2012 is now officially over and 2013 has begun. To bring in the new
year I will think back on several notable things that categorised the
year for me.
Yauch and company during the recording of Paul's Boutique
One
of the three Beastie Boys - punk, rapper, activist, filmmaker, all
around good-guy, MCA or Adam Yauch passed away in May 4th of last year.
The group that he lead with Adam Horivitz and Mike Diamond had a huge
effect on me during my early teen years and my passion for the group
endures up until this day. Adam Yauch was diagnosed with cancer
mid-2009, just as the band was about to release their eighth studio
album and his death at the way too young age of 47 has robbed culture of
a true hero.
Yauch
formed the Beastie Boys at age 17 with John Berry, Kate Schellenbach
and Michael Diamond. They found their start playing hardcore punk in the
clubs of NYC but would soon adopt the emerging sounds of hiphop. Adam
Horovitz joined and Kate Schellenbach would leave, and the core three of
MCA, Ad-Rock and MCA gradually built a back catalogue of classic albums
(Licensed to Ill, Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty),
proving that three white boys from NYC can rap just as well as their
fellow black artists. In the 90s they re-incorporated live
instrumentation back into their sound with MCA's phat basslines
providing some of the most memorable hooks (Gratitude, Sabotage etc).
Yauch
became passionate about the plight of the Tibetan in the 90s and
organised several charity concerts (Tibetan Freedom Concert 1996 - 1999,
2001, 2003) raising money and generating much awareness for the
problems facing the Tibetan people. After directing the bands' music
videos through-out their career he moved into feature film making in the
00s with the live concert film Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! (2006) and the basketball documentary Gunnin' for That No. 1 Spot (2008).
It
was through Yauch and his subsequent creative projects that I found a
great deal of inspiration during my formative years. From the very first
time I was introduced to the Beastie Boys video the Intergalactic video
directed by Yauch, which debuted on Top Of The Pops mid-1998, I was
hooked. Their humour, heart, fat fucking beats and mean rhymes (from
middle age white dudes!) won me over, a large amount of all these
elements contributed by Yauch, and they subsequently became my favourite
band through my young adult years to today.
As I delved
further into their back catalogue, from the age of 11 onwards, I
discovered true musical and artistic heroes, through the uncompromising
way in which they tore genre conventions apart, the no bullshit approach
they had to getting their vision out there and the way they weren't
afraid to change, to move from frat boy party rap antics to politically
aware concious rap. And of course, they created albums which remain my
favourites to this day, Paul's Boutique, Hello Nasty, Licensed to Ill, Check Your Head, To The Five Buroughs, Hot Sauce Committe Part 2. For
a band that was around thirty years, to have so little dud albums in
their back catalogue and so many classics is something rare indeed.
I
learnt to rap because of Yauch and his crew, found a musical role model
and was constantly inspired by his humour and creativity. Loosing one
of my main heroes is certainly a mixed thing and I have no doubt in my
mind that MCA had many years ahead of him. What creative projects he
would have embarked on we'll never know. Never the less, this is the
journey that life had in store for him and it certainly wasn't a life
wasted.
Rockumentaries can be either gripping, vital cinematic portrayals of bands, concerts and music topics we love or they can blatantly exist to suck a little more money out of a loyal fan base. Lately it seems like Rockumentaries are predominantly for record companies to sell more merchandise, keep the product alive, make more $$$, such as Shihad's Beautiful Machine, Katy Perry's Part of Me or The Rolling Stones Crossfire Hurricane. Maybe I'm being a little unfair to Kiwi heroes Shihad, and I have not yet seen The Rolling Stones Crossfire Hurricane but anyone familiar with the history of the Rock Documentary form will know that these, at the very least stylistically, hold nothing on classic Rockumentaries such as Gimme Shelter (also The R'Stones), The Last Waltz (The Band) or Woodstock. Here I will discuss some recent Rock documentaries that do it well, some that don't and some older classics that perhaps set the bar and for me still feel very fresh.
Two documentaries released in the last decade on the subject of bands I love, Westway to the World and Joy Division - A Documentary capture successfully the bands essence and put it on celluloid, while telling their story in a way that avoids being purely a cash in. Joy Division - A Documentary, through candid interviews presented an honest view of the bands brief career as well as events surrounding the tragedy leading to the death of singer Ian Curtis. It did not glamorise his suicide as perhaps the fictional cinematic version of the story, Anton Corbijn's Control did so. Although I shouldn't rubbish Corbijn's film, it was also a gripped, well acted and beautifully shot telling of the Joy Division story, if a little biased towards his wife's point of view, being that was the source material. Joy Division - A Documentary focused equally on the bands sound, not just on the tale of Ian Curtis. The effect of the industrial, desolate and grim surroundings of Manchester on the sound of the band is a theme running throughout the film, one that helps provide an understanding of the music of the band beyond Curtis' obsessions and tragic lyrics.
Westway to the World does justice to the story of The Clash, a band with such energy and such a lucky combination of talents. It also shows how those talents can equally be taken for granted within a group and how success can disintegrate a band from the inside. Such quotes as this from Joe Strummer are truly touching and have stuck with me:
"Whatever a group is it was the chemical mixture of those four people that makes a group work. That's a lesson everyone should learn, "Don't mess with it!" If it works just let it... Do whatever you have to do to bring it forward but don't mess with it. And like, we learnt that... bitterly." (Joe Strummer)
Hindsight is indeed a great thing. Westway to the World to me is a well researched and executed modern rockumentary; it doesn't do anything groundbreaking in terms of style but it is fair and does justice to the legacy of the band. Part of this is perhaps due to the direction of Don Letts, who followed The Clash through their career, first as an influential British DJ, then as their video maker and producer and later collaborator and bassist with Mick Jones in Big Audio Dynamite. Yet since the release of Westway to the World we've had another bunch of Clash related documentaries and DVD releases, all of these going further down the path towards cash-ins, such as the compilation of mostly already released live performances - Revolution Rock. Again directed by Don Letts, its another notch to the bands legacy and will no doubt be picked up by every old fan and some new ones in the process. It will probably even gift the surviving members with a bit more towards the retirement fund.
I haven't viewed modern pop Rockumentaies such as Katy Perry's Part of Me or Justin Bieber's Never Say Never, so I can't comment on whether or not this fits into my deduction that Rock documentaries of the 21st century lean more towards cash-grab efforts then artistic statements. Rotten Tomatoes tells me Never Say Never is "As a tour documentary...rather uninspired -- but as a 3D glimpse of a building pop culture phenomenon, Never Say Never is undeniably entertaining". It's of its time at least. But from what I've seen of these documentaries, trailers, glimpses of them here and there-they are far from a honest portrayal of the artist. They instead present a view of the artist as that of one in which they can do no wrong, where the shit on the sole of their shoe is turned to gold by being in the very present of this God on earth.
What I wish is that we were still making Rock documentaries like they were making them in the 60s and 70s. Influenced and part of the Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite movements, documentaries such as Albert Maysles’ Gimme Shelter managed to be self-aware statements on the nature of stardom, the documentary medium itself and cultural changes at the time. Another Rolling Stones documentary, Sympathy for the Devil under the helm of French New Wave innovator Jean-Luc Godard managed to mix his idiosyncratic style with that of a fly-on-the-wall observationale style of documentary filmmaking. Or even The Beatles rarely seen (lately) final film Let It Be, which provides a warts and all glimpse at a brink of destruction. These documentaries, perhaps due to their style or the time they were made were not afraid to show the artists for what they really are. Gimme Shelter particularly grabbed my attention, due to scenes where Mick Jaggar and the other stones are filmed as they watch their own interview and live footage. This kind of documentary style is mind boggling given the vapid, contrived tripe we're supposed to accept as a 'documentary' in this day and age. It's amazing the Stones even allowed the film to be released given the way the filmmakers really pry into the emotions of Jaggar and company, laughing at their own jokes, appearing self-conscious upon hearing interview question answers and finally viewing the death of a concert goers at the hands of one of their hired Hell's Angels security persons at the disaster of a free concert that was the 1969 San Francisco Altamont raceway event.
I should probably write more about Gimme Shelter rather than discussing these other documentaries, but it seems so much has already been written on it. The direct cinema style: the unobtrusive camera work, rough soundtrack, refusal of voice over narrator, are chosen by the filmmakers in their pursuit of truth on celluloid through the documentary medium. Gimme Shelter aims it's camera's eye directly at the band, Jaggar in particular, and shows him coming to terms, or perhaps not coming to terms with the consequences of what they created at the Altamont raceway. It is all fascinating filmmaking, not least for the scene in presents of the flip side to Woodstock, peace and love turned to chaos and death, a decade of dreams coming to a frightful end within this concert setting, as the reality of hate hits down hard on naive hippy concert goers. The people that are hired to keep the peace, the Hell's Angels, prove that violence and anger boiling under the surface is stronger than the intended love of the event.
The Rolling Stones are shown to be responsible for this particular event, even if the complexities of that particular time of cultural change were equally responsible. It is from this train of thought that I come to think about the career of The 'Stones, which perhaps started off this whole recent interest in Rockumentaries when the hype from their current 50th anniversary tour led me to get back into their music and subsequently led me to watch Gimme Shelter. The 'Stones are a very visually documented band and have a lot of different documentary styles under their belt. There are the straight up concert films, such as 1982's Let's Spend the Night Together and the recent mix of concert, staged footage and archival material 2007's Shine-A-Light as well as the earlier more artistic efforts I previously described. It doesn't end here though, this year sees the release of Crossfire Hurricane, a tale of the groups rise to fame, and no doubt it's history and legacy. As well as this, the final concert from their 50th anniversary tour will be broadcast live, pay-per-view over the Internet, direct from the arena in New Jersey. The fans are there, and there's no stopping money and media Juggernaut that is The Rolling Stones from rolling on into it's 6th decade. Will the new documentary or concert be relevant? I don't know, there is a part of me that wants to celebrate watching late 60s and 70 year old's still perform and I will most likely watch both for completions sake, but whether they're necessary or not is another question entirely.
Perhaps I digressed from my original topic of Rockumentaries but it seemed fair to get caught up in The Rolling Stones for a little bit, seeing as how important they have been to the Rock documentary format, at the very least. What I would like to highlight, if I have not done so already, is just how awesome, thought-provoking and multi-layered documentaries such as Gimme Shelter are compared to those being released recently. Perhaps there are rock documentaries out there like this being made and released today, but I assume that if they are, they are being released in the digital space. Innovators perhaps are left to create interesting material for free on YouTube because mainstream releases are dominated by the cash-grab, seen-one-you've-seen-them-all, famous-artist-can-do-no-wrong style of the Bieber or Perry documentaries.
Maybe I'm missed something though, maybe there's more to the Bieber, Perry or even the latest 'Stones' documentary then I know. If you've seen them feel free to comment and let me know.
Other questions that interest me on this same topic;
What are some of the best Rock documentaries released recently?
Are there any similiar in nature, tone or style to classics such as Gimme Shelter?
Is there more to the Bieber and Perry cash-in style documentaries then I give credit for; are these just as, or perhaps even more worth discussing as any classic Rock documentary?
Is anyone going to pay-per-view The Rolling Stones show in New Jersey?
The last few months I've been binging hard on Woody Allen films, so I thought it about time to share my affection for this talented little Jewish man to the world. Here are some of my favourite Woody Allen moments, in no particular order, from a variety of his films and appearances.
Sleeper (1973):
In the science-fiction, semi-silent comedy Sleeper, Woody Allen plays Miles Monroe, a man from 1970s Brooklyn who after a minor operation finds himself cryogenically frozen and subsequently awakened 200 years in the future. In this scene he has just been rescued by members of an underground rebel movement, after being captured and having his personality re-configured by a dystopian government. He is here being coerced back to his original personality through role playing, yet his personality seems to have gotten trapped somewhere else and in particularly genius fashion that somewhere else happens to be in the character of Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire. Anyone interested in theatre or film will no doubt be familiar with that iconic role and seeing Woody act out Blanche with Diane Keaton acting as Stanley in return is just as hilarious and inspired as it sounds.
Deconstructing Harry (1997):
Seemingly one of his most autobiographical, even though he himself
denies this, the film follows Harry, a man that can only be understood
by the stories he writes. The plot follows Harry as he attempts to
travel to his old University to recieve an honourary award, taking a
prostitute, a corpse and his kidnapped son along with him. This scenario
is just as rediculous and hilarious as it sounds but what makes the
film one of my favourites is how creative Allen gets with the whole
thing. The short stories that Harry writes are shown within the film in
seperate segments, such as one featuring Robin Williams as an actor who
one day becomes literally 'out of focus'. This is one of the most
memorable scenes from this hilarious film and deserves a watch. I
recommend the film and feel it is an almost under-rated entry in Allen's
catalogue.
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
One of Allen's best films, released during his creative peak where he didn't miss a beat. It's an ensemble film featuring great performances particularly from Michael Cain, Mia Farrow, Dianne West and notably featuring Ingmar Bergman favourite Max von Sydow. This particular scene finds Woody Allen's intensely neurotic character Mickey reaching breaking point after a failed search for God, about to attempt a suicide. He fails in his attempt and rushes out onto Manhattan streets, where he eventually takes solice in a movie theatre. Allen's character relaxes and even begins to enjoy himself upon watching a Marx brothers film, which allows him to discover a new reason for living. These kinds of cynical yet uplifting existentialist themes is part of what attracts me so much to Allen's filmography. I believe in this scene he found a particularly touching and resonant way to demonstrate how a love of something such as film can inspire one to find meaning in the ever perplexing thing called life.
One of his more under-appreciated films, but in my opinion one of the strongest of the 90s. Allen plays a (wait for it) neurotic married man, Lenny, who is convinced by his wife to adopt a child. He becomes enamoured with their adopted son, who is particularly intelligent. Due to some impulse he decides to track down the mother of the child, who turns out to be a prostitute and a porn star called Linda Ash (Mira Sorvino) - her stage name: Judy Cum. Lenny tries his best to improve Linda's life, for the sake of his child if he ever wishes to track down his birth mother and chaos ensures. What makes the film is Mira Sorvino's brilliant performance as Linda Ash, playing the prostitute with just the right mix of naivety and innocence, making her quite the charming character. One scene finds Linda describing to Lenny how she found her start in the adult industry. Watch above - it's classic (it's a link rather than a youtube clip because I'm linking you directly to a time within a clip).
Three dudes, all swapping instruments, creating catchy as punk in a completely unpretentious way. The awesome thing about a band like this is you can rip through an entire album of theirs in a short amount of time, cause each track is like a minute long. They're fucking great live, tearing shit up every time. Most recent EP is great, but I also suggest checking out the early stuff, which is equally good. They're hardworking, passionate and greatly deserving of a listen.
Wild punk chicks (and one dude) who really don't give a fuck and also craft great, hooky, energetic indie punk. They've got three tracks up on their bandcamp which I enjoy very much. They're also great live, of particular note is the raw energy of front woman Emily, who together with Rackets and Tiny Ruins performed at the Vodafone NZ music awards last night with their Toy Love tribute, and tore shit up.
I particularly enjoyed driving around Dunedin listening to The Clean anthology this year. This song particularly fitted as a soundtrack to the landscape. Here's a live version.
Chris Knox's band before the Toy Love were The Enemy. But with no official recordings, we have to make do with archival stuff like this. As you're probably aware,we now have two new Toy Love vinyl's available on a limited release, one live and one a compilation of the bulk of their recordings. I got the live double LP, but I won't play it till I get a new turntable mat, as I (un-cool music geek moment) wish not to damage the precious grooves by getting dust all through them.
Another snapshot of Dunedin circa-mid 1980. Ahh, so beautiful, so melodic; under-appreciated. The videos a little corny, a little cheap, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Why doesn't anyone remember The Chills' 1992 masterpiece Soft Bomb? I don't know, probably because they got dropped from the major label they were signed from soon after release making it subsequently a pretty rare find in music stores. But if you find it, pick it up, or even just pirate it. It's the, dare I say it, Dunedin-sound (for lack of a better classification) White Album. Great songs, great ideas, melodies, lyrics, from start to finish.
So people didn't like their attitude at the Vodafone NZ Music Awards 2012 last night? I thought they were awesome. Great live performance, the right amount of impoliteness, attitude and sticking it to the establishment. They said cunt, they ripped on John Key. Both things I like.
Dunedin rock/reggae/funk/metal/blues with balls! They're great live, toured all the time and released a great full length album this year.
Ok, so I realise I pretty much just talked about my favourite old school NZ bands, but I will make a point of finding some new, currently gigging and emerging NZ artists and writing about them on here. More to come soon. Chur.
A collective sigh of relief is sounded by a whole universe of film fans upon watching the new film by Rian Johnson, Looper.
Finally a film that gets it right, a great idea, a fully realised script and perfectly executed and directed final product. There a more interesting and original ideas spilling out of the crevices of the film than the handful of other action blockbusters released in our theatres this year. This includes The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus and whatever else people paid money to see. This one is actually worth the ticket price and I may pay to see it again on the big screen.
The plot is great, full of twists and turns and unexpected elements so I won't ruin any of that here. Don't watch the trailer if you already haven't, it's best to see this film with an as limited as possible knowledge of what is going to happen. In saying that, the film is not entirely original, there are some elements lifted from other science fiction films we all love, the usual suspects such as Blade Runner or time travel classics like Back to the Future. Bruce Willis' other time travel classic Twelve Monkeys may even get a nod here or there. But it's not as if time travel cinema has really had the largest cannon of classic films worthy of cult appreciation so it's great to add another one to the list.
What really struck me about the film was how good it's design was. As a vision of a not so far away future, it seemed not implausible. Set thirty years away, we still see cars that look like they probably run on fuel and people living in dirty streets not so dissimilar to the current state of our supercities. This seems like a fair enough approximation of what the future might hold. We've gotten past the 1980s vision of the future of a world of flying cars and great technological advancements, a lot of these advancements are in our world now and it seems safe to assume that the rate of progress will slow down. The film did have some advancements, hovering motorcycles for example, which kept things exciting from an action point of view.
The future depicted in Looper is not an entirely pleasant one. It's dirty, full of junkies, decadent living and rampant crime. It seems to hard to envision a future that won't end up such as this. Except the film did not present a future such as this as one to fear. More it presented it as one to accept. Even with the crime and crooked morality, there was still a hope, a humankind of stubborn perseverance beneath the corrupt and devastated surface. We see this through the regular people, the diner waitress Beatrix, the mother trying to raise her damaged Son on a country farmhouse, these characters provide balance to the junkies, hired killers and professional criminals that elsewhere litter the film. It's just one creative's vision of the future but I certainly bought it, one that was able to portray the future with equal pessimistic and optimistic attitudes.
Oh yeah and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is really good, but probably if you're gonna see this film or have seen it, he was big reason for the films initial appeal.
I don't want to discuss too much of the specifics of the film because it will ruin the ride. But I can say that I'm totally impressed by how well realised the writer/directors vision was.
Pink Floyd's The Wall is an album, stage show and movie. You all probably know it. It's an album that keeps running into me, or I keep running into it even if it isn't one of my favourite albums. It follows me and re-appears through several key moments of life. It's not a perfect album. Don't get me wrong, it's a good album, just not flawless enough to get right up there in my personal canon. In my opinion Wish You Were Here is the best Floyd album, as its the last time the band was truly working together in the studio to craft a piece of aural art in a collaborative fashion. The cracks were showing but the machine was still working. After that it was all ego, money and the business and occasionally inspired art that comes with that. Roger Water's The Wall does manage to one of the more rewarding megalomaniac ego trips turned consumable entertainment. Its the larger media experience of The Wall, the imagery and the themes is what catapults it beyond the music (which is undoubtedly very good) found within. This experience is inseparable from the drawings, stage show and movie. Here's my little journey with Pink Floyd's The Wall.
I first became familiar with Roger Waters' narcissistic concept album as a child, listening to it via my Dad's music collection. I don't remember much from this listen, but I know I was already familiar with Another Brick In The Wall Part Two from the concert film Pulse which I'd rented out from time to time. I was probably between six and eight.
It wasn't until I got a tape copy of it around age ten that I fully delved further than Another Brick In The Wall Part II. To my ten year old mind however it was all a bit too much to handle. I love tracks like Mother now, they're great satirical folk/pop rock songs with a dark edge, but not something that did much for my adolescent mind. What I was really attracted to at this stage was the drawings and animations associated with The Wall. Growing up I often saw the animated clip from the Another Brick In The Wall segment of the school teacher crushing children through a meat grinder. The school teacher looked so nasty, the idea of crushing children into pulp left a huge impression on my young mind. I didn't get the symbolism behind the image, I was attracted to the sickening violence of the image. I would regularly walk past the VHS case at my local video store and stare at the image on the back, of the school teacher and also at the screaming face on the front. These were repulsive but at the same time attractive images.
Symbolism
Flash to me at 11 or 12 and it was now time for me to watch the film. Rented it on DVD yet this happened to coincide with me getting the flu. I was sick, already had a temperature and was having all the awful feverish dreams one associates with this kind of flu. Decided to watch The Wall in this state was not a good idea. My mum was definitely around to attempt to censor me, but I was stubborn. I didn't get past the trailer. Those dark three minutes of hammers, animated monsters, children's faces becoming those of identical ghosts, blood, religious symbolism and rock was enough for my young mind. I turned it off and went to bed, and would sat through no more of the film before returning the DVD. Following this, every time I went to the video store I would have to turn the case of The Wall around as I walked past it. I was truly bloody afraid of the screaming face on the front of it.
Soon the terror I initially felt upon watching The Wall became the very thing I appreciated about it. It took me a fair few months to again pluck up the courage to watch the film again, but when I finally did, I loved it. The film still disturbed me, in particular those ghostly masks on the school children, and the animated sequence to Goodbye Blue Sky, but it was the films disturbing yet elements that I now appreciated. The cluster-fuck of music, psychotic imagery, and the sometimes clashing contributions of Scarfe, Waters and Parker made for an awe-inspiring film experience. Like the album, the film contains its share of flaws, but these can be mostly overlooked and contribute partly to why the film is an interesting experience, such as the clashing live action/animation and musical elements. But the film certainly invaded my thoughts enough for me to come back to it frequent times over the next ten years. Most recently I watched it in preparation for seeing the Roger Water's The Wall stage show live in Auckland. This recent viewing once again reignited my appreciation of the film, as the music and images thrusted themselves upon my life a shotgun blast to the head. The riot of teenagers entering the fascist-like experience of the opening concert set to the tune of In The Flesh, the Jesus Christ pose of Bob Geldof during The Thin Ice, the dark anti-war animation accompanying Goodbye Blue Sky, the flower vagina fight and of course the marching hammers; the film experience felt as fresh and effective as it ever had. Apparently the making of the film wasn't an incredibly enjoyable time for any of the party's involved (Alan Parker particularly expressed his unhappiness during the films production). I guess sometimes a tense atmosphere creates the most interesting art.
Largely male perspective horrors litter the
film and stage show. Which is interesting
because a large proportion of the
audience were female.
Then finally, seeing The Wall live, In The Flesh in front of me; puppets, pyro, planes, projections, flying pigs and all, was the culmination of a saga lasting more than a decade, reaching back into early childhood memories of listening to Floyd for the first time and being exposed to graphic and inspiring images crafted for The Wall. Its not a show I ever expected to see live, it seemed so ambitious in its first live form that it seemed farthest thing from possible that Waters would decide to resurrect it. But he did, he brought the whole damn thing right to my home country. And I was there with my father, the man who introduced me to Pink Floyd as just a wee young lad. The music and the images were still as haunting and curious as ever, except seeing the school-teacher in fucking gigantic puppet size or watching the Gerald Scarfe animations projected on a wall covering an entire arena was a fully immersive experience, so much more so than listening to the album on vinyl or watch the film. Not that either of those experiences are to be scoffed at, as it is for those that I was introduced to this great, flaws and all, piece of modern contemporary art. Finally, my father and I got up and ran to the front for one of the final songs of the show, Run Like Hell. I'd like to say it somewhat echoed the riot of fans at the beginning of the film (though probably not as intense). Waters was right in front of us, and we were pretty sure he look and laughed as we crossed our arms in the marching hammer salute and thrusted them towards him. We partyed, to a work of art that had disturbed my little mind ten years earlier, in front of the very mind that created it in the first place.
Quite a good little journey really. Here's a video of that moment if anyone's interested.
The Wachowski sister co-directs with Tom Tykwer of Run Lola Run fame, the Wachowski brother co-writes with all three. More of a success than the failure it could have been if initial reviews and screenings are to go by, Rotten Tomatoes has already scored it a 74%, with 14 fresh reviews to 6 rotten, and given the potential this film had to completely polarize its audience that's a pretty good sign. The film is a sprawling epic, concerning how the actions of people throughout time impact the past, present and future. The film jumps from century to century, with the ensemble cast of Tom Hanks, Helle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Strurgess and Hugh Grant to name a few playing multiple characters, all who undergo changes depending on the period of time. Sounds like pretty complex stuff, the most ambitious film the Wachowski brothers have created since The Matrix and their most successful since the original it seems. Also looks like it returns to themes found within a lot of Tykwer's work, surrounding time, consequence, human relationships etc... Should be visually stunning and a thrilling ride, if a little over ambitious at times. But there's nothing wrong with that.
The Master New Zealand release date TBA
Paul Thomas Anderson's first film since There Will Be Blood will be great, no matter what your preference in film. Post World War II America provides the backdrop for a tale apparently inspired by scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard. Joaquin Pheonix plays a Naval veteran who is tantalized by a religious group called The Cause, the leader of which is played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The critics are raving, audiences are jizzing, its gonna be a good one. I'm hoping it will reinstall my faith in Hoffman as a good actor after watching The Boat That Rocked a few nights ago. That film sucked.
Looper New Zealand release date 27th September
Time travel thriller that sees Jason Gordon-Levittplays
Joe, a looper, who kills men sent by the mob from a future in which
time travel exists, yet is only available on the black market. The mob one day decides to close the loop, sending future Joe played by Bruce Willis back to be killed. Sounding kind of like The Terminator, giving off the vibe similiar to that of a Nolan thriller and featuring a director whose debut, Brick was as a modern noir comes, Looper has
so far recieved no bad reviews (out of 23) and looks likely to be a
spectacular event film. We don't get enough good time travel films, a
concept which is always a little difficult to pull off, so lets all
relish getting one as kick ass as this.
To The Wonder New Zealand release date TBA
Terrance Malick's next film and fastest follow up in history might very well be more difficult than The Tree of Life and stands the risk of appealing only to die hard Malick fans,but at the very least it's going to do something interesting with the language of cinema and for that I remain excited. Ben Afflick plays a committment hesitant man caught between a new love affair and the rekindling of an old one, in this tale set in Paris and the States. Initial reviews state of the lack of dialogue, the striking visuals and the subtle performances. Sounds like a good companion peice to Tree of Life. Unlike that film we won't have any massive excursions into the beginning of the universe, nor any CGI dinosaurs, but we have a unique cinematic investigation of love, fear and faith within human relationships. The film will probably make us work for it, but we don't always have to be passive spectators being guided along by the Hollywood machine eh?
Cosmopolis New Zealand release date 1st November
Ooohhhh yeah, Cronenburg's back with a brand new addition. Robert Pattinson plays Eric Packer, a Wall Street financial golden-boy who is ferried across NYC to get a haircut from his father's old barber, watching his monetary empire plummet during the course of the journey. Chaos meanwhile erupts around the city, imfringing upon Packer's virtual financial concerns. If the trailer is anything to go by the film looks to be a return to old-school Cronenbury weirdness. Maybe not the body horror, but it looks like there's going to be a lot of paranoia, some violence and probably some surreal imagery wrapped up in a plot obviously influenced by the contemporary political/global climate. It's already had a stateside release, and the reviews are mixed, but for fans of Cronenburg it should be an interesting watch.
Dredd New Zealand release date 21st September
Karl
Urban plays Judge Dredd in this film adaptation of the comic that
according to current US reviews - gets it right. Violent, stylish, with a
healthy dose of self-satire and humour 2012 is finally in for an action
blockbuster that will meet (or most likely excell) expectations. Fuck The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus (Ok,
maybe not the former, but the latter can suck a fat one), this looks to
be the top Hollywood action release of the year. I was already curious,
given Urban's inclusion and also given the strength of the director
Pete Travis, who had previously helmed political thriller Endgame and docu-drama Omagh. Its usually a good sign when a director of a high budget, high concept action filmhas experience and perhaps intellect beyond that genre. Travis in this case looks like he's to Dredd what Paul Verhoeven was to Robocop.
Yauch
formed the Beastie Boys at age 17 with John Berry, Kate Schellenbach
and Michael Diamond. They found their start playing hardcore punk in the
clubs of NYC but would soon adopt the emerging sounds of hiphop. Adam
Horovitz joined and Kate Schellenbach would leave, and the core three of
MCA, Ad-Rock and MCA gradually built a back catalogue of classic albums
(Licensed to Ill, Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty),
proving that three white boys from NYC can rap just as well as their
fellow black artists. In the 90s they re-incorporated live
instrumentation back into their sound with MCA's phat basslines
providing some of the most memorable hooks (Gratitude, Sabotage etc).
As I delved
further into their back catalogue, from the age of 11 onwards, I
discovered true musical and artistic heroes, through the uncompromising
way in which they tore genre conventions apart, the no bullshit approach
they had to getting their vision out there and the way they weren't
afraid to change, to move from frat boy party rap antics to politically
aware concious rap. And of course, they created albums which remain my
favourites to this day, Paul's Boutique, Hello Nasty, Licensed to Ill, Check Your Head, To The Five Buroughs, Hot Sauce Committe Part 2. For
a band that was around thirty years, to have so little dud albums in
their back catalogue and so many classics is something rare indeed.
