“The Girl Can’t Help It” is to rock and roll movies what “Cool Hand Luke” is to prison flicks. Simply put, it rocks, like a nymphomaniac’s trailer. Shot in 1956, when TV was still broadcast in black and white, it contains the only color footage of legendary rock and rollers Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran…
DetailsRelax. Valentine’s Day is not just another hackneyed rom-com. It’s, well, EVERY hackneyed rom-com. It’s 8,000 different stories, all centered around the Big Day and set in Los Angeles. It’s the Crash of romantic comedy. But, as I recall, Crash had some genuine funny moments. Valentine’s Day is full of, “OMG, I can’t believe…
DetailsThe Beatles’ second film, “HELP!” is more enjoyable than it probably should be. It was a commercial success, like everything they did around 1965, but the band wasn’t happy with how it turned out. It was the first indication that the incredible run The Beatles were on couldn’t last forever. John Lennon said that the…
DetailsOf all The Beatles’ films, “Let It Be” is the hardest to watch, but it’s still worth seeing. Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the director, actually made two rock films that took their time growing to full potential: “The Rolling Stones’ Rock & Roll Circus,” which gathered dust for nearly thirty years, and “Let It Be,” which is…
DetailsIT MIGHT GET LOUD is a documentary in which Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, The White Stripes’ Jack White, and U2’s The Edge jam together, and discuss what they love about guitars. “It might get loud,” is something The Edge mutters as he plugs his guitar into the wall of wires and effects pedals that he’s…
DetailsNicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth” is the kind of film you’d expect from a cinematographer-turned-director. Every shot could be slipped undetected into a Taschen photography book. Like a book of photographs, TMWFTE has vivid colors and good use of lens flare and shadow. It’s never boring, but randomly linear. It would be…
Details“Reform School Girls” is a parody of women-in-prison movies that delivers what it promises–lots of girls in reform school. It’s a good thing the “girls” are twenty-something starlets playing teenagers, because they’re very clean reform school girls. Otherwise, the shower scenes would be creepy. Aside from soapy breasts, big 80’s hair, and chick-fights every twenty…
DetailsI was known on the boards for my militance and lack of decorum. At one heated meeting while discussing a contract proposal that would cover comedians, but was unacceptable to the comics for its substandard wages and residual structure, I asked the staff and leaders on the dais to “grow a dick.” For a great…
DetailsIn case you’ve been method acting a role from ancient times and missed it, there’s a civil war going on within the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG). It’s civil like other civil wars. To the untrained eye it might look like a fight between militants and moderates, or just a drunken brawl. It is neither. It…
DetailsI had a big weekend watching children’s movies. I don’t have children myself, and often find it hard to get anyone to go with me. But I enjoy them and often find them better than the dramas clearly designed to go after awards. First I saw “Madagascar: Back 2 Africa”. If you love animals (especially…
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