I'm a huge fan of the late country singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. I could listen to him everyday, all day. A lot of people I know appreciate Townes, but they tell me he's too sad to listen to for very long...I disagree. Well, if you love Townes, or even just appreciate him, or if you are interested in country music, or specifically the Texas Outlaw Country scene of the 1970s and 80s, you will probably quite enjoy Blaze. Blaze is a new film from actor/director Ethan Hawke. It's about the late country singer-songwriter Blaze Foley, a lesser known contemporary and close friend of Townes. Not a heck of a lot is known about Blaze so the film only loosely considers itself a "sort-of" biopic. It's really just creates a feeling and gives an impression that is rich and authentic. To achieve this, a good deal of the film is devoted to telling stories about Blaze, rarely allowing the audience in on Blaze's own perspective. The film dedicates itself to blatant myth building, using the spot-on incredible Charlie Sexton as Townes spinning yarns as Townes was well-known to do. It's explicit that we're being told about Blaze and Blaze is not speaking for himself. The film leaves large gaps instead of trying to fill in every aspect of Blaze's life, history, and experience. We tend to be always watching him while he's often making a spectacle of himself. A word on the casting: Hawke did very well here, using real musicians who are not actors in two of the three lead roles. Musician Ben Dickey is absolutely astonishing in his first role, as Blaze. I heard him explain in an online interview that he for the role he learned Blaze's entire 60-ish song catalogue and indeed played live on set throughout the film--most notably in the sections devoted to the entire performance and recording of Live At The Austin Outhouse album, including all the banter. Meanwhile, musician Charlie Sexton is incredible as Townes. It's uncanny; he nails Marie, and it is so exactly perfectly Townes. Alia Shawkat is terrific and rounds out and grounds the film as Sybil Rosen, Blaze's one known, longtime girlfriend whose memoir 'Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley' inspired a large portion of the film. I highly recommend this raw, beautiful sort-of, kind-of biopic. 5/5 |
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I tend to shy away from biopics because of all the fictionalizing, romanticizing, and fabricating. Greetings from Tim Buckley is a solid biopic in that it preoccupies it's time by mainly focusing on one major event, the 1991 Greetings from Tim Buckley tribute concert at St Anna's Church in New York which marked son Jeff Buckley's first public performance in memory of the father he only met twice. Focusing on this one event dispels with unnecessarily dramatizing the back story and isolates the flashbacks to a fictionalized account of father Tim's philandering and wild ways. Penn Bagley holds his own, especially given that he sang live and Jeff's range and style are wide, tricky, and nuanced. 3/5 Wild at Heart is a road movie in which Lula and Sailor, two young lovers, take to the road in order to escape Lula's "wicked" mother. Take a young Laura Dern and a young Nicholas Cage and a snake skin jacket. Add Diane Ladd, Harry Dean Stanton, Willem Dafoe. Stir in some Jack Nance, John Lurie and Pruitt Taylor Vince and more than a dash of Twin Peaks with Grace Zabrinski, Sherlyn Fenn, and Sheryl Lee. Let simmer. Wild at Heart is classic Lynch; it's super bizarre and riddled with insanity. This is extremely enjoyable and well worth your time. It will blow your mind. 5/5 Muriel's Wedding is a super enjoyable classic (at 21 years old) Australian comedy. Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths are both so brilliant here in their break out roles as BFFs Muriel and Rhonda. Muriel is a socially awkward young Australian woman who's biggest dream is to get married and have a big fancy wedding. After yet another humiliation, Muriel steals some money so she can run away from dull, Porpoise Spit, to Sydney. While Muriel and Rhonda start fresh and really come into their own, and as Muriel's confidence is building, she still secretly harbours her fantasies about getting married. This movie is silly and fun, and it certainly warrants multiple viewings. 4/5 The Seven Five is a documentary film about two corrupt cops running amok in New York's 75th Precinct, once considered the most dangerous precinct in the Unites States. Mike "The Cop" Dowd and Kenny Eurell led a gang of crooked cops during the crack cocaine years of the 1980s and 1990s. They eventually got caught but a plan to get them out of the country while out on bail leads Eurell to turn on Dowd, sending Dowd to prison for 12 years (in 1992). Eurell never served a day. This all led to the 1992 Mollen Commission's investigation into police corruption in the New York Police Department at which Dowd testified. This is the kind of story that could easily be made into some kind of Scorsese/Johnny Depp mobster thing. It's the story we've all seen, but better. This is a gritty and raw film that Dowd and Eurell actively participate along with many of their accomplices, criminals and cops alike, as talking heads recounting their version of events. 4/5 Showgirls is a real turkey but given the right conditions it can be a lot of fun. For instance, in a theater with a live drag show where you're you can drink alcohol and talk aloud. That makes this movie a fun time. Without a doubt Showgirls is ridiculous. You can practically hear director Paul Verhoeven screaming "MORE! BIGGER!! BIGGER!!" and as a result this movie is extremely melodramatic but that's what makes it what it is. This is also a movie that can't decide if it's a drama, comedy, rape revenge, or rags to riches... Have a laugh. 2/5 on a big screen and with booze 1/5 sober Spotlight is a strong Hollywood slow-burn ensemble thriller about the Boston Globe's Spotlight team who uncovered the Catholic Chuch's Sex Abuse scandal in Boston in the late 90s and early 2000s. This is a well-written film with a great cast rounded out by Stanley Tucci, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Liev Schrieber, and Rachel McAdams. Truly, it is difficult to make an exciting film about paperwork. So much paperwork. Todd McCarthy does well here. I appreciate that Spotlight focuses on the team and their work instead of on the salacious details of the scandal, the priests, and the survivors. 4/5 A year before CB4, there was Fear of a Black Hat. Fear of a Black Hat is also a mockumentary about a year following a fictitious hip hop group NWH (Niggaz With Hats) comprised of Tasty Taste, Tone Deaf, and Ice Cold. This is a bit more raw, more goofy, and more political than CB4. There are a few uncanny similarities; props go to Fear for being the original. The song parodies here are terrific, such as "Grandma Says Kick Yo Ass" and "Fuck the Security Guards. 4/5 |
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