to offer. It is full of enough twists and turns to constitute it as a straight thriller, but the comedy really makes it whole and makes it memorable in the long run. The humor in question is pretty great considering the time period, and works well in the film. Not the greatest WWII comedy but certainly up there,

   Rating: B

Week in Film #11: 3/7/16-3/13/16

Week in Film #10: 2/29/16-3/6/16

Film of the Week: Apur Sansar
   Year: 1959
   Director: Satyajit Ray

       The Apu trilogy is more than the story of a life, but the story of many. It is as much about it's main protagonist as it is the people, particularly the women, who shape his life. It is his grandmother's story, his sister's, his mother's, and his wife's. Ray has quite a way with actresses it seems, and these women form the backbone of Apu's own story with absolutely excellent performances. They all guide Apu, and shape him from the boy into the teen, and from the teen into the man he eventually becomes. It's hard to imagine Apu without these influencers in his life. Would he have eventually become the father he became without his their caring.? Would he have been able to escape the bitterness of his world without their help? One doubts it.

   Rating: A-

The Rest: 

Aparajito

   Year: 1956

   Director: Satyajit Ray

       What is most admirable about Ray's work is the way he deals with his subject matter. Often, it is some pretty hard stuff. But he is too smart to think that life is all tragedy and no relief. He's a master of the little beauties of life, and balancing the pain with the joy. No matter how bad things get, there is always hope in Ray's world. 

   Rating: B+

JFK
   Year: 1991
   Director: Oliver Stone

       The kind of film that makes you ashamed to be an American. I always suspected, no I knew, there was something wrong with the judicial systems in this country, but I didn't know that it could be this horrifically bad. Why had I never heard this side of the story before? It amazes me that things like this can happen and no one seems to mind. Of course, assuming he's right. I love this style of filmmaking, the collage of it captivates me, and I find it extremely engaging. In fact, it's that sense of style that saves this from being your standard historical drama. It certainly has all the trappings, but it is in the execution that the film shines.

   Rating: B

1001+ Albums: 1958

1001+ Albums: 1958

Album of the Year: Jack Takes the Floor
   Artist: Ramblin' Jack Elliot

       This is much more up my alley, Folk being one of my favorite genres. It's nice hearing one of the men who inspired my most favorite Bob Dylan. Jack sings with the same hard luck and hard travelin' blues I've come to love from the truest of the genres singers. Hearing one of my favorites, Dink's Song, played by someone who probably lived closest to it's heart, is simply lovely. I hadn't heard a lot of early stuff besides Dylan, so it was certainly nice to get more background.

   Best Song: Cocaine, for it's beautiful melody and harsh and honest words.
   Worst Song: Black Baby, because short, frankly nothing, and racial in a way that I'd be hard pressed to call racist, but till slightly uncomfortable.
   Rating: B

The Rest: 

Lady in Satin

   Artist: Billie Holiday

       The first female artist of the 1001. It's a heavenly sound. Unfortunately, heaven is heavy on the orchestration sometimes, and a little too pure. That would be if Holiday's voice wasn't suitably slightly rougher in contrast to the angelic choir and strings. For some reason her voice reminds me of Louis Armstrong's, and his voice doesn't really work for me. A couple of the songs I remember off of In the Wee Small Hours by Sinatra, which gave a little familiarity in good ways and bad. As far as that blue feeling goes I much prefer that album. 

   Best Song: But Beautiful, for it's melancholy slow swing.

   Worst Song: Glad to Be Unhappy, hard to listen to without thinking of Sinatra's much superior version.

   Rating: C-

Sarah Vaughan at Mister Kelly's *Best Album Cover*
   Artist: Sarah Vaughan

       The fact that it's live did give it a very lively feel, and in the moment sort of naturalism. It also caused it to feel a little broken up, and unprofessional (which isn't always a bad thing) when she obviously didn't know the song she was meant to be singing. It can't be denied to the authenticity of the feeling of the performance, it's a slight and chilled out atmosphere that can be somewhat relaxing and nice on the ears. Overall not great though.

   Best Song: September in the Rain, because it's the first, and it starts well before getting a little old.
   Worst Song: How High the Moon, She literally sang about how she didn't know the words to the song, and how she wanted to sing it the way Ella Fitzgerald did.
   Rating: C


Dance Mania Volume One
   Artist: Tito Puente and His Orchestra

       Sounded like more Sabu, which I wasn't too big a fan of. More latin jazz, which I'm finding is getting old, and is something I have to be in the mood for, where as a softer, more relaxed jazz is never hard to listen to for too long. If you don't feel like moving latin jazz isn't going to do it for you. Laying in bed feeling sick is a bad time to listen to this album, so maybe this isn't a fair review, but even then, it isn't something I see myself enjoying too much under other circumstances either.

   Best Song: Hong Kong Mambo, Had a more unique sound that I enjoyed.
   Worst Song: Hard to tell the difference between tracks.
   Rating: C-

Week in Film #10: 2/29/16-3/6/16

Week in Film #10: 2/29/16-3/6/16

Film of the Week: The Spirit of the Beehive
   Year: 1973
   Director: Victor Erice

       I've seen a lot of films about young childhood lately, and all have brought different aspects of that time to the surface. The 400 Blows brought the melancholic nostalgia, Pather Panchali the joy and freedom, and this, The Spirit of the Beehive, something darker. That something is the sense of mystery, the unexplainable in the child's eye, the wonder, the misunderstanding, the almost supernatural in it's wispy awe of the adult world, and the impressions it makes on the very young. It's something more akin to Picnic at Hanging Rock than the above mentioned films. It's standing in the shallow end of the pool and staring at the unknown depths of the deep end, maybe even taking a few curious steps forward to peer into that unknown.

   Rating: A

The Rest: 

Chimes at Midnight

   Year: 1965

   Director: Orson Welles

       The greatest Shakespeare adaptation? Not for me, but it's certainly in the conversation. Welles pieces together bits from separate plays by the bard to tell the story of Falstaff, played perfectly by Orson himself. The cinematography, like all of his films, is absolutely stellar. The best scene, the big battle, is shot with an in the action feel that gives it a trance like life that engrosses the viewer in it's impressive virtuosity with it's filmmaking.

   Rating: B-

The Witch

   Year: 2015

   Director: Robert Eggers

       The best horror film since the Babadook, at least as far as I've seen. It is masterful in it's direction and does the right thing by going for atmosphere and dread over cheap scares and pop out moments. The performances are tremendous and truly frightening, particularly the mind blowing one from the young boy, especially in his powerhouse possession scene. 

   Rating: B

Pather Panchali

   Year: 1955
   Director: Satyajit Ray

       By all rights, Apu's life should really suck for him. He's poor, he loses family members, his home is destroyed. But despite this, the film never takes on a dark tone. Bad things happen but Ray always finds the brightness in life to overcome the dark. The death of a family member can't taint the memories of joy shared with them, and the movies hope, and Apu's hope, is irrepressible.

   Rating: A

Black Orpheus
   Year: 1959
   Director: Marcel Camus

       A retelling of the classic myth of Orpheus, only... you know... black. Vibrant and colorful, and surprisingly heart wrenching at times. It's a gorgeous and aching ballad of music and imagery, composed into a simple yet striking folk legend greek myth about love and loss.

   Rating: C+

Chi-Raq
   Year: 2015
   Director: Spike Lee

       As socially important as it is structurally and tonally disparate, it's a bit of a messy masterpiece of truth and justice, always keeping it a hundred. There are brave, bold choices made here that end up massively helping Lees vision. Samuel L Jackson is awesome as the narrator, and the rhyming prose dialogue gives the film a flow when it is desperately needed, almost in place of the narrative structure, which spikes a lot in tone.

   Rating: B-

1001+ Albums: 1957

1001+ Albums: 1957

Album of the Year: This Is Fats
   Artist: Fats Domino

       This was a bit of a pain to find. Not on Spotify, had to search for a while before I found a playlist on Youtube. Anyway. The world of Fats Domino is a happy and easy going one, the problems in his life peaking at such issues as his neighbors rooster dying. Simple songs that work well in there simplicity, giving of an aura of calm and happiness. Bluesy rock n roll that is pretty unchanging throughout, which makes it lucky that it's a good sound, and one that doesn't grow tiresome or repetitive.

   Best Track: Baby Please, A slower, more melancholy (but still light) choice from the album, featuring a beautifully blue guitar.
   Worst Track: As Time Goes By, instrumental, and I've had a lot of that already with all the jazz.
   Rating: B+

The Rest: 

The Atomic Mr. Basie *Best Album Cover*
   Artist: Count Basie

       I don't know about atomic, but it's at least a hand grenade. To me, it sounds like more jazz, but I have to say it's growing on me. It's becoming less of something I have to get through to get to the stuff I want to listen to, and more something I'm, at the very least, somewhat curious about. If this is anything, it's a way to broaden my horizons, and introduce me to music I otherwise probably would not have experienced.

   Best Track: Jazz
   Worst Track: Jazz
   Rating: C


Here's Little Richard
   Artist: Little Richard

       Little Richard has a voice so powerful, so brash, and so dynamic that it seems to be made out of rock n' roll itself (at least what rock was at the time). It's just perfect, just the right balance of growl in those howls and switching easily to that pure, clear voice that will interrupt the raucous yells of rock n' roll soul. Blazing through the songs with such passion and energy, and doing it with such ease, you feel that most of these songs are pretty much made by his voice.

   Best Track: Long Tall Sally (The Thing), for the coarse howls and the sweet woos.
   Worst Track: Oh Why?, because Richard's voice is so good that the songs feel lacking without it.
   Rating: B

Kenya
   Artist: Machito

       Latin jazz seems to be the sexier, spicier, and more foot tappingly vibrant cousin of American jazz of the 1950s. Now as I've said before, I don't know much about jazz, but I know I took to this more than I did the others. I think it's the drumming. Whatever it is, this one moved me to move much more than the other jazz albums I've listened to thus far, and therefore this gets a higher rating in my eyes for it's ability capture my enjoyment as much as it does my attention.

   Best Track: Jazz (aka I have no idea).
   Worst Track: See above.
   Rating: C+

Palo Congo
   Artist: Sabu Martinez

       What makes latin jazz without lyrics better than latin jazz with lyrics, aka what makes Kenya better than Palo Congo. I think it has something to do with out basic relationship to language. In Kenya, there was no lyrics to interpret. In Palo Congo, there are, and while the brain tries to figure out what the lyrics are saying as it would any song I'd typically listen to, it confuses itself because the it can't understand the lyrics. Or so I blindly assume, which I'm probably wrong on. Just a theory. Otherwise, it's fine.

   Best Track: NA (foreign language jazz)
   Worst Track: NA
   Rating: D+


The Chirping Crickets
   Artist: The Crickets

       Full of rollicking rockabilly spirit and tune. While the best of the album is simply superb, it also feels like there are a few throwaways, and just not up to scratch with the rest. In contrast with the classics they just look a little weak. The good stuff though is fantastic, with brilliance in form of tight, perfected song craft. Buddy Holly is the face and voice of Rockabilly, and one of the most recognizable names in all of rock, certainly early 50s stuff. Maybe not the king, but certainly the archbishop.

   Best Track: Not Fade Away, for being the most staying of the many true classics on the album.
   Worst Track: An Empty Cup (A Broken Date), compared to the rest, weak lyrics and a weaker idea and setup. Forgettable.
   Rating: B

Brilliant Corners
   Artist: Thelonious Monk

       Maybe it's the discipline required, or the fine tuned ear, but I seem to get the feeling that while I'm enjoying what I'm hearing, I'm not really appreciating it as I should. Jazz isn't like rock or country or hip hop or rap, it's more abstract, more avant-garde. It, usually, doesn't have lyrics to latch onto or a repetitive melody to follow (or maybe it does, who knows, I obviously don't). All I can really say is it's something I'm liking more and more the more I listen to it, and it's whet my appetite for more of it's kind to follow.

   Best Track: All of it.
   Worst Track: Not much of it.
   Rating: C+

1001+ Albums: 1956

1001+ Albums: 1956

Album of the Year: Elvis Presley
   Artist: Elvis Presley

        Elvis brings the rock and the roll to the album format. If there was any collection of songs that most epitomized the rebelliously sexual and electric attitude sweeping the youth of the 1950's, it was probably this one. The kings voice bothered me the first few times I ever heard him, but listening through this I feel I get it more. It's practically oozing rock n' roll, ranging from medium highs to swooping lows, always with an energy that is compulsive and keeps the foot tapping. A wildness to it.

   Best Track: Blue Suede Shoes for its status as an all time classic, although there really isn't a song I didn't like here. Hard to argue with that ranging voice pleading for anything but stepping on those blue suede shoes.
   Worst Track: I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You), The most repetitive of these and the one I'd be least inclined to put on at any given moment.
   Rating: B+

The Rest: 

Ellington at Newport
   Artist: Duke Ellington

       Like with Birth of the Cool below, I just don't think I have the knowledge to give judgment on something like this. I can say it liked it, it had a swing and a groove I enjoyed, but I'm no jazz enthusiast and certainly no expert. I've heard that what this is is incredibly impressive, and I'll just have to tale peoples word for that, because I doubt I could distinguish a master from an amateur in this genre.

   Best Track: It's all jazz.
   Worst Track: Ditto.
   Rating: C

Songs for Swingin' Lovers!
   Artist: Frank Sinatra

        While personally I'm finding I prefer Sinatra in a more melancholy key, this really isn't half bad, although not as strong as In the Wee Small Hours. In this he seems to be calling back to a simpler time, like in Anything Goes, where he seems to be lost over the cultural changes that are slowly coming with the impending sexual revolution. He also doesn't shy away from the subject with Makin' Whoopee, which surprised me in its forwardness. Overall though there is a feeling of nostalgia and simple pleasures, like New York in June.

   Best Track: You Make Me Feel So Young, because of its joyful exuberance. You can hear the smile.
   Worst Track: Old Devil Moon, not bad but isn't a classic and personally just wasn't as good as the others in my eyes.
   Rating: B-

Tragic Songs of Life
   Artist: Louvin Brothers

        A collection of strumming country tunes featuring not one, but two odes to states. They are actually pretty easy on the ear, and after a while you get used to the twang in the voice and the playing is actually pretty nice. The tragic events sung about as the title says range from the pathetically mundane, like when your bestest friend moves away, to the shockingly morbid, like the incredibly gruesome account of a man who beats a woman within an inch of her life then drowns her in a river, as well as multiple suicides by dagger and mothers dying in the cold, found in the morning with her cold arms cradling her still living baby. Throughout there is a specific country sort of lonesome heartachin' that works pretty well for the piece of work, which surprised me in it's enjoyability.

   Best Track: Knoxville Girl, for sheer shock value ("She never spoke another word, I only beat her more until the ground around me within her blood did flow"). Scary stuff.
   Worst Track: Alabama, because of I've already forgotten it.
   Rating: B-

The Wildest!
   Artist: Louis Prima

        The album cover may be the best description: light hearted pure fun. It's a lot of fun and just a nice easy going feel good collection of songs. Sometimes hilarious (albeit unintentionally) and always good, never swinging into moods or anything with even a touch of the melancholy. If you need something to pick you up I'd recommend this. Full of cheer and good feeling. Except, of course, in weird little numbers like Ill Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You. It's kind of full of oddly dark moments like that.

   Best Track: (Nothing's Too Good) For My Baby. They were all pretty equal in quality and sheer fun, but I guess I might pick this for the gorgeous female voice switching off lyrics with Prima. Except for that weird moment he threatens to hit her in the eye.
   Worst Track: Basin Street Blue/When It's Sleepy Time Down South, which I almost didn't pick because the title's so damn long, but I did pick because of the odd inane ramblings that sometimes overtake the lyrics. I mean crazy weird ramblings.
   Rating: B


Birth of the Cool   *Best Album Cover*
   Artist: Miles Davis

        Outside of film, I really have very little to no exposure to jazz, and being so different from the other styles of music I will be reviewing in this series of posts, I don't feel very qualified to assess it as I would the others. That being said, I enjoyed it. It's great to have on while working, or just as background music to whatever you happen to be doing. It didn't necessarily convert me into a lover of jazz, but I did enjoy it to an extent. The final song, featuring vocals, kind of put me off to be honest. I couldn't really connect to his voice.

   Best Track: It all sort of melds together for me, and I couldn't really distinguish one track from another, aside from the last one. I liked most all of it however.
   Worst Track: Darn that Dream, for it's annoying singing, and silly lyrics. Guess I'm getting used to just the jazz.
   Rating: C