Song Sung Blue

There’s a reason why jukebox musicals are so popular on Broadway lately. You take a roster of songs that are proven popular and build a narrative around them and you have a show that will please a crowd. The value of such a production, beyond the nuts and bolts of the music’s appeal, thus boils down to what the story has to say. In this case, the message here that comes through loud and clear is that, while there may be an overclass of famous people who receive the lion’s share of the attention and affection in this world, there are all sorts of other people—obscure and unknown and often overlooked—for whom we should be rooting just as hard. Maybe even more so. The characters of Mike and Claire are so authentic and worthy of compassion that it’s hard to imagine anyone not feeling a desperate desire to see them succeed. That’s why the story’s ups and downs have such a profound impact, almost to the point that they nearly overwhelm the viewer’s power to endure them (even if the events depicted run right up to the brink of believability). Ultimately, though, the tale achieves a balance that is more redemptive than discouraging. And, if nothing else, you get to hear some amazing music. I’m a believer, at least enough to recommend this one. 

Coda

In this case, title case, not upper case. This is not a review of the Oscar winner from a few years ago; it's about a film with a similar title from a few years before that. With this movie, the title is perhaps more relevant, since the term refers to the end of a musical piece, and this story is about the tail end of a fictional musical master’s career. The plot summary for this flick could simply read, “talented old man struggles with himself”—and, as you might imagine, there are reasons why that would be a difficult sell for the majority of viewers. Luckily, the old man in question here is the exceptional Patrick Stewart, who gives a convincing performance as Henry, a legendary pianist who has had to deal with a bit too much and isn’t entirely convinced that he can take any more. Along the way Katie Holmes reminds us of how talented and charming she is, while Giancarlo Esposito provides more than able support as Henry’s agent and confidant. Further support comes from the music that is woven in throughout the story, brilliant and beautiful pieces that reflect Henry in his inner turmoil and in his moments of achieved calm and acceptance. No doubt, this film is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you are in a contemplative mood, and open to some quiet, deep storytelling, this work will work for you. 

Sinners

There’s an old saying: a point in every direction is no point at all. I heard that saying echoing in my mind as I watched this film. I’m not really sure what this movie wants to be. A horror show? A study of race relations? An ode to music? A period piece? Crime drama? Yes, it’s all those things, but trying to do too much can make a muddle. So we have here, to a minor extent, though to be fair the story at its core never loses coherence; you don’t get lost in this narrative. There is one other problem: the gimmick of having Michael B. Jordan play dual roles means that it can be difficult to tell if you’re watching the character Smoke or Stack in crucial moments. Having said all that, there’s much to admire here, too. The performances are splendid all around, and the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous throughout. And most of the music is wonderful, too, though occasionally the attempts at genre cross-pollination detract rather than add to the tableau. So certainly, this is a fine movie and worthy of praise—I just wish people would let it rest at that, rather than go overboard and declare it to be the greatest thing that ever happened in the history of movies, if not humanity. When we commit that sin, it really does make one want to sing the blues. 

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

The recursiveness may be the most striking aspect of this production. While parodying the idea of it not necessarily being a good idea for an over- the-hill band to do a reunion concert, these guys make a movie … as an over the hill group of comedians getting back together to do a sequel. Hmm. The good news is, this outing is not the kind of disaster that inevitably follows the fictional rockers around … but it isn’t exactly a triumph reminiscent of the original movie, either. There are good bits in here, mostly during scenes where the participants offer some fresh gags and wry remarks rather than rehashes of the first film’s notes. That’s a fine line, of course; they couldn’t possibly have made this sequel without referring back to at least some of the earlier material, so they can hardly be blamed for echoing previous jokes. Still, the viewer can help but get the sense that the principal creators didn’t quite trust their own abilities to really let loose and come up with entirely fresh pieces of funny. Maybe they were just tired; if nothing else, this flick shows the impact of age catching up to you. That condition especially comes through in the musical performances, which are uneven throughout. More encouraging is the support the core group gets from the guest stars, Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John in particular; both are quite funny in their cameos. All together, this work is something short of what one might have expected or hoped for, but the movie does deliver enough new laughs and nostalgic moments that it certainly isn’t anything to be ashamed of. These banshees still live, and they do (sorta) live well. 

Pitch Perfect 2

I guess this is what it would be like in a conquered world under a dictatorship of Pentatonix. No, that would not be as good as you may think. So too with this movie. Again, as in the first installment, the story is little more than a skeleton of a plot upon which a series of musical set pieces are hung. That would be fairly entertaining in and of itself, if all the songs were great tunes, but many of these are not. At least the vocal work is still very high quality. And many of the principal actresses are real charmers, which helps lift the appeal, while Rebel Wilson gets in a slew of genuinely funny lines. All in all, this record may be a bit warped, but it still delivers enough good sounds to make putting it on the turntable a decent thing now and then. 

Rock 'n' Roll High School

They don’t make them like this anymore. Really, they don’t make anything like any of this anymore. Not just the music — the Ramones are sui generis vs today’s music—but all other aspects of this flick are of another time and place: the silliness, the look, the sense of liberation and rebellion, the sheer innocence of it all stands out like a punk rock riff against the world of computer generated noise we live in today. Sure, much of this story displays cardboard cutouts of characters and scenarios instead of anything realistic, but that was kind of the point here. This is almost a junior version of the Zucker-Abrahams style parody films—it was made in ‘79, right about the same time as Airplane and the Police Squad TV series—and while it is not as polished or (let’s face it) as funny as those works, this movie still provides a lot of nostalgic fun and good vibes. No lobotomy required to enjoy this field trip. 

Elvis

"Colonel" Tom Parker may be the ultimate unreliable narrator. Thus, it’s an odd choice by Baz Luhrmann to hand the story in this biopic over to him. The viewer really starts to wonder, long before it is made explicit that the man was full of shit, about everything we see, both from that point in the narrative and retrospectively as well. Then again, this story seems to gloss over large portions of Presley’s rise and career, so unreliability may be baked into the whole cake. As it stands, with the movie and story we do get, there some transcendently great moments here, interspersed among what are otherwise standard biopic scenes. What this film does do most effectively is make the argument that Elvis had a certain musical genius--built heavily on borrowings, to be sure, but synthesized into a form, a presence, and an oeuvre that, perhaps, only he could have made into such a unique and wildly successful body of creative work. There was, and still isn’t, anyone like the King--and reminding us of that is this movie’s ultimate success.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

It turns out bullshit really can be entertaining bullshit—up to a point. So it is here with this nearly totally made up biopic of the legendary parody songster. There are a handful of laugh out loud moments in this flick, especially for a Dr. Demento listener from way back in the day, though most of the funniest stuff comes from Al’s old songs, not from the movie’s original jokes. It’s apparent from the very start that this work gets stuck between going too far and not far enough. And then the whole thing really loses its track in a long, overdone, and not especially inspired joke about Madonna. And then, further, the movie is not helped by being shown by and on Roku, thanks to the numerous commercial breaks, which kill a lot of the momentum; ironically, the very company that brought the work to life is its own worst enemy. (The movie may be a better viewed on disc for a more enjoyable experience.) Ultimately, the total package here is one that is mostly entertaining, but could have been much much more than it is.

Melody Time

Fantasia Jr., except a lot cornier. This animated feature presents another Disney anthology of mostly musical set pieces, but the song selections are generally not classical works, the animation tends to be more in line with the simplified, more stylized drawing that came into mode in the late 40s—to the detriment of the art—and the stories are loaded with plenty of hokum and old-fashioned ideas, with a certain amount of religiosity sprinkled in. (That may be three ways of saying the exact same thing.) In a society so insistently multicultural as we have today, a very cultural-ethnic-racial specific brand of mythmaking like this just wouldn't ever fly. Whether that’s a good thing or not depends, I suspect, strongly on your predisposition to root for one "team" versus another. From a pragmatic point of view, I doubt we’re really missing all that much without films like this, but I can’t dismiss out of hand the notion that a society with a dominant culture, one where everyone's all on board--even with some of the nonsense offered here--could at least move in the same direction. Most people seemed to like this stuff back in the day, and there is enough amusement here that some today would find it worth a look, but I suspect most modern audiences would find this flick's hit-and-miss nature reason enough to say no.

Summer of Soul

Ironically, this film about the black Woodstock is not quite a parallel as the documentary about that more famous music festival. This film’s flaw, if it is that, is that it leaves you wanting more of the performances, rather than the mix of performances and interviews. But that’s hardly Questlove's or the producers’ fault, since most of what we see here from July of '69 is previously lost footage, scenes that have a found-object feel to them. You work with what you have—and in this case, what Q and crew had was a collection of remarkable performances and fascinating pieces of contextualizing views of the park, the crowd, and Harlem in general. The biggest takeaway from this work is the depiction of joy surrounding the music, and the performers and the community who forged such a meaningful connection through the event.

Rocketman

Thanks to some unfortunate scheduling, this outing suffers from an inevitable comparison to Bohemian Rhapsody, that other, at least superficially similar '70s rock-icon bio. There is a key difference, though, in that this work's "filmed stage musical" approach doesn't work quite as well as a straightforward narrative treatment of Sir Elton's story might have. Furthermore, the device of telling the story through the artist's songs--without much concern for their temporal sequence, for anyone old enough to be familiar with the discography--makes the life story seem somewhat muddled. Egerton's acting performance--playing someone thoroughly well-known to most of the audience, so a challenge there--is strong, though his singing voice doesn't really match John's very well. And the representation comes with certain other veracity issues, even given--or perhaps because of--the subject's clear participation in the production. (One obvious example: movie Elton never goes as bald as the real-life rocker did). Ultimately the film relies heavily upon the goodwill viewers have for the music; as that resource exists in abundance, this film edges more towards positive territory. It doesn't shoot into orbit, but it flies just high enough for most fans.

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Queendom, the power, and the glory was his--at least for a while. The case this movie seems to make is that Freddie Mercury was so incandescent that he simple had to burn out quickly, and maybe would have done so even if his illness hadn't limited his life. And while one can argue that certain aspects of this movie are a little too formulaic and filmic, what's unarguable is that the presentation also captures its many moments of brilliance with great sense and feeling. Those too young to remember Queen in their heyday get a highly accurate recreation of that vibe here. The result is a picture that entertains greatly and elevates highly, for both the band's legacy and those who partake of it here. Very strong work and just shy of must-see quality.

A Star Is Born (2018)

You forgive talented people--a lot. That is a well-known fact that serves as the premise for this film, which is at least the third major adaptation of this story. You'd think a fourth time would not be the charm; that there wouldn't really be much more ground to cover in yet another version...and yet, this one is so well done that it spins such an expectation right around and makes the viewer wonder why it wasn't done again sooner. How is this trick accomplished? Great music, for one thing; the songs (all originals, if I read the credits right) are really strong from the get-go, with one piece after another that is infectious and appealing, and written and performed with a kind of universality that speaks to the broadest audience, in the best possible way. There's a strong country-rock lean to these tunes--certainly those early in the film--but they have tones to them that anyone who likes music can get into. These tunes, though written and performed in the current era, in many ways hark back to the kinds of songs you would have heard on AM radio back in the '70s, when genre-busting tunes were all over the place. Add to that musical element the standard-issue elements of a good movie--excellent acting, vision and direction--and you come away with a potent artistic mix that transcends the cliched essentials of an oft-told tale and delivers something that feels new, fresh, and exciting. Tremendous work by the leads with both the acting and music (Bradley Cooper is an impressive musician, while Lady Gaga is a revelation as an actress) propel the whole package and make this one must-see material. You might even want to get your hands on the soundtrack, too.

Ray

A work about a genius is not necessarily a work of genius. This film is a case in point. The story of the music legend is presented here in an oddly old-fashioned style; many of the tropes seen here have been seen a thousand times before, and the notes played (so to speak) come through clearly, but are a bit obvious and render the story somewhat pedestrian--which hardly reflects the full breadth of the real-life tale. That’s the redeeming part of this movie: the extraordinary nature of Charles’ life arc helps the narrative overcome the film-making weaknesses. On top of that, Jamie Foxx’s dead-on take on the legend’s persona injects some appropriate excellence into the proceedings. And, it should go without saying, the music heard here is incredible. It’s certainly a film worth a look and listen, though it is perhaps not the amazing thing that its subject should have made it out to be.

Straight Outta Compton

Entertaining and accessible enough that this movie could probably make some rap fans--or at least N.W.A. fans--out of people who really aren’t all that into rap music. The only real complaint about this flick is that the story is too big for one movie; there’s no way the whole tale has been covered in full in this treatment. Nevertheless, this movie makes the case that these young guys deserve even more respect than they ultimately got, not just for making cool music, but for being brave, sharp, and for seeing the big picture, too. Definitely worth a look, and a listen.

Whiplash

Again with the jazz. If jazz is as wonderful as everyone who likes it says it is, why does it only feature in films like this? Seriously, try to find a real jazz station on the radio these days. But I digress; the more pertinent question raised by this movie may be, what’s up with these people? The film actually undercuts its own argument; since precious few viewers will be able to tell the good playing from the bad while watching this one, one wonders if the obsessive attention to perfection is in any way valid. Whom are you trying to impress? Five other people in the room?...or in the city? If that’s all there is, just your own little knowing circle, and you act like this...aren’t you just being a dick? Do movie viewers care about dicks? Perhaps I’m just being contrarian, because this film is in fact entertaining, interesting, and worth watching. Just don’t expect to find any new heroes here.

Inside Llewyn Davis

Once again, the Coen brothers display their minor obsession with Homer’s Odyssey. They might want to pull that classic down from the shelf and actually read it sometime, because, you see, that work actually had a story--something the Coens seem to be growing less and less concerned with as the years go along. This is a tough call, because I admit that this is a mostly entertaining movie that holds the interest, especially during the performance scenes (the music is very strong here, though if you’re not much for folkie stuff you might not be swayed to that point of view). But I also find this lack of attention to an actual narrative to be more and more grating with each film the brothers put out. Being oblique and vaguely existential may be entertaining to the Coens, but it doesn’t necessarily entertain us, the audience. If your tolerance moves through a wide orbit, you’ll probably like this film very much; but if you want something a little closer to the heart of the storytelling experience, this probably isn’t it.

Pirate Radio

This film starts off with an unfair advantage: the soundtrack, evident from the opening credits, is so good, so infectious, that the movie opens holding a reservoir of audience goodwill before it does anything to earn it. But a great story, told simply yet very well, and rollicking work from a delightful cast (all of whom seem to be having a fabulous time with every scene) ultimately pay off that debt and balance the books well into the positive by the end.

The Piano

More like "The Pian-Ho." Even setting aside the storyline's ugliness, there's way too much pretentiousness and self-awareness in the direction. Practically every shot screams "this is deep and significant" in an overly obvious way. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic either. An award-winning mess that, in these eyes, hits all the wrong notes.

Walk The Line

The credits say the co-stars are Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon; the real co-stars are Johnny Cash and his demons. That pair made for a compelling story, and combined with some excellent work from the actors, splendid musical performances, and a well-crafted presentation, the whole bundle makes for an exceptional and entertaining (if lengthy) movie.