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Album Reviews: Neil Young and Crazy Horse / Thom Yorke
This week I got to review two albums: a live album and a soundtrack score, both from legends:
Neil Young & Crazy Horse Fu##in Up'
Here at Green's Party, I've been fortunate enough to cover Neil Young albums quite a bit! In addition to the studio albums Colorado with Crazy Horse, the 2020 release Homegrown that was recorded in 1974-75, Toast which was recorded with Crazy Horse in 2001 and officially released in 2022, and last year's release Chrome Dreams that was recorded from 1974-77, I also got to review the 2022 live release Noise & Flowers recorded in 2019 on his tour with Promise of the Real. I saw Old Neil live in 2008 at Madison Square Garden in NYC and capturing his live concert experience is challenging to capture that magic. Hats off to Jonathan Demme for doing possibly the best job anyone could do with his concert films (Neil Young: Hear of Gold, Neil Young Trunk Show, and Neil Young Journeys). Being released today (after a Record Store Day edition) from Reprise is the live album Fu##in' Up.
album cover
The Crazy Horse lineup is Billy Talbot (bass, vocal), Ralph Molina (drums, vocal), Micah Nelson (guitar, vocal, piano), Nils Lofgren (guitar, vocal, piano) and of course Old Neil (guitar, vocal, harmonica). There are loads of hits here that's for sure. But there's no real smoking gun moment of "OMG - He's never done this live before" type deep cuts. But in the end, it's Old Neil showing he's still got it! Always great to hear these songs!
For info on Fu**in' Up
3.5 out of 5 stars
Thom Yorke Confidenza soundtrack
If Radiohead is singer Thom Yorke's day job then I can easily say he does more with his down time away from his day job than most musicians do at their actual day job! My goodness - he is prolific in ways the average person can only imagine: the supergroup Atoms for Peace he took part in with Flea and Nigel Godrich, his side project The Smile with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood (their album A Light for Attracting Attention was so good I named it my #1 Album of 2022! And I recently gave their new album Wall of Eyes a whopping 5 out of 5 stars), his solo albums (I included Anima in my Best Albums of 2019), and his soundtrack work. Now he is back with the soundtrack to Confidenza, an Italian film from director Daniele Luchetti. The soundtrack is being released by XL Recordings digitally today and will be released physical on July 12.
album cover
While Jonny Greenwood has become one of the great film composers of the now (You Were Never Really Here, There Will Be Blood and Spencer to name a few), Yorke has slowly begun to get into making highly effective music for films as well. In 2018, Yorke scored the remake to Suspiria. In my review of the soundtrack I noted "It’s more in line with an instrumental symphony orchestra soundtrack than an alt-rock album you’d put on and rock out to." Now, Yorke has scored Confidenza, an adaptation of the Italian drama based on Domenico Starnone’s novel of the same name. Much like when I reviewed Suspiria soundtrack, I haven't seen Confidenza prior to this album review, so I'm listening to this as it's own album without the context of how it fits into the film.
Having not seen the film yet, as its own autonomous album, it is moody, atmospheric and evoking visuals just in its sounds. Much like Suspiria, I was drawn in more by the songs with Yorke singing moreso, notably "Knife Edge" and "Four Ways in Time". As the world awaits a new Radiohead album and I await a Boston concert date from The Smile, it is quite an event to hear Yorke working with the London Contemporary Orchestra alongside a jazz ensemble which included Robert Stillman and his bandmate in The Smile Tom Skinner. Worth a deep listen!
For info on Confidenza
4 out of 5 stars
#neil young#neil young and crazy horse#album reviews#thom yorke#confidenza#live album#movie soundtrack#music nerd
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Remembering Mike Pinder 1941-2024
Musician Mike Pinder has died at 82. He was the founding keyboardist for The Moody Blues and was with the band from 1964-1978.
In 2018, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In early 2019, I got to interview former Moody Blues and Wings guitarist Denny Laine just before his Boston concert, where he performed The Magnificent Moodies album. When I asked him about the induction, Laine said “Yeah, actually that was a big surprise. Nobody ever thought that was going to happen at all, let alone me be in it. But it ended up being a great reunion for me and all the boys. Saw Mike [Pinder] and Graeme [Edge], but not Ray [Thomas] cause he had passed away. But yeah, great day all around.”
This news comes after the passing of Moody Blues' Graeme Edge in 2021 and Denny Laine late last year.
The link above is the obit from Variety.
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Concert Review: Matthew Sweet
Mon. April 15, 2024 @ The Wilbur Theatre (Boston, MA)
Earlier this month I interviewed Matthew Sweet about his current tour, which is his first time touring since 2019. He said "It’s kind of cool to be starting up again live, it’s got an edge to it. So those shows were really fun to do. And it turns out Debbi [Peterson] is going to do April as well. So people might be into that, a real live Bangle banging on the drums!" I first got into him with this 1991 masterpiece Girlfriend. I’ve listened to that album and his catalog an insane amount of times. When his tour pulled into Boston on the evening of Marathon Monday, it marked my 6th time seeing him live! I first saw him in 1997 at the WBCN River Rave, where he also signed an autograph for me at a signing booth. A few months later I saw him do a free concert at the Hatch Shell in Boston. In 2004, I saw him at Irving Plaza in NYC. In 2012, I saw his Girlfriend anniversary tour at The Paradise in Boston (my #3 Concert of 2012). And in 2018 I saw him at Brighton Music Hall.
Sweet (center) and his band onstage at The Wilbur
The show was heavy on between-song banter, where Sweet gave some stories about recording and whatnot. The most WTF story of all was about meeting Brian Wilson at a urinal in the recording studio they were both at. The setlist was very into Girlfriend (he played 7 of the 15 songs on that album) and Altered Beast. But there was a lot of other deep cuts like "If Time Permits" off of In Reverse, "Pretty Please" from Tomorrow Forever, and "Byrdgirl" from Sunshine Lies. Of course he closed with "Sick of Myself" too.
Peterson and Sweet onstage
This was among my favorite Matthew Sweet concerts. Easily! Having Debbi Peterson there was super cool. Someone in the audience shouted out in between songs to play "Going Down to Liverpool", the Katrina and the Waves song The Bangles covered with Debbi singing lead. Can you imagine the sparks that would have flown if Matthew Sweet and his band did that song with Debbi singing and playing? Even without that, it was super exciting to hear that his 90s-centric hits played live after not seeing him in concert for numerous years! Can't wait for the next tour!
For info on Matthew Sweet
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Album Reviews: Bruce Springsteen / Pearl Jam
This week I got to review a compilation album from one of my favorite musicians and a new studio album from one of my favorite groups!
Bruce Springsteen Best of Bruce Springsteen
51 years since Bruce Springsteen released his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, he has consistently made great albums with his brand of rock for decades. Here at Green’s Party, I’ve been lucky enough to review his 2019 album Western Stars, 2020′s Letter to You, the 2021 live album The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts and 2022's Only the Strong Survive. As much as I have enjoyed his studio and live releases, this marks the first time I have had the opportunity to review a compilation album with Best of Bruce Springsteen which drops this week from Columbia.
album cover (from the same photo shoot as Born to Run)
The 1995 compilation Greatest Hits is one of my favorites. It covers his career up to the mid-90s and included some new songs. Over the years since then there's been some other compilations including 2003's The Essential Bruce Springsteen. This new compilation is being released in a few different formats. The one I got to review is the double album on vinyl featuring 18 songs from 1973 to 2020. With only 18 tracks (not to be confused with his rarities collection Tracks and 18 Tracks) there's bound to be plenty of songs and eras left off. I suppose it's a good problem to have to have so many solid songs in the catalog that you can't include them all on a double album. But still I couldn't help but be surprised that Lucky Town, Devils & Dust, Working on a Dream, and Wrecking Ball (my #5 Best Albums of the 2010s) weren't included, even though songs from those albums were included on the digital release. I can understand We Shall Overcome, High Hopes, and Only the Strong Survive not being included since they were all or mostly cover songs.
Bottom line: if you're a fan of The Boss you most likely own all of these songs already. While I think there's been far better and longer compilation albums from him, this is good as a succinct sampler of some of his best songs. I, personally, would have added some other songs, but in terms of hits or fan favorites, this does the job.
For info on Best of Bruce Springsteen
4 out of 5 stars
Pearl Jam Dark Matter
Through this blog, I have been fortunate enough to cover Pearl Jam multiple times over the years: their live album and DVD Let’s Play Two, their 2018 concert at Fenway Park in Boston, their last studio album Gigaton, last year's 30th anniversary edition of Vs. and their numerous solo and side projects (too many to namecheck here). Now the band is back with their highly anticipated 12th studio album Dark Matter from Monkeywrench / Republic Records. It was produced by producer-of-the-moment Andrew Watt, who produced singer Eddie Vedder's best solo album Earthling as well as The Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds. Talk about a meeting of the musical minds!
album cover
It is impossible to not be in awe of Watt as a producer. Sure he has produced a ton of pop stars, but in the last few years, he has been a good luck charm for numerous rock albums and in the case of Earthling and Hackney Diamonds he actually co-wrote some songs with the artist and here on Dark Matter he co-wrote all of the songs. He is truly a music geek whose love for PJ is showing through on this album. There's some songs like "Wreckage" that remind me a lot of the Yield-era. Other songs feel like they are swinging for U2-level stadium sing-alongs.
Bottom line: While Gigaton was a serious comeback album (their best since the 2006 self-titled album) for the band, this album is sustaining some of that magic. It's also an album, like a lot of the best PJ works, that gets better with each listen!
For info on Dark Matter
4 out of 5 stars
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Quentin Tarantino Scraps The Movie Critic
Yesterday it was announced that Quentin Tarantino has scrapped plans to direct his screenplay The Movie Critic as his final film. After the film was announced in March 2023, this news comes after it was rumored to star Brad Pitt and was set to receive tax incentives from the state of California.
No official reason was given and QT has not officially said it would be his final film, but it has been alluded to that he would be retiring from directing after 10 films and this next one would be his 10th feature. Perhaps with the stigma of "final film" he got cold feet with this particular script not being grand enough. But it's too bad because I think it sounded interesting.
Very little had been confirmed about The Movie Critic other than the assertion that it might be similar to film critic Pauline Kael in the 1970s. QT has often sung the praises of Kael and film criticism as a whole. In his 2009 film Inglorious Basterds, Michael Fassbender’s war hero is a former film critic. There was an interesting documentary about Kael released in 2020 that QT appeared in (read my review here).
There had been a number of films QT has announced and abandoned so this is not new. There was going to be a movie about the Vega Brothers (bringing together characters from both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction) that never happened. There was also rumors of a Kill Bill sequel with Vernita Green's daughter avenging her death by going after The Bride, which never came to be. I guess we'll have to wait and see what movie he decides to do next.
The link above is the article from Variety.
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Remembering Dickey Betts 1943-2024
Guitarist Dickey Betts has died at 80. He was a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, who he was with until 2000. Notable contribution was writing "Ramblin' Man".
Beyond his music career, he was the inspiration for Billy Crudup's character Russell in Almost Famous. Look at photos of Allman Brothers Band in the early 70s and then look at the band photographs of Stillwater and there's a clear influence and resemblance. Writer-director Cameron Crowe had said that the band was loosely based on Allman Brothers Band and The Eagles, both of whom he interviewed at the time for Rolling Stone.
The link above is the obit from Variety.
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1970 Documentary Let It Be Headed to Disney+
Big news for fans of The Beatles today! The 1970 documentary Let It Be, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg during the recording of the album Get Back / Let It Be, is finally going to be available on Disney+ on May 8.
The doc was released in 1970 just as the final album Let It Be was released and The Beatles announced their break-up, so the doc has often been looked at as a sad look at a band coming apart. In the 1980s it was released on video, but its been out of circulation since. I got my bootleg DVD copy in my collection!
In 2021, Peter Jackson took Lindsay-Hogg's footage and made the excellent doc mini-series The Beatles: Get Back. Jackson put the album Let It Be into a different context: while there was inter-band tension, there were also a ton of laughs and camaraderie. Now Jackson's team have restored the original Let It Be documentary for the streaming premiere on Disney+. Fingers crossed there will also be a Blu-ray released as well!
The link above is the article from Variety.
#let it be#the beatles#the beatles: get back#michael lindsay hogg#peter jackson#documentary#music nerd#film geek#movie news
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Talking with Matthew Sweet
Prior to starting this site, I was a huge fan of singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet. I first got into him with this 1991 masterpiece Girlfriend. I’ve listened to that album and his catalog an insane amount of times. It’s accompanied me on many trips and I always discover something new upon each listen. Beyond his hits like “Girlfriend” and “Sick of Myself”, Sweet has carved out his own corner of the pop culture sandbox: scoring and appearing on countless movie and TV soundtracks, doing cover albums with Susanna Hoffs, and still performing for his massive cult following.
Then when I began this site, I have been fortunate enough to cover him: getting to review his 2017 album Tomorrow Forever, the 2018 follow up Tomorrow’s Daughter, his 2021 album Catspaw , cover his 2018 Boston concert, and even interview the man himself in 2021.
In February, Mr. Sweet began a tour in the Midwest. It was his first shows in nearly four years. The tour continues with a stop at The Wilbur Theatre in Boston on April 15. This tour is happening as he recently released a live album and he's also recording a new studio album. I recently got to speak to Mr. Sweet via phone.
concert poster for his upcoming show at The Wilbur in Boston, MA
Me: When we last talked in January 2021 when Catspaw was released, live music had not quite returned just yet. This current tour marks your first tour in years. Tell me about this tour coming together at this particular time.
MS: Well, you know, I watched a lot of people start going out during the pandemic and then having to re-schedule dates over and over again. In particular, the Indigo Girls, who are managed by my manager. They were going out and then someone in the band would catch it, one of the girls would get it and they would quarantine and then re-do dates. Part of it was that I didn't feel it was time yet. Then I was having some health issues that were sort of slowing me down and made me even more paranoid about getting COVID. I did eventually get it several times. So anyways, I think I thought I would start going out about a year before now. But then when I decided I was going to tour, it was too late to book last year. And so we just decided it was going to be Spring of '24. It made me nervous about having to go out and play after having not played for so long. We went out and did about ten days in February and that was my first actual band shows since before the pandemic. It was kind of crazy to be back doing it, but very quickly it felt normal and I relaxed knowing I could sing. My voice was singing well, I was remembering everything, it was fun to play guitar. I had some really bad back problems when I was last touring in 2019 and did a lot of those shows on a chair. I just couldn't stand up for that long without my back giving out. Now that seems to be gone, I can stand with a guitar for an entire show.
Ric Menck, my normal drummer, couldn't do the February dates. So we got Debbi Peterson from The Bangles to sub in on the drums. She's a long time friend of mine. It's kind of cool to be starting up again live, it's got an edge to it. So those shows were really fun to do. And it turns out Debbi is going to do April as well. So people might be into that, a real live Bangle banging on the drums! Also we have an extra band member, my manager's son Adrian who is grown (he's about 30) is playing acoustic guitar and singing. And all of a sudden we have Paul Chastain, Adrian Carter and Debbi Peterson - three voices.
Sweet performing live @ Brighton Music Hall 6/17/2018
Me: You mentioned Debbi Peterson on this tour. You've had a longtime collaboration with Bangles singer Susannah Hoffs. Was it as simple as you needing a drummer and Debbi Peterson was available for this tour?
MS: Kind of. It was sort of short notice, so it was like, who are we going to get? But I've had Debbi come out here before and play with me. She's really sweet and we've always gotten along really well and always dug her drumming. I've known her many times, so we weren't strangers to each other. But still, we've never jammed on my music before, playing the hits or whatever. So it's been fun to have it be a little bit different.
Me: The Catspaw album is now three years old. Do you feel like this tour is allowing that album to get its own tour as opposed to being lost in the shuffle?
MS: Not really. I feel like it's long enough ago, I don't really have any intention towards promoting it this year. I'm more thinking about the next record and writing songs for that. We've kind of done a song off it, then not done a song off it. So I don't know if we'll be playing Catspaw when we get to Boston. [Pauses] It's not that I don't like Catspaw, it's just that I'm always looking forward, never looking back.
Me: Speaking of that, you are working on a new studio album. Is there anything you can tell us about it at this time or is it more a work in progress?
MS: Yeah it's a work in progress and I've only been writing songs so far. For a long time, I'd track as I'm writing, so it's a little different than I'd done it in a long time. I'm mapping stuff and trying not to be too judgemental about it, just kind of let it pile up. I'm assuming, because I already have quite a bit, that by the end of this year I'll have plenty of songs. It's possible I'll record it before the end of the year but it's looking like we'll be doing dates into the Fall, in which case I probably won't get it recorded 'til the Spring of '25. But I have some art work for it and I have a title, I'm stealing the title from the movie Midsommar. I made this cat painting and my wife said it reminded her of the movie Midsommar. The painting looks very poppy and a pop art sort of thing. Now we got it on t-shirts, stickers, and it's on the kick drum. So my head is into what this album will be, but it hasn't formed itself enough to explain what I think it is.
album cover
Me: In February, you released the live album Live in Grant Park Chicago 1993, from the Altered Beast era. Other than some live tracks, this actually marks your first live album release. How did this particular show get selected?
MS: It was a show that was really memorable because it was a really huge audience. It was an interesting lineup - Richard Lloyd was playing, Will Rigby (a left-handed drummer), it was a special lineup to capture. We knew it was recorded in a truck. My biggest memory was the newspaper the next day said "The Pope, The Bulls and Matthew Sweet" as its headline. My Mom was Catholic and I was a fallen Catholic by this point, but my Mom was really excited about that headline. So that's what I remembered about it. I didn't have much to do with it, because when it comes to old albums I'm often horrified. If I'm at someone's house and one of my old albums is on, I'm like "turn it off". But I'm glad they put it out and it's available for people to hear.
Me: On the new live album there's some cover songs. You've done loads of cover songs over the years. Between the Under the Covers albums you've done with Susannah Hoffs and numerous soundtrack and compilations. Do you have a favorite cover song you've done?
MS: Wow! That's really hard, I don't know. It doesn't immediately pop into my mind. You know, I've done cover bands when I was a teenager and we'd play new wave and cover songs. I was in this band The Specs. They were originally a prog rock band and by the time I was in it they were new wave.
Sweet (2nd from right) when he was the bassist for The Specs
But I remember when I was touring with Girlfriend, my manager Russell would say "you should do some covers". Maybe we didn't have as much to make the set out of also. So we'd cover stuff back then. Maybe now I cover stuff less in live shows than I would've back then. But with Susannah, in a way it's kind of her world, covering songs. And we wanted to do something together and she had these folks at Shout Factory, kind of wanting to do something with her, and it just kind of happenstance happened that we did the Under the Covers thing. We had a lot of fun recording!
I learned to play bass by picking the bass lines off of records by ear. So I've always had that ability to hear something and I may not know the name of the chords but I can kind of know what it's doing. So that helped me to kind of learn the songs when I came up with our list.
Me: In addition to your music, you are a visual artist and sculpture. You were even a consultant on Tim Burton's film Big Eyes about artist Margaret Keane. Do you like mixing it up and doing the art when you're in between music and vice versa?
MS: It has been that, but right now it's concurrent. I'm making music and I'm also making cat paintings. In a weird way it's kind of intertwined for me. The first thing I did that wasn't music was throwing pottery on a wheel. When I first learned how to do it, you have to get into a very zen spot of not thinking about anything in order to grow. Otherwise it kind of collapses if you're not in the right headspace. It reminded me a lot of music more than I thought it would. Even when I'm spinning pottery it reminded me very much of music. Early on, I would steer it and when it's done I couldn't remember how it became that. It was overwhelmingly cool that - wow, it's like this thing now! I found that was really similar to those two things. I used to make some pottery on the road and then put it out on the merch booth that night. Now I'm making cat paintings where I'll get on a kick and do a series of five or six. But they're all kind of modernistic cats.
For info on Matthew Sweet
For info on his show at The Wilbur on 4/15/24
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Remembering Eleanor Coppola 1936-2024
Sad news tonight that filmmaker Eleanor Coppola has died at 87. Her documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, about her husband Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, was one of the greatest documentaries ever made and possibly the greatest doc about filmmaking. Co-directed by Fax Bahr and the late George Hickenlooper, she documented the film in the 70s and it was finally released in 1991. We actually watched it in one of my college film classes.
Eleanor and Francis Ford
Normally I cringe when an obit says "the wife of" or "mother of", as if they are only noteworthy for their relationship to someone noteworthy. But in the case of Eleanor you kind of need to talk about her family. She was married to Francis for 61 years. They met when she was a set decorator on his film Dementia 13. She was a presence on tons of his films, documenting with both film and photography. Eleanor made her narrative film debut with 2016's underrated Paris Can Wait.
Eleanor was the mother of Gian-Carlo (1963-1986), Roman, and Sofia. To say talent runs in the Coppola family would be a tremendous understatement.
The link above is the obit from Variety.
#eleanor coppola#hearts of darkness#rip#apocalypse now#francis ford coppola#dementia 13#paris can wait#roman coppola#sofia coppola#film geek
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James McCartney "Primrose Hill"
There's a new Lennon-McCartney composition this week. No not that Lennon-McCartney.
James McCartney (son of Paul and Linda) has released a new song "Primrose Hill" which he co-wrote with Sean Lennon (son of John and Yoko). This marks the first collaboration of the two Beatle descendants.
Sean and James
James is an incredibly talented singer-songwriter. I saw him live in 2012, in 2013 and I got to meet him afterwards, and in 2017. Sean has done some fantastic solo work as well as Ghosts of a Saber Tooth Tiger and The Claypool Lennon Delirium. I met Mr. Lennon at an in-store in NYC in 2010. In Summer of 2015 I was lucky enough to see The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger open for Primus and Dinosaur Jr. (Months after I named GOASTT’s album Midnight Sun my #1 album of 2014 and they actually retweeted it). In 2019 I got to review CLD's album South of Reality and see them live. There have been internet rumors for years of a new band featuring all of the Beatles' offspring, but that's never happened. I can only hope this collaboration between James and Sean is the first of many.
In addition to this new song, there is also a music video contest as well.
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Movie Reviews: The Greatest Hits / Civil War
This week I got to review two very different films:
The Greatest Hits
This week sees the Hulu release of the recent SXSW hit The Greatest Hits, a romantic drama fantasy. What got my attention was star Lucy Boynton, who has very quietly become a standout in multiple films notably the dream girl in Sing Street, which I named my #1 Movie of 2016. She is widely known for playing Freddie Mercury's fiance in Bohemian Rhapsody, an uneven music biopic, but no denying the lead performances. Here, she is the lead carrying the movie. No second billing 'cause she's a star now!
movie poster
Boynton plays Harriet, a woman who is still mourning the passing of her boyfriend Max. She is finding that certain songs can transport her back to a particular place and time - literally. Upon hearing a song on the radio or in a coffee shop, she goes back to a point and time in the relationship. This causes her to go through her entire record collection and note which albums do and don't have that effect. Then while at her support group, she meets David, who is dealing with loss of his own. They hit it off, but she's having trouble letting go of the past and pondering if she should change the past too.
Music geekdom in pop culture is usually male-driven, which is why the TV version of High Fidelity, where Zoe Kravitz took over the John Cusack role in the film, was so exciting. The idea of a female-driven music geek movie about a protagonist who browses record stores and organizes her record collection is something pop culture should catch up with. Why does it have to be male-driven movies about music geeks? I say this as a male music geek who frequents record stores and organizes my music collection! But in terms of this movie, I think I liked the idea of it better than the actuality. The movie itself had an interesting concept about the way that a song can take you back to another place and time, but then it just fell into romantic tear-jerker tropes. But the thing is I really wanted to like this, especially since Boynton deserves a star-vehicle of her own.
For info on The Greatest Hits
2.5 out of 5 stars
Civil War
British author / writer / director Alex Garland has had a mixed bag as a writer/director. His 1996 book The Beach was adapted by Danny Boyle in 2000, which had its moments but more or less became a star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio. That lead to Garland's screenwriting with Boyle directing 28 Days Later and Sunshine. For the former, I dug the first two-thirds and then it fell apart in the last third. However I will say that there's an alternate ending on the DVD that they didn't film, but show the storyboards with voiceover and that would've been a much stronger ending and movie as a whole. The later I don't remember too well, but remember liking it when I saw it. Over the last decade, Garland has brought his dystopian bleak view of the world to the director's seat with mixed results. His best work IMHO was 2014's Ex Machina, which came out just as Siri and Alexa were becoming commonplace and had something to say about AI. If Stanley Kubrick was alive in the 2010s, that's exactly the kind of movie he would've made (NOTE: I said "kind of" not "exactly like"). Now Garland's back with another bleak future, this one about the Divided States of America in Civil War, which opens this week from A24.
movie poster
In a war-torn U.S., there's a civil war raging with some states resisting the current president (a wasted Nick Offerman, who is barely in it). In NYC, veteran war photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) is covering a protest and saves Jesse (Cailee Spaeny), a young photographer just starting out who is actually a fan of Lee's. The next day Lee and her journalist partner Joel (Wagner Moura) are getting ready to drive from NYC to D.C. in the midst of this chaos in hopes of scoring an interview with the president before the rebels get to the White House first. Along for the ride is Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), an older New York Times reporter, and to Lee's dismay, Jesse. Along the way, they see a lot in this dystopian horror-show. Lee and her team get up close for their coverage. As Lee says in the movie (not a spoiler) their job is not to ask questions, just to photograph and let others ask questions.
I had a lot of issues with this movie. First of all, it only scratched the surface. This movie brings up some hot button issues and it's being released in an election year and yet it doesn't really dive too deep only scratches the surface. The film gives no context as to how any of this happened. I don't need everything answered for me in a movie and I'm all for ambiguity when it works, but this just seemed like a missed opportunity. There could've been something to say about the left and the right and where that leaves the middle ground or something to say about Trump waging war on the press, but instead it said, well, not too much. Kirsten Dunst, who is always reliable, was easily the highlight of the film. She is among the greatest child actors who continued to deliver great performances as an adult. Between all of her collaborations with Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and The Beguiled), the excellent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Melancholia (an uneven movie but truly elevated by Dunst), TV's Fargo, and her Oscar-nominated performance in The Power of the Dog, she has quite an impressive filmography. And did I mention she was excellent as MJ in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy! Here, she pulls off an internalized role of a hardened veteran. It's all in her eyes with this performance. But the biggest issue I have with Civil War is that is trying to be deep, profound and meaningful...and by the end it felt like - that's it?!?! Axl Rose singing "what's so civil about war anyways?" was more deep than this!
For info on Civil War
2 out of 5 stars
#movie reviews#the greatest hits#ned benson#civil war#alex garland#film geek#kirsten dunst#lucy boynton
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Remembering O.J. Simpson 1947-2024
As I often need to say when posting a remembrance of people who did bad things, I separate the artist from the artists work. I say this at the onset of this piece.
O.J. Simpson, former NFL star and actor has died at 76. His entire life and career were completely overshadowed by his murder trial, which resulted in the 1995 acquittal of killing his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Here at Green's Party, I don't feel like talking about his trial, his controversy or even his sports career as this is a pop culture site. But if you want to know more about him I highly recommend the Oscar-winning documentary O.J.: Made in America.
Simpson, Leslie Nielsen, and George Kennedy in The Naked Gun
His NFL stardom made him into a celebrity. In addition to his multiple endorsement deals including Hertz, he acted in films and TV including Roots, a cameo in Back to the Beach, and as Det. Nordberg in the LOL funny comedies The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, which was released just a few months before his arrest.
There was a film he wasn't cast in: 1984's The Terminator. He was considered for the title role, but the studio feared audiences wouldn't believe someone as likable as O.J. was a killer. Ironic! In the years that followed, he became the punchline in so many jokes, i.e. Adam Sandler singing in his "The Chanukah Song", "O..J. Simpson, not a Jew". Or in Scream 2 when Randy is on the phone with the masked killer "You wanna be one of the big boys! Huh? Manson, Bundy, O.J."
O.J. hosted SNL in 1978, one of the early athletes to host. In the years that followed he was played by Tim Meadows, Finesse Mitchell, and Kenan Thompson on the show.
The link above is the obit from CNN.
#o.j. simpson#o.j. simpson: made in america#rip#roots#back to the beack#the naked gun#the naked gun 2 1/2#the naked gun 33 1/3#the terminator#adam sandler#scream 2#SNL#tim meadows#finesse mitchell#kenan thompson#film geek#tv#in the news
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Curb Your Enthusiasm's Pretty Pretty Good Ending
This past week was the series finale of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. So sad to see it end! After 12 seasons spread out over 24 years and 120 episodes, I can honestly say it was one of the best TV comedies in history!
In Oct. 2000, the series premiered. Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld, followed up his 1999 HBO special with a mockumentary-style meta comedy in which he played an exaggerated version of himself. "Larry David" has been the social assassin we need to watch, even if it's while covering our eyes and looking through our fingers. Being on HBO he could be even less likable and more cringe-worthy than anything on Seinfeld. Every episode is laugh-until-you-cry funny! In 2013, I actually wrote a spec script for Curb and it ended up winning the Grand Prize for Television Spec Script at the Hollywood Screenplay Contest! One day I hope Larry David reads it…and makes an episode about how I made a spec script and got it to him! Oh wait the show is now over :(
the first season poster
But I digress. The series mockumentary style, art-imitating-life storylines, cameo appearances, and cringe comedy set the bar for a lot of the TV comedy that came along in the 00s onward. I named the show my #3 TV Show of 2017, my #2 Show of 2020, my #1 Show of 2021, and my #3 Show of the 2010s.
The ending made reference to Seinfeld's ending, where they went to prison. This season built up to Larry's trial and in a similar way as Seinfeld, numerous past characters came back to take the stand. After being found guilty, Larry sat in his prison cell and made a joke about "pants tent", a reference to episode #1, again similar to the Seinfeld finale referencing a joke from their first episode. But then Jerry springs him out after it was declared a mistrial. There was a meta-moment of the two saying how no one wants to see that ending and they should've ended Seinfeld like this. Consider this Larry's way of trying to get a second chance at ending a much-loved comedy series. But best of all is that Jerry came back and came up strong!
Larry and Jerry leave prison
There's been other times that it didn't look like CYE was coming back and then it did, but this time it seems like it's real. Thank you Larry David and Team CYE!
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Remembering Clarence "Frogman" Henry 1937-2024
Singer Clarence "Frogman" Henry has died at 87. He was known for the song "Ain't Got Not Home" (later featured in The Lost Boys and Casino). In 1964, The Beatles brought him along as a support act for their U.S. tour. Among those shows he was one of the opening acts for was the Sept. 12, 1964 concert at the Boston Garden, which was profiled in my short documentary The Beatles Boston about their visits and connections to Boston.
The link above is the obit from Deadline.
#clarence frogman henry#rip#the beatles#the lost boys#casino#music nerd#film geek#the beatles boston
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youtube
Happy Eclipse Day
This afternoon I enjoyed watching the eclipse with my glasses! As for the soundtrack to the eclipse, there's been a ton of songs posted on social media: U2's "Staring at the Sun", Madonna's "Ray of Light", The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" and of course Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart". But here's what I feel plays best to the eclipse: Soundgarden's legendary 1994 song "Black Hole Sun"!
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Remembering C.J. Snare 1959-2024
Firehouse singer C.J. Snare has died at 64. The NC band was big at a time when I was really into hair metal, circa 1989-91. They had a string of fun sing-along songs like "Don't Treat Me Bad", the power ballad "Love of a Lifetime", and "All She Wrote". I never got heavy into them, but always liked those songs I mentioned when they came on WAAF.
The link above it the obit from Billboard.
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Box Set Review: The Rolling Stones "7' Singles 1966-1971 (Vinyl Box Set)"
Through this blog I've had the honor of reviewing a ton of new, live, and compilation releases from The Rolling Stones including Live at El Mocambo, A Bigger Bang: Live on Copacabana Beach, Steel Wheels Live, On Air, Beggars Banquet, Their Satanic Majesties Request, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, Let It Bleed, Goats Head Soup, Tattoo You and last year's Hackney Diamonds. So I guess you could say I enjoy the Stones. No surprise I was thrilled to get the chance to review their recently released box set 7" Singles 1966-1971 (Vinyl Box Set) from Abkco.
the box set
The box set is comprised of 18 singles originally released between 1966 and 1971, quite a golden age for the Stones. There's also a 32-page book with liner notes, some photo cards and a poster. There's some rare mono mixes and Mick Jagger's solo song "Memo from Turner" from the film Performance. The one part of this that stuck out was the 2003 remix of "Sympathy for the Devil" with remixes from The Neptunes and Fatboy Slim. I get that all of these singles are re-issues and not actually from the 60s and 70s, but that single felt like it was very different and more modern than the rest of the box set. Not bad, just an anomaly from the rest of the collection.
box set cover
If you're a fan and you have the money, this is worth splurging. Likely if you're a fan you already have all of these songs, but the 45 single is a cool collectible and the sound is impressive!
For info on The Rolling Stones
4 out of 5 stars
#the rolling stones#album review#box set#music nerd#mick jagger#keith richards#charlie watts#bill wyman#brian jones#mick taylor
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