The Films of Spike Lee: School Daze (1988)

School Daze (1988) 

Directed by: Spike Lee.

Written by: Spike Lee.

Starring: Larry Fishburne (Vaughn "Dap" Dunlap), Giancarlo Esposito (Julian "Dean Big Brother Almighty" Eaves), Tisha Campbell (Jane Toussaint), Kyme (Rachel Meadows), Joe Seneca (President Harold McPherson), Ellen Holly (Odrie McPherson), Art Evans (Cedar Cloud), Ossie Davis (Coach Odom), Bill Nunn (Grady), James Bond III (Monroe), Branford Marsalis (Jordan), Edward D. Bridges (Moses), Kadeem Hardison (Edge), Eric Payne (Booker T.), Spike Lee (Darrell "Half-Pint" Dunlap), Joie Lee (Lizzie Life), Jasmine Guy (Dina), Samuel L. Jackson (Leeds), Roger Guenveur Smith (Yoda), Dominic Hoffman (Mustafa), Cinqué Lee (Buckwheat), Kasi Lemmons (Perry).

 

Like many indie filmmakers do when they make an unexpected hit, Spike Lee got to move over to the mainstream after She’s Gotta Have It with School Daze. Unlike many of those other filmmakers though, Lee basically makes good on the promise showed in the first film with School Daze. He doesn’t completely dodge all the bullets that often here – School Daze is way overstuffed, tries to do way too much, has structural issues and leaves too many loose ends dangling. And yes, like She’s Gotta Have It, the film has some things that have aged poorly (it’s really, really uncomfortable watching the “good guys” in the film do their music routine and use the word fag as an insult). Yet, the film is still 100% Spike Lee – which means it consistently takes risks and is always interesting and entertaining, even if it’s far from perfect. That describes many of his films.

 

The film takes place at a fictional Historical Black College somewhere in the South (it was shot in Atlanta, although I don’t think it ever reveals where the school is). If you needed to describe the plot of the movie, it’s basically an old school college comedy – with the Greek Society feuding with the non-Greeks. This latter group is led in the movie by Dap Dunlap (Laurence Fishburne – who was 27 at the time, and looks older – remember he would play Cuba Gooding Jr’s father in Boyz in the Hood just three years from this) who is a student with a conscience. The film starts with him leading a protest, wanting his school to divest from South Africa – something many other colleges have already done, but there hasn’t (this issue isn’t really brought up again in the movie – one of the many things Lee leaves hanging). His protest is interrupted by the Greeks – specifically the fraternity led by Julian aka Dean Big Brother Almighty (Giancarlo Esposito) – who is running the current pledges through a lot of humiliating hoops. Among the pledges is Half Pint (Lee) – Dap’s cousin, who doesn’t share his cousin’s social conscience. The women on campus – probably for the sake of plot convenience – also fall into the same two camps – with Jane (Tisha Campbell) as Julian’s girlfriend, and head of a sorority, on one side, and Rachel (Kyme), Dap’s girlfriend on the other.

 

School Daze is one of those films that basically throws everything at the wall to see what will stick. In many ways, it is a comedy in the classic 1980s college tradition – with two sides warring with each other. But Lee adds other elements to it as well. There are musical numbers – the standout is Nappy Hair, in which the two groups of women – the Wannabes and the Jigaboos – insult each other for their conflicting hair choices. This is a glorious, Busby Berkeley style musical number, with lots of dancing, and it’s a joy to watch – making you wish Lee had made another musical sooner than 2015’s Chi-Raq. Lee here is addressing something I don’t think I have ever seen in a movie made before School Daze – and not many after – which is the issue of judging each other on skin color and hair style WITHIN the black community, not just outside of it. He does something similar in a stand-alone scene later in the film when Dap and his friends head to a chicken joint in town, and are harassed by a group of older locals – led by the great Samuel L. Jackson – for being smart college boys, looking down on the poor black folk in town (the townies, for lack of a better name, also all have Jeri-curls).

 

The action of the movie comes to a head at a frat party late in the film. Although he’s now in, Julian still wants to humiliate Half Pint – who he (rightly) guesses is still a virgin. He cruelly mocks him, but then even more cruelly uses his girlfriend’s love of him to get her to do sleep with Half-Pint – and then use that as a pretext to dump her. It does seem a little odd that it is this incident, more than anything else we see, that inspired the famous final “Wake Up” sequence in the film.

 

So, yes, School Daze tries to do too much and be too much. It wants to be a comedy and a musical and a drama about race within the black community, and a conflict between educated and non-educated black people, and a socially conscience movie and about a half dozen other things. What holds it altogether is the performances really – it’s odd that Laurence Fishburne didn’t become a Lee regular as he is a strong, and commanding presence here as Dap (to be fair, the Fishburne-type roles in Lee films probably went to Denzel after this). Giancarlo Esposito, who did become a Lee regular, is even better as Julian – a little man, who uses his position to make himself feel bigger than he is actually is. Lee’s issues with writing female characters remains in School Daze though – the Nappy Hair musical number aside – but I think Tisha Campbell is as close as he gets to a fully rounded female character for a while – and she is terrific as Jane (the film doesn’t really know what to do with Rachel, and it shows).

 

The highlights of School Daze though more than make up for the shortfalls in the film. It is an imperfect film – probably more so than I remembered it, because naturally when you think back on a film you haven’t seen in a while, you remember all the great stuff it did, and forget the not-so-great stuff (I had completely forgotten the homophobic stuff in this film – which really is unforgivable in 2018 context, although 1988 audiences probably didn’t even notice it – I sure didn’t see it mentioned in many reviews of the film). It remains an interesting film of Lee’s early career – a kind of precursor to the shock waves he would send through the film world the very next year.

Movie Review: Pitch Perfect 3

Pitch Perfect 3 ** / *****

Directed by: Trish Sie.

Written by: Kay Cannon and Mike White based on the book by Mickey Rapkin.

Starring: Anna Kendrick (Beca), Rebel Wilson (Fat Amy), Brittany Snow (Chloe), Anna Camp (Aubrey), Hailee Steinfeld (Emily), Ester Dean (Cynthia Rose), Hana Mae Lee (Lilly), Kelley Jakle (Jessica), Shelley Regner (Ashley), Chrissie Fit (Flo), Elizabeth Banks (Gail), John Michael Higgins (John), John Lithgow (Fergus), Matt Lanter (Chicago), Guy Burnet (Theo), Alexis Knapp (Stacie), DJ Khaled (DJ Khaled), Troy Ian Hall (Zeke), Jessica Chaffin (Evan), Moises Arias (Pimp-Lo), Derek Mehn (Sunburst), Ruby Rose (Calamity), Andy Allo (Serenity), Venzella Joy (Charity), Hannah Fairlight (Veracity).

 

Pitch Perfect 3 is not a very good movie. That probably isn’t too surprising – I didn’t think the first two Pitch Perfect movies weren’t very good either. But Pitch Perfect 3 is a kind of a fascinating example of what happens when a franchise is still popular – so money can still be made from it – but they don’t really have any story left to tell. All the main characters have aged out of University – therefore, they have no reason to still be hanging out together, and certainly no reason to still be doing their acapella singing together. They do have a little fun coming up with an excuse as to why they still do – a USO tour for one last hurrah. The film pretty much decides to play almost as a greatest hits collection – it delivers the same type of scenes (like the riff-off) and brings back all the popular characters (including John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks as the clueless media members), a show that goes poorly, then shows that go well, etc. But that only takes up so much time, so the movie adds an odd subplot – about Fat Amy’s dad (John Lithgow, who does the kind of Aussie accent you expect someone to do when they didn’t know they supposed to do one until the first day of shooting) – being a gangster. This gives an excuse for some action scenes – and pads out the plot.

 

To be fair, the makers of Pitch Perfect 3 know what fans of the series want, and do their best to deliver that. And to be even more fair, it’s still true that star Anna Kendrick is still an utter delight to watch, Rebel Wilson is still capable of delivering some laughs (a few in the aren’t fat people funny when they fall down vein that left a bad taste in my mouth in Pitch Perfect 2 – but not quite as many), and the rest of the cast have some moments that can be fun (my favorite moment came when the two girls in the group who never ever talks about get mentioned). The acapella performances lack the kind of fun spark of the unexpected they had the first time around, but they’re still fun – and the riff off is, of course, a highlight.

 

It does kind of seem to me though that Pitch Perfect 3 was made more as a background movie than something you actually engage with though. It’s something to throw on Netflix when you’re folding laundry, or doing your taxes, where you can look up during the musical moments, and then ignore it for the rest of the time. Everyone involved is going through the motions – and while that can be fun for a while, it doesn’t really add up to much of a movie. The series is over now – and that’s for the best. There was no more blood in this stone.

Movie Review: The Greatest Showman

The Greatest Showman *** / *****

Directed by: Michael Gracey.

Written by: Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon.

Starring: Hugh Jackman (P.T. Barnum), Michelle Williams (Charity Barnum), Zac Efron (Phillip Carlyle), Zendaya (Anne Wheeler), Rebecca Ferguson (Jenny Lind), Austyn Johnson (Caroline Barnum), Cameron Seely (Helen Barnum), Keala Settle (Lettie Lutz), Sam Humphrey (Tom Thumb), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (W.D. Wheeler), Eric Anderson (Mr. O'Malley), Ellis Rubin (Young Barnum), Skylar Dunn (Young Charity). 

 

You already know if you’ll like The Greatest Showman if you’ve seen a preview for the film. If the preview makes you roll your eyes or gag, stay far, far away from the film. This is both the cheesiest and most earnest musical in recent memory – a film that doesn’t even try to be cool of hip or edgy, but just goes straight for easy sentiment. If you hate that, you will hate – and I mean HATE – this film. If, on the other hand, there is a part of you that can admire a film that so joyously embrace its cheesiness – that I can literally have a scene in which Hugh Jackman leaves London in a full sprint to try and win back his wife, and finds you – dress billowing – as she looks out at the sea, that boy, is this movie for you.

 

The Greatest Showman is based on the story of P.T. Barnum – but bares almost no resemblance to the actual man – who was pretty much a horrible person, as opposed to Hugh Jackman’s smiling, happy, family man in this film. Here, Barnum is a dreamer, who scams his way into a bank loan to buy a museum of curiosities in New York, and then when that’s in trouble, decides to stock it with the “freaks” – little people, big people, bearded ladies, black trapeze artists, and all sorts of other people that polite society deem unacceptable. Barnum has never heard of such a word. Instead of exploiting them (as what really happened) – here the whole thing becomes a celebration of life and diversity – with Barnum doing it all for his beloved wife and daughters. When he becomes a financial success, but still has high society look down on him, he enlists rich, pretty boy Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron) to make him respectable. That doesn’t really work – but perhaps putting on a tour with Europe’s most celebrated singer, Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), will. But of course, doesn’t P.T. Barnum know that all he really needs to be is true to himself?

 

The movie is cheesy to be sure – the original songs are cheesy, the costumes are cheesy, the sets are cheesy, the dancing, you guessed it, cheesy. The romance between Zac Efron and Zendaya shouldn’t work at all, given how thinly written it is, but boy, do those two sell it. And it’s still not as cheesy as everything having to do with Michelle Williams, who seems to have been cast because she can wear the hell out of old fashioned dressed (to be fair, that’s true).

 

And through it all, your master of ceremonies is Hugh Jackman, clearly having the time of his life. Sure, he’s done a movie musical before – but as good as he was in Les Miserables, he kind of had to play a sad sack character. Here, he gets to go for broke in each and every moment of the film, each and every song and dance number. He is perhaps the only one who could make this movie work – and he does.

 

I know a lot of people will hate this film – as a teenager, I would have been one of them. I don’t think it’s a particularly good film know. But it’s earnest and cheesy and fun, and it works while it plays. It doesn’t linger in your mind long after (except for a couple of ear worm songs) – but it does what it sets out to do, and isn’t ashamed of it – nor should it be.

Movie Review: Patti Cake$

Patti Cake$ *** / *****

Directed by: Geremy Jasper.

Written by: Geremy Jasper.

Starring: Danielle Macdonald (Patti), Bridget Everett (Barb), Siddharth Dhananjay (Jheri), Mamoudou Athie (Basterd), Cathy Moriarty (Nana), McCaul Lombardi (Danny), Patrick Brana (Slaz), MC Lyte (DJ French Tips), Sahr Ngaujah (O-Z).

 

No one can really claim that Patti Cake$ is in anyway an original movie. It is basically Eight Mile with a heavyset white women in the lead – and remember, Eight Mile was essentially Purple Rain, with Eminem stepping in for Prince. And Purple Rain wasn’t that original either. You know the beats this story is going to hit from the moment it begins – and it hits them all – and hard. Yet, despite my better judgement, the movie mainly won me over. The performances are winning and touching, and the music is genuinely catchy. No, the film didn’t become the audience favorite so many thought it was going to be out of Sundance – but you’d have to be pretty cynical to hate it.

 

The film takes place in the downtrodden wasteland of suburban New Jersey. It’s there where Patti (Danielle Macdonald) lives with her mother, Barb (Bridget Everett) and chain smoking Nana (Cathy Moriaty). The family is poor – Barb is a hair dresser, not making very much, Patti – who’s now 23 bartends, at a low rent dive. Patti can never be sure if Barb has a new man in her life or not – Barb drinks a lot, and battles depression – and when she wants to, her rage can be turned on Patti.

 

Patti alongside her friend Jheri (Siddharth Dhananjay) – who works in a pharmacy – have what is likely an unrealistic dream of becoming rappers. It’s a dream Barb does not encourage – she had dreams of her own music career, and they didn’t go far. Patti and Jheri have to deal with the assholes who don’t think they’ll be able to do it, not because of their talent (they don’t see them perform) – but because of who they are, an overweight white girl and her Indian friend. It doesn’t help that Patti has stage fright, and backs down quickly when they do get their chance. Eventually these two misfits will meet a third one – Basterd (Mamodou Athie) – who lives in a shack by the cemetery, and is some sort of metal/rap musical genius.

 

You know where this is headed, right? If you don’t, congratulations on watching your first movie ever. For the first half hour or so of the movie, I resisted, because everything seemed to be running on a track – everything was too by-the-numbers, and easy. But gradually, the movie does wear you down. A lot of that has to do with Macdonald, who brings genuine emotion to her role as Patti – you don’t often see women like her in the lead roles of movies, and she knows it. She lacks confidence, but is a genuine hard working and nice person – and when we do hear her rap, she is legitimately great as well. The rest of the cast is a mixed bag – I don’t know that Jheri ever really becomes a complete character, and Basterd certainly doesn’t. Bridget Everett, the bold, brash stand-up comedian really does bring it as Patti’s mom as well – she surprised me, in a good way.

 

The film is directorial debut of Geremy Jasper – who also wrote the music for the film. As a first effort, it’s pretty good – he certainly isn’t swinging for the fences, but then that’s a mistake too many inexperienced directors make – trying to do too much, and end up doing it all poorly. Patti Cake$ lacks ambition – but it does what it sets out to do.

Movie Review: Band Aid

Band Aid *** / *****

Directed by: Zoe Lister-Jones.

Written by: Zoe Lister-Jones.

Starring: Zoe Lister-Jones (Anna), Adam Pally (Ben), Fred Armisen (Dave), Susie Essman (Shirley), Retta (Carol), Hannah Simone (Grace), Ravi Patel (Bobby), Brooklyn Decker (Candice), Jamie Chung (Cassandra Diabla), Erinn Hayes (Crystal Vichycoisse).

 

Anyone who is married – or has been – knows that it is not easy. The rewards of a long marriage are plentiful, but the downfalls are there as well, and if you don’t reckon with them, and work on them, they can destroy the marriage. The marriage at the heart of Zoe Lister-Jones’ Band Aid is one of those marriages who, in real life, would probably end – not necessarily in fireworks, but just kind of fizzle out. The married life really isn’t for either of these people, but they’ve embraced it anyway – and considering that nothing else in their life is working out, they have to wonder what it says about them if this fails as well. This is obviously a setup for a musical comedy.

 

Band Aid was written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, who also stars as one half of the couple, Anna, and wrote all the songs as well. Her husband, Ben, is played by Adam Pally – and they play this L.A. couple whose life is basically a bunch of failed dreams – she once had a book deal, but that fell through, and now she’s an Uber driver – he was an artist, now making a living doing corporate logos – although sometimes he just blows that off to smoke weed and play video games. Everyone else they know seem to have their life in order – marriage, career, kids – and they have nothing. A miscarriage a year ago has left them sort of numb – especially since they don’t talk about it. They don’t talk about anything. Then, by chance, they pick up some instruments and start writing songs together – songs in which they say all the things they cannot say in real life. They drag in their weird neighbor Dave (Fred Armisen) to play the drums – although he often just sits there and listens to them yell at each other. But somehow, through the music, this couple comes together – at least for the time being.

 

All of this probably sounds more than a little insufferable, right? I know I had avoided the film – even if I fully support Lister-Jones’ idea to hire an all-female crew on the movie, because the whole thing sounded hopelessly twee – yet another film about hapless, grown-up hipsters who still act like teenagers. To be fair, some of that is true here – but not all of it. The film is peppered with enough humor, and enough genuine insights into marriage and relationships – and pivotally, the songs are good enough – that the whole thing doesn’t collapse under its own navel gazing weight. In fact, the film is more genuinely moving and insightful than most Sundance comedy/dramas I see in a given year.

 

Yes, to a certain extent, the whole thing is a pile of clichés – and while I like him just fine here, I’ve never warmed to Adam Pally as much as many seem to (he always strikes me as someone I wouldn’t want to spend any time in real life with – and if I did, I’d want to punch in the face). But there is genuine chemistry here, and the film is honest enough to admit that all this may just be temporary – that in a way, the music is yet another way for this couple not to deal with their shit. That sets it apart – enough – for it to be a decent movie. I look forward to what Lister-Jones does next.

Classic Movie Review: All That Jazz (1979)

All That Jazz (1979)

Directed by: Bob Fosse.

Written by: Robert Alan Aurthur & Bob Fosse.

Starring: Roy Scheider (Joseph "Joe" Gideon), Jessica Lange (Angelique), Leland Palmer (Audrey Paris), Ann Reinking (Katie Jagger), Cliff Gorman (Davis Newman), Ben Vereen (O'Connor Flood), Erzsébet Földi (Michelle Gideon), Michael Tolan (Dr. Ballinger), Max Wright (Joshua Penn), William LeMassena (Jonesy Hecht), Deborah Geffner (Victoria Porter), John Lithgow (Lucas Sergeant), Jules Fisher (Jules), Chris Chase (Leslie Perry).

 

The phrase “vanity project” gets tossed around a lot about movie star vehicles or self-indulgent directorial efforts in which artists do little more than navel gazing. And yet, when done right, vanity projects can be masterpieces – as evidenced by Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz. Fosse, the infamous choreographer turned director on stage and screen, takes Fellini’s autobiographical 8 ½ (another vanity project, that one about a director making a vanity project), as his model, and makes a film about a Bob Fosse-like director who is both a towering genius and – this is key – a towering asshole. Perhaps that is what separates All That Jazz (and 8 ½, and hell, Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, made around the same time, also inspired by Fellini’s masterpiece) – that while the artist cannot help but call himself a genius, he is also more than willing to admit his failings. All That Jazz is the rarest of things – a musical about death that is both entertaining as hell, and a deeply artistic exploration of its creator.

 

In the film, Roy Scheider stars as Joe Gideon – who in the film is in the process of editing his latest film – clearly inspired by Fosse’s Lenny – and choreographing and directing a new show on Broadway. He smokes constantly – even in the shower – and is on a steady diet of Dexedrine and alcohol. He runs from one work place to the next, constantly either dodging, or reassuring, a series of moneymen, producers, dancers etc. He has an ex-wife (Leland Palmer), a current girlfriend (Ann Reinking) – and a series of one night (or slightly longer) stands that float in and out of his bed. He has a daughter who he loves, but cannot help but be constantly letting down. He doesn’t want to die, but knows that everything he’s doing will lead him to an early grave anyway – as he is literally flirting with Death (Jessica Lange).

 

All That Jazz is a film that works on multiple levels. As a musical, the film is a masterpiece – starting with the opening musical number, an audition sequence so precisely choreographed and edited, that it makes a staple in these types of films feel new. Then there a dance set piece in the middle – one for his new play, which stars off exuberantly, and turns almost into dance as sex – which is even better. There are numerous other set pieces along the way – but the one that will be remembered is the finale – an exuberant death knell, with Ben Vereen, that really is one of the best musical numbers in screen history. Fosse was a perfectionist, and you can see it in every frame of the dance sequences – which are a masterclass in editing, which is precisely timed with the movement of the dancers. On a purely technical level, All That Jazz is one of the greatest musicals ever made.

 

But, of course, there is more to the film than that. This really is a deeply personal film, made by a man who understood his weaknesses enough to know that he was never going to overcome them. The heart attack Fosse suffered while editing Lenny and preparing Chicago for the stage 5 years before he made All That Jazz didn’t kill him – as it ultimately does in All That Jazz – but his demons would eventually catch up with him (he died when he was only 60). According to the movie, if you were unfortunate enough to love Bob Fosse, you would get more than your share of disappointment and pain for your efforts.

 

And yet, dammit, you still like Joe Gideon in the film. A lot of that is because of Roy Scheider’s performance in the role – an unlikely choice (originally Richard Dreyfuss was cast, but walked away, thinking Fosse couldn’t pull it off – and the studio wanted someone more famous, like Warren Beatty). Scheider is wiry and thin in the film – and dancer’s body – and he exudes the charm that someone like he would need to inspire so many people to put him with an asshole like him. He has a sly, devilish grin that he can pull out around anyone. It’s only by himself – he morning routine in the shower, listening to Vivaldi, before proclaiming, with increasing sadness throughout the film “It’s ShowTime” to an empty room – where Joe seems to not be on. He realizes all the things he’s messing up – realizing that he isn’t a good enough dad, husband, hell person – but he cannot stop it. This is Scheider’s best performance – and really one of the best ever in a musical.

 

That’s what gives that final musical number added resonance. It is exuberant and joyful, even as it is explicitly about his upcoming death. For Fosse and Gideon, he has to give you a show – some entertainment – no matter what, and he goes out doing just that. Yet, remember the final image of All That Jazz – after the music ends, and it’s just Scheider by himself, alone, quiet, dead – as eventually we all will be.

Movie Review: Baby Driver

Baby Driver **** ½ / *****

Directed by: Edgar Wright.

Written by: Edgar Wright.

Starring: Ansel Elgort (Baby), Kevin Spacey (Doc), Lily James (Debora), Eiza González (Darling), Jon Hamm (Buddy), Jamie Foxx (Bats), Jon Bernthal (Griff), Flea (Eddie), Lanny Joon (JD), CJ Jones (Joseph), Paul Williams (The Butcher).

 

Edgar Wright’s career as a writer/director has often seem liked a tour through various film genres – zombies in Shaun of the Dead, to early ‘90s action in Hot Fuzz, comic books in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, paranoid sci-fi with The World’s End – but all with his own unique, funny perspective. He loves the films of the past, isn’t afraid to wear his influences on his sleeve, but he isn’t just making copies of them either. With Baby Driver, it looked like perhaps he was going to the heist genre – which, in a way, he is, or perhaps the existential action films – a noted inspiration for the film is Walter Hill’s The Driver (which I saw last week for the first time, and I think is his best film – although, I’m not much of a Hill fan) – but Wright is too much of a romantic for that. His main character, Baby (Ansel Elgort), may well want project that he is like Ryan O’Neal’s Driver – who doesn’t have a name, because he doesn’t need one – he is what he does – but he’s too sweet natured for that. In the end, Baby Driver is more a musical than anything – which is odd, since there isn’t much actual singing going on in the film. But the film does hum with a constant musical beat, and everything is perfectly choreographed – from the various car chases (the best seen on the big screen in years) to smaller moments, like Baby walking down the street for coffee. The characters in Baby Driver don’t sing – but the movie does.

 

In terms of plot, Baby Driver is fairly straight forward. Baby (Elgort) is under the thumb of an Atlanta crime boss named Doc (Kevin Spacey) – and needs to pay him back for a mistake in his youth. He does that by being the getaway driver for various heists, with a revolving door of criminals, that Doc sets up for him. The movie opens with Baby showing us – and his cohorts – just how great a driver he really is. He is on the verge of paying off his debt and getting out – it will just take that one last job to do so. As with every “one last job” in cinema history though, things don’t go as planned. All Baby wants to do is hit the open road – but doing so may put his elderly foster father Joe (CJ Jones) in danger – and also threaten his blossoming romance with Debora (Lily James – who is somehow just as adorable and lovable as Elgort in the film). So, he’s teamed up with husband and wife robbers Darling (Eiza Gonzalez) and Buddy (Jon Hamm), and Bats (Jamie Foxx), who seems to be always one step away from killing someone.

 

Everything about Baby Driver works. The car chases are the best you have seen in a while, and are choreographed like dance numbers, with Baby’s car careening around corners, weaving in and out traffic etc. – and doesn’t rely on the type of rapid fire editing that gives most modern action movies the false sense of energy. The soundtrack – full of standards, and oddities – somehow always hits the right note. The cast are all essentially playing archetypes, but you don’t really care when they are this good at doing so. Foxx, James and Elgort are the standouts – but there isn’t a weak note in the cast. The dialogue by Wright walks right up to the line of being too cute, but somehow never crosses it – in part, I think, because the cast never sets a toe over the line.

 

Most of all though, the film is just pure, out and out entertainment. You’re unlikely to have more fun at the movies this year than you will at Baby Driver – and its coming at just the right time of year for that. I’ve skipped more of the summer “blockbusters” this year than I normally do – and even still, I’m already tired of the explosions and CGI and franchises. Baby Driver is not an overly original film – but it is an “original” – a film that doesn’t need to worry about setting anything up, or continuing anything, etc. It’s just straight ahead, old school movie fun. You know, the type of summer movie Hollywood used to know how to make, and has somehow forgotten.

Movie Review: The Lure

The Lure *** / *****

Directed by: Agnieszka Smoczynska.

Written by: Robert Bolesto.

Starring: Marta Mazurek (Silver), Michalina Olszanska (Golden), Jakub Gierszal (Mietek), Kinga Preis (The Nightclub Singer), Andrzej Konopka (Drummer), Zygmunt Malanowicz (The House Manager), Magdalena Cielecka (Boskie Futro), Katarzyna Herman (Milicjantka), Marcin Kowalczyk (Tryton / Dedal).

 

If there was an award for weirdest film of the year, than Agnieszka Smoczynska’s debut feature The Lure would be a shoo-in for the win. This is a horror/musical/comedy about two mermaids in Communist era Poland, who come ashore to join a nightclub act. One of them falls in love with a man she shouldn’t – dooming her to a tragic end – and the other is more likely to rip out someone’s throat than to do anything else. The film takes weird narratives twists and turns – most of them completely out of left field, with little holding reasoning behind it. Does the film work? Not really – at least not in a traditional sense. The musical numbers are better as set pieces than they are as songs, and it’s impossible to find your footing in the movie, because as soon as you do, the film flies off in a different direction. Then again, that’s part of the movies charm. This is a film that feels more like a dream than anything – a fever dream at that, and the result is at least always interesting.

 

The two mermaids are named Silver and Golden and are played by Marta Marurek and Michalina Olsazanka. They are drawn out of the water by Mietek as he sings on the water’s edge, and they follow him back to the dingy club he works in as a bassist. If the pair are dry, then they look like any other human women – except they lack certain holes below the waste. Splash some water on them, and they’ll grow enormously long fish tales. In either form, they’re as likely to be naked as not – and the crash club owner decides to put them in the show, because, of course, everyone like duos. They can sing too - and when in fish form, communicate with each other in some strange fish language.

 

The one narrative thread the movie follows from beginning to end is the relationship between Silver and Mietek. She falls for him, hard, and even though he tells her that “You’ll always be a fish to me” – she willing sacrifices everything for him. Golden isn’t so subservient – and is the one responsible for all the blood in the film.

 

The film plays with ideas of the male gaze, misogyny and female sexuality in strange ways – sometimes in way that seem almost literal (a man complaining of a “fish smell” in a slit in the tail of one of the mermaids, the blood involved in a key sexual encounter between Mietek and Silver), and sometimes in obscure ways. All the characters in the movie function more like metaphors and symbols than actual people. There are levels on top of levels here, than you could spend a long time trying to piece it all together – the films constantly shifting narrative, and bizarre visuals and musical numbers keep you guessing to the end.

 

On its most basic level though, The Lure is more conventional than it first seems, as it about a girl, who throws everything away for an unworthy man – who changes who she is to be accepted by him, and still gets tossed aside. At least Golden’s there too though to set things right.

Movie Review: La La Land

La La Land

Directed by: Damien Chazelle.

Written by: Damien Chazelle.

Starring: Ryan Gosling (Sebastian Wilder), Emma Stone (Mia Dolan), John Legend (Keith), Rosemarie DeWitt (Laura Wilder), J. K. Simmons (Bill), Finn Wittrock (Greg Earnes), Tom Everett Scott (David), Meagen Fay (Mia's Mom), Damon Gupton (Harry), Jason Fuchs (Carlo), Jessica Rothe (Alexis), Sonoya Mizuno (Caitlin), Callie Hernandez (Tracy), Josh Pence (Josh), Anna Chazelle (Sarah).

 

You have to admire a film like La La Land, which from first frame to last, completely and totally embraces its premise and style, and dives headlong into it. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, La La Land is that Hollywood rarity these days – an original musical written directly for the screen. The film is a love letter to the films that inspired it – the work of Astaire and Rogers, Gene Kelly, Vincente Minelli, Stanley Donen and Jacques Demy among many (many) others. Chazelle layers in the references and the metaphors, fully aware that modern audiences may not be aware of everything he is cribbing from, which allows him some fairly brazen references. For the most part, La La Land is joy to watch for its entire runtime – two things hold it back from being the masterwork that many of the films that inspired it were – the first is that the songs, while solid and work in the context of the rest of the film, aren’t as memorable as perhaps they should be (two are – the rest I’ve already forgotten) – and the second is that La La Land is a film that just reeks of effort. All movie musicals – at least good ones – are a ton of work, and yet the very best of them seem completely and totally effortless – La La Land doesn’t. Yet, these are such minor complaints on an otherwise great movie, they hardly seem worth bringing up.

 

The film is about a doomed love affair between two Hollywood dreamers. Ryan Gosling is Sebastian, a poor jazz musician, who likes jazz in its purest form, and hates to see that it is dying, if not already dead. He dreams of owning a jazz club where they can play jazz the way it was meant to be played – although whether anyone showed up or not, is up for debate. Emma Stone is Mia, an aspiring actress, who goes out on one terrible audition after another, while making a living working as a barista in an studio lot coffee house. The two meet cute a number of times, before they finally do get together. A few other characters pop up for a few short scenes, but the film is basically focused on these two, and their relationship, doomed from the outset.

 

It helps to have Ryan Gosling in the role of Sebastian – because with an actor less charming that Gosling, Sebastian’s negative qualifies – his tendency to mansplain everything, his pretentious rambling about purity, etc. would otherwise make him insufferable. But because he’s played by Gosling, with a knowing smirk whenever Sebastian starts to go off on one of his tangents, you go with it as part of his goofy charm. Sebastian may well be a stand-in for Chazelle himself (who, making this as his follow-up to Whiplash, clearly loves jazz). Both Sebastian and Chazelle are in love with an art form that is arguably dead already except in terms of nostalgia (jazz for Sebastian, movie musicals for Chazelle – or perhaps, just movies!) – but are essentially in love with something they never experienced firsthand. Stone is even better than Gosling in the film, given the role of the ingénue that everyone in the audience falls in love with. Yet, as clichéd as the role may be in many ways, she makes it her own – makes it feel real. While Gosling’s Sebastian remains essentially the same throughout, Stone gradually grows, becomes a stronger, more confident person than ever before. This is expressed through her singing as well – which starts out lovely, but quiet – but gradually builds throughout the film, culminating with Audition – easily the best song in the film, when she finally lets loose. Stone has been doing great work for a while now – here, she takes it to a different level.

 

The musical numbers in La La Land are fine. The opening number is an odd one – it doesn’t really involve with Gosling or Stone, and is a large scale number set on the freeway in LA – which of course means during a traffic jam. What the number does do is establish exactly what kind of movie this is going to be, also gives Chazelle an excuse to stage the kind of large scale musical number the rest of the movie will not be (you get the feeling he has wanted to make a musical for his entire life, and isn’t going to miss his chance to do whatever he wants with it). I do think it’s the film worst musical number – except for John Legend’s song, which I still cannot figure out if it’s supposed to be bad, or whether it just wasn’t for me (I have no idea why Legend wanted to be in the film – essentially playing a John Legend type as a sellout – even if he’s a sellout with a point).

 

I did admire how the film wears its heart on its sleeve, and has no embarrassment about embracing every musical cliché imaginable. We’re already in a fantasy world for the most part, and yet even that doesn’t stop Chazelle from having a fantasy inside a fantasy in the films closing moments – where one character imagines what would have happened had they done something different, producing a wonderful montage that is even more emotionally heightened than the rest of the film. The cinematograph is beautiful – shot on film, naturally – and gives the films a wonderful look.

 

All in all, La La Land is a wonderful movie musical. Yes, I have my share of problems with the film – all of which are relatively minor, but do add up. But you cannot help but admire Chazelle who has made one of the year’s most ambitious films here, if not quite one of its vert best.

Movie Review: London Road

London Road

Directed by: Rufus Norris.   

Written by: Alecky Blythe.   

Starring: Olivia Colman (Julie), Clare Burt (Sue), Rosalie Craig (Kelly McCormack), Anita Dobson (June), James Doherty (Seb), Kate Fleetwood (Vicky), Hal Fowler (David Crabtree), Linzi Hateley (Helen), Paul Hilton (Tim), Nick Holder (Ron), Claire Moore (Counciller Carole), Michael Shaeffer (Simon Newton), Nicola Sloane (Rosemary), Paul Thornley (Dodge), Howard Ward (Terry), Duncan Wisbey (Gordon), Tom Hardy (Mark), Rosie Hilal (Hayley), Amy Griffiths (Sarah), Gillian Bevan (Colette McBeth), Anna Hale (Jessica).

 

You have to give the new musical London Road credit for trying to do something completely different – and if it doesn’t quite pull it off, well, they tried. The film is an adaptation of the stage musical in which the writer – Alecky Blythe – tells the story the Ipswich Ripper – a man who murdered five prostitute in the working class London Road area of Suffolk in 2006 – and was convicted two years later. Yet, this isn’t really a story about the Ipswich Ripper at all – he isn’t a character in the play (I believe his first name is mentioned in the movie, but I don’t remember hearing his last name) – but rather of the area that it took place. Blythe interviewed the people in the area over the span of a few years, from before the killer was found, until after he was convicted. She then took their actual words – awkward phrasing, ums and ahs in all – and made it into a musical. There are a few numbers which are actually quite brilliant – and they happen often enough that the movie strings you along, as you continue to hope it’s all going to come together in some sort of interesting way. That never really happens – there are too many characters, and the film kind of peters out as it goes along, and I don’t think it ever really provides any real insight into the crimes – or the areas they took place in. I cannot even tell if the film is sympathetic to the area – or criticizing the residents for their rather cold attitude towards the prostitutes, who made up the victim pool. The film is an interesting experiment, but little more.

 

The film tries to weave together the multiple stories of everyone who lives near London Road – which the residents say was always a nice place to live. Then a few years before, prostitutes moved into the area, which had a negative impact on the area – which the residents tell you about. Then bodies of all those prostitutes start showing up all around the area – which horrifies the residents, who do not know what to do.

 

At its best, the film taps into the fear. The best single song is It Could Be Him – sung by a duo of high school girls, who start out giggling their way the song, until as the song progresses, and their terror eventually comes through. Another highlight is Tom Hardy, mumbling his way through a song as a cabdriver, who is obsessed with serial killers, who wants to make sure you know that doesn’t make him a serial killer.

 

If there is a problem with the film it’s that none of the character ever really come into focus. Many of them (like those two teenage girls), only show up for a few minutes, before they disappear from the rest of the film. The ones who do start standing out are more because you recognize the actor than anything else – like Olivia Colman’s Julie, a local woman who tries to help the neighborhood rebuild after the trauma it has gone through. Some songs work, most are forgettable – and the film rushes through the arrest and trial, and then tries to end thing on an up note that doesn’t really make sense.

 

I don’t think London Road really works – but I’m wondering if there is a way for a film like this ever to work. The goal of transcribing what people actually said and using that for dialogue would seem to be for realism sake – but then setting it to music goes in precisely the opposite direction. It Could Be Him is the rare example where the combination works brilliantly – but mostly the artificiality of the construct shines through more than anything else.

 

Still, I have to say this for London Road – it’s not quite like anything I’ve ever seen before. Sometimes there’s a reason for that – and I think London Road definitely does show that reason. It’s still something I’m glad I saw though.

Movie Review: Sing Street

Sing Street

Directed by: John Carney.

Written by: John Carney.

Starring: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (Conor), Lucy Boynton (Raphina), Jack Reynor (Brendan), Aidan Gillen (Robert Lalor), Maria Doyle Kennedy (Penny), Kelly Thornton (Ann), Ian Kenny (Barry), Ben Carolan (Darren), Percy Chamburuka (Ngig), Mark McKenna (Eamon), Don Wycherley (Brother Baxter).

 

Like his previous films, Once and Begin Again, John Carney’s Sing Street is a sweet, entertaining film about the power of music. The film is certainly steeped in nostalgia, and Carney has perhaps tried a little too hard to make the film into a slick crowd pleaser. Overall though, Sing Street is a film that is enjoyable throughout – a film in a minor key, that earns both the laughs and tears it eventually draws from the audience. And, like the previous two films, the music is terrific.

 

It’s the 1980s, in Ireland and 15 year old Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) is being pulled out of his school, and being sent to learn with the Catholic Brothers – his parents are struggling financially, and their marriage is falling apart. Conor is miserable at the new school – that is until he spies Raphina (Lucy Boynton) standing across the street from the school. She’s a year older, has an even older boyfriend, and informs Conor that she is a model – and will be heading to London soon. Conor says she should star in a music video for his band before she goes – and she agrees. The only problem – he has no band, cannot really play an instrument, and has never written a song before.

 

The movie then becomes about Conor gathering that band, and learning how to write a song and perform. Their influences are many and varied – mainly because Conor seemingly doesn’t know much about music at first – so whatever band his slacker older brother, Brendan (Jack Reynor) introduces him to, that is what their next song sounds like. The two main relationships in the film are between Conor and Raphina – that, like the relationships between Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova in Once and Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley in Begin Again may never actually involve romance, but starts to grow deeper than that. The difference here is that it is clear that Conor is in love with Raphina, and as the movie progresses, maybe she feels the same way. Until she makes her decision however, she advises Conor to find “happiness in sadness” – which is what love really is.

 

But, as is appropriate for a film that is dedicated to “Brothers Everywhere”, the best relationship in the film is between Conor and Brendan. Reynor, who has been building a solid resume in the past few years (and did a Transformers movie), at first makes Brendan into the personification of the “cool”, older brother, guiding their younger brother into the world of great music. As the film progresses, though Brendan gains more depth – there is a deep sadness to him. He’s only in his early 20s, and yet he seems to have given up – he is living vicariously through his younger brother. It is something that truly, I wish the movie concentrated on this relationship even more – we’ve seen lots of movies about young teenage love (even if Sing Street handles that aspect well) – fewer with a brotherly relationship like this at its core. The moment that made me cry is all Reynor – it’s his final shot in the movie, and it’s a great one.

 

Then, of course, there is the music. Carney has always been able to fill his films with great, memorable original songs – in Once, it all comes from Hansard and Irglova, but Carney has become more involved in it as the films progressed. No, I don’t believe that any high school band would or could write songs this good – especially from where they start (the film isn’t like the charming Swedish film, We Are the Best – where the song they come up with is good – but also believably comes from the girls in the band) – but when the music is this memorable, that seems like a minor complaint.

 

Yes, Sing Street is perhaps a little too slick and sheen – a little too engineered to be a crowd pleaser, and you can feel it at times. But, the film is still a crowd pleaser regardless of that. Carney may not be stretching himself with each new film – but he knows what he does well, and in Sing Street, he delivers it.

Classic Movie Review: Purple Rain (1984)

Purple Rain (1984)

Directed by: Albert Magnoli.

Written by: Albert Magnoli  & William Blinn.

Starring: Prince (The Kid), Apollonia Kotero (Apollonia), Morris Day (Morris), Olga Karlatos (Mother), Clarence Williams III (Father), Jerome Benton (Jerome), Billy Sparks (Billy), Jill Jones (Jill), Charles Huntsberry  (Chick), Dez Dickerson (Dez), Brenda Bennett (Brenda), Susan Moonsie (Susan), Kim Upsher (Kim), Wendy Melvoin (Wendy-The Revolution), Lisa Coleman (Lisa-The Revolution).

 

I have never been a Prince fan – mostly, I think, because by the time I started listening to music in the 1990s, Prince’s glory days were behind him. I knew some of his songs to be sure, but he seemed rather cheesy to my cynical teenage eyes, all clad in purple, and the fact that he changed his named to a symbol. I had no real understanding of Prince’s musical prowess, or why he changed his name, or how he was fighting with his record company for his artistic freedom, etc. – and to be honest I didn’t really care. This is probably why I never did get around to seeing Purple Rain – one of the only films that was widely available that made Roger Ebert’s top 10 list in the year it was released I didn’t see back in the 1990s.

 

I was wrong not to care about Prince’s music – while I will never be a Prince superfan I am able to appreciate him as the groundbreaking artist he was, how he invented his own distinct sound and personality, in what was often a terrible decade for music of the 1980s. I was right, however, not to see Purple Rain back then – I don’t think I would have appreciated what the film does right back then, and instead I’d focus on everything the film does wrong. And, there is a hell of a lot the film does wrong even if the highs ultimately make it more than worthwhile.

 

Purple Rain is an example of a genre musicians have been using as their foray into film since almost the beginning of movies, and continue to this day – the thinly veiled, fictional autobiography of themselves, set just before they make it big. In Purple Rain, Prince plays The Kid – an extremely gifted singer/songwriter/performer in the Minneapolis music scene, struggling with his personal demons, feuding with his flashy rival, clashing with his band members, and falling in love with a beautiful, talented singer. It’s all pretty standard stuff really – you know precisely what story beats the movie is going to hit from the outset, and the movie gleefully checks them off, never pretending that the story is reason why you’re watching the movie. You’re watching for the music – and every single one of the concert scenes in the movie is wonderful. Directed by Albert Magnoli, the concert scenes capture the energy and the passion, and the sheer joy of performance, of Prince’s music and persona. Whether, he writhing away on stage (and on higher things), while singing Darling Nikki, or the emotional rendition of Purple Rain that acts as the films climax (anyone else find it odd though that in the film, The Kid isn’t the one who writes Purple Rain, and it shows personal growth for him to perform it, and allow his collaborators more say in their music, when in reality, Prince was headed in the opposite direction? No, just me – okay, moving along) the musical scenes are brilliant – and if for no other reason, more than make watching the film worthwhile. And it’s not just Prince – I defy anyone not have fun watching Morris Day and the Time perform, dancing in unison as they do. While the film’s most forgettable number is by Apollonia, it’s still very good – good enough that it would a highlight in many other movies.

 

The moments surrounding those musical scenes is an extremely mixed bag however. The film does deal with domestic violence – as The Kid watches as his father takes out his musical frustrations on his mother in various, abusive ways – and the legacy of violence, as The Kid repeats that violence on Apollonia – although it doesn’t really deal with that in any real way. But there are other scenes that are played for laughs that are really ugly in their misogyny – The Kid playing a cruel trick on Apollonia to get her to strip in jump into a lake for instance, before he takes off on his motorcycle (he comes back, but still). The Kid basically treats Apollonia like garbage throughout the movie – but she’s still there cheering for him in the end. Even worse, when Morris has an underling literally throw an annoying woman he slept with into a dumpster. It’s hard not to watch those scenes and be offended.

 

Then there is Prince himself – and, to be honest, he wasn’t much of an actor in the film. Some musicians can translate to acting careers easily – but most cannot. And here, Prince couldn’t (perhaps he got better (but I’m not going to watch Under the Cherry Moon or Graffiti Bridge anytime soon to find out). His basic acting is to look at the camera with a solemn look on his face to gain sympathy. Morris Day is a hell of a lot more fun than Prince is in the movie – although to be fair, that’s all that is asked of him, whereas The Kid is a seemingly complex character, even if Prince wasn’t capable of portraying that.

 

The film basically screams 1980s in many ways – the music, of course, but also the visual style – which is garish and brightly colored. I can see why 1980s’ nostalgists love the film so much – is basically is the 1980s in one movie. The music – which won Prince a richly deserved Oscar in the now defunct category of Original Song Score – is the reason to see Purple Rain, which is far from a masterpiece, but as a 1980s time capsule – and a document of what made Prince so special, it’s tough to beat.

Movie Review: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Directed by:  Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone.

Written by: Andy Samberg & Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone.

Starring: Andy Samberg (Conner), Jorma Taccone (Owen), Akiva Schaffer (Lawrence), Sarah Silverman (Paula), Tim Meadows (Harry), Maya Rudolph (Deborah), Joan Cusack (Tilly), Imogen Poots (Ashley), Chris Redd (Hunter).

 

I’m not sure Andy Samberg is capable of playing a real asshole – but I am quite sure that I don’t care that he can’t. You would expect Samberg to make Conner, the Justin Bieber-like singer at the center of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping into a narcissistic asshole, because then, the audience can delight in that character eventually getting his comeuppance. But Samberg doesn’t do that – underneath all the bluster and ego that is Conner’s outer layer, and the image he wants to give to the world, Conner is really just a dim bulb and dammit, he’s kind of lovable. How he managed to make an entitled popstar like Conner likable is both a mystery, but also the reason why the film works so well. Sitting back to point and laugh at a dickhead would be funny for a while, and then just sad. This film first deflates his ego, then makes you like the guy. It’s quite a feat.

 

From beginning to end, Popstar mocks pretty much everything about the modern music industry, and celebrity culture, in ways that are both very obvious and very subtle. The announced “surprise” release of Conner’s album, the corporate sponsorship that forces the album to consumers who don’t want it (in a way that is far funnier than how we all just suddenly owned U2’s album on iTunes). How Conner’s girlfriend (Imogen Poots) talks about how she always wanted to be part of a celebrity couple that you can never be sure if they were real or just a publicity stunt, the absolutely merciless takedown of TMZ are all foregrounded and obvious – but also very funny. There’s also some great moments that only happen in the background though, that are never really commented on (look at the TV’s behind Conner in many scenes – it really does appear like US economy and government is going into meltdown – and no one in the movie seems to care). The songs in the movie are all excellent. This is a Lonely Island movie – and that trio who produced a number of memorable songs for SNL – like Dick in a Box, I’m On a Boat, etc. – are at their height here. Their songs are dead on parodies of what they are mocking – musically, the sound like actual hits, lyrically, they are hilarious. There is a song in Popstar that parodies Macklemore, and it’s the hardest I’ve laughed in a movie theater in a long time.

 

The film does have a plot – although it basically uses it as a clothesline to hang jokes on. The film desperately wants to be This is Spinal Tap for a new generation, and it uses the mock-umentary format that film invented (yes, I know, there were mock-documentaries before This is Spinal Tap – but nothing quite like that film was) – and it uses it well. The film is full of celebrity cameos – some who only appear in a scene or two, sometimes playing themselves, sometimes not, all of them seemingly being a good sport about mocking themselves and their image. The film follows Conner as he launches his second solo album – the first was a huge hit, but this one has the making of a disaster. Conner used to be part of a Beastie Boys-type group – but he was the “real” star, so he broke out solo – even though it was Owen (Jorma Taccone), who wrote all the beats (and is now just Conner’s DJ) and Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) who wrote all the lyrics. But they didn’t have Conner’s star quality.

 

The movie is at its best when it ignores it plot however – we know that they group, known as Style Boyz, will eventually get back together, so all of the scenes the film spends getting there can be labored. Its best moments are the ones that are connected to nothing around them – the songs, the asides (there is a joke about a “hard r” that was barely audible, but just about the funniest line in the movie).

 

The movie, unfortunately, bombed at the box office – and yet, I cannot imagine that film will not become a cult hit – the kind of film that people play in dorms room, either with or without the aid of pot, for years to come. It is a stupid comedy – but a smart stupid comedy, and its hit-to-miss ratio in terms of jokes is really quite high. I hope that it does become that cult hit – it deserves to be, and I can see myself watching it over-and-over on cable (like Zoolander) for years to come. But mostly, it’s because I want to see this trio of guys get another shot at making a movie – and with these box office numbers, that doesn’t appear likely – even if they made one of the funniest mainstream comedies of the year.