review Archives - Page 21 of 65 - Ramblin' with Roger

Movie review: Summer of Soul

(…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Summer of Soul In the summer of 1969, there was a massively successful music festival in New York State. No, I’m not talking about Woodstock.

The documentary Summer of Soul recounts the Harlem Cultural Festival, which took place on six weekends, drawing about 300,000 people. It had big-name artists such as Stevie Wonder, B.B. King, the Chambers Brothers, and David Ruffin, recently of The Temptations, wearing a too-warm suit. The festival film was directed by the late Hal Tulchin, but the reels sat in a vault for nearly half a century.

Questlove (Ahmir-Khalib Thompson) of the band The Roots learned about the footage. He edited down over 50 hours of film that tells the story about not only the festival but the context in which it took place, a year after MLK’s death and, in the case of one show, during the Apollo 11 moon landing.

These are extraordinary performances. Gladys Knight and the Pips reminding us about how well the late choreographer Cholly Atkins trained Motown acts. The 5th Dimension, tired of some folks finding their sound “too white”, letting Billy Davis Jr. “go to church” on Let The Sunshine In. Sly and the Family Stone confused the crowd initially with their mixed-race/mixed gender/funkily garbed presentation as they performed Higher, which they later performed at Woodstock.

More artists

The concert also features Mongo Santamaria, the Edwin Hawkins Singers, the Staple Singers, Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, and even the salty Moms Mabley, among many others.

Two highlights: Nina Simone, looking as she often does like a black goddess that she was, performing an early version of the anthem I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free. And Mahalia Jackson asking Mavis Staples for assistance singing Precious Lord.

But perhaps the most fascinating parts of Summer of Soul are the interviews with some of the people who attended the festival. Clips from the event made them feel as though they weren’t crazy. This remarkable thing really did happen. It was as wonderful as they re-remembered it, even though the concerts seemed to have been forgotten by the world.

See the film, subtitled (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), if you can in a movie theater. My wife and I caught it at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany. It is also available presently on Hulu.

Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It

West Side Story, The Electric Company, The Ritz, The Muppet Show

Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It is the documentary my wife and I saw at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany recently. The IMBD summary reads, “A look at the life and work of Rita Moreno from her humble beginnings in Puerto Rico to her success on Broadway and in Hollywood.” It’s a bit more complicated than that.

For she loved growing up in her homeland. Hollywood, conversely was quite a bit more treacherous. It was stressful often being the primary breadwinner when you’re a teenager. She endured some abusive treatment during her career, from her bizarre pairing with Marlon Brando to assault from studio executives and a business manager of hers.

While she loved her small role in Singin’ In the Rain, she was often given the generically ethnic roles of Asian/Native American/whatever. At least she could use the same accent because the directors apparently couldn’t tell the difference, or care. Even her signature role as Anita in West Side Story she was unsure she should take.

When she won the Oscar, she gave a far too short acceptance. “I can’t believe it! Good Lord! I’ll leave you with that.” In the film, the older and wiser Rita mocks her younger self. For a time afterward, she largely stayed away from movies, choosing to focus on TV guest spots and stage appearances.

EGOT

The ’70s were good to Rita. In 1972 she received a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album for The Electric Company. “Hey, you guys!” “In 1975 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Ritz. She won her Primetime Emmy Awards in 1977, and 1978 for her performances in The Muppet Show and The Rockford Files, respectively.”

The movie featured, as these things do, other performers speaking about her. A number of them Latinas such as Eva Longoria and Gloria Estefan, plus co-stars such as George Chakiris (WSS) and Morgan Freeman (Electric Company), and were fine. She was an inspiration to them all.

But the highlights of the film were Rita talking about Rita, warts and all. One of the few negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes says the movie “reiterates many… anecdotes, but it doesn’t tell us much that Moreno hasn’t divulged already in her 2013 memoir or in countless interviews over the years.”

For one thing, I didn’t read her book. For another, she seems to become more self-aware as she gets older. She looks great, but she’s fine letting the viewer know it takes wigs, makeup, and help to look that good. (She was 87 at a point in the film; she’s 90 now.)

She was involved in the remake of One Day at a Time, which ended in 2020. She’s going to appear in the reimagined West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg. It took her a good long while to get comfortable in her own skin, but surely she’s a wonderful raconteur of her own life.

Movie review: In The Heights

Washington Heights, NYC

My Father’s Day present was my wife taking herself, our daughter, and me to the new movie In The Heights. After church, someone had noted that it’s airing on HBO Max or whatever. Goodness, no thanks. I’ve seen too many films on the small screen in the past year.

We walked to the Madison Theatre. Not only is it our neighborhood cinema, but it had been closed for months because of the pandemic, though it did offer takeout food.

Will this be a private showing? We were the first three people in the theater. There was a party of four that came in during the many previews for films not in my queue, mong them Quiet Place II, F9, the Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, and the new Top Gun.

We all enjoyed the story of a bodega owner named Usnavi (Anthony Ramos from Hamilton) telling a tale about the folks in his Washington Heights, New York City neighborhood. Nina (Leslie Grace) is home for the summer after her first year at Stanford, the pride of the neighborhood, especially her father Kevin (Jimmy Smits). His cab company employes her old beau Benny (Corey Hawkins).

Usnavi is assisted at the store by his cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV). The proprietor has ad a long-standing, but unstated crush on the artistic Vanessa (Melissa Barrera). Meanwhile, Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz) is a cross between the mayor of Washington Heights and everyone’s mother.

There are lots of good tunes, most largely unfamiliar to me; the Abuela song was quite touching. Some impressive dancing is taking place, especially 96,000, in and around a swimming pool, which had to be a technological challenge

I’ll allow that at 2:24, it’s about 15 minutes too long, even with some of the songs from the Tony-winning score left out. This is a regular sin of musicals, in my experience. Still, I was never bored.

Bust

This begs the question, then. Why has In The Heights been a commercial failure thus far? After a mediocre opening, the box office dropped some 67% in its second weekend. The reviews were good; on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics were 96% positive and were 95% of audiences.

Is it because some of it was in Spanish? I didn’t find it a barrier myself since most of the film is in English. But potential viewers may have worried nonetheless. Did the color controversy, mentioned by Ken Levine in paragraph seven, have anything to keep people not only home but off HBO Max? I don’t know.

I’m recommending In The Heights, in the theater, if you can see it there. Lots of funny Hamilton touches. Phone music featuring You’ll Be Back. Christopher Jackson (George Washington) as the ice cream truck driver competing with the ices seller (Lin-Manuel Miranda, who of course, co-wrote In the Heights and Hamilton.) And wait until the very end.

Review: The Man Who Sold His Skin

What is art?

The Man Who Sold His Skin is one of the Oscar nominees for Best International Feature Film. It was written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania and represented Tunisia. It is mostly in Arabic, though some of the dialogue is in English and French, with subtitles.

Sam Ali (Yahya Mahayni) is a young Syrian, deeply in love with Abeer (Dea Liane). A misinterpreted utterance in a public venue gets him into trouble and he ends up as a refugee in Lebanon. He has a chance encounter with a hot, trendy artist Jeffrey Godefroi (Koen De Bouw), thanks to Godefroi’s aide Soraya (Monica Bellucci).

Jeffrey wants to tattoo Sam’s back and then tour with his “creation.”. Sam agrees because he would be able to travel to Europe and optimally find Abeer.

This is fascinating stuff. Who owns the artwork? How does one make a profit as an artist? And what consideration does the “art”, who is, after all, a human being, receive? Can you “sell” the art? How would THAT work? The conversations with the exhibition halls and the insurance agents are heady musings.

Can you DO that?

Moreover, is the relationship a form of exploitation, or even slavery, of a refugee or a rare opportunity? Is Sam even seen as a person or something less than?

The way art has been recently traded in cryptocurrencies makes the notion of this film far less absurd than it might have been only a few years earlier. And the ending, I swear, I’ve seen a variation of in recent months, but it works. And I won’t tell you where because I hate to provide spoilers.

I was most fond of The Man Who Sold His Skin. The Rotten Tomatoes critics were 94% positive, although the audiences were only 74% thumbs up. John Powers of NPR says, “It weaves together satire and humane political awareness to create an original fable about art, privilege, freedom, and identity.”

All of the Best International Feature Film nominees, except the winner, Another Round, were on Hulu.

Movie review: Quo Vadis, Aida?

Bosnian war

Quo Vadis, Aida? is a film nominated as the best in the International Feature Film category. It was the entry from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Jasmila Zbanic is the writer, director, and co-producer. The film is mostly in Serbo-Croatian and is subtitled.

The movie is based on true events in July 1995. We see the commander of the local United Nations brigade in Bosnia calling the chain of command. Where are the airstrikes to stem the invasion by the Serbian army? It becomes clear to all involved, including the local translator, Aida (Jasna Đuričić), that no air support is forthcoming.

The Serbian army takes over Srebrenica. Thousands of citizens are looking for shelter in the UN camp. Its capacity is maybe 4000, leaving a sea of 20,000 outside of its gates.

Negotiations take place among the Serbian army leaders, the UN peacekeepers (mostly Dutch), and a handful of local representatives. But the talks are, as it turns out, largely for show. Then we see the UN bureaucracy deal with the invading force, or try, violating its own rules.

Tense

Quo Vadis, the title of a 1951 film, means Where are you marching? And that is most applicable of Quo Vadis, Aida? Every one of the 54 reviews in Rotten Tomatoes was positive, as well as 88% of the general audience. It is a taut thriller, with Aida feeling frustrated that, even as an “insider,” she’s very limited in terms of what she can accomplish.

Anna Swanson of the Globe and Mail writes: “Refreshingly, this is a war drama that doesn’t hinge on indulgent or shameless violence. Instead, it focuses on the heart-wrenching devastation of more offhand cruelties.”

This is a few days during a war that took place in my lifetime that I know too little about. The fine acting, especially by Jasna Đuričić, and the excellent direction and editing make this an important, albeit sad, movie. I viewed this on Hulu.

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