The Movie Thread

[ggould]

Saw Fillmore - The Last Days (1972) the other night.  Culled form the final week's perfs form the Fillmore (West) on Market and Van Ness.   It closed in 1971, and even then people (mainly Bill Graham)  were reminiscing about the golden age of hippiedom, even thought the Summer Of Love was only four years before.   Good document of live music from the period (but as a history nut I wanted more historical footage of SF back then).

 The acts back then mainly just plugged in, sang and played without on unadorned stages.   Your talent had to be there, no hiding behind an effects box or clouds of fog and strobe lights.  Of course, playing to a stoned audience was prob in your favor.   Can't say I was that taken with the music from Cold Blood, but I understand they were faves of Bill Graham (he signed them to his SF Records label). The singer, Lydia Pense, channels Janis' bluesy voice well enough, but I was distracted by the attention she seemed to give her lovely hair while on stage.  In an era where many of the performers were rocking the hippie look, someone so conventionally attractive and seemingly aware of it tended to stick out.  We f-fwd'd through some of their songs after deciding the music it self was kinda meh.  There seemed to be a lot of meh stuff (for me) in that film.  Like the tunes from Hot Tuna.   Oh dear, Jorma sang like he was holding his nose...  IMO, the best music on this movie came from the Dead, Elvin Bishop and Santana.  Fun document, though, and a close look at the ornery and dynamic Bill Graham, who spends a considerable amt of time yelling into the phone at Santana's management, trying to get them to stop being divas about their slot as the final act on the Fillmore stage.

This was practically the week I moved to San Francisco.  I went the first night (I think!) and saw the Boz Scaggs/Cold Blood and some others.  I liked Cold Blood, especially because the bass player was one of my biggest influences at the time (along with Tower of Power).  At the end, Taj Mahal came out to jam, which I think is also in the film.  I loved this era of Boz (Moments) and he really rocked.

they had a killer horn section, too.   The movie does not contain Boz or Taj, but Boz is on the album. (Taj is not) >>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fillmore:_The_Last_Days

Actually, the Taj jams appear to be on disc 2

I sit corrected.   Taj Mahal is still wonderful, saw him last fall at the Independent.

I remember it pretty well, perhaps because I was very close to the stage.

[dischead]

Saw Fillmore - The Last Days (1972) the other night.  Culled form the final week's perfs form the Fillmore (West) on Market and Van Ness.   It closed in 1971, and even then people (mainly Bill Graham)  were reminiscing about the golden age of hippiedom, even thought the Summer Of Love was only four years before.   Good document of live music from the period (but as a history nut I wanted more historical footage of SF back then).

KQED has used an edited version of this as one of their many pledge break programs.  (Currently
My Music: '60s Girl Grooves is being aired often.)

One could do a whole music festival film festival... start with Monterey Pop, then Celebration at Big Sur,
 Woodstock, the aforementioned film, Wattstax, and finish with The Last Waltz.  Any more that I'm missing?

[ggould]

Saw Fillmore - The Last Days (1972) the other night.  Culled form the final week's perfs form the Fillmore (West) on Market and Van Ness.   It closed in 1971, and even then people (mainly Bill Graham)  were reminiscing about the golden age of hippiedom, even thought the Summer Of Love was only four years before.   Good document of live music from the period (but as a history nut I wanted more historical footage of SF back then).

KQED has used an edited version of this as one of their many pledge break programs.  (Currently
My Music: '60s Girl Grooves is being aired often.)

One could do a whole music festival film festival... start with Monterey Pop, then Celebration at Big Sur,
 Woodstock, the aforementioned film, Wattstax, and finish with The Last Waltz.  Any more that I'm missing?

Soul Power!

[urth]

Saw Fillmore - The Last Days (1972) the other night.  Culled form the final week's perfs form the Fillmore (West) on Market and Van Ness.   It closed in 1971, and even then people (mainly Bill Graham)  were reminiscing about the golden age of hippiedom, even thought the Summer Of Love was only four years before.   Good document of live music from the period (but as a history nut I wanted more historical footage of SF back then).

KQED has used an edited version of this as one of their many pledge break programs.  (Currently
My Music: '60s Girl Grooves is being aired often.)

One could do a whole music festival film festival... start with Monterey Pop, then Celebration at Big Sur,
 Woodstock, the aforementioned film, Wattstax, and finish with The Last Waltz.  Any more that I'm missing?

Wasn't there a TV broadcast of California Jam?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Jam

[dischead]

I saw American Hustle last week and started to write a review, but I didn't finish it.  Let me
just say that it is a very good movie and I recommend it highly; it's quite amusing and entertaining.
Jennifer Lawrence's accolades are well-deserved.

Of particular interest to this board is the soundtrack.  While the events are set in the late 1970s,
many of the songs are from the '60s and early '70s.  There are several excellent musical selections,
and more importantly, they are well chosen to set the tone and augment the mood of the
corresponding scenes.  If you don't catch it in the theater, put it on your list to watch as a rental
or on cable.

[urth]

I went to see August: Osage County the other day, and while it was a well-made film, and many of the performances (particularly Meryl Streep) were impressive, I still left the theater disappointed.

Why, you ask? Mainly because several of the synopses that I read of it online described it as "hilarious" and "a dark comedy."  Sorry, but of all the words I might choose to describe that film, anything implying humor would not be among them. I'd have called it simply a "dark dramatic portrayal of a family's relationships" or maybe "grittily disfunctional." (I can think of a couple of other adjectives, but they're not in any way positive.) These things are fine to be portrayed in a film, but they weren't AT ALL what I or my wife were in the mood to see, and it didn't exactly make us feel all warm and fuzzy.

Why the HELL do publicists/PR folk choose to promote films with words that in no way accurately portray the mood of said film?

[RGMike]

I went to see August: Osage County the other day, and while it was a well-made film, and many of the performances (particularly Meryl Streep) were impressive, I still left the theater disappointed.

Why, you ask? Mainly because several of the synopses that I read of it online described it as "hilarious" and "a dark comedy."  Sorry, but of all the words I might choose to describe that film, anything implying humor would not be among them. I'd have called it simply a "dark dramatic portrayal of a family's relationships" or maybe "grittily disfunctional." (I can think of a couple of other adjectives, but they're not in any way positive.) These things are fine to be portrayed in a film, but they weren't AT ALL what I or my wife were in the mood to see, and it didn't exactly make us feel all warm and fuzzy.

Why the HELL do publicists/PR folk choose to promote films with words that in no way accurately portray the mood of said film?

This has reached epidemic proportions in H'wood the last few years -- watch a bunch of trailers and you'll see that the comic aspects of films are *always* played up, regardless of what type of film it actually is, because audiences prefer comedy. It's considered more commercial to make a movie look funny.

I saw A:OC on B'way right after it won the Pulitzer; I'm a big fan of Tracy Letts who also wrote Bug and Killer Joe (both turned into effective low-budget films in the last 6 or 7 years).  I loved A:OC on stage but it's a 3-1/2 hour play (w/2 intermissions) that has had an hour cut out of it for the film version. I don't see how you can do that and still have a coherent story. The play , BTW, *was* often darkly comic.

[urth]

I went to see August: Osage County the other day, and while it was a well-made film, and many of the performances (particularly Meryl Streep) were impressive, I still left the theater disappointed.

Why, you ask? Mainly because several of the synopses that I read of it online described it as "hilarious" and "a dark comedy."  Sorry, but of all the words I might choose to describe that film, anything implying humor would not be among them. I'd have called it simply a "dark dramatic portrayal of a family's relationships" or maybe "grittily disfunctional." (I can think of a couple of other adjectives, but they're not in any way positive.) These things are fine to be portrayed in a film, but they weren't AT ALL what I or my wife were in the mood to see, and it didn't exactly make us feel all warm and fuzzy.

Why the HELL do publicists/PR folk choose to promote films with words that in no way accurately portray the mood of said film?

This has reached epidemic proportions in H'wood the last few years -- watch a bunch of trailers and you'll see that the comic aspects of films are *always* played up, regardless of what type of film it actually is, because audiences prefer comedy. It's considered more commercial to make a movie look funny.

I saw A:OC on B'way right after it won the Pulitzer; I'm a big fan of Tracy Letts who also wrote Bug and Killer Joe (both turned into effective low-budget films in the last 6 or 7 years).  I loved A:OC on stage but it's a 3-1/2 hour play (w/2 intermissions) that has had an hour cut out of it for the film version. I don't see how you can do that and still have a coherent story. The play , BTW, *was* often darkly comic.

Forgot to mention that we saw a 7pm showing on the evening of the Stupid Bowl, and we were the only two people in the theater.  I must say that was kind of nice -- we could put our feet up, make comments aloud, both of which are things I generally don't do in a movie theater. (Granted this is Seahawks territory, so I'm sure the local viewing share for the game was huge.)

[RGMike]

I went to see August: Osage County the other day, and while it was a well-made film, and many of the performances (particularly Meryl Streep) were impressive, I still left the theater disappointed.

Why, you ask? Mainly because several of the synopses that I read of it online described it as "hilarious" and "a dark comedy."  Sorry, but of all the words I might choose to describe that film, anything implying humor would not be among them. I'd have called it simply a "dark dramatic portrayal of a family's relationships" or maybe "grittily disfunctional." (I can think of a couple of other adjectives, but they're not in any way positive.) These things are fine to be portrayed in a film, but they weren't AT ALL what I or my wife were in the mood to see, and it didn't exactly make us feel all warm and fuzzy.

Why the HELL do publicists/PR folk choose to promote films with words that in no way accurately portray the mood of said film?

This has reached epidemic proportions in H'wood the last few years -- watch a bunch of trailers and you'll see that the comic aspects of films are *always* played up, regardless of what type of film it actually is, because audiences prefer comedy. It's considered more commercial to make a movie look funny.

I saw A:OC on B'way right after it won the Pulitzer; I'm a big fan of Tracy Letts who also wrote Bug and Killer Joe (both turned into effective low-budget films in the last 6 or 7 years).  I loved A:OC on stage but it's a 3-1/2 hour play (w/2 intermissions) that has had an hour cut out of it for the film version. I don't see how you can do that and still have a coherent story. The play , BTW, *was* often darkly comic.

Finally got around to seeing A:OC yesterday and it certainly is a botch. It's like the Raeder's Digest condensed version, and so it comes off like a Lifetime Channel flick that just happens to have Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in it. I wish that instead of watering it down for a theatrical release, they'd filmed the play without cuts for HBO. It woulda won a slew of Emmys, probably.

[RGMike]

At the intersection of movie and music geekery:  The review by Justin Chang in Variety of the new X-Men flick makes mention of all the previous ones, and he rates them as he goes; he refers to "James Mangold’s unexpectedly fine The Wolverine."  A commenter singled out that quote and said "Not since 'the competent drumwork of Don Brewer' has a compliment been so backhanded."  I really did LOL at that.  Nicely played.

[mshray]

Let me make a big plug for Chef.  Nothing terribly startling happens, plotwise, but it is very well written, the acting is very organic, and in places it is laugh out loud funny.  Jon Favreau proves that the success of the Iron Mans doesn't prevent him from getting back in touch with his Swingers sensibilities.

I saw it by myself, but I am going to see it again with my wife this weekend.

[RGMike]

Let me make a big plug for Chef.  Nothing terribly startling happens, plotwise, but it is very well written, the acting is very organic, and in places it is laugh out loud funny.  Jon Favreau proves that the success of the Iron Mans doesn't prevent him from getting back in touch with his Swingers sensibilities.

I saw it by myself, but I am going to see it again with my wife this weekend.

but have you seen Under the Skin, with ScarJo as a sex-loving alien in human form?  I hear it's quite hot.

[ggould]

Let me make a big plug for Chef.  Nothing terribly startling happens, plotwise, but it is very well written, the acting is very organic, and in places it is laugh out loud funny.  Jon Favreau proves that the success of the Iron Mans doesn't prevent him from getting back in touch with his Swingers sensibilities.

I saw it by myself, but I am going to see it again with my wife this weekend.

looks interesting

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2883512/

[urth]

Let me make a big plug for Chef.  Nothing terribly startling happens, plotwise, but it is very well written, the acting is very organic, and in places it is laugh out loud funny.  Jon Favreau proves that the success of the Iron Mans doesn't prevent him from getting back in touch with his Swingers sensibilities.

I saw it by myself, but I am going to see it again with my wife this weekend.

,

I will seek that out, as we're always looking for good, well-crafted movies, which seem to be in short supply this time of year, save for a couple of the comic-book inspired films currently out (X-Men and Capt. America, if you were wondering). It's not likely to be playing in the suburban multiplexes we have nearby, but I bet it's in Portland somewhere.

[ggould]

Let me make a big plug for Chef.  Nothing terribly startling happens, plotwise, but it is very well written, the acting is very organic, and in places it is laugh out loud funny.  Jon Favreau proves that the success of the Iron Mans doesn't prevent him from getting back in touch with his Swingers sensibilities.

I saw it by myself, but I am going to see it again with my wife this weekend.

,

I will seek that out, as we're always looking for good, well-crafted movies, which seem to be in short supply this time of year, save for a couple of the comic-book inspired films currently out (X-Men and Capt. America, if you were wondering). It's not likely to be playing in the suburban multiplexes we have nearby, but I bet it's in Portland somewhere.

we went Saturday night.  Having been to see X-Men a week earlier, boy, you sure see different trailers with a movie like this before the main event!

Just go, have a good time.  The audience clapped at the end in the funky Stonestown theater.