hey,
What have you been watching this summer that's been worthwhile? Here's what's been up for me:
HBO - The Defiant OnesA notable this week was the 4-part HBO documentary on Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine,
]The Defiant Ones. It's incredibly well-made -- and features extensive and rare archival photos, video, documents, as well as tons of music--hip hop but across bands and artists, given Jimmy Iovine's work and the film's use of music as a means of providing visceral historical context. Great interviews -- well executed and edited.
In a radio interview, director Allen Hughes indicated that the film necessitated getting licensing for 3500+ clips -- which is astounding! I can't even imagine the budget. From my own work (Altamont), I know that licensing fees and all the work around obtaining licensing is beyond belief. I would love to know how many $millions were the production costs for The Defiant Ones, particularly licensing -- but also editing and post-production. The editing is so slick and gorgeous -- not to mention the b-roll, the transitions, the cinematography in general. It's an astonishing work. Very intelligent. Subtle and minimalistic when it needs to be bombastic and chaotic when that's the right way to go. I have rewound 4-5x to watch some of the transitions -- since the film is (not quite sure I understand why) a weaving of 2 biographies/documentaries of 2 people's separate and intersecting lives. Would it have been better to have made one Dr Dre docu and one Jimmy Iovine? It would have been difficult for the same director to have done so because there would
potentially have been too much redundancy in terms of storytelling, interviews, licensing fees, clips, etc. It generally works--but the transitions from one trajectory (both of which are told chronologically) to the other would be critical in pulling it off, and so far it's been creatively almost seamlessly pulled off -- it doesn't feel like you're being jarred away from the first subject and shoved into the very different life of the other subject. Very cleverly and artfully done.
The first 2 parts were outstanding. The last 1/3 half of Part 3 seemed to start sagging a bit. Which I found interesting because often, in 90% of the zillions of documentaries I've watched and "studied," this seems often to be the case - but I thought that maybe they found a way around it by serializing it into 4 parts. What I mean is the documentary starts out gangbusters, compelling, engaging, wonderful rhythm and cadence, and then--usually around the 2/3 mark--it dips, in terms of energy, focus, and momentum. Often the narrative, direction, and any subtext becomes a little muddy or convoluted. Tonight I'll watch Part 4. We'll see what happens.
HBO - Silicon ValleyThe 4th season of
Silicon Valley wrapped up on a great note at the end of June. I kind of think the series should end, but looks like there's another coming in 2018. Not sure how this season could be topped. The first season didn't impress me because the characters are so not like actual Silicon Valley tech geeks. They are a cuddly doofus version of them (I lived among the actual tech brohs for years in San Francisco, and if they had been like this show's characters, San Francisco would not be the wreckage that it currently is, culturally). But once I "got" that they're more like 1990s tech boom guys (which makes sense since director Mike Judge is sort of rooted in that era) and not at all like their 2010s counterparts, it was easier to appreciate the marvelously written, hilarious script, and the acting from pretty much every participant in the show. And, as it turns out, there is a lot of contemporary tech world "realism" braided into the episodes---just not the main moptop lovably misfitty characters, who would never, ever, ever have a place at any 2010s tech industry table.
MOVIE IN THEATRE - Get OutI won't say much about it, but saw
Get Out it in May, it blew me the fock away, on myriad levels, and has stayed with me for months. Again, a superbly well-made, intelligent film.
MOVIE IN THEATRE - The BeguiledWorth seeing. I watched
the original The Beguiled, from 1971, with Clint Eastwood before checking out the 2017 version. Was fun to do it that way. Don't want to spoil anything, and will say more if others have seen it, but again it's not unworth seeing. An interesting retelling, with contemporary subtext.
TONIGHT ON SHOWTIME - Jimi: All by My SideWhen it first came out in 2013 or '14 I believe
Jimi: All by My Side may have gotten panned, but I decided to watch anyway, and immediately was drawn in. Here's what I enjoyed about it. The scope of this biopic (not documentary)--is just 1 year of Jimi Hendrix's life and skyward trajectory, from spring 1966 when Linda Keith came upon Jimi and turned on ALO onto him first, as well as others, and then finally Chas Chandler was blown away by him and saw Jimi's potential, through just before Monterey Pop. I deeply appreciate anyone taking a magnifying glass to the less obviously dramatic, "off screen" portions of history--the history before history. There is so much goodness and richness there that helps explain the fireworks that subsequently burst. I thought the casting was brilliant. I love Andre 3000 of Outkast anyway, and did not know how he'd do as Jimi, but I thought he channeled him well, and although I'm sure some would disagree (and there were a few significantly bum notes), the performance was a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure who the writer was, and how much he lifted from actual interviews or recordings of his speech, but most of the time what the character was saying felt consistent with what I know and have heard of Jimi Hendrix. There were a few current contemporary cultural and political themes that seemed a bit appliqued onto the side, or exaggerated or highlighted to appeal to a modern audience or to underscore a point (around race), but that's director's, writer's the producer's prerogative -- and a few things about Jimi's relationship with Kathy Etchingham seemed off and also delved too deeply into -- and of course Stones' history freaks would know that Linda Keith broke up with Keith Richards, and it wasn't portrayed that way, and that Keith's white Strat did not keep going back and forth between Jimi and Keith but the director chose to make that a tangible symbol of Linda Keith and Jimi's relationship--and that relationship, and Linda Keith as a character, was handled exceptionally well (aside from a few factual nitpicks about how KR characterized Hendrix to Linda Keith's father, which was far worse than shown in the film, and omitting that Linda Keith was chucked into a happy hospital when her father dragged her back to the UK, largely based on KR's whinging to Linda Keith's father about what a bad influence Jimi was on her). Anyway---I wouldn't run out and rent it, and if you're looking for lots of meaningful Stones' content it's just out of frame, but, to me, it was nicely done. Maybe 3.5 out of 5 stars.
PBS/BBC - Prime Suspect: TennisonAdored the 6-part series,
Prime Suspect 1973: Tennison, which is a prequel, set in 1973, to the BBC series series with Helen Mirren,
Prime Suspect. I really looked forward to watching every Sunday it was on (90-minute episodes). Apparently it got mixes reviews, but for me it was a winner. The 1973 vibe was spot-on (and I can't stand anachronisms, etc - like, in the Hendrix film above, at one point a black power figure said to Hendrix said "You're hella good," but that term was not used--anywhere--until the late '80s Oakland), the soundtrack was marvelous, the woman who played the lead here is definitely a credible young Jane Tennison (the part played by Helen Mirren). Some people apparently found it boring, but I was mesmerized, and loved how the tracks were laid for this character to become the future Jane Tennison--how she started out, who her family was, how she "became" herself. I was really sorry when the series ended.
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Those are some things I've been watching this summer -- what about you?
- swiss
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2017-07-14 11:00 by swiss.