First things first: there are spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie by now, go see it. No use in waiting, you're just gonna piss off everyone who has already seen it and wants to talk openly about it. Plus, you won't be able to read any articles or blogs about it, such as this entry right here. So do the right thing, dunce: go watch it. You know you're going to eventually, so why fight it?
Secondly: This is the second time I've seen it. The first time was all by myself, in standard 2D in a Friday morning matinee. I was a tad intoxicated, and it helped. This time around I had my boy with me so I was stone cold sober (sugar high notwithstanding) and it was in 3D. Just as good as the first time, if not better, but for different reasons.
Here's a breakdown of the second viewing in chronological order:
After 20 minutes of previews and snack-binging, the lights get dim and we're about to watch the movie. The Lucasfilm logo appears. I'm excited for JR, but right as the opening credits begin, he says to me, "I have to go to the bathroom". Even though I've already seen the movie specifically because I knew this would happen when I took him to see it, I'm still a bit annoyed. Sometimes it sucks to be right.
After we return from the restroom, we settle into the movie. Watching BB-8 roll around in the dark desert landscape, JR asks me if he is, in fact, the robot from the movie WALL-E. I laugh and say no, but I am so tempted to say yes, just to see what he would say. This is the first of many instances during the movie of my wondering whether JR will be misinformed on key facets of the series.
All I can think about whenever I see Finn is "Tracey Morgan in space", which makes me think of his SNL character Astronaut Jones. For those unfamiliar with Astronaut Jones, like most SNL skits it's a one-joke premise but it's always hilarious. Google it and see for yourself; linking to it will only be a temporary solution as they pull a lot of those clips from You Tube and you have to subscribe to NBC.com in order to really see it.
Rey reminds me of many girls I went to high school with, and I can imagine that they are going to dress up as this character next Halloween, and if they have daughters they are going to try and make them into mini-Reys, and like most kids they will instinctively do the opposite of what their parents want... sort of like another character in this movie, played by an actor who (when he eventually takes his menacing helmet off) looks like I did in 10th grade, long hair and all. Just what is J.J. Abrams trying to tell me here?
Meanwhile, JR insists that Rey is the sister of Luke Skywalker. How does he know? He saw it in the trailer, and he just knows. His words, not mine.
When he sees Darth Vader's busted helmet, JR gets excited. Then he asks me how Darth Vader died in Return Of The Jedi, which is an odd question because as we were coming back from the bathroom earlier he explained to me that Darth Vader was evil but suddenly turned good. It occurs to me that he has only watched the other movies in bits and pieces, and so this is going to be the first time he has seen a Star Wars movie from beginning to end. I suspect it will not be his last.
The 3D effects are cool but I'm glad I saw it in 2D first. It seems less confusing this way. As I marvel at some of the effects in the aftermath of the escape from Jakku sequence, JR informs me that he thinks this movie is sad. Not sad like pathetic but sad as in melancholy. He is right, of course, but it's another odd, random statement, seeing as we just literally finished watching a dazzling spaceship chase involving none other than the Millennium Falcon. But I'm glad he can pick up on the mythological subtext present in this story, because it means the narrative has resonance with even a child as young as my son.
Seeing Han Solo and Chewbacca is a delight but with the weight of having seen this before and knowing what is to come, it is bittersweet. I also can't help but wonder what Harrison Ford would've looked like had he done a fourth movie right after Jedi... would the necessary age make-up be as good as his natural ageing process or would it seem hokey?
The bar scene catches JR's attention immediately. He says OMG quite loudly in the theater. I have to wonder why they are playing space reggae in this place... is there space weed or space coke in this establishment? (Earlier, Rey was eating a food "portion" that looked like some weird galactic muffin, and I had to wonder what it might have tasted like) And what does space alcohol taste like, and what proof is it? And what is the legal BAC you can have when operating a spaceship?
JR keeps referring to Han Solo as Star Lord. This makes me laugh. The Resistance coming to fight the First Order gets his attention once again. He likes the battle scenes, and he is literally on the edge of his seat when these moments occur. And he refers to Leia as a princess when she appears. C-3PO gets no love from anyone, even JR, but seeing R2-D2, even in a low-power state, causes joy and excitement to stir in the theater.
By this point JR starts to get bored again, and I agree with him-- the rehash of the whole "let's blow up the Death Star" routine is the weakest link in the movie. I admit to falling asleep during this sequence, only to wake up when (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) Han Solo confronts his punk-ass kid on the parapet. I don't think this is the last we've seen of Solo aka Star Lord, but the moment still gets me in the gut.
By the way: Chewbacca is such a badass in this movie. Not only is he depicted throughout as a ladies' Wookiee with an actual libido, but his reaction to Han's fate is so heartfelt and real. He just starts blasting and blowing shit up, his rage and pain an authentic fury. For the first time in this series, Chewie is drawn fully as a character. This also happens to be JR's favorite part of the movie.
The climactic lightsaber battles capture both of our imaginations, and I have to admire Adam Driver as Kylo Ren. Good acting will elevate this new trilogy to a different, higher standard. But nothing is as thrilling as seeing Mark Hamill at the end, wordless, bearded, his right hand a mechanical contraption and ungloved, standing on a mountain top looking at Rey as if she holds the Ring of Power in her hands.
JR got up and clapped when this scene happened, and then the end credits popped up. We left the theater very happy, and I think once he reports to his friends back at school about seeing the movie, the Star Wars series will finally take its proper place in his childhood world, right next to LEGO and Minecraft and Super Mario Brothers.
Go see it, again and again and again. As for us, we're gonna watch Return Of The Jedi ON VHS tonight.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Monday, August 17, 2015
FIVE IDEAS FOR RAP BIOPICS IN THE WAKE OF THE SUCCESS AND ACCLAIM OF "STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON", IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER...
1. "CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME: The Wu Tang Clan Saga", a Netflix original series. First season centers around cousins RZA (known back then as Prince Rakeem), GZA (aka The Genius) and Ol' Dirty Bastard (formerly Ason Unique). Largely dealing with Rakeem's criminal lifestyle, the first season ends with the forming of the earliest version of the Wu Tang Clan, with Rakeem becoming The RZA and christening Staten Island as Shaolin.
2. "Boogie Down Bronx", the life and times of KRS-ONE and DJ Scott La Rock. Directed by Sam Raimi, combining elements of movies like "Stand And Deliver" and "Lean On Me" with budding young social worker Scott Sterling trying to reach out to homeless graffiti ragamuffin Larry Parker. As the rise of Boogie Down Productions is chronicled, the movie ends with the tragic death of Scott and KRS-ONE's new-found consciousness as a rapper and a teacher.
3. "King Of Rock" is the story of how RUN-DMC revived Aerosmith's career. Focusing on the making of the Raising Hell album in general and the landmark "Walk This Way" in particular, this made-for-TV movie splits its time between the Queens rap trio's soaring career and the downward spiral of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, culminating in the creation of rap-rock. The grand finale is the making of the classic video featuring the two groups at odds with each but finally sharing the stage together.
4. "East West", directed by Oliver Stone. An unflinching panoramic view of the East Coast/West Coast feuds in the '90s that ended with the unsolved murders of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Done in the manic style of his masterpiece JFK, Stone's pseudo-documentary film boasts an all-star cast, a soundtrack produced by Trent Reznor, and plenty of op-eds in publications such as the New York Times and XXL.
5. "Banned In The U.S.A." Straight-to-DVD independently-produced biopic of Luther "Luke" Campbell and his run-ins with the Miami law and the First Amendment over the lyrics of the 2 Live Crew's As Nasty As They Wanna Be. Milos Forman was originally attached to the project but ultimately left citing 'creative differences' with Campbell, the executive producer. Due to the non-involvement of the other members of the group, many names and song titles are changed in order to get the movie made.
Saturday, August 15, 2015
So...
I decided to start a whole new blog for this review and other reviews in the near future. I don't feel connected to the old one anymore. I can start with a clean slate.
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON
Let me get the obvious out of the way:
1. It's directed well-- F. Gary Gray, who did Friday, presents an entertaining and funny narrative. There's a lot of in-jokes, mostly for those who grew up in poor neighborhoods. Apparently his director's cut adds an extra hour, so when this bad boy hits DVD/Blu Ray there will be more to post, for sure.
2. It's cast well. I gotta admit, I was skeptical when I saw the posters and the trailers. I didn't think the actors looked or sounded much like their roles. I couldn't even tell who was who sometimes in the ads. But as soon as the movie gets rolling, you begin to feel the presence of these actors. Corey Hawkins in particular brings the essence of Dr. Dre to life, but he also reminds me of a young Dorian Harewood or even Tyler The Creator. Ice Cube's son is basically a clone of his father. The guy playing Eazy E lacks the charisma necessary but he still does a great job of capturing the rapper's appeal. What really impressed me was the guys playing Ren and Yella. I was glad to see that they took some time to find actors who had the characters down, even the marginal ones.
3. It looks great on the big screen and sounds great in the theater. The soundtrack is nothing short of amazing. I've been bumping some N.W.A in the past year, anticipating this movie and how it would get the music across. Good sound design, mixing studio recordings with takes done by the actors. You can tell which is which but that's not the point. If you're a fan of the music you'll appreciate what has been done to tell the story properly.
As a technical achievement, it's competent: does the job, hits the marks. But as entertainment, it's something more... mostly because this is the first music biopic that I've seen where the subject of the movie is a group I practically grew up with, listening to when they first came out and watching the legacy unfold in real time. Other biopics and/or rock docs come with expectations of a different order: I didn't experience, say, The Beatles the same way my mother did. She had the first album on Vee Jay on vinyl and had her name next to "John Loves_____" on the back sleeve.
When I first started listening to The Beatles they had long disbanded, but N.W.A was fresh and new. I followed along as they became prominent, on to their breaking up, solo careers, diss tracks, and the inevitable demise of founder and key member Eazy-E. By the time Eazy passed away from AIDS I was in my own rap group, trying to make my dreams a reality like the guys in N.W.A did.
This is a movie that I have directed in my own mind at least a thousand times, with my own cast and screenplay. There are moments I would've chosen to explore deeper, and others I would have omitted entirely, songs I would have emphasized more, and scenes I would have expanded in my own geeky fan way. This review is not about that imaginary movie that exists only in my own psyche. This is about what I saw in the theater and how it felt as a 41 year-old man living in Indianapolis to think once again about Los Angeles and growing up there and how simple it all seemed once upon a time when rap was in its Golden Age and I was on the cusp of puberty and the hardest thing out at the time was Public Enemy and how could there ever be a group more radical than Chuck D and Flavor Flav...
Straight Outta Compton chooses its biopic tropes wisely: the template here is along the lines of The Doors and La Bamba, where the rise of an unknown group or individual is charted meteorically and the emphasis is on a strong bond within the film that separates and gets lost; on the way back to reconciliation, tragedy strikes and history is never the same. This is better than doing the standard straightforward rise-and-fall routine, and is a better fit than some experimental stunt-casting type of movie that the recent Brian Wilson flick seemed to pull off without a hitch. To make a movie about gangsta rappers, one needs to feel like they were a gang. Maybe they weren't real gangbangers, but Gray is smart to frame the relationships in that milieu, with an us-against-the-world romanticism that makes scenes such as those decrying police brutality seem more authentic. After a while, you become a part of that gang as well, which is appropriate because listening to N.W.A often felt like being the shy new member of a rowdy set, living vicariously through their experiences. It was exciting; you felt like you'd been given an honorary pass, participating in a different sort of ride along.
Of course, despite the short duration of the group itself, there is so much to pack into two hours that things gets left out. That's nothing new, and I won't dwell on that aspect. However, there is a part of me that thinks that this would've been a great Netflix streaming series. I could binge on the exploits of pre-fame Dr. Dre and Eazy for at least three or four episodes alone. But even if given the luxury of spreading out the drama evenly, I can understand how the story of N.W.A needs to be told on the big screen in stereo: N.W.A was a larger-than-life group, and the story must be told with broad strokes. TV would only reduce and compress something that already has to be contained. Luckily, the finer points don't get lost in the sweeping statements of celluloid. You feel the dinginess of the ghetto project life in the early scenes, the joy of creating art in the behind-the-scenes studio recreations, the decadence of the post-fame excess that drove the wedge between the principals.
The movie grabs you from the very start then goes into the characters and the origins of the group itself. Then, all of a sudden, Paul Giamatti (looking like Leslie Nielsen if he'd really let himself go) shows up, and the movie turns into something delightfully different. As Jerry Heller, I almost feel like Giamatti's just phoning it in, but then you get the feeling that anyone who can make Jerry Heller seem sympathetic has got to get an Oscar nomination in the very least. Maybe he's such a good actor that you have a hard time believing he's acting; he makes it look so effortless. Yes, Heller is a role someone like Paul Giamatti was born to play, one that he can do in his sleep... and yet, he still does such a good job that it makes the relative unknowns and newcomers look really, really good. Because of his intelligent performance as a man who fits a softer definition of the word 'ruthless', the movie plays fair with Heller's role in the legacy. Yes, he did exploit the rappers, but he also ponied up a quarter mil to co-invest in a drug dealer's record label at a time when Jheri curls were sort of a joke and L.A. was known for Electro more than hip-hop.
Which brings up a minor quibble: Arabian Prince isn't even mentioned once (or maybe he was and I didn't hear it; the audience I saw this movie with was quite talkative) and other than the obligatory digs at Dre's first group, the World Class Wreckin' Crew, nothing is really said about music in L.A. at the time, at least nothing on the surface-- a quick glimpse at Cube's bused-into-the-Valley school days acknowledges that, in the white schools, the '80s sounded a lot less intense than in the 'hood of South Central. And the funny bit with HBO, the NY based group that passed on N.W.A's first hit, "Boyz N The Hood", hints at how lame the West Coast looked to East Coast MCs in that time period.
But that's when it hits you: you realize that this group really did change the world of popular music. Back in the day, if I'd been asked which rap group will go on to have a movie made about them, I would've said Public Enemy. They should've been the ones, because they were serious and political and conscious... but I'm glad it was N.W.A because I took a secret pleasure in hearing their music. You couldn't let your parents hear it. You could really only play it for people who liked rap, and yet I converted many white kids on my bus route over to gangsta rap simply because N.W.A cursed and had some funny rhymes. To a 12 year-old, that shit is funny. As a result, I still think it's funny as an adult. In fact, my biggest regret about the movie is that I didn't find out who did the voice of the cop at the end of "F--- Tha Police", the one who says, "Fuck you, you black motherfuckerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..." (My guess is that it's Cube, and if it was then it's even funnier) The music took me back, and seeing actors try to pretend that we are all there at a pivotal point in popular culture made me smile and I was happy with that.
Since Cube and Dre were the main producers, they come off the best. Ice Cube practically dominates the movie, as he did back when the group was still around. However, the character that I ended up liking the best was DJ Yella. I know almost nothing about the man, as big as a fan that I am of N.W.A. His character is the comic relief but it was nice to give Yella an actual identity. MC Ren doesn't get fleshed out as much but then again Ren is a bit of a mystery. Still, this is where a streaming series treatment would've been a good idea: one or two episodes dedicated to characters like The D.O.C or Suge Knight or Sir Jinx. They become peripheral figures in the movie but a series would've allowed that space to open up.
One last thing: the actors they picked to play Snoop and Tupac were great. Their screen time was nothing grand but they gave me moments of surprise and promise, almost wishing they would come in and take over the narrative. Maybe now that this movie has been made (and I know it will do handsome box office) perhaps something akin to the Marvel movie franchise will unfold. I'm sure we'll see lots of good and bad movies about rappers who may or may not deserve the effort being made (I'm betting 2 Live Crew will be the next group to receive this treatment) and that will be fine by me because I love the music and (as long as they are made with affection and care) I will probably go and out watch those movies in the theater, and NOT wait for them to come out on DVD or on my Roku. I didn't go and see Notorious when it came out, but I am waiting for the day when someone announces a RUN-DMC television miniseries, or "The KRS-ONE Story" on Crackle.
Maybe they'll even make that Public Enemy movie. Flavor Flav will play himself, and he'll look exactly the same as he did in 1986 because black don't crack.
I decided to start a whole new blog for this review and other reviews in the near future. I don't feel connected to the old one anymore. I can start with a clean slate.
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON
Let me get the obvious out of the way:
1. It's directed well-- F. Gary Gray, who did Friday, presents an entertaining and funny narrative. There's a lot of in-jokes, mostly for those who grew up in poor neighborhoods. Apparently his director's cut adds an extra hour, so when this bad boy hits DVD/Blu Ray there will be more to post, for sure.
2. It's cast well. I gotta admit, I was skeptical when I saw the posters and the trailers. I didn't think the actors looked or sounded much like their roles. I couldn't even tell who was who sometimes in the ads. But as soon as the movie gets rolling, you begin to feel the presence of these actors. Corey Hawkins in particular brings the essence of Dr. Dre to life, but he also reminds me of a young Dorian Harewood or even Tyler The Creator. Ice Cube's son is basically a clone of his father. The guy playing Eazy E lacks the charisma necessary but he still does a great job of capturing the rapper's appeal. What really impressed me was the guys playing Ren and Yella. I was glad to see that they took some time to find actors who had the characters down, even the marginal ones.
3. It looks great on the big screen and sounds great in the theater. The soundtrack is nothing short of amazing. I've been bumping some N.W.A in the past year, anticipating this movie and how it would get the music across. Good sound design, mixing studio recordings with takes done by the actors. You can tell which is which but that's not the point. If you're a fan of the music you'll appreciate what has been done to tell the story properly.
As a technical achievement, it's competent: does the job, hits the marks. But as entertainment, it's something more... mostly because this is the first music biopic that I've seen where the subject of the movie is a group I practically grew up with, listening to when they first came out and watching the legacy unfold in real time. Other biopics and/or rock docs come with expectations of a different order: I didn't experience, say, The Beatles the same way my mother did. She had the first album on Vee Jay on vinyl and had her name next to "John Loves_____" on the back sleeve.
When I first started listening to The Beatles they had long disbanded, but N.W.A was fresh and new. I followed along as they became prominent, on to their breaking up, solo careers, diss tracks, and the inevitable demise of founder and key member Eazy-E. By the time Eazy passed away from AIDS I was in my own rap group, trying to make my dreams a reality like the guys in N.W.A did.
This is a movie that I have directed in my own mind at least a thousand times, with my own cast and screenplay. There are moments I would've chosen to explore deeper, and others I would have omitted entirely, songs I would have emphasized more, and scenes I would have expanded in my own geeky fan way. This review is not about that imaginary movie that exists only in my own psyche. This is about what I saw in the theater and how it felt as a 41 year-old man living in Indianapolis to think once again about Los Angeles and growing up there and how simple it all seemed once upon a time when rap was in its Golden Age and I was on the cusp of puberty and the hardest thing out at the time was Public Enemy and how could there ever be a group more radical than Chuck D and Flavor Flav...
Straight Outta Compton chooses its biopic tropes wisely: the template here is along the lines of The Doors and La Bamba, where the rise of an unknown group or individual is charted meteorically and the emphasis is on a strong bond within the film that separates and gets lost; on the way back to reconciliation, tragedy strikes and history is never the same. This is better than doing the standard straightforward rise-and-fall routine, and is a better fit than some experimental stunt-casting type of movie that the recent Brian Wilson flick seemed to pull off without a hitch. To make a movie about gangsta rappers, one needs to feel like they were a gang. Maybe they weren't real gangbangers, but Gray is smart to frame the relationships in that milieu, with an us-against-the-world romanticism that makes scenes such as those decrying police brutality seem more authentic. After a while, you become a part of that gang as well, which is appropriate because listening to N.W.A often felt like being the shy new member of a rowdy set, living vicariously through their experiences. It was exciting; you felt like you'd been given an honorary pass, participating in a different sort of ride along.
Of course, despite the short duration of the group itself, there is so much to pack into two hours that things gets left out. That's nothing new, and I won't dwell on that aspect. However, there is a part of me that thinks that this would've been a great Netflix streaming series. I could binge on the exploits of pre-fame Dr. Dre and Eazy for at least three or four episodes alone. But even if given the luxury of spreading out the drama evenly, I can understand how the story of N.W.A needs to be told on the big screen in stereo: N.W.A was a larger-than-life group, and the story must be told with broad strokes. TV would only reduce and compress something that already has to be contained. Luckily, the finer points don't get lost in the sweeping statements of celluloid. You feel the dinginess of the ghetto project life in the early scenes, the joy of creating art in the behind-the-scenes studio recreations, the decadence of the post-fame excess that drove the wedge between the principals.
The movie grabs you from the very start then goes into the characters and the origins of the group itself. Then, all of a sudden, Paul Giamatti (looking like Leslie Nielsen if he'd really let himself go) shows up, and the movie turns into something delightfully different. As Jerry Heller, I almost feel like Giamatti's just phoning it in, but then you get the feeling that anyone who can make Jerry Heller seem sympathetic has got to get an Oscar nomination in the very least. Maybe he's such a good actor that you have a hard time believing he's acting; he makes it look so effortless. Yes, Heller is a role someone like Paul Giamatti was born to play, one that he can do in his sleep... and yet, he still does such a good job that it makes the relative unknowns and newcomers look really, really good. Because of his intelligent performance as a man who fits a softer definition of the word 'ruthless', the movie plays fair with Heller's role in the legacy. Yes, he did exploit the rappers, but he also ponied up a quarter mil to co-invest in a drug dealer's record label at a time when Jheri curls were sort of a joke and L.A. was known for Electro more than hip-hop.
Which brings up a minor quibble: Arabian Prince isn't even mentioned once (or maybe he was and I didn't hear it; the audience I saw this movie with was quite talkative) and other than the obligatory digs at Dre's first group, the World Class Wreckin' Crew, nothing is really said about music in L.A. at the time, at least nothing on the surface-- a quick glimpse at Cube's bused-into-the-Valley school days acknowledges that, in the white schools, the '80s sounded a lot less intense than in the 'hood of South Central. And the funny bit with HBO, the NY based group that passed on N.W.A's first hit, "Boyz N The Hood", hints at how lame the West Coast looked to East Coast MCs in that time period.
But that's when it hits you: you realize that this group really did change the world of popular music. Back in the day, if I'd been asked which rap group will go on to have a movie made about them, I would've said Public Enemy. They should've been the ones, because they were serious and political and conscious... but I'm glad it was N.W.A because I took a secret pleasure in hearing their music. You couldn't let your parents hear it. You could really only play it for people who liked rap, and yet I converted many white kids on my bus route over to gangsta rap simply because N.W.A cursed and had some funny rhymes. To a 12 year-old, that shit is funny. As a result, I still think it's funny as an adult. In fact, my biggest regret about the movie is that I didn't find out who did the voice of the cop at the end of "F--- Tha Police", the one who says, "Fuck you, you black motherfuckerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..." (My guess is that it's Cube, and if it was then it's even funnier) The music took me back, and seeing actors try to pretend that we are all there at a pivotal point in popular culture made me smile and I was happy with that.
Since Cube and Dre were the main producers, they come off the best. Ice Cube practically dominates the movie, as he did back when the group was still around. However, the character that I ended up liking the best was DJ Yella. I know almost nothing about the man, as big as a fan that I am of N.W.A. His character is the comic relief but it was nice to give Yella an actual identity. MC Ren doesn't get fleshed out as much but then again Ren is a bit of a mystery. Still, this is where a streaming series treatment would've been a good idea: one or two episodes dedicated to characters like The D.O.C or Suge Knight or Sir Jinx. They become peripheral figures in the movie but a series would've allowed that space to open up.
One last thing: the actors they picked to play Snoop and Tupac were great. Their screen time was nothing grand but they gave me moments of surprise and promise, almost wishing they would come in and take over the narrative. Maybe now that this movie has been made (and I know it will do handsome box office) perhaps something akin to the Marvel movie franchise will unfold. I'm sure we'll see lots of good and bad movies about rappers who may or may not deserve the effort being made (I'm betting 2 Live Crew will be the next group to receive this treatment) and that will be fine by me because I love the music and (as long as they are made with affection and care) I will probably go and out watch those movies in the theater, and NOT wait for them to come out on DVD or on my Roku. I didn't go and see Notorious when it came out, but I am waiting for the day when someone announces a RUN-DMC television miniseries, or "The KRS-ONE Story" on Crackle.
Maybe they'll even make that Public Enemy movie. Flavor Flav will play himself, and he'll look exactly the same as he did in 1986 because black don't crack.
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