More Beck Record Club - "Venus in Furs"

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "Venus In Furs" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Kind of speaks for itself, so why bother you with my inane blabbering? Well, because Beck's got more stuff, which was brought to my attention thanks to a news item on P4K. It appears that Beck plans to stream, one week at a time, all of Modern Guilt performed acoustic. Here's "Orphans", the first entry.

Modern Guilt Acoustic "Orphans" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

BLURT Feature: Soul Power interview

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics via movieweb.com

Nothing like a little funk to start off your Friday. Soul Power -- a documentary pulled from the Zaire 74 concert, a show planned in conjunction with the Rumble in the Jungle -- is rolling out across the country in select theaters the rest of the summer. I was lucky enough to talk to director Jeffrey Levy-Hinte about his experience putting the footage together.

The feature is up over at BLURT magazine online - check it out.

Suite101.com Review - Bruno

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures via movieweb.com

I have to say ... I was a little let down by this one. But don't take my (condensed) word for it - check out the full Bruno review over at Suite101.com. Enjoy!

The Unemployment Movie Marathon: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

(Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures via mazello.com)

There have been many recent entries in my ongoing "Unemployment Movie Marathon" -- yes, I decided to give it a name -- and I don't think Kramer vs. Kramer has necessarily been the best or my favorite of my recent, non-blogged entries. But there's something about the film that struck me and is worth my brief and humble two cents.

I'm not sure I'd even go so far as to call Kramer v. Kramer a great film. It's Oscar win over Apocalypse Now for 1980's Best Picture is the sort of travesty that has given the Academy Awards its reputation for utter uselessness. 30 years after its theatrical release, Kramer v. Kramer feels striking to me because it's the sort of film you really don't see coming out of the Hollywood mainstream anymore. It's a bit melodramatic and over-the-top at times, but for the most part and especially considering the story at hand, the film is remarkably restrained.

There's no real emotional manipulation, no tear-jerking or tugging of the ole heartstrings. It's astounding to think that Robert Benton was responsible for directing 2007's weepy, contrived garbage indie flick, Feast of Love. As both screenwriter and director on Kramer vs. Kramer, Benton's approach is 100 percent no nonsense. Nestor Almendros -- shooting in a visually toned down palette from his sweeping photographic masterwork on Days of Heaven -- most lets the camera observe statically. The action and emotion comes out within the frame, much thanks to Dustin Hoffman's and Meryl Streep's excellent work (they both took home Oscars that year for their roles, Benton took home one for direction and one for acting).

It's a pretty straightforward arc -- Hoffman is a workaholic whose wife (Streep) leaves him and his 7-year-old boy high and dry in NYC. Kramer (Hoffman) battles with his high pressure advertising job while trying to raise his kid, Mrs. Kramer reappears, litigation insues. There's nothing incredibly bold in the script or execution, which is also to say that nothing is overintellectualized. Benton lays out the relationships and once the wheels are in motion, it all just clicks.

The closest thing I can think of in recent memory is this year's unjustly shafted Two Lovers, which I should note was distributed by Magnolia Pictures, i.e. not one of the major studios. Both films, Two Lovers and K vs. K, get a little sappy here and there but ultimately the films are just about failed relationships. James Gray and Benton, respectively, get you to invest in their characters and they don't pull any cheap tricks to keep your attention.

And here's the kicker - Kramer vs. Kramer pulled in $106 million, which according to the first inflation calculator that came up on Google, would be roughly $310 million today. In short, the movie cleaned up at the box office. I don't know if the moviegoing audiences of 1979 were so radically different from those of 2009 (to be fair, Hollywood was just beginning to discover the blockbuster), but I can't imagine any big studio exec. hedging their bets on a film as plainspoken as Kramer vs. Kramer.

The film really comes with no strings attached, and that's rare today. Even the film's so-called happy finale feels uncompromised, because in the end, a marriage has still been dissolved and both Kramers have had to endure the pain of being dragged through the mud in court. Divorce is ugly and there may be no complete recovery for either party.

Benton has the decency not to beat his audience over the head, a courtesy we are rarely shown at the movies. One single shot says it all to me -- Kramer is in bed with his son, Billy, reading him a bedtime story just after his ex-wife has announced she will seek custody. It's a lovely personal moment between father and son, but it's threatening too. The open door is only a sliver in the frame, a drastic take on the traditional doorway framing shot.

It's a simple, static shot (until Kramer gets up), but at the same time, there's complexity to it. On one hand, the walls seem to be closing in on the father and son, and it looks impossible -- they're barely present. But that little sliver, all they're afforded in the shot, is very warm and alive. There's something safe about that little space, as if nothing in the world could breach what the two of them share.

Anyway, that's what I got. Stay alert, a Bruno review is on its way.

More Beck Record Club - "Femme Fatale"

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "Femme Fatale" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Another week, another entry from Beck's take on Velvet Underground & Nico. Thanks to my ailing computer, I haven't listened yet. So, for those of you who don't have trouble with streaming video, enjoy.

Suite101.com Review - Moon

(Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

Duncan Jones's Moon is probably the best thing I've seen all summer. Head over to Suite101.com to see me express that in big boy words. That is all. Enjoy.

John Hammond at Haddon Lake Park - 07/01/09

(Photo by Zachary Herrmann)

Every year, I'm continually impressed with the great offering of free summer concerts courtesy of Camden County, NJ. Granted the July 4th show usually sucks -- this year is Marshall Tucker Band opening for Foghat -- but it's been nice to catch the likes of Leon Russell, Graham Parker, Duke Robillard and, tonight, John Hammond without spending a dime.

Hammond was on the top of his game -- unlike his departed friend, Mike Bloomfield, he seems to be riding gracefully on the benefits of relatively clean living. There's not the slightest hint of deterioration in the 66-year-old's voice and his playing ... it's just magnificent. With only an acoustic guitar, a resonator and a harmonica, Hammond kept the park swinging for over 80 minutes of classic blues.

The guy has sort of lived and played it all -- like Bloomfield, he was a young white guy hanging out and playing with all the old, black veterans of the blues. His set covered everything you could think of: Big Joe Williams, Sleepy John Estee, Skip James, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and a bit of the newer blues via Tom Waits.

In addition to the music, which was a history lesson if and of itself, Hammond recounted many stories about gigging his way from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles and back again in the early 60s, telling little bits about the blues idols he opened for and played with along the way. His approach to the songs was achingly faithful -- beautiful, simple and delivered with the power and conviction of one man, the way the blues should be.

The music was great, the stories were fascinating and as a non-taxpaying dependant, I can say that it truly was (someone else's) money well spent.