'The Moment' A Review

The Moment is a mocumentary about British musician Charlie XCC beginning in September 2024 at the tail end of Brat summer as Charlie grapples with her new level of fame, an upcoming arena tour, and commercial pressures.

Charlie XCX is compelling as this version of herself but much like similar projects I'm Still Here and The Nowhere Inn there's a bit of frustration in that who she actually is is still unknown. This 'character' is all artifice, this plot is all artifice and as a result any kind of artistic truth is hard to parse. The supporting cast is talented- Rosanna Arquette(love to see her), Alexander Skarsgård, Hailey Gates- to name a few. But the plot they all inhabit is all pretty meager and it appears much of the dialogue was improvised which gives the whole thing a pretty stilted feel.

Visually the film is rich with striking, colorful, intriguing imagery there's just not a ton under the surface. And there's a kind of a stunning lack of music. The production all works but there's ultimately just not much of a coherent vison for it to bolster up. There's feints at commenting about image, commercialism, and artistic vs. financial success but when you boil it down the film has no answers. For Charlie XCX fans that may be more than enough but as a standalone piece of cinema, much like last year's Pavements, there's not a ton for the uninitiated to enjoy.

Ambitious if underbaked.

Currently in theaters.

Stream It.

'Pavements' A Review

Pavements is an experimental rockdoc about the indie rock band Pavement. Through archival footage, a fake musical biopic, a real off-Broadway jukebox musical, a touring museum exhibit featuring memorabilia from the band, and behind-the-scenes footage of their 2022 reunion a hodge-podge piece of art is presented. More resembling something you'd see at a museum of contemporary art rather than a cogent piece of cinema.

The editing is near incessant and absolutely relentless and Pavement's indie rock droning underscores the entire movie and actual information about the band, some of which is true some of which is not, is scant. This is definitely an artsy vibe film and probably only accessible for people who are or were fans of the band. As someone who knew none of their music and nothing about the band it struck me as incredibly pretentious, off-putting, insular, and grating. With some actual context maybe it's a very accurate and moving celebration of the band, I wouldn't know!

It's very ambitious and there is a lot going on both from a filmmaking perspective and thematically. There's a mile-long streak of post-modern irony but also, seemingly, actual sincerity from famous people talking about how much the band means to them(one of whom is Tim Heidecker so maybe this too is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek). With no prior knowledge of the band it's impossible to tell.

With a lot of fandom going mainstream this seems like a reaction to that, a movie only for the fans of this underground band, made specifically impenetrable and fair enough but it doesn't translate as a film for people to enjoy outside of that and as such a cinematic failure.

For Pavement fans only.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.

'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' A Review

Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted is a documentary about Swamp Dogg a cult country/soul/R&B musician. Through talking head interviews, fly-on-the-wall footage, and archival video his life but mostly his career is explored.

He's an eccentric and talented figure who's been influential but never achieved mainstream success. The film unspools part classic rock-doc but part experimental art project and celebrates Swamp and his two roommates Moogstar and Guitar Shorty.

Interesting, breezy, and fun. A just celebration of a mostly unknown but important artist who went his own way. It focuses on creativity, individuality, and artistic expression almost as much as Swamp Dogg's bio.

Currently in theaters, coming soon to VOD.

Rent It.

'Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)' A Review

Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) is a documentary about the life, career, and legacy of the members of Sly and the Family Stone with particular focus on the band's front man Sly Stone.

Through talking-head interviews, concert footage, archival interviews with Sly, archival news, and some animation the band, its members, but more importantly the music are explored and celebrated. An overdue look at a great and influential figure and band. The best parts are when one of their songs is broken down in an animation sequence and when two talking-heads breakdown their sample of one of their songs. Basically the shop talk is excellent and the film is patient and generous in exploring the band's discography. The investigation into Sly himself, the burden of his Black Genius, as well as his addiction is compassionate and thoughtful if not ultimately particularly deep. But that's OK because it's the music, the sound that is really elevated and focused on, its a music doc not a biography. As an aside it is interesting that this film and many others like it, when discussing artists or public figures with addiction, fail to understand a most fundamental fact about the disease, which is, it can happen to anyone. We all have within us a certain threshold when it comes to substance use, for some its very high, for some(like myself) its very low, but there is a point beyond which the disease is triggered, like a circuit breaker. Sly may have started using for various reasons and circumstances(which the film discusses) but the disease, once active, renders those things relatively moot and the addict is solely focused on the acquisition and ingestion of the preferred substance.

An inspiring rumination on a legendary band with moments of transcendence propelled by the music. Should have had a theatrical release.

Currently streaming on Hulu.

Don't Miss It.

'Linda Ronstadt: The Sound Of My Voice' A Review

Linda Ronstadt The Sound Of My Voice is a rock-doc about the life and career of musician Linda Ronstadt. Through talking head interviews, extended sequences of voice over narration by the subject, archival footage, and footage of numerous concerts the eclectic taste, legendary ability and propulsive rise to fame of the are unspooled.

The form is conventional to the genre and the footage shot for the film is adequate rather than stylish(mostly stationary interviews) but the access to Ronstadt now as the narrator as well as the breadth of unearthed footage is the real hook.

Those who only know Ronstadt's hits will learn about her wide-ranging creative drive and her trial blazing and near decade plus domination of the charts. Fans will get extended access not previously available. Although the film contains little surprises learning more about Ronstadt's life and watching performance after stunning performance of hit after hit is a real pleasure.

Rent It.

'Chavela' A Review

Chavela is a documentary about the life of Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas. Through archival footage and stills, talking head interviews, a couple concerts, and one early 90's interview with the artist herself the film explores her life, influence, sexuality, and music.

Undeniably a fascinating figure and an incredible and moving musician Chavela is undeserved not by intention or design but because of lack of material. There are numerous protracted shots of photographs with narration under them as well as generic historical footage that is transparently filler. The 1992 interview with Chavela herself is by the far the most compelling aspect of the film however it is shot on a family-style camcorder of that time period so the quality is poor and it is also hand held, not on a tripod, which is noticeable only because it is in constant lurching motion. Whoever the amateur cinematographer is they were certainly well intentioned but the video is almost unwatchable, thankfully the audio is clear. That direct interview is easily the most compelling aspect of the film but even then the individuals interviewing her are constantly interrupting, based on context it is presumably friends so their casual relationship makes for a somewhat sloppy and scatter shot interview. We are treated to two live performances which are stunningly effective but it does make the filmmakers lack of material even more stark.

Not because of the subject but because of the lack of viable content this would be more appropriate as a podcast or hour long HBO documentary not a full length feature. Unfortunately there is nothing cinematic about Chavela the film even the the woman herself is more than worthy of the worship of celluloid.

Rent It.

Old Songs, Old Days

Listening to Moby's 1999 Play album
alone in the theater before the show
drinking a hot cup of coffee
high school,
summer after senior year
languidly comes back
not nostalgia or regret
just contented wisps of memory-
my '85 Jeep Laredo
dark bedrooms, the hum of fans
hot and humid nights
passion and contentment
the breeze from open windows
excitment and fear
that looming spector
College-
but mostly the folly
and promise
of youth

impervious hope
cloaked in bluster

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A sticker for a band- Purrple.

"Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple." -Regina Brett

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it." -Alice Walker

Ye-Ye's Farewell Show

Tonight Nicole and I went to see Heather's band The Ye-Ye's farewell show. Soon Heather will be heading to Harrisburg then Berlin after twelve years in Chicago. She is one of my oldest friends and I've been remiss in seeing her perform. The show was great. Energetic and fun with a lot of love in the room. The Ye-Ye's have been a passion project of Heather's the last couple years and I'm happy I got to see them before Heather's departure. It was a lovely adieu,

Shell Theory: An Existential Musical!

Last night Nicole and I went to Shell Theory at CIC. Its an original musical written by Sarah with music composed by her brother. The show is playful, absurd, dark, at points bleak but also affirming in a weird way. There was dancing, lots of fun props, some wonderful singing, and the most mileage out of the CIC light board to date(i.e. lots of cool tech).

I really enjoy watching narratives that my peers have written, there is something so much more immediate and engaging about watching original content. Outside the predictable or formulaic constraints of improv and sketch there's a chance to see fellow performers in a totally fresh context.

Shell Theory runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm through May 30th. Highly recommended.

'The Wrecking Crew' A Review

The Wrecking Crew is a rock & roll documentary about a group of studio musicians known by that same name that played on numerous hits in the 60's and 70's. Directed by Denny Tedesco as an homage to his father guitarist Tommy Tedesco the film is clearly a labor of love but unfortunately never manages to push past mildly interesting.

The extremely drawn out production of the film 1996 to 2014 and the inexperience of its director are starkly evident in its construction. Although the story of The Wrecking Crew is compelling a majority of the interviews were shot in the 90's on what appears to be mediocre video equipment,  dated cartoonish animated sequences are used for interstitials, and many of the interviews are edited together in such a way they aren't particularly cogent. All these elements combine to make the film feel more like something that would have been seen on PBS in the 90's rather than something appropriate for a movie theater in 2015.

The Wrecking Crew does have a lot of heart and the segments with Carol Kaye especially are extremely compelling. She talks about a specific song or session, she plays the bass riff that she was given, then she plays what she came up with which we all recognize from the hit song we know. Unfortunately all the other interviews don't have that same streamlined quality or the other interviewees the open, friendly, clarity of Kaye.

There is a great story to be told but after almost twenty years Tedesco was only mildly successful in telling it.

Rent It.

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"I see music as fluid architecture." -Joni Mitchell

"When a pianist sits down and does a virtuoso performance he is in a technical sense transmitting more information to a machine than any other human activity involving machinery allows." -Robert Moog

"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony." -Benjamin Britten

The Hanging Tree

One of the highlights of Mockingjay Part 1 is Lawrence's acappella song which they use a couple different times. Reminds me a bit of the T Bone Burnett produced soundtracks for Cold Mountain and O' Brother Where Art Thou?

Haunting Music

I did mushrooms a couple times in college. I enjoyed it and got a lot out of the chemically induced shift in perspective. After the first time I noticed I would periodically here music(sober and otherwise). There may be no corollary but I noticed it around the same time.

From time to time I would hear faint strings, like an orchestra warming up. Sometimes it was chimes or the plunking tones of a xylophone. Never a cogent song just snippets, refrains, bridges, parts of verses, pieces of choruses. Other times it was the low thrumping hum of a synth, like the death throws of a rave.

Alone in my apartment or walking the quad solo, for no discernible reason I'd hear these echos. When I would focus on it, try to make sense of it, it would fade away.

For a while I thought it was a sign of mental instability. As if my substance use had marked me in some way. After my initial disquiet I found it comforting. Followed by some eerie score only I could hear I was never quite alone. I had a couple pet theories, chief among them that I had, through psychedelics, tuned into some ethereal frequency and could pick up the remnants of sound waves bouncing around the atmosphere.

Shortly after college the music faded and never returned. I still miss it.

'Whiplash' A Review

Whiplash is a jazz drama about a malleable student and his volatile mentor. Andrew Neyman(Miles Teller) is a drumming student at a prestigious music school in Manhattan. Quiet and unassuming he has no friends, is obsessed with drumming, but seems to be unremarkable in regards to ability. During a solo late night practice session Neyman is interrupted by Terence Fletcher(J.K. Simmons) the school's feared and revered conductor. Fletcher invites Neyman to be part of his Studio Band the school's most competitive ensemble. Fletcher is hard on his students, excessive, aggressive, manipulative, and even physically threatening. But Neyman endures the abuse, desirous of becoming "one of the greats".

Teller as Neyman gives an atypically restrained performance. His boyish charm is not evident, nor is the twinkle of rye humor he often displays. Teller is paired down, simple, driven by one thing only- artistic singularity. At first he is relatively affable but as the film progresses he takes us along his journey of focus and obsession where friendship and love are mere distractions. Simmons as the dictatorial teacher walks a razor sharp line between monster and caricature. He yells, he strikes, he insults, he constantly pushes but always, at the breaking point, he justifies, he softens. There is never a point where Simmons loses us, we may not like Fletcher but Simmons does the impossible job of making him not only understandable but incredibly compelling. Scenes with Teller and Simmons crackle with energy and anxiety, they are a battle, a power struggle. Simmons tempers Teller, driving him towards a transformation he may not be capable of.

The cinematography and editing are dark and percussive mirroring the drumming itself. Short and sharp, long and slow. The feel and flow of the film builds, rises and falls, seethes then peaks only to swell and explode. The film is jazz itself. Dark, passionate, dangerous, unpredictable. At the heart it asks "what is the cost of greatness?" then "is it worth it?"

There are many incredible scenes the description of which would only spoil their subsequent viewing. The culminating final sequence, however, is the best ending to a film in a decade.

Inspiring and disturbing. Whiplash is one of those rare cinematic experiences so effecting you are transported, from the darkened movie house to a world of sweat, blood, and the chatter of the snare.

Don't Miss It.

Soundtracks

On Monday Drennen, James, and I watched Death Proof. There's a lap dance scene with this song underscoring it. I don't remember the lap dance scene being in the original release of Grindhouse back in '07 and I don't really remember the song from the other times I've seen it since. For whatever reason this time around it really struck me and I've been listening to it non-stop all week.



Nicole and I just saw Obvious Child, review forthcoming, and there was a really great scene with this song under it. I first heard this when Chloe put it on a tape for me years ago. I always liked it.



Songs can elevate films. Heighten moments. That's no secret but whats rare are those times when a film makes you appreciate a song you previously didn't like or didn't notice. The conjunction of the film and the song make both of them resonate in a way they, separately, do not. I think its a rare thing. A lot of the time it seems music is just used as filler or to make a boring scene seem interesting.

The first moment where I felt like a song and a scene really hit me was in Rushmore. Bill Murray drunk and sad at his sons birthday party accompanied by The Kinks.

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This reminds me of a song we use to sing at camp- "Alice The Camel". It's an absurd chant-type counting song. This goofy picture reminds me of song&story time after lunch. The whole camp would gather, probably 50 or so kids, and I'd lead them all in a series of these funny almost child-folk songs. Passed down for decades, the original artists totally forgotten. "Cannibal King" "Billboard Song" "Wishy-Washy-Washer Woman" "3 Little Angles" most of them with some truly bizarre content in retrospect.

I kind of found my singing voice as a camper and as a camp leader. So this little green camel brings back a lot of good memories.

Sessions

The past two Fridays I've been rehearsing with Jeff on his directing program improv show. It's like an improvised VH1 Behind The Music. Thankfully I don't do any singing in it, my improvised musical abilities are touch and go at best, I narrate and guide the piece dictating time jumps, locations, situations, and set up songs. Mike, Jeannie, and Alison are the band and have been creating some amazing, catchy, and stylistically different types of songs.

It's gratifying and challenging to do narrative based longform again. I haven't done it since I did HouseCo at Second City back in 2011. It has different requirements and restrictions. In this particular instance most of the onus is on me to guide the piece and create a logical, if not totally satisfying, narrative arc. It is significantly divergent than the kind of improv I've been doing recently, it's refreshing. It's also interesting working with Jeff and Jeannie in this different context outside of Schwa. I never got a chance to have Jeff as a teacher so being directed by him has been great. Working with Jeannie outside our already established patterns has been fun and freed us up to try some different characters and dynamics. I've never worked with Mike or Alison before and they've been a real pleasure. The rehearsals have been easy and fluid and fun. Kind of surprising because, to my mind, musical improv can be difficult and clunky.

We start a four week run this Thursday in the DeMaat theater at Second City 10:30pm.

I asked Jeff if we had a name. He replied "I panicked and just said Sessions."

Old Ambitions

I had a real hard time acclimating to Chicago when I first moved in 2006. So hard in fact I packed it in after a year and a half and moved back in with my parents. There were many mitigating factors of course but the size, the crowded isolation, the grind of the city drained me. Chicago chewed me up and spit me out.

Settled in Rockford, gradually putting my life back together, I wrote this song about how much I hated Chicago.


Who knew Myspace was still active, I haven't looked at my profile since I uploaded this song 5 years ago. Unfortunately it's been about that long since I picked up my guitar. I was pretty passionate about music all through college and for a couple years after. I use to practice almost every day, learn about a song a month, and every once in a while write one of my own.

When I moved back to Chicago in 2010 I just stopped playing. Got too busy, couldn't find the time, got interested in other things. I miss playing and singing. One of my goals for this year is to restring my guitar and start making music again.

The Snap

I've had the desire to be an artist as long as I can remember. I took piano lessons for a while but didn't have the discipline to practice. I took art classes in school and out from age 7 to 13 but showed no facility with any medium or ability to bring my ideas to actuality. I first got on stage at age 8 in a production of the Pied Piper, I was Councilman #3, and was intrigued. At age 11 I was in a staged production of a number of Aesop's Fables. It was the first time I got laughs from an audience, I was hooked and decided I wanted to be an actor.

Through middle school and high school I was in a number of plays and musicals. I cultivated my modest singing and dancing abilities. I had fun but I wasn't totally satisfied. I didn't feel like I was getting to express myself fully, I felt like acting fell more on the side of interpretation rather than creation. There was still something I wasn't getting, an undiscovered outlet.

Recently I've been reading, per Clayton's recommendation, this fantasy series Mistborn. In the books they describe the pivotal moment in someones life wherein they discover their magical abilities as "snapping". The moment I had my creative snap wasn't onstage but in my dorm room.

My college roommate was a guitarist and bassist, he turned me on to a bunch of musicians and I turned him on to a couple too. Fall of 2003 we were big into Tenacious D, Keller Williams, and Martin Sexton. One evening we were sitting around, Bob was playing guitar and I was playing Final Fantasy X on mute. For no particular reason we started singing- improvising lyrics and harmonies. By the end we had a complete song with a double chorus and two free-form verses, it was called "Trees".  We performed it a couple weeks later at Theater of Ted, a weekly sign-up variety show, and got a great response.

It was the first time I put out something  I created, the first time I felt a genuine collaboration. Bob and I wrote and performed songs the remainder of college and he taught me how to play guitar. Writing and performing original music gave me a unique satisfaction, a satisfaction I hadn't gotten from straight acting. A feeling of originality, singularity of purpose, and direct artistic expression. I continued to act but I became increasingly frustrated with speaking others words. That discontent eventually led me to improv and sketch comedy.