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 love a good boxing picture but, in my opinion, they are tough to pull off. I am already bored to death of the straight-ahead Aristotelian three-act structure, in general. Apply it to the rise-fall-redemption classic fighter/warrior narrative and it's usually snore city. Bleed For This is up against all the same tired tropes and cliches of that dull old boxing movie narrative and, alas, it is also a bio pic. I find bio pics extremely difficult to pull off. Again, they tend to conform to this predictable three-act structure, and the majority of them end up largely fabricated; It's always dizzying just how invented most bio pics end up. Bleed For This is running up against a brick wall, trying to be both a good bio pic and a good boxing pic. As a boxing pic, it is as standard as they come. He rises, he falls, he is redeemed; sorry to spoil it for you. As a bio pic, it falls into all the trappings of cripspiration. This is the story of the working class, New England lightweight boxer Vinny Pazienza, who broke his neck in a car accident but wore the Halo brace, trained against doctors' orders, and made a comeback in the ring! The story is impressive, and yes, it's inspiring. Yet, it still manages to be utterly mainstream about it all. Miles Teller, Ciaran Hinds and Aaron Eckhardt are all terrific. The performances are the truly the film's saving grace. This is no Creed. If you like bio pics and you like boxing pics you will not be disappointed. If you want something fresh, exciting, new that doesn't rely on cliches about the triumph and the human spirit and overcoming disability, you will probably leave unfulfilled. 3/5 The Dwarvenaut is a crowd pleasing bizarre sub-culture doc. It follows entrepreneur/artist Stephan Pokorny as he leads his Bushwick based company "Dwarven Forge" through their third Kickstarter campaign. Pokorny's company Dwarven Forge hand sculpts interchangeable miniature modular terrain for Dungeons & Dragons gaming such as dungeons, caverns, and "Valoria" a complete complex city with its own history and lore. The Dwarvenaut follows Pokorny to gaming conventions as he works to pull off a $2million Kickstarter campaign. Pokorny's passion, talent, and skill combined with his likability and quirkiness make this a fun and delightful film going experience where the audience is rooting for Dwarven Forge's success even if they've never played a game like D&D before. 4/5 Robert Frank Don't Blink is one of the best documentaries I've seen in a long time. Director Laura Israel follows Frank, allowing him to muse on camera more than she probes him with questions, in general letting Frank be Frank without the rigid boundaries of a straight-forward documentary. Director and photographer Frank is an fascinating subject. Israel expertly steers clear of presenting this doc as a linear, biographical, talking heads-style film instead presenting a meditation on Frank very much in the experimental and evocative style of an Agnes Varda film. I was very fortunate to catch a screening of Frank's Cocksucker Blues, Frank's never released documentary on the Rolling Stones during their Exile on Main Street tour. I saw it this last summer at the Telluride Film Festival and so this fell in my lap at the perfect time. I have to admit that, however, of Frank's oeuvre, I've only seen Cocksucker Blues and Candy Mountain. Candy Mountain was his only feature film and it's really quite a good 1980s rock'n'roll road movie with Tom Waits and Buster Poindexter. Now, I'm on a mission to see all the others. I can't recommend this film highly enough! 5/5 Some might feel that this is Johnny Depp's return to acting. If you've seen any of his work over the past 13 years or so, you are probably aware that Depp jumped the shark ages ago. Depp feels a tad more authentic than I've gotten used to but he's still hiding under a ton of make up and those icy blue contact lenses. What is remarkable about Black Mass are the supporting actors. Particularly, Joel Edgerton. Holy smokes, that guy is good!...The sound editing is also pretty impressive. In general, Black Mass is a run-of-the-mill Hollywood bio pic. I was not that impressed... 3/5 |
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