Over the last few years, I've noticed a trend in movies to add points clearly motivated by political concerns. Nothing new, of course, but I've become more sensitive to it lately....perhaps as a result of our current political climate. Sometimes these additions have completely ruined movies for me. I'll give an example: "Arrival."
Now, all in all, I thought the movie is well made, acted, etc. The basic story is intriguing. What if aliens came to earth, and we were charged with figuring out some means of communication with them? I find it all interesting, and certainly within the realm of possibility. So, for the first three-quarters of the movie, I was invested, although I found the plot point of the lead character having lost a child an "uh oh." And, surely enough, that whole point reared a huge reveal at the end that ruined the entire movie for me.
It's not that I don't like children (I really like their innocence, for one thing), and I do want families to continue to exist. But I'm worn out by movies having some sort of "having a family/children is everything" messages. And this might be a big reach, but I find them a way Hollywood studios can prove to the religious right that "we care about children! And life! See, it's in the movie!" Like I said, maybe a big reach. But I don't remember movies from even fifteen years ago having the same sort of "but....children!" message to them. Recently, my wife reminded me of Maude Flanders' oft-repeated refrain in The Simpsons: "what about the children?"
Another one, and it ties into a movie I watched yesterday, is "A Quiet Place." I believe I wrote in this blog about the plot point in that one that I found utterly ridiculous. The couple in the story have lost one child during the monster epidemic going on, and so, months later, the woman is pregnant. AFTER the epidemic of monsters killing anything emitting sound has been going on. Whaaat? You want to bring a baby into that world? A baby that's bound to.....uh......CRY???? There's a whole reveal of a box they have built that they can put the kid in, with what looks like a full CPAP mask to put over the kid's face. Sweet Jeebus, really??? At that point, I wanted this whole family to die, if they're going to be that stupid. "I'm sorry, honey, but I know you understand. Hand and blow jobs only, until there ain't no more monsters, okay?" That would be more like it. I don't think the movie would've suffered one whit using that logic. And otherwise, the movie's good. But again, the message is: people have to have children. And at any time ever. Ya know what I think? People do have to have children, the human race needs to go on, but maybe after the vicious monsters that eat anything making noise are dealt with, or are dead, or whatever. Let's wait a bit, shall we?
I watched a movie yesterday called "The Silence." It was recommended to my viewing habit, I suppose due to watching the "Sabrina" show, as both Kiernan Shipka and Miranda Otto are in it. Now, this move, again pretty well done, is similar in many ways to "A Quiet Place." "The Mist, " too, really. Some creatures, apparently living in a sealed cave for who knows how long, are freed by some spelunkers. They kill the cavers and fly to off to wreak havoc on the eastern seaboard. In this film, Shipka's character has recently lost her hearing, so the family has learned to sign a bit, and that is a help. But there is no pregnancy to deal with. Thank you. There are some heart-wrenching scenes in it, for sure, but no stupid ones. And there are the notions of how many people are forming their own sometimes brutal religious cults to try to deal with the situation. That felt completely authentic to me. Also, as the creatures are somewhat localized, at least for the time being, the fact that electricity and wi-fi still existed made more sense to me.
But, when looking at the Wikipedia page for the movie, I saw that it's rating about 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, and people have a lot of issues with it; probably the main one being its similarity to "A Quiet Place." Yeah, that may be, but you know what? I like it much, much more than "A Quiet Place." (purses lips, blows raspberry) So there. Come to think of it, there was an episode of "Black MIrror" sort of similar to this, but I can't remember it that well. I think those monsters were robots of some sort.
Yesterday, Pocket FishRmen played a soup party at Dozen Street in Austin. Yes, a soup party. I had a couple of the offerings, one from our own Cris Burns, and liked them both, although by the time we got there, said offerings were lukewarm at best. Our set was fine, although I learned a huge lesson. I wore a pig mask yesterday, that I can play in okay, but Lance should not play on a backline kit he isn't that familiar with while donning a mask. During the first song, I got tangled up in the drum rims a couple of times and was flubbing some things. After that, though, all was fine. At least, there wasn't too much of a crowd, and I soldiered through okay. I had added several Seinfeld "no soup for you" type samples to the SPD-SX and went overboard with those. It was fun overall. Cris Burns was especially smokin', it seemed.
We were home by 10 and watched a couple of movies last night (yesterday was a big day for watchin'!). The first was "Gwen," which came to us via Shudder. Categorized as folk horror, I thought Michelle might dig it. Not sure I would call it horror, minus one effective jump scare, but it was effective. And a complete downer. After that, I went for the Blu ray of "Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory." Or "Lycanthropus," if you like the original Italian title better. I do. About three-quarters of the way through the movie, Michelle asked me "why did it get that goofy title?" American distribution houses loved to re-title these movies with phrases they thought would bring in the young people. It's a pretty good, fun movie. And starring the first Mrs. Roman Polanski, of whom I knew not. It also has Luciano Pigozzi, or as he's known, the Italian Peter Lorre, in it. It pre-dates the Italian horror and giallo boom, but its script comes from Dardano Sarchetti, who wrote many.
The night before, we watched the Joe Bob Briggs Christmas show on Shudder. We almost made it all the way through the third movie, but I bailed due to a weird stomachache. Finished it off early yesterday. Fun show; the movies were "Black Christmas," "Jack Frost," and "Silent Night Deadly Night 2." Can't say I thought much of "Jack Frost." "Black Christmas" is always welcome, and I was surprisingly entertained by "SNDN2." I agree that the lead performance in that one is "one for the ages."
Onward, folks.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Sunday, December 1, 2019
"The Irishman" / Rock and/or Roll
Howdy, folks. Here we are, once again. A beautiful Sunday in Kyle, Texas, where I'm writing this. So, what's new? Well, some movie watching, and a really fun rock show last night. I'll talk about the rock first, why not?
Last night, the Pocket FishRmen played a post-Thanksgiving extravaganza at the Lost Well, with Jefferson Trout and the Pretty Pink Knives (I must write the entire moniker) and Lazer Fire, making their debut. It's been a long time since I was at a show where I liked every other band we played with. Pretty incredible. Jefferson Trout is a bunch of the Austin old guard doing Buxf Parrot's songs, some Dicks, some Shootin' Pains songs, and others he's written over the years. Big band, too, with Brett Bradford and Todd Kassens on guitars, good ol' Jason Craig on bass, Travis Garaffa on drums, and Dotty Farrell on Dotty. Buxf wears a cape and a boa. I like capes. Many of my favorite musicians, from Yes to the Me-Thinks, have worn them. He also plays a bit of melodica, but other than these occasional accoutrements, he just sings. So much fun.
Lazer Fire is a new band, featuring the newly-returning Jimmy Bradshaw and Eric Roach on guitars, with Tom 'Burnz' Balentine on bass, and the ageless Ian Burrowes pounding the drums as if he were 22. Michelle made a comment to me that Jimmy's leaving town for New Orleans seems to be when Austin really went downhill. Maybe his return will spark an upswing. Songs like "Rock and Roll Is Fucking Stupid" and "Stick It In Your Mouth" are just what the doctor ordered for this, well, whatever this town's idea of a music scene is now. There, Grumpy has spoken!
We, the Pocket FishRmen, had a great time, although three of us (me included) were sickly. Cris said he'd thrown up twice earlier in the day. Usually, at different points in the set, he'll look at me with a rock face or something; last night, whenever he'd look at me, it was with a look of "I hope I make it through this." He did. We did well, and the crowd was definitely with us. I clammed a couple things, but nothing really noticeable. And the other guys were on fire, despite the sickitude on stage. Sometimes those can be really good shows. Sometimes.
And now for the meat of this post. We watched "The Irishman" a couple of days ago. And it did take two days; the movie is three and a half hours long. You've most likely at least heard a little bit about it. But if not....
It's the latest gangster movie from Martin Scorsese, and given the ages of the principal actors, and Scorsese himself, probably the last. The plot focuses on Frank Sheeran, an enforcer for the mob, and due to his Irish heritage revealed in the title, one who could not be "made," but still, he had some important (?) jobs. One of these, according to him, was the whacking of Jimmy Hoffa. Now, there is a lot of disagreement about what actually happened to Hoffa, and Sheeran's account, told when he was a year short of death, has been called into serious question. Google it, and you'll be there at least half a day. Who knows what really happened, but it does make for an interesting tale here.
I do not really feel qualified to review this movie, at least yet, but I can say that if you like the Scorsese structure of "Goodfellas," "Casino," and even "The Wolf of Wall Street," it's the same thing here. Same type of structure, anyway. The film takes place from the late 50s to 2003, the year Sheeran died. (The book the movie is based on was published in 2003, and Robert DeNiro's had it optioned since 2004.) The film's principals are played by DeNiro (Sheeran), Al Pacino (Hoffa), and Joe Pesci (Russell Bufalino, who assigned Sheeran most of his tasks). There are nice supporting performances from Harvey Keitel and Ray Romano (!) among others. As the older actors had to play characters decades younger than them, CG de-aging was used on their faces. At first, this is a bit of a distraction, but as the movie goes on, much less of one. What is a distraction, though, and unavoidable, is the slow way these supposedly younger characters move. Through some camera placement, most of this is carefully hidden - especially in the grocery store beating one character gets from Sheeran when he's supposed to be in his forties.
Despite these small things, I was hypnotized by the movie. Parts of it are almost humorous in its slow-moving narrative. Characters will repeat the same sentences to each other two or three times in a row. It's almost as if Scorsese and the actors are playing the audience some. It's the antithesis to these blockbuster movies of late that don't want to pause two seconds for any sort of real emotional connection to the proceedings. You can't help but think of Marty's recently-roasted comments concerning Marvel movies. Makes me chuckle.
As I mentioned, I don't feel qualified to give any sort of objective concerning the movie, as I loved every single moment of it. It's wonderful to see those folks together again, and yet the movie might be a mixed bag for folks. It is very slow moving, and even I'm not sure it need to be three and a half hours. Watching Pesci dial down his usual manic persona into a thoughtful, controlling Bufalino is mesmerizing. Pacino is, well, late Pacino for sure, but that feels right for Jimmy Hoffa. And DeNiro. This is his best work in so long. You watch it, and wonder how this man could have been in "Dirty Grandpa." Right now, I feel, in a just world, that DeNiro would win another Best Actor Academy Award, with Pesci getting the Best Supporting Actor. Right now, all the bets are on Pacino to win Best Supporting Actor. And that might happen. His work is good, but I don't feel it reaches the heights of DeNiro and Pesci. One strange thing in the movie, I thought, was the casting of Anna Paquin as the adult version of one of Sheeran's daughters. I knew about the casting, so I thought they would share some scenes during the movie, but they really don't, and I don't think Paquin has one real line of dialogue. She mostly glares at Sheeran at certain times, and it's effective...but kind of odd they didn't have verbal scenes together.
Like I said, I loved this movie so much I don't feel my thoughts on it right now should even be taken seriously, but I'm happy there have been two films released this year that have had me over the moon. This one, and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." I could probably watch those two back to back several times over. Jeez, that'd be over six hours for each cycle. Better rethink that.....
Last night, the Pocket FishRmen played a post-Thanksgiving extravaganza at the Lost Well, with Jefferson Trout and the Pretty Pink Knives (I must write the entire moniker) and Lazer Fire, making their debut. It's been a long time since I was at a show where I liked every other band we played with. Pretty incredible. Jefferson Trout is a bunch of the Austin old guard doing Buxf Parrot's songs, some Dicks, some Shootin' Pains songs, and others he's written over the years. Big band, too, with Brett Bradford and Todd Kassens on guitars, good ol' Jason Craig on bass, Travis Garaffa on drums, and Dotty Farrell on Dotty. Buxf wears a cape and a boa. I like capes. Many of my favorite musicians, from Yes to the Me-Thinks, have worn them. He also plays a bit of melodica, but other than these occasional accoutrements, he just sings. So much fun.
Lazer Fire is a new band, featuring the newly-returning Jimmy Bradshaw and Eric Roach on guitars, with Tom 'Burnz' Balentine on bass, and the ageless Ian Burrowes pounding the drums as if he were 22. Michelle made a comment to me that Jimmy's leaving town for New Orleans seems to be when Austin really went downhill. Maybe his return will spark an upswing. Songs like "Rock and Roll Is Fucking Stupid" and "Stick It In Your Mouth" are just what the doctor ordered for this, well, whatever this town's idea of a music scene is now. There, Grumpy has spoken!
We, the Pocket FishRmen, had a great time, although three of us (me included) were sickly. Cris said he'd thrown up twice earlier in the day. Usually, at different points in the set, he'll look at me with a rock face or something; last night, whenever he'd look at me, it was with a look of "I hope I make it through this." He did. We did well, and the crowd was definitely with us. I clammed a couple things, but nothing really noticeable. And the other guys were on fire, despite the sickitude on stage. Sometimes those can be really good shows. Sometimes.
And now for the meat of this post. We watched "The Irishman" a couple of days ago. And it did take two days; the movie is three and a half hours long. You've most likely at least heard a little bit about it. But if not....
It's the latest gangster movie from Martin Scorsese, and given the ages of the principal actors, and Scorsese himself, probably the last. The plot focuses on Frank Sheeran, an enforcer for the mob, and due to his Irish heritage revealed in the title, one who could not be "made," but still, he had some important (?) jobs. One of these, according to him, was the whacking of Jimmy Hoffa. Now, there is a lot of disagreement about what actually happened to Hoffa, and Sheeran's account, told when he was a year short of death, has been called into serious question. Google it, and you'll be there at least half a day. Who knows what really happened, but it does make for an interesting tale here.
I do not really feel qualified to review this movie, at least yet, but I can say that if you like the Scorsese structure of "Goodfellas," "Casino," and even "The Wolf of Wall Street," it's the same thing here. Same type of structure, anyway. The film takes place from the late 50s to 2003, the year Sheeran died. (The book the movie is based on was published in 2003, and Robert DeNiro's had it optioned since 2004.) The film's principals are played by DeNiro (Sheeran), Al Pacino (Hoffa), and Joe Pesci (Russell Bufalino, who assigned Sheeran most of his tasks). There are nice supporting performances from Harvey Keitel and Ray Romano (!) among others. As the older actors had to play characters decades younger than them, CG de-aging was used on their faces. At first, this is a bit of a distraction, but as the movie goes on, much less of one. What is a distraction, though, and unavoidable, is the slow way these supposedly younger characters move. Through some camera placement, most of this is carefully hidden - especially in the grocery store beating one character gets from Sheeran when he's supposed to be in his forties.
Despite these small things, I was hypnotized by the movie. Parts of it are almost humorous in its slow-moving narrative. Characters will repeat the same sentences to each other two or three times in a row. It's almost as if Scorsese and the actors are playing the audience some. It's the antithesis to these blockbuster movies of late that don't want to pause two seconds for any sort of real emotional connection to the proceedings. You can't help but think of Marty's recently-roasted comments concerning Marvel movies. Makes me chuckle.
As I mentioned, I don't feel qualified to give any sort of objective concerning the movie, as I loved every single moment of it. It's wonderful to see those folks together again, and yet the movie might be a mixed bag for folks. It is very slow moving, and even I'm not sure it need to be three and a half hours. Watching Pesci dial down his usual manic persona into a thoughtful, controlling Bufalino is mesmerizing. Pacino is, well, late Pacino for sure, but that feels right for Jimmy Hoffa. And DeNiro. This is his best work in so long. You watch it, and wonder how this man could have been in "Dirty Grandpa." Right now, I feel, in a just world, that DeNiro would win another Best Actor Academy Award, with Pesci getting the Best Supporting Actor. Right now, all the bets are on Pacino to win Best Supporting Actor. And that might happen. His work is good, but I don't feel it reaches the heights of DeNiro and Pesci. One strange thing in the movie, I thought, was the casting of Anna Paquin as the adult version of one of Sheeran's daughters. I knew about the casting, so I thought they would share some scenes during the movie, but they really don't, and I don't think Paquin has one real line of dialogue. She mostly glares at Sheeran at certain times, and it's effective...but kind of odd they didn't have verbal scenes together.
Like I said, I loved this movie so much I don't feel my thoughts on it right now should even be taken seriously, but I'm happy there have been two films released this year that have had me over the moon. This one, and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." I could probably watch those two back to back several times over. Jeez, that'd be over six hours for each cycle. Better rethink that.....
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