Movie Review: Whiplash (2014)

by Tony Dayoub


In recent years, the American independent film has become as much a genre onto itself as it is a label distinguishing it as a work made outside the Hollywood system. The Sundance Festival movie in particular was burdened with all sorts of expectations which over time created a stereotype called the "indie." Featuring a cast of young up and coming actors, peppered with a few veterans working for little pay in the hopes of breaking out of some sort of career rut, the worst kind of indie generally recalls a special moment in a young man or woman's life, weighted with a deep, life altering lesson, all under an acoustic score by some folkie/emo instrumentalist who possesses enough street cred to sell some soundtrack albums. Where "independent" once connoted originality, "indie" now simply means lo-fi. That's why Whiplash is so refreshing. 2014's Sundance U.S. Audience and Grand Jury Prize winner is a vibrant, jazz-inflected drama that's also an anti-indie. As it goes into general release this week, Whiplash is poised to take awards season by storm.

Three's Company; Four's a Crowd?

by Tony Dayoub

The latest entry in what has become an arthouse cottage industry, the Retirement Ensemble film, also happens to be the directorial debut of one of the finest American actors, Dustin Hoffman. Quartet is a cut above other films of its kind. The most recent one to come to mind is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, perhaps because the two films share one star in common, Maggie Smith. Here she plays Jean Horton, a former opera diva forced to retire to Beecham House, a nursing home for musicians. At Beecham, the temperamental vocalist is reunited with three of her closest collaborators, libidinous Wilf (Billy Connolly), bemused Cissy (Pauline Collins) and the reserved Reg (Tom Courtenay), who still holds a grudge against Jean for betraying him on their wedding night.

Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (2012)

by Tony Dayoub

This weekend, if you want to see a movie about popular indigenous music, skip the ridiculous Rock of Ages. Instead, find out if Ice-T's new hip-hop documentary, Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap is playing in your local theater. Something from Nothing at once demystifies and mythifies its subject, padding its inquiry into the process of rapping (or more precisely, emceeing) with legendary tales of how some of the most notable names in hip-hop began their careers.

The John Williams Blog-a-thon

by Tony Dayoub

Matt Zoller Seitz and Ali Arikan are on Day 3 of a wonderful Blog-a-thon dedicated to John Williams, a household name when it comes to composers of film music. It continues through May 30th over at Edward Copeland on Film. I've been on a short sabbatical enjoying time with my parents, in-town to visit with our kids who are out from school until next week, but I wanted to briefly interrupt the vacation to direct fans unfamiliar with his earlier work to two of my favorite themes of his.

DVD Roundup: Music Fans Have a New Film Outlet to Look to

The Weinstein Company’s Miriam Collection has quietly been carving out a niche market, putting out some films and documentaries aimed at music fans. A couple of months back they released a documentary (which first appeared on PBS on American Masters), Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, about the folk legend. Just recently I caught a few of their other noteworthy offerings. Lou Reed's Berlin is a concert film by director Julian Schnabel . It captures Reed as he performs his 1973 album, Berlin, live for the first time, backed by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, at St. Ann’s Warehouse, in Brooklyn, New York, in 2006. The depressing album, a commercial failure in the U.S. during its initial release, has grown to be considered one of Reed’s best, if still least accessible. It tells the story of a couple on a downward drug-addled spiral. Schnabel shoots it as if Reed were one half of the couple, now older and performing a requiem for Caroline, its ill fated other half, occasionally superimposing grainy home-movie-like footage of actress Emmanuelle Seigner, whenever referring to the woman. If you’re a fan of Reed’s you’ll definitely be drawn in. But for those unfamiliar with his cutting songs, this may not be the best performance to introduce Reed by. However, the three additional songs he performs at the end of the film, not on the Berlin album, are pretty impressive. Starting with a truly showstopping performance of “Candy Says,” in which Antony of Antony and the Johnsons provides a heartbreaking backup vocal, then gliding into “Rock Minuet,” before ending with “Sweet Jane,” the DVD may be worth purchasing for those final 20-minutes alone. Control is the debut film by former rock photographer and video director Anton Corbijn. The biopic covers the last seven years in the tragic life of Ian Curtis, lead singer of the short-lived but influential Joy Division. The screenplay is based on his wife Deborah’s book Touching from a Distance, and depicts the singers epilepsy, his affair with Annik Honoré (Alexandra Maria Lara), his estrangement from Deborah (Samantha Morton), and his eventual suicide which the film implies may have been due to depression caused by the huge amounts of prescriptions he had to take to quell his seizures. Newcomer Sam Riley remarkably revives the ghost of Curtis in his strong performance. Not only does he capture the external haunted blankness of the man, but he vividly gyrates about the stage in his concerts as the real-life Curtis was distinctly known to. And the actors perform all of the music themselves while still doing the original band justice. Control’s stark black and white cinematography, coupled with the tableau-like mise-en-scène, evokes the old photographs Corbijn himself took of the group in their brief heyday. The film may also be the first I accuse of being too accurate in its storytelling. It occasionally gives the sense of the players going through the motions with a dispassionate inevitability. This might be the point, though, as Corbijn recreates the same blank sterility that one feels in the aura of mystery surrounding Curtis, a talented man lost too soon. For a warmer look at the band, the documentary, Joy Division, makes for a great second-bill of a double feature. Director Grant Gee speaks to all of the surviving band members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, about many of the same anecdotes that appear in Control. There are live performances throughout, as well as an interview with Annik Honoré about the time she spent with the band and late singer, Curtis. Covering their time together from the early days, when they were known as Warsaw, to Curtis’ suicide on the eve of their first American tour, and their reformation as the group New Order, Joy Division fills in the blanks that Control leaves open. It is an electrifying assessment of a band whose time in the public eye was fleeting yet significant. Stills provided courtesy of Genius Products and The Weinstein Company.

Isaac Hayes and Bernie Mac

by Tony Dayoub

Isaac Hayes was a legend. For many it was because of his voice work as Chef in South Park. For others it was his Academy Award for Best Original Song that gained him that distinction. But for me, it was the music that he was responsible for during his time at the southern soul music label, Stax Records, that helped him stand apart.


While at Stax, he cowrote well-known hits like "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Coming" for famous soul duo Sam & Dave. Hayes would go on to record his own albums for Stax, first releasing the unsuccessful Presenting Isaac Hayes in 1967. Then, solidifying both his fashion and musical style, he released Hot Buttered Soul in 1969. On the cover is Hayes' bald head, wearing his soon to be trademark sunglasses and gold chain. In the album are his unique, jazz-inflected, orchestral, epic-length songs, including notably, a cover of Dionne Warwick's "Walk On By" clocking in at just over 12 minutes. Dominated by horns, organs, and his smooth, deep voice, his music had crossed over, but his greatest hit was yet to come.

Composing a full feature-length score for the pioneering blaxploitation film Shaft (1971), it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score. His "Theme from Shaft" won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Soon, Hayes' look and sound led to his casting in genre films of his own, such as Truck Turner (1974), and Escape from New York (1981).

But today's audiences know him mostly from his voice work as cafeteria worker Chef on South Park. There, he garnered attention from a new generation of fans.

Hayes died yesterday, ten days short of his 66th birthday.

Recommended Films - As Composer: Shaft, Truck Turner

As Actor: Truck Turner, Escape from New York, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Hustle & Flow

Recommended Albums: Hot Buttered Soul, Shaft, Black Moses, Live at the Sahara Tahoe

Bernie Mac left us with too small a legacy yet his career signalled a tremendous potential. Famed for his stand-up comedy, he moved on to host a short-lived talk show for HBO, called Midnight Mac, in 1995. However his breakthrough was his performance, that same year, as Pastor Clever in Friday.

2001 also was a breakthrough year for him. Not only did he appear as Frank Catton in Stephen Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven remake, he starred in The Bernie Mac Show, a long-running Peabody Award-winning sitcom on Fox.

In 2003, he replaced Bill Murray as Bosley in McG's Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. While making continued appearances as Catton in Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007), Mac's star continued to rise in films like Bad Santa (2003), where he had a small but important role, and with star vehicles such as Mr. 3000 (2004), and Guess Who (2005), a remake of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in which he costarred with Ashton Kutcher. His last appearance was as used car salesman Bobby Bolivia in Transformers (2007).

An interesting coincidence, Mac just shot a film where he costars with Samuel L. Jackson as a couple of Sam & Dave-like performers. Isaac Hayes costarred. Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, the film is titled Soul Men. No word yet on when to expect this one.

He died Saturday, at the age of 50.

Recommended Films - Friday, The Original Kings of Comedy, Ocean's Eleven, Charlie's Angel: Full Throttle, Mr. 3000, Guess Who, the upcoming Soul Men