Great song by Nanci Griffith ... can't go wrong name-checking Loretta and Merle ... this was recorded on September 11, 1991. That's Mary Chapin Carpenter in polka dots. I love both these women. The Indigo Girls sang their (one?) great song, Hammer and a Nail, at this show too.
When you can't find a friend, you've still got the Spotify.
106 minutes so just over the sacred hundred minute mark. W.D. By movie, hard to watch. Well crafted and tragic ... a crime / mystery / thriller movie ... I love Elizabeth Olsen, totally blown away by her performance in Martha Marcy May Marlene, so a fan for life. Also stars Jeremy the Ugly Jason Bourne Renner.
One ridiculous standoff scene doesn't ruin the whole thing ... this is violent, ultra-violent. Vengeance, not forgiveness (or the Feds). And a tearjerker, won't be a dry eye in the house. It wasn't bad. I can recommend it. The first movie from 2017 that I can recommend, but be emotionally prepared ... it's going to put you through the ringer.
Guess I'm never gonna get to Ojai
Ranky Tanky from Charleston, SC ... never would have discovered them without Spotify's Discover Weekly:
142 minute running time so way way way too long, 40 to 50 minutes too long. Made by Kathryn Bigelow, who is on my permanent shit list for working with the security-industrial complex to make her War Porn pic, "Zero Dark Thirty." Anyway, this is a re-creation / dramatization of some atrocity that happened during the Detroit race riots of 1967.
Apparently three black men were executed in cold blood by some Detroit policemen, but who knows the real story? Digging this up is just going to add fuel to the whole Black Lives Matter fire, while simultaneously cashing in on it. Don't get me wrong, I'm as appalled by racism and police brutality (murder) as the next guy, but I also appreciate a more nuanced take on historical events.
Red rating given the length, yellow rating if you're interested in one particular take on history.
Beaver Cleaver asks one more time: Where is the starter pistol?!?
104 minutes so close to the sacred 100 minute mark, but I still watched it at 1.5-2x ... weird one, not badly made, I can almost recommend except for the fact that I was unable to watch it at normal speed for some reason. Combination thriller / comedy / horror movie. Stars Daniel Kaluuya (a Ugandan name); Marnie from Girls, you know, the pretty girl whom everyone hated. Marnie's brother is terribly cast, some kid with greasy hair and a white-trash mustache channeling Johnny Depp. Sort of a Richard Dreyfuss guy plays Dad, with Jobs-ian black turtleneck, and Catherine Keener is Mom.
Check it out if you get the chance, it comes closest to getting a green rating of anything I've watched from 2017 so far.
You are feeling sleeeepy
I like Karl Blau's cover of the Bee Gees' classic:
115 minute run time but it had really long end credits ... still could have been tightened up 10 to 15 minutes. Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise, always charming and he doesn't seem to age ... playing a pilot who funneled US government money and guns to the contras in Nicaragua, and Colombian cocaine back to America ... "mock documentary" bouncy cam drives me nuts.
Didn't realize that they brought contras to Mena, Arkansas to train. Makes light of the whole fiasco, how ridiculous it all was, but there's real tragedy here, and of course Barry Seal was murdered in the end (as was his brother in law). Not badly made, but it only earns a yellow rating. Manohla Dargis said it best: "'American Made' goes down easily, especially if you don’t let the historical record with its real-world stakes bother you."
White Pendy
The pretty boys I've featured before, this time with Joel Paterson accompanying...
80 minutes so within the sacred 100 minute mark ... watched at normal speed even though there was no dialogue. Animated with some neat lighting effects. A fable or a parable, I don't really know the difference. You have to figure out what it's trying to say on your own, you can impose your own meanings. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't recommend it either. Yellow rating.
Survivor
112 minutes so at least 12 to 22 minutes too long. A W.D. By movie, somebody's baby (pun intended). This movie had a lot going for it since it was quirky (the orphan with tinnitus angle) and had an attractive young leading couple, but ultimately I wasn't thrilled with it. It's trying to tap into the Fast & Furious franchise, I guess. Target demographic: boys who are into cars, chases, crashes, drifting, parkour, crime, violence, being the "wheelman," etc.
I'm not a prude, but there was too much swearing and violence for me, it was unnecessary. Cut out 15 minutes, reduce the swearing and violence by half and it would have been a better movie.
SPOILERS: token gangster black guy (Jamie Foxx, whom I liked in "Collateral"), don't worry, he's killed. Token Asian guy, don't worry, he's killed. Token Latina, don't worry, she's killed. Unshaven Don Draper, toting guns, do worry, he's killed, though very late in the movie. Creepy homosexual, Kevin Spacey, playing the same mastermind bad guy role he always does, this time sporting dyed hair and Gene "The Conversation" Hackman glasses.
Lots of great music that will appeal to late Boomers, all of Gen-X, and early Gen-Y. Odd to see a city movie that's Atlanta-based, nobody sounds like they're from Georgia. Product placements up the wazoo. Paid homage to "Heat," which was nice to see. Green rating for teenage boys, yellow for the general adult audience.
(Ann Hornaday didn't like it; Adam Graham didn't like it; Tony Lane didn't like it.)
Oddball Crew
