Movie
of the
Month:
Part 13

I recently
reviewed
the fol-
lowing
film for
Video Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.

THE MERRY GENTLEMAN [***1/2]
(Michael Keaton, US, 2008, 97 mins.)

Last summer, Michael Keaton (Batman, Game 6)
made his directorial debut with The Merry Gentle-
man, a two-pronged character study shot in shades of noir.

The set-up begins in Chicago with Keaton's Frank Logan wan-
dering through the wintery weather. Kate Frazier (Kelly Mac-
donald), meanwhile, lives in an unnamed town with another man
(Bobby Cannavale), and enters the scene with a bruised eye. Af-
ter her cop companion leaves for work, she packs up her stuff,
catches a plane to the Windy City, and starts a new life.

In the interval, Logan watch-
es a trio of men leave a corner
bar. Moments later, he shoots
one of them dead. Days later,
while planning another hit, he
spies Frazier, now working as
a receptionist, through his
viewfinder. She notices him
on the roof, screams, and calls the police because she thought he
was going to jump. He disappears, but after a second murder, they
return to question her about the man she saw. Now, Frank’s got
two bodies to his name and a connection to Kate, who tells
different people different stories about her background.

From the opening sequence, the film appears to share similari-
ties with John Dahl's Chicago-set You Kill Me, except The Mer-
ry Gentleman isn’t a black comedy, despite a few subtle comic
touches, like the world's most depressing office holiday party.
Plus, the central duo doesn’t meet until the halfway point.

If a first film reveals where an actor-turned-director’s head is
at, then Keaton’s mind resides in a dimly-lit, but not hopeless
place. The Merry Gentleman starts out as a two-hander,
but Macdonald gets all the best scenes, while he barely speaks
a word. Frank’s die is cast, but Kate’s future is unwritten, and
it takes a hit man to help her to write it. Highly recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 12: Il Divo



Endnote: This is an edited version of a longer review.
Click here for the original. Images from Time Out Chicago
and All Movie Photo (Copyright © Samuel Goldwyn Films).

Read more »

Search
Results

Every few
months,
I check
Google to
see where
my re-
views
(and oth-
er ephem-
era) are ending up. Here are some of the more interesting results.

Cinema Cinema:
AndMoreAgain review of Exile Baby

Cinema of the World:
Siffblog review of Skin, Skin

DVD Beaver:
Amazon review of Food, Inc.

Fandango:
Amazon review of This Is It

Hot Splice:
Siffblog photo of director Barry Jenkins

Magnolia:
Humpday thanks

Reel Black:
Amazon review of Music Is the Weapon

Reverb Nation:
AndMoreAgain review
of The End of Suffering

Rivercoast Film:
Amazon review of American Meth

The Spiritualized Forums:
Wire interview with Loop's Robert Hampson

TracyMorgan.net:
Amazon review of Totally Awesome



Endnote: Images from Barry Jenkins's Medicine
for Melancholy and Lynn Shelton's Humpday,
among my favorite films of the year (full list here).

Read more »

Eat, For This Is My Body


Black
Moth
Super
Rain-
bow,
Eat-
ing Us,
Grave-
face



Eating Us is like the answer to a dream I didn't know I had.
Imagine if Air re-recorded Moon Safari under the influence of
some powerful psychotropics and invited a few old folkies and
young dance denizens to the party. In an ideal world, the re-
sults from that schizophrenic soirée would resemble the lat-
est enchantment from this mysterious Pittsburgh collective.


Goofy video for a great song.

Don't go looking to the glossy booklet for further information,
however, other than song titles. Like the cover, it consists en-
tirely of black and white photographic collages daubed with
splashes of neon orange. The back of the CD, however,
states that lysergic maestro Dave Fridmann (the Flam-
ing Lips, Mercury Rev) served as producer and that
the participants include Tobacco (voice + music +
visual), Iffernaut (drums), and Ryan Graveface
and Seven Fields of Aphelion (more music).

A few nursery rhyme-like lyrics float to the sparkling sur-
face: "Neon lemonade, eat my face away, na na-na-na na...
you and me, we're gonna melt away, like apples in the
ground..." All the while, Iffernaut pounds the skins like
a mad robot and the synthesizer player, whoe'er he
may be, sets his controls for the heart of the sun.

Eating Us serves as the ideal successor to Fridmann's work
on Rev's motorik-inspired Snowflake Midnight. And when you
least expect it, flute and banjo enter the fray. Though I'm new
to Black Moth Super Rainbow, I love, love, love this record.



Endnote: For more information about
Black Moth Super Rainbow, please click
here or here. Image from Fanatic Promotion.

Read more »

Acts of Com-
munication

Hotel St. George,
City Boy Lemon,
This Is Tightrope

Add singer/guitar-
ist Matt Binder to
the list of Ameri-
cans who think—
or wish—they'd
been born in Brit-
ain. Growing up,
I was often surpris-
ed by the number
of Brits who sang
sans accent until I heard Herman's Hermits and the Kinks.

This San Diego quartet doesn't bring either act to mind,
though they've probably got a few UK records in their col-
lection, since they combine precise vocals with layers of fuzz
and reverberating beats, like a cross between the Stone Roses
New Order, and the Vapours (that's a compliment, by the way).

Note: Vinyl and digital download only.



Julie the Band, An Act of Communication, Baby Bird Records

An Act of Communication works well enough as far as new
wave-meets-baroque pop goes—trumpets, violins, Cars-like key-
boards—and harder-edged than that description suggests, but this
LA quintet's debut doesn't leave as much of an impression as it
should. Includes a reverant version of the Beatles' "Blackbird"
and a remix of "Foggin Up a Clear View" with Obie Trice.



Seaspin, Reverser EP, self-released

This LA five-piece cooks up
airy melodies in the vein of
My Bloody Valentine and Cur-
ve with Jennifer Goodridge's
delicate vocals floating atop
a three-guitar maelstrom.
You've heard it before, and if
you're like me, you won't mind hearing it again. Ends in a phosphorescent spray of feedback.



Samuel Stewart, The Beginner
EP, Frank Lawless Entertainment

I know I'm a sinner, been doing it
for years, but I'm still a beginner.
-- Samuel Stewart, "The Beginner"

Now based in LA, London singer/multi-instrumentalist
Samuel Stewart follows in the ornate footsteps of Ar-
cade Fire and DeVotchka on this music hall-inspired EP
(I'd imagine he also has a thing for The Threepenny Op-
era). His vibrato brings to mind Marc Bolan and Deven-
dra Banhart, but with fewer folk and glam touches, while
he sounds a little like Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hütz on
the gypsy-oriented "Devil Music." If Stewart isnt work-
ing from the most original blueprint, his talent and ease
of execution make The Beginner worthy of attention.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Endnote: For more information about Hotel St.
George, please click here; for Julie the Band, here
or here; for Seaspin, here or here; and for Samuel
Stewart, here or here. Images from Planetary Group.

Read more »

December
Reviews

These are
the reviews
and other
pieces I'm
working on
this month.

Amazon
DVDs: The Edge of Love, Hung (HBO Series) - Season One, Bewitch-
ed - The Complete Eighth Season [four-disc set], Dare, and
Mental - The Complete First Season [four-disc set].

Amazon Theatricals: Brothers (Jim Sheridan directs
Jake Gyllenhaal, Toby Maguire, and Natalie Portman), In-
victus (Clint Eastwood directs Morgan Freeman and Matt
Damon), Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodóvar directs
Penélope Cruz), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Par-
nassus (Terry Gilliam directs Heath Ledger).

Still playing (or yet to open): Coco before Chanel,
Law Abiding Citizen, Me and Orson Welles, This Is It,
Where the Wild Things Are, and Youth in Revolt.



KCTS 9: These are some of the press releases I've written or to which I've contributed: CFO announcement, development team announcement, FRONTLINE: Puget Sound's Poisoned Waters, KCTS 9 Chefs 2010, This Emotional Life, The Whole World Was Watching, and Yakima Valley Community Foundation grant.

Video Librarian: Latin Music USA [two-disc set], A Little
Snow Fairy Sugar [two-disc set], You Weren't There - A His-
tory of Chicago Punk 1977-1984, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt,
Coco before Chanel, Dirty - The Official ODB Biography, Lost -
The Complete Fifth Season [five-disc set], The Merry Gent-
leman, Trucker, Wild Child, Runaway, Shall We Kiss,
and A Wink and a Smile - The Art of Burlesque.



Endnote: Image from Band of Thebes.

Read more »

Fountain of Everything















Vivian Girls, Everything Goes Wrong, In the Red

So often on their second record, a band will tighten things up in
order to present a more precise version of their signature sound.
To which, Brooklyn's Vivian Girls say, in essence, "Screw that!"

On Everything Goes Wrong, they crank up the volume,
quicken the pace, and color outside the lines. This full-steam-a-
head approach breeds excitement, but at the expense of finesse,
i.e. their schoolyard sing-a-long vocals are even unrulier than
before. Not that I'm complaining—not much, at any rate.

As on their self-titled debut, the trio's girl-group harmonies get
the job done, but enunciation goes out the window as if their vo-
cal chords are straining to keep up with the hands that pound
the drums, beat the bass, and strum the guitars (the drums
on "Double Visions" are so loud, in fact, I briefly thought
someone was trying to break down my door).

This isn't to suggest that the
ladies are slumping through
their sophomore release, but
rather that their latest long-
player more closely duplicat-
es the live show, where they
trade instruments, Beat Hap-
pening-style, and stretch
out their songs like taffy.

It's a solid follow-up, if less catchy than before, as if the
Raincoats decided to cover Hüsker Dü by way of the Dick-
ies, i.e. a cohesive album rather than a collection of singles.
Granted, I was expecting the latter, so I was disappointed
at first, but this CD stands up to repeat plays like a trouper.

Click here for my Amazon review of Vivian Girls, and
here to stream their Chantels cover, "He's Gone."



Hot Day at the Zoo, Zoograss - Live
at the Waterhole, INTA Records

I'm talkin' about whiskey drinkin' all through the
night. If all goes right, I'm gonna find a fight.
-- HDATZ, "Blues for Jimmy"

Hot Day at the Zoo are a throwback to the itchy, country-infused days of Little Feat, Canned Heat, or even the Rolling Stones in their down-home moments (when they would pretend they were from the Deep South instead of the London suburbs).

In front of a boisterous crowd, these cats raise a ruckus with
banjo, mandolin, upright bass, and whiskey-soaked vocals. You
can probably predict what this disc sounds like, and that's okay:
HDATZ aren't reinventing the wheel, just giving it a spirited spin.



Mascara, Fountain of Tears, Mr. Fibuli's Records

Singer/guitarist Chris Mascara and compatriots Matt Graber
and Bo Barringer lay down some driving rock on their second
full-length. If Fountain of Tears isn't strictly indie, prog, or
metal, it resides somewhere in the margins between those gen-
res, though they manage to recall Firehose on title track "Ai-
nadamar," a tribute to Spanish poet Federico García Lorca.

A veteran of Rock Band and the Blue Man Group, Mascara comes
on like a theatrically trained performer—think The Rocky Horror
Show's Riff Raff—which lends the album a '70s feel, i.e. Meatloaf,
Alice Cooper, etc., for which I have a high tolerance, though I
could do without the fright-night theatrics of "High School," on
which Mascara moans and groans through lines like, "The shit
I pulled out of my rectum/was red, was red, was red..." Ack.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Endnote: For more information about the Vivian Girls,
please click here. You can also catch them at Seattle's High
Dive on 2/13. For more on Hot Day at the Zoo, go here;
for Mascara, here. Henry Darger painting of the original
Vivians from Shake Your Fist; band pic from ShowClix.

Read more »

Movie of the
Month: Part 12

I recently reviewed the
following film for Video
Librarian, and thought the
results were worth sharing.

IL DIVO [****]
(Paulo Sorren-
tino, Italy, 20-
08, 110 mins.)

With his audacious portrait of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, Paulo Sorrentino (The Consequences of Love)
reinvents the biopic—or at least turns it inside out.

If comparisons to Nixon aren't completely off the mark, they're
also misleading (New York Times critic Stephen Holden's cita-
tion of the British miniseries I, Claudius makes more sense).

While Oliver Stone offered a conventionally Freudian reading of
the former president, Sorrentino trades back story for something
more intimate, yet enigmatic by presenting the seven-time PM's
scandal-plagued reign from his subject's unique perspective.

And what
a subject!
Toni
Servillo
(Gomor-
rah, The
Girl by
the Lake)
plays An-
dreotti as
a hunched-up, jug-eared cross between Richard III and Nosfer-
atu's Max Schrek ("Il Divo" translates as the God or the Di-
vine). Instead of walking, he glides from dark room to dark
room—his other nicknames include the Prince of Darkness,
the Black Pope, the Sphinx, the Fox, and the Hunchback.

Despite his leadership of the Christian Democratic Party and ties
to the Vatican and the Mafia, Andreotti comes across as an isolat-
ed man with plenty of supplicants, but few friends (and a silent,
supportive spouse). Under his watch, assassinations of his critics
ran rife, even if he never did time for murder. His refusal to co-
operate with terrorists also led to the death of leftist rival Aldo
Moro (focus of Marco Bellocchio's fine Good Morning, Night).


Il Divo won seven David di Donatello Awards in Italy and the
Jury Prize at Cannes and has inspired comparisons to the work
of Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and Fran-
cis Ford Coppola. There's a certain coldness to it that will sure-
ly leave some unmoved, but it's undoubtedly among the most
fantastic-looking films of the year. Highly recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 11: Endgame



2/2/10 update: It would've been nice to see Il Divo score a nomina-
tion for best foreign language film, but one Oscar nod—for best make-
up—is better than nothing. For the complete list, please click here.

Endnote: Slightly revised from the original text. According to
a YouTube commenter on the trailer above, "The opening song
is 'Toop Toop' by Cassius, the second one is 'Nux Vomica' by the
Veils." Images from Cinemavistodame and The House Next Door.

Read more »