2/24/2015 The Sapphires, 2012
I kept seeing the trailer for The Sapphires and my interest was piqued. It's a film that is initially set in Australia in the mid-1960s and features an Aboriginal family of singers who go to Vietnam to entertain the troops. It's actually based on a true story. The girls face discrimination in Australia and see a chance to sing, make some money and see the world by signing up to sing in Vietnam, much against the wishes of their mother. Sisters Cynthia, Gail and Julie along with their cousin Kay are 'discovered' by a wayward talent scout, Dave, and he helps shepherd them through their travels. Even as the sisters face racism at home, there is some veiled racism towards their cousin Kay, who was passing for white in Australia. I was drawn to the movie originally because of the music of that period, but I along the way I became interested in their story. It's based on the lives of the writer's mother and her sister, but it is not a strict biography, nor does it claim to be. The role of Dave is played by Chris O'Dowd (Officer Rhodes in Bridesmaids) and he is the only actor with whom I was familiar. I enjoyed the movie and the music, a down under version of Dream Girls, sort of.
2/26/2015 Jesus Henry Christ, 2012
Jesus Henry Christ is another movie that I only heard of through the trailer on DVD rentals, and it stars Toni Collette, whom I really like. To say the movie is quirky is a mild understatement. Toni Collette plays Patricia who had a most unfortunate childhood and her adulthood is not unfortunate, but definitely not normal. Patricia has a son, Henry, by artificial insemination; Henry is a genius and has a videographic memory and narrates the story. Patricia and Henry meet Dr. Slavkin O'Hara (Michael Sheen), who has some revolutionary ideas about on gender bias that he tries out on his daughter, Audrey, much to her dismay. There are some funny moments in the movie, but I think I was somewhat disappointed that I didn't laugh more. I think as usual, the funniest bits were in the trailer. There are some painful, bittersweet scenes with Henry's grandfather and as Slavkin and Patricia try to figure out their kids, and the kids learn to live with the disappointment of their parents. Toni Collette was in two of my favorite 'sleeper' movies, Little Miss Sunshine and also The Way, Way Back, both times in the role of mother, and she is good here (she actually has more to do). I didn't love the movie, but I think it's different and original enough to warrant a viewing (I have left out much of the plot because part of the fun is how it all unravels).
2/2015 Force Majeure, 2014
There was a period in my life when I loved anything Swedish, even if it was dreary or too intelligent for me to grasp, it didn't matter. I am now in my curmudgeonly years and am a little harder to please. Force Majeure was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2014 Golden Globes, and I added it to my list in anticipation that it would be nominated for an Oscar. It was not nominated, but I watched it anyway (because it was mostly in Swedish). A Swedish family is in the French Alps on a skiing holiday, husband Tomas is trying to disconnect from work and enjoy time with his wife, Ebba and their two children, Vera and Harry. Everything seems to be going fine as the family sits down to enjoy lunch overlooking the mountains when an avalanche approaches dangerously close to them. As Ebba yells and tries to grab the children, Tomas is nowhere to be seen; he has run off. Ultimately, the avalanche stops short of the resort, but metaphorically, it runs over the family's trust. The incident goes unspoken of for a while, but it eats away at Ebba, and it seems that it is troubling the children as well. How could Tomas run off and leave them behind? The conflict comes when Tomas denies he ran off and Ebba challenges him. When you think they have it resolved, something else happens that derails their recovery. You wonder and hope that Tomas and Ebba can make peace and reconcile, but I was still uncertain at the end of the film. I can deal with ambiguity, but I felt unsatisfied.
2/2015 The Nutty Professor, Best Makeup, 1996
I am a huge fan of the original The Nutty Professor with Jerry Lewis, having watched it many Saturdays on WUAB channel 43 in Cleveland, and I was never too interested to see the remake starring Eddie Murphy, and I had no idea it actually won an Oscar for Best Makeup, and that I would now have to watch it. It was on television and so I watched it. It wasn't terrible. Eddie Murphy stars as Sherman Klump (and several of his relatives in different makeup) a university professor who is working on a miracle weight-loss drug (Klump is very overweight himself). After he meets Carla (Jada Pinkett) and has an awkward date, he takes his own drug, and undergoes an incredible transformation into a sleek, confident, cocky character, Buddy Love. Sherman and Buddy engage in a struggle to subdue the other which results in some pretty humorous moments. The movie was not the worst way to spend a couple of hours, and it didn't take any extra brain cells and I laughed, which is pretty good in my book. As for the award, it beat out Star Trek: First Contact and Ghosts of Mississippi, and Eddie Murphy probably should have gotten some kind of award for actually being subjected to most of the makeup applications. You knew it was him, and yet, somehow you believed it was different people, or if you didn't, it was still pretty neat to see him as various characters. Looking back now, twenty years later, make up has come so far, like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, etc., it seems pretty tame, but I think it holds up pretty well.
3/3/2015 Beyond the Lights nominated for Best Original Song, 2014
Beyond the Lights is a movie ostensibly about the music business, but also as the title implies, the life beyond the lights, off stage. Gugu Mbatha-Raw (from Belle) is Noni Jean, a young English singer making it big in America partnering with a young rap star. Noni Jean's mother, Macy Jean (Minnie Driver) is more determined that her daughter be successful than Noni is, as evident in the opening scenes. Macy raised Noni on her own and is very possessive and controlling and as a viewer you wonder if she has Noni's best interest at heart. Noni is in Los Angeles and while drunk decides to see what it's like over the balcony at the hotel when she is rescued by Kaz Nichol (Nate Parker) a police officer. This is when we really get the view beyond the lights as the publicity machine works overtime to cover up and explain away the incident. Kaz is concerned about Noni but eventually falls in love with her and tries to protect her from herself and the music business; they head to Mexico for a break. The Nina Simone "Blackbird" is a recurring theme in the movie, it's the song that a very young Noni sings, a capella at a talent show and she later sings it at a karaoke bar in Mexico. Eventually, Noni gets back to the music world, seemingly on her own terms, with Kaz and the music she wants to sing. There are bits of originality in the film, but I don't think it is necessarily groundbreaking (the most shocking thing to me was to see Minnie Driver as a helicopter mother). That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it, I did. I liked the music, especially hearing "Blackbird", a song with which I was not familiar. "Grateful" was nominated for Best Original Song (losing out to "Glory" from Selma); and it was a very good song, especially as performed by Rita Ora at the Oscars.
The Musical Box, The Arcada Theater, St. Charles, Illinois 3/7/15
I don't know if I'm obsessive, perhaps more of a completist, but I don't want to quibble, I like what I like and I like Genesis. Since I was way too young to see them in what many refer to as the golden years (1970 - 1975), any chance to see The Musical Box, tribute band nonpareil, I am taking. This was the third concert I have seen of theirs, in three different venues (The Pabst Theater, Milwaukee, Skyway Theater, Minneapolis and most recently, The Arcada Theater, St. Charles). I have seen the "Selling England by the Pound" and "Foxtrot" shows, and they don't disappoint. They recreate the sets of the period, even down to Phil Collins' white overalls and Peter Gabriel's costumes and dialog. The playing is amazing, the guitar solos and the Mellotron sounds on "Watcher of the Skies". This was the Foxtrot show, so it featured more songs from that album, including "Get Em Out by Friday", "Can-Utility and the Coastliners" and the epic "Supper's Ready" as well as songs from "Nursery Cryme" like "The Musical Box", "Fountain of Salmacis". For those of you who think of Genesis as only "I Can't Dance" or "Invisible Touch", this might shake you to your foundations, but in a great way. My sincere hope is that they bring back "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" tour. The Arcada is a great old theater in St. Charles, Illinois, near the Fox River. There isn't a bad seat in the house (unless the seat itself is bad, which could happen), and it's a great venue outside of Chicago.
Mike & The Mechanics, Pabst Theater, Milwaukee 3/19/15
The last time I saw Mike & the Mechanics it was 1986 and I was getting ready to graduate high school. My friend and I had front row seats at Music Hall (or Public Hall, I can't remember) and we had a great time. Mike & the Mechanics was the side project of guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford of Genesis and they had been dormant until a few years ago. You may remember the hits "The Living Years", "Silent Running" and "All I Need is a Miracle" from the late 1980s. They have been touring in Europe for a while and I had no confidence they would come back to the States, but, they did. They were going to Cleveland, Chicago and Milwaukee, so I had quite a few options. The Milwaukee venue, The Pabst Theater was the clincher, because it is a great space to see a concert, great seats, even from row T, where I was. And even better access to the band, because the stage door is easily accessible to fans (not that you can walk right in, but easy to hang out by). And apparently, I am getting nerdier as I get older, but I hung out there with the older fans before the show hoping for an autograph, and I got Mike's signature on I Know What I Like which is considered the Genesis bible (no pun intended) by Armando Gallo. Anyway, that was pretty awesome. Then the show started and Daryl Steurmer, longtime bassist and guitarist with Genesis in their touring band opened and played some pretty incredible guitar, and I later got his autograph as well. Then M&M started, and hit the highlights from the Mechanics catalog and threw in two Genesis songs ("Turn it on again" and "I can't dance") for good measure. The band has two new singers now, Andrew Roachford (singing mostly the Paul Carrack songs) and Tim Howard (singing the Paul Young parts) and they had a lot of energy and the crowd seemed to respond quite well. The set opened with "Beggar on a Beach of Gold", and then honestly I'm not sure of the order, but they played "Silent Running", "The Living Years", "All I Need is a Miracle" complete with the Paul Young inspired singalong, which I remembered quite well from 1986, and "Try to Save Me" and "The Road", both songs from the latest album "The Road". It was an incredible night. I almost totally forgot that I had been up since 4 in the morning to catch a plane.
