July 24, 2010
June 13, 2010
The Agony and The Ecstasy of Phil Spector
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By Prairie Miller
Whether a work of art should be viewed solely on its own merits or in the context of the artist and his life, has always been a contentious and unresolved talking point. But with Vikram Jayanti’s The Agony And The Ecstasy of Phil Spector, there’s a whole lot of both perspectives, and more.
Nearly replicating the famed creative genius, producer and imprisoned felon’s flamboyant collage memorialized in the annals of song as Spector’s Wall Of Sound, Jayanti mixes metaphors, music and murder trials, while managing a distinct neutrality as to Spector’s actual guilt or innocence. And though human beings rarely designate themselves as villains in their own life story to begin with, the more ethereal primary obsessions of this creatively driven recluse and self-described pariah celebrity, are more the focus of this impressionistic noirish documentary anyway.
Filmed between the elderly Spector’s original 2007 mistrial in the handgun murder of forty year old actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion and a second trial when he was convicted and imprisoned on a 19 years to life sentence, the documentary is less about factual challenges than emotions and personality. Which primarily revolves around the logistical choice to allow the film’s real life protagonist unfettered self-expression, while tempered with the agony of the public accusations against him juxtaposed strangely with his personal ecstasy of now legendary musical creations. From rock ‘n roll classics that include the 1965 hit You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, produced and co-written by Spector and listed by BMI as the song with the most U.S. airplay in the 20th century, to work with the majority of prominent artists back then, and compositions like Let It Be and Imagine for the Beatles.
Sitting beside the white piano where he worked with John Lennon on Imagine, Spector rants against a jury he claims ‘all voted for Bush’ and viewed him as either guilty or insane, while intimating that he can’t get a fair trial because of his outcast status within the music industry. But it’s far more astonishing to learn that his first release, To Know Him Is To Love Him, wasn’t a love song at all, and rather a tribute to his late father who blew his own brains out when Spector was just a boy, a song title taken from the inscription which appears on the elder’s tombstone. And a trauma early in his life which may have inspired not only his often mournful and emotionally needy lyrics, but his reported fixation with guns and lovers, and related abandonment issues. And though asserting a powerful identification with creative genius martyrs in history including Galileo, Bach, Michelangelo and Da Vinci, and more recently Woody Allen, he oddly bypasses mention of the more timely case of Roman Polanski.
And whether sitting in court with extravagantly wigged head bowed like a kid berated for being caught stuffing his hand in a cookie jar, or rambling on back home with wild eyed tales, Spector comes across as an immature child stuck long ago in traumatized arrested development (not to mention deeply retro, frozen in time favored mod attire) who doesn’t seem to understand the consequences of his acts, and at the same time a conversely wrinkled old gnome. Though his facial deterioration (and coverup crazy wigs), is reportedly the result of horrific injuries in a nearly fatal car crash in 1974, which required scores of disfiguring stitches to his head.
The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Phil Spector (a play on words of the Michelangelo book and screen bios), however worshipfully one-sided or on the other hand legally scornful, is without a doubt a musical treasure trove of the withdrawn eccentric’s immense, innovative creative outpouring. And a landmark documentary chronicling the breadth and depth of popular music in the 20th century.
BBC/Arena/ VIXPIX Films
Unrated
4 stars
Prairie Miller is a multimedia journalist online, in print and on radio. Contact her through NewsBlaze.
February 9, 2010
Percy Jackson The Olympians The Lightning Thief
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SYNOPSIS:
Teenager Percy (Logan Lerman), lives in New York with his mother Sally (Catherine Keener) and the deadbeat Gabe Ugliano (Joe Pentoliano), unaware that he is a demi-god – the son of his mother and Poseidon (Kevin McKidd). He finds out the hard way, when Zeus (Sean Bean) suspects him of stealing his lightning bolt, the most powerful weapon in the universe. To prove his innocence, avoid a devastating war among the gods – and save his mother from Hades (Steve Coogan) the god of the deathly underworld – Percy embarks on a wild odyssey. He is accompanied by his junior demi-god protector Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) daughter of Athena (Melina Kanakaredes). They confront fierce and fantastic enemies, not least the snake-headed Medusa (Uma Thurman) in their quest to find the stolen lightning bolt and return it to Zeus at Mount Olympus – now floating 600 stories above New York’s Empire State Building.
Review by Andrew L. Urban:
The young protagonists of Rick Riordan’s novel have been upgraded from pre-teens to early teens, but this does no damage to the fantasy adventure that fuses Greek mythology to contemporary American places and values. Anyone around 15 (give or take a couple of years) will thrill to the visual spectacle made possible by today’s technology and the writer’s imagination as the former executes the ideas of the latter. It’s an adventure made in the heavens of the Greek gods, those ancient deities whose dalliances with humans created the demi gods. No more of that, please, Zeus decreed, but the power struggle between the mightiest gods continues …
Enter Percy, played with teenage charisma by the increasingly acclaimed Logan Lerman; watch out for his superb appearance as the young George Hamilton in My One And Only, in Australian cinemas from March 11, 2010. When we meet him he’s just another kid living with his mum Sally (Catherine Keener) and aptly-named stepfather Gabe Ugliano (Joe Pantoliano), missing his absent dad. It comes as a shock for him to learn that his dad is Poseidon, the mythical god of water, which explains his useful superhuman water-driven powers. But when he’s accused of stealing the lightning bolt with which Zeus (Sean Bean) rules the world rather careless of old Zeus, when you come to think of it, Percy (short for the Greek, Perseus), gets a jolt. More jolts are coming as he and the young goat, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), the beautiful demi-god he meets at training camp, set off on their other-world adventure.
The spectacular training camp is run by the centaur, Chiron (Pierce Brosnan), who doubles in his human form as the classics master at Percy’s school – so he can keep an eye on the unwitting young lad before his real identity is discovered.
It’s a rich film, filled with detail, but never buried by it, and it works both as a primer for Greek mythology and a vibrant fantasy. There are parent-child references, from a scalding for gods who abandon their children for life in Olympus land, to mothers who sacrifice all for their children.
Talking points include Medusa (Uma Thurman in a wonderful high camp turn) who reveals her snake-filled head, in one of the film’s masterstrokes of visual effects; and the beasts of the gods, some breathing fire, others bearing many deadly heads.
Also memorable is Steve Coogan’s decadent Hades, dressed in distressed Mick Jagger wear. And don’t leave before the end credits …
Review by Louise Keller:
Uma Thurman as Medusa, the gorgon with a coiffure of writhing snakes and stone-inducing hypnotic gaze is one of the highlights of this bewitching fantasy that juxtaposes Greek Mythology with contemporary American culture. It’s a wonderful juxtaposition in which Rick Riordan, author of the best selling Percy Jackson books, has created a world of demigods, scattered inconspicuously among us – a little like the aliens from Men in Black. It’s a coming of age story, a family adventure and a road movie all rolled into one thrilling fantasy package. Good storytelling, impressive visuals and an appealing hero in Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson whose only clue to his heritage as son of Poseidon, God of the Sea, lies in his ability to think underwater.
It is during a school excursion to an exhibition of New Greek and Roman Galleries that Percy’s life changes forever. He finds himself in a new world at a Half Mortal Camp with a centaur teacher (Pierce Brosnan), a half-goat protector Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and the tantalising Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom. The stakes are high when Percy and friends set off on a road trip in search of three luminous blue pearls, armed with a pen that becomes a sword, an expandable shield and sneakers with wings. Not only must he save his mother (Catherine Keener), he must sort out the matter of the missing lightening bolt as well. Plus, there is that small matter of saving the world.
There is great variety in the various destinations: from a fire breathing multi-headed dragon in Nashville’s Parthenon and an amusing stop in Las Vegas, where the seduction of the complimentary Lotus Flower signature dish reinforces the Casino’s motto ‘You will never want to leave’. The production design of Hades’ lair (Steve Coogan is wonderfully hellish as Hades) with its cave of skulls and candles is splendid and I love the line Rosario Dawson’s Persephone retorts when he threatens her: ‘What will you do? I’m already in hell’. After a spectacular watery climactic scene, the ultimate destination is Olympus, where Sean Bean’s fiery Zeus Father of the Gods reigns supreme and there is also time to smooth over the father son relationship. Director Christopher Columbus has made a helluva entertaining film; chances are it is the first of a new franchise with Logan Lerman, whose performance in (soon to be released) My One and Only is another calling card to his soon-to-be star status.
January 20, 2010
The Girl on the Train
Jobless, soul-searching and rollerblading Jeanne lives in a Paris suburb with her widowed mother Louise, who makes a living as a baby-sitter. Louise helps her daughter get a job with her old flame Samuel Bleistein, now a famous lawyer and Jewish activist. When Jeanne’s budding relationship with aspiring wrestler Franck is shattered by a violent turn of events, Jeanne and Bleistein’s opposite worlds get set on a collision course, raising issues of race, religion and identity.
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December 14, 2009
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel
America’s favorite furry brothers Alvin, Simon and Theodore are back. Because of a freak accident involving Alvin and Dave Seville, they go to live with Dave’s cool cousin, Toby and they have to enroll in school like every other kid. School presents new challenges to these rock stars like dealing with peer pressure, football and of course, girls. By “girls” we mean the Chipettes who are managed by Ian Hawke, the Chipmunks greedy former manager who wants to turn them into the next big thing. There is rivalry between the Chipettes and the Chipmunks at first, but in the end they realize that they make great friends and a great musical team.
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