The Optical Files #45: Radiohead - Hail to the Thief (2003)

I've been waiting for this to pop up, because it was the album that inspired me to do this series. For some reason, I found myself drawn to revisit it late last year, & when I dug out the CD & popped it into my home stereo, I suddenly felt, simultaneously, more aware of the past & more aware of the present. The sounds transported me back to the summer I first heard the album, while my ears interpreted the sounds in new ways, aged & sharpened over the intervening 19 years. In the aesthetic discourse with my younger self, I heard things I'd never heard before, & I also realized that Hail to the Thief is a better album than I gave it credit for.

Hail to the Thief came out on my final day of high school. I worshiped at the altar of Radiohead's Bends - Amnesiac run, so it was a no-brainer that I'd cop this on release day. I saw Radiohead in concert that summer after graduating, on tour to promote this album. It's safe to say that this album lives in my music-appreciation bones. The critical narrative at the time was that Hail was Radiohead's "return to rock," but the reality is a bit more complicated. True, this is their most guitar-based album since OK Computer, but then again, with the band so interested in processing & experimenting with filters & other tools to stretch sounds out of shape, you can't always tell what's a guitar. (A great example is Kid A's "Treefingers," which sounds like an ambient synth track but was really Ed O'Brien's guitar chords.) What Hail really sounds like is yet another quality Radiohead album, with their trademark angular chord patterns & plaintive melodies, & an extra dash of sinister vocal harmonies (Ed & Thom? Or multi-tracked Thom? Not sure.) The 2nd single "Go to Sleep" is a good example: it's a rock/pop song with a more conventional progression, but processed vocals & rusty lead guitar lines creep into the mix as the song goes on, culminating in a closing solo that sounds like a dying robot.

For the first time, however, cracks are starting to appear & Radiohead seem to be re-plowing the same ground, a sin they'd never before been guilty of. "Sail to the Moon" features gorgeous piano playing by Thom but is still clearly the "Pyramid Song" of this album. By the same token, "We Suck Young Blood" with its funeral jazz feel harkens back to "Life in a Glasshouse" from Amnesiac. But at least that one has tons of personality. "The Gloaming"--coming in between such a distinctive song & the lead single "There There"--is a bit too familiar Radiohead territory & thus feels like filler.

As usual, Radiohead's secret weapons on this album are the unofficial 6th member, producer Nigel Godrich, who conjures up soundscapes that are always unusual & occasionally jaw-dropping; & bassist Colin Greenwood, whose playing is rock-solid & trickier than it seems. Where the 2 work together, we get massive tracks like the bass-led "Where I End and You Begin" (which owes a lot to drum'n'bass) & especially "Myxomatosis." It is driven by Colin's hugely distorted bass, & I had never before, nor ever since, heard a bass guitar, or anything else for that matter, make that sound. It's like Colin & Nigel got together, looked at the song's lyrics, & set out to create a bass sound that "screw[s] [you] in a vise" & makes you feel "tongue-tied" & "skinned alive," & what they came up with gets my vote for the album's best song.

I liked Hail to the Thief back in that "celebrated summer," & listened to it plenty, but I always held it as a step below the Bends - Amnesiac run. Today, I see it as part of that classic run, albeit the dry end of it that's just starting to get stale. 

Wait, does that mean with a few more listens, I'll even learn to like In Rainbows?

Probably not.

The Optical Files #44: Lil Wayne - Tha Carter II (2005)

For rap fans of a certain age (mine), Tha Carter II is a seminal album. It refined the formula of Tha Carter, put less emphasis on hooks & more on bars, before Wayne reversed course & shot into pop superstardom with Tha Carter III. The differences between the 3 records might seem slight, but the devil is in the details. If 2004's Carter was the emergence of post-Hot Boy Wayne as a mature artist, & 2008's III was the album that most influenced the kids that would become today's mainstream artists (I believe it is, along with 808s & Heartbreak), then Tha Carter II is truly the end of an era.

This is one of those albums where I firmly believe the intro is the best song, thanks to The Heatmakerz's bluesy piano, slide guitar & Kanye-esque vocal chop. (Kind of counterintuitively for an intro, it's the only beat on this album that sounds like it--not even the same producers' Isley Brothers-sampling "Receipt.") "Tha Mobb" is one of several songs on the album where Wayne raps straight through without a hook, & lyrical showcases like this one are where I've always thought he shines brightest. It's impossible to discuss Wayne's delivery without discussing his lyricism, & vice versa. His genius is in how casual he is; the cleverest punchlines are deliberately downplayed or even deemphasized, less he appear to be trying too hard. Like Pusha T, this quality gives his music more replay value than other, more extravagantly "lyrical" emcees. On the other hand, I cite "Tha Mobb" all the time, specifically the line "I'm hungry like I didn't eat." I use it as an example of how Wayne's delivery is so good that he gets away with weak ass bars like that. Of course, the rest of the lyrics around it don't hurt.

"Fly In" is the first beat by album production standouts Tmix & Batman, & it features more piano & timpani--this record's favorite instruments that also show up on "Carter II" & "Fly Out" by the same production duo. It's a shortcut to making a track sound epic, but at least they are used well here. On "Fly In" we get a taste of his more melodic flow, which shows up more on this album & went on to dominate the followup. Tmix & Batman also lace "Lock and Load," a sinister beat with a west coast sound, probably in honor of the guest hook by Kurupt, augmented by tasteful bongos; "Hustler Musik," a triumphant & dynamic blaxploitation movie score-style beat for Weezy to flex his work ethic on; & "I'm a Dboy," the Birdman feature with a more ATL-style beat that honestly sounds like it was made for T.I.

The big single here was "Fireman," sadly a pretty mediocre beat by Doe Boys with a siren-sounding synth lead that's a bit too on the nose. Wayne manages to inject some less dumbed-down bars than your average radio-aimed joint, but let's face it, this is no "Go DJ." Doe Boys were a poor substitute for recent Cash Money émigré Mannie Fresh, as they also man the boards on "Hit Em Up," another dry beat without much interesting musically or lyrically. Wayne sounds as bored on this filler as I am listening to it. Other producers who fare better are Robin Thicke (damn Paula dumping him really fucked that dude's career up didn't it?) with the bluesy piano-driven late-album standout "Shooter," & Deezle, who conjures up a deeply funky, compulsively head-noddy drum loop on "Weezy Baby."

If you know the way I listen to rap, you know why I like "Tha Mobb" & its sister lyrical showcases "Best Rapper Alive" & "Oh No." The latter, another vocal chop-led, hook-free song, is a runner-up for best track on the album, with its cleanly mixed bass & handclaps courtesy of Yonny. Weezy floats on top with the kind of extended metaphors he makes look easy: "Get too deep up in that water and they can't save you/Me, I come out of that water like I was just bathin'/And watch my step on the wet pavement." Plus, it's over quick enough to leave you wanting more, which makes "Oh No" the only compulsory rewind on this disc.

You knew this was coming: like a lot of rap albums from this era, this 77-minute record is too goddamn long. Cats were still trying to give everybody their money's worth by filling a CD to capacity, but this could have easily lost 3 songs & nobody would have noticed. I've never been the biggest Weezy fan, but I have a ton of respect for his run from 500 Degreez to here. Given how mainstream massive he got a few years later, his persecution complex sounds a little canned here, but honestly there's still people sleeping on his skill. I'll let him tell it: "If we too simple, then y'all don't get the basics."

The Optical Files #43: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live at the Fillmore East (1970/2006)

My buddy Will turned me on to this CD shortly after it dropped in 2006, & it's been my favorite Neil Young album ever since. This live set (taken from headlining shows on March 6th & 7th, 1970) is the source of "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" on Tonight's the Night. From the beginning, the live recording is rawer & more exciting than the studio versions on Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, from which half of these songs are taken. Guitars are more distorted, voices are hoarser, the whole band is competing to be heard over each other in the smoky club. The vocal harmonies on the opening track "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" sound sedate & poppy on the studio version; here they are aggressive & confrontational. Neil Young is often cited as one of the forefathers of punk & grunge, but you don't really hear it in the studio albums until you listen to something like this. (I've never had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Young in concert but Tod, the owner of this blog, has. Perhaps he'll use the comment section to chime in & back me up.)

As a result of this, to quote Deep Purple, "everything louder than everything else" approach, rhythm guitarist Danny Whitten's backing vocals often drown out Neil's leads, especially on the first 2 tracks. Legendary Laurel Canyon scene producer Paul Rothchild (The Doors) helms the boards here, & the result is a robust live mix. There's no subtlety to it--everything is right up front. Danny's voice, showcased on his original song "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown" (an ode to scoring drugs that is harsher in hindsight given Whitten's death by heroin misadventure) is a husky baritone like Steppenwolf's John Kay, so it's not surprising that Young's fragile, wavering tenor gets lost behind it. On the other hand, Young gets a fine vocal showcase in "Down by the River," where, again, I prefer his vocals to the studio version. The added crunch to the guitars & the live sense of urgency give the ascending pre-chorus an epic quality that doesn't come across as well on the album.

"Down by the River" is one of 2 extended jams here, along with "Cowgirl in the Sand." On both, Whitten holds down 2 crunchy chords for most of the runtime (12 minutes & 16 minutes, respectively) while Neil indulges in, let's say *medicated* solos that are more interested in searching the fretboard for interesting tones than they are in impressing you with technique. If you love Young's lead playing, these 2 tracks are a full-course meal, with lots of meditative repetition & tasteful amounts of whammy bar work. Personally, I like him better as a songwriter than as a guitarist, so the jams get a bit tiresome, but in the right headspace I can zone out & let the fuzz wash over me.

Although I like plenty of Young's records, I'm being honest when I say this is my favorite album of his. Vivid, hallucinatory & soul-searing, I think these songs were meant to be heard live, & if I try hard enough, I can pretend I'm standing in a puddle of beer on a March night in Manhattan 1970, fresh from hearing a Miles Davis set & ready to get my mind re-blown. You know, like it should be.

The Optical Files #42: X - Under the Big Black Sun (1982)

Thousands of lights, thousands of people/She's forgotten him for the bodies around her

Back when punk was still an adjective & not a label, Los Angeles scene leaders X released their magnum opus, an album I can only describe as haunted. Haunted by urban decay, by testosterone, by all the beers in all the bars, but predominantly haunted by the shocking death of a family member. The sister of Exene Cervenka, X's co-songwriter & co-lead singer, died in a car accident in 1980 on her way to see the band perform. It wasn't until 2 years & 2 albums later that Cervenka & the rest of the band were able to process those feelings into songs--explicitly through the title track, "Riding With Mary," "Come Back to Me" & their cover of "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes"; implicitly through the somber mood of the rest of the record's songs, & even the cover art--a noir-esque depiction of a darkened city room that makes you wonder what entities or feelings are hidden in the shadows.

This epochal L.A. rock band of the '80s has a connection to an epochal L.A. rock band of the '60s thanks to Ray Manzarek from The Doors, who produced X's first 4 albums & occasionally contributed keyboards. Under the Big Black Sun does carry an obvious amount of Doors influence: unconventional instruments for rock music (marimbas, clarinets, etc.) & oblique, poetic lyrics. As a matter of personal taste, I find Cervenka & Doe's poetry to be way more emotionally true & way less annoying than Morrison's but I acknowledge that the comparison is there to be drawn. The complex feelings in those lyrics, mirroring the progressive (by punk standards) song structures, are what make Under the Big Black Sun X's best album.

The basic musical tension is between Billy Zoom's jazzy, sometimes dissonant guitar chords & the tuneful singing from Cervenka & Doe, usually evoking '60s pop melodies. Pretty much every song features this combo, with a wash of jagged chords that don't always go where you expect them to. Even "Come Back to Me," a superficially simple '50s-styled doo-wop shuffle, manages some tricky twists & turns in its plaintive, reaching ascending chord progression. The vocals balance the pop sensibility & latent sadness of that '50s style; Cervenka describes her sister's funeral & its aftermath with poetic exactness.

X's other sonic signature is the dual vocals of Cervenka & Doe. They almost always sing in unison, with one or the other taking the lead by virtue of volume, & they are less concerned with singing harmonies than creating an otherworldly drone, almost like a sitar, through well-chosen intervals & the natural characters of both voices: Doe's chesty baritone & Cervenka's wail, more expressive but less intelligible. I've heard many male/female vocal duos attempt to recreate this magic, but I've never heard one that sounds remotely similar.

The songs that plainly address the sister's death are the most affecting, looking at grief through the lens of Cervenka's Catholic upbringing. "Riding with Mary" closes on these chilling lines: "On the dashboard rides a figurine/a powerless sweet forgotten thing/so the next time you see a statue of Mary/remember my sister was in a car." The title track, possibly my favorite song on the album, sounds like a triumphant rock song until you pay attention to the lyrics, a cry of frustration about trying to mourn a loved one while also trying to be a rock star in a world that just won't stop moving: "Everybody asks me how I'm doing/I'm doing everything alone/Rave on children and try to sleep."

Even the songs that aren't explicitly about that fateful accident & its aftermath are infused with a vague sense of decrepit urban menace & drunken fatalism. Witness "Real Child of Hell" with its dramatic drop & build in the post-chorus, telling of a toxic masculine populace whose threat isn't even the worst problem you have; or the savage "Because I Do," the closest song to their no-frills punk roots, lamenting the dehumanizing effects of loveless marriage & adulterous lust. "Because I Do" also features the best performance by drummer D.J. Bonebrake, who in addition to being a great drummer, also has the greatest drummer name of all time. (Chuck Biscuits is a close second.)

I have the 2001 Rhino reissue with 5 bonus tracks that don't do much to enhance the original LP. I've never been a big fan of bonus tracks--occasionally they work, but in situations like this, I'd much rather have the album end on the mournful boogie-rock fadeout of "The Have Nots." The band ended the record the way they wanted to, & for an album with such a complex tangle of feelings & sounds, I'd appreciate the ability to sit with it rather than have to dive for the stop button before it launches into another version of "Riding with Mary."

The Optical Files #41: Paris - Sonic Jihad (2003)

Before I get started, can everybody just take a moment & gaze at that cover art? Does anything say "no fucks given post-9/11 fuck-Bush protest music" louder & more eloquently than that image? Ahhh, what a beautiful piece of graphic design. 

The day I'm writing this, there is a featured editorial in the Sunday New York Times about how both the left & the right, for different reasons, feel that their free speech is under attack. Of course, there is a difference between the right using legislative means, scare tactics & the power of the state to ban books & suppress speech in education, & the left complaining about bigoted millionaire entertainers--but as recently as a decade ago, appeal to the 1st Amendment was definitively a left-wing strategy. Paris writes 2 different messages in Sonic Jihad's liner notes about the "intolerant climate of suppression of free speech & artistic expression" & "fear, ignorance and censorship that results from the fake U.S. patriotism generated by the terror attacks on September 11th, 2001." It makes me nostalgic for the days before the right figured out how to co-opt & twist the language of the radical left.

As usual, Paris produces the whole album himself, & this time it has a somewhat low-budget feel, rough around the edges with over-compressed mastering & an unrefined sound. One of the major problems with this album is how similar all the beats sound: most of them exist in a pretty narrow tempo range, with similar funky basslines & moody keys. There are a handful of exceptions: "Ain't No Love" evokes So-Cal G-funk, complete with a nod to Parliament. "You Know My Name" generates a horrorcore feel with ominous keys, distorted & pitched down vocals & scary-movie strings. These few varied beats help to break up the monotony, but it doesn't help that Paris uses the same flow on pretty much every song--the same flow he used on pretty much every song on Sleeping With the Enemy a decade earlier. This is not an emcee interested in innovating cadences.

He is interested in clearly communicating his subject matter, & the album is mostly concerned with being the musical equivalent of its cover art: a gutsy, no-punches-pulled attack on the Bush Jr. administration & everything it stands for. On "Sheep to the Slaughter," Paris zeroes in on the war effort & how it preys upon the poor & people of color, offering an impressive litany of white American celebrities, both political & otherwise, who endorse the war but will never be called upon to fight in it. This segues into "Spilt Milk" featuring the always-amazing dancehall deejay Capleton, discussing what Paris describes in the liner notes as "a harmful double-standard at most record labels of endorsing artists who only espouse misogyny, mindless violence, and drug culture."

Aside from the sonic monotony, the other problem with this album is imbalance. After the propulsive single "Freedom" featuring dead prez, the album drops into a 4-song fallow period. It emerges in stunning form, however, with the album's 2 best songs, "Evil" & "AWOL." The former song is framed as Paris explaining what he would do if he were an evil overlord bent on oppressing & exploiting a race of people, & he proceeds to detail America's entire history with Black people step by step. "AWOL" is a storytelling song where Paris raps from the perspective of a naive young man seduced into joining the Army by a recruiter named Diablo, only to find just how unprepared he was for the horror of desertside operations. Though he makes it home, his mangled body reminds him of the lessons he's learned in the song's chilling final bars: "Now I'm fucking with this wheelchair, ain't nothing the same/& I'm knowing confrontation's more than video games/War is pain."

The album's backloading continues with the lead single, "What Would You Do?" where Paris bluntly accuses the U.S. government of orchestrating 9/11: "Ain't no terror threat unless approval rating's slumpin'/So I'mma say it for the record, we the ones that planned it." He offers a compelling argument, not quite as evidence-based as Immortal Technique's on Revolutionary Vol. 2, which came out the same year, but close enough for me to consider the 2 albums to be spiritual siblings. (Tech's verbal equivalent of this album's cover art: "You better watch what the fuck flies outta your mouth/Or I'mma hijack a plane & fly it into your house.") Paris bemoans the Patriot Act & other anti-terrorism measures facilitating unreasonable search & seizure, before closing the song by, once again, defending his free speech rights: "With the 4th Amendment gone, eyes are on the 1st."

Back in 2003 I ordered this CD in the mail from Paris's guerrillafunk.com website, & I still think that was the moment I ended up on whatever FBI watchlist I'm probably still on. It was worth it, though, because though this album is uneven, about half the songs on it are some of the cream from the headiest period of protest music I've ever lived through.

150 Films/150 Days #06: Films 36-44

To open the new year, I began this series, 150 Films in 150 Days, as a means of returning to my screening habits of old. Click the link to read the Series Introduction.  The general idea is to return to my film school roots of obsessively watching all the films from all the places all the time.  

The Comprised List is over 150 films deep with integral films missed from the past 10 years and beyond, as well as a few just for popcorn giggles.

I'll be making regular posts of 5-10 films at a time, including my screening notes, random and unedited.  Each film will be listed with the release date, relevant creative contributors, the means of screening, and a written response.

After the screening, I will assign a level of recommendation to each film as follows: 

HR-highly recommended, R-recommended, N-neutral, F-failings too extensive to appreciate (hopefully never or rare).

The first film watched was February 1, and the final day will be June 30 (exactly 5 months).  

All are welcome to watch along.

Films 36-44:  

Note:  Films 19-54 are predominately from 2021, as we have simultaneously been comprising our 

Top Films of the Year List.  The first 50 films of the Series, in large, have been pointed toward recent releases and contemporary films, with a few cult classics sprinkled in.  Moving forward, we will broaden the range of cinema explored and grow back thru time, as well as continue with current films.

36.  Creed II (2018):  Watched on Hulu, 03/08.  Directed by Steven Caple Jr, Performances by Michael B Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Dolph Lundgren, Executive Producer Ryan Coogler. 

Screening Notes - Scratch notes from pen to paper to you, no edits:

Of course I saw the first Creed - it was Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan teaming up again and breaking into big budgets.  I would have followed Coogler anywhere after Fruitvale Station, and for the most part Creed did not disappoint.  Coogler didn't direct this one, as he was busy with a little film called Black Panther, but he was involved as an Executive Producer.

I unapologetically admit that I have a thing for Rocky movies and grew up watching them.  Rocky (1976, original) is the only one I defend in earnest, but I'm a sucker for all.  My dad took us to see Rocky 4 in the theater when I was way young and I remember full on cheering and screaming from the late-cold-war infused audience.  I didn't have a clue about the politics or the shameless fear-mongering of the Reagan propaganda machine, but it was an exhilarating cinematic experience for this young'n.  It imprinted the power of cinema in my mind.

Creed II being a throwback to Rocky 4, and current circumstances considered (it opens in Kviv, Ukraine), seemed appropriate to watch.  I needed a good ole Rocky movie, and, yep, that was a Rocky Movie thru and thru - thoroughly enjoyed.  Quality lineage to R4, and more responsible with the politics and social ethics - only vague hints of nationalist propaganda, ha.

Recommendation Level:  R (especially for Rocky fans)

37.  White God (2014):   Watched on Apple TV (rent), 03/09.  Hungarian Indie film Written and Directed by Kornel Mundruczo.

Screening Notes:  Won Prize UnCertain Regard at 2014 Cannes Film Fest.  This was my most anticipated film that year, much like Titane this year, and somehow just put it off this long.  

The film concept alone is personally striking to me on two notes:  1. I'm a bully dog/pitbull rescue advocate and my furry partner/best friend is a pitty rescue, so...  2. The first short script I wrote in Film School touched on a similar concept concerning a pack of escaped urban strays, and still the basis of a feature narrative idea in my lil screenwriting journal.

- (30 mins in) So much my kind of film, but this is going to tear me up.  Horrific.  The Girl and dog Hagen are F'n fantastic together.

- I can't believe the wranglers got the dogs to do some of this - they are acting.

- Not a flawless film, but exceptional and I wouldn't change a thing.  I love this film and everything about it.

Note:  272 actual dogs were used in shooting the film.  An extraordinary ethical disclaimer appears in text at the opening - "All of the untrained dogs who perform in this film were rescued from the streets or shelters and placed in homes with help from an adoption program."

Recommendation Level:  HR (to say the least)

38.  WeWork:  Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (doc, 2021):  Watched on Hulu, 03/10.  Directed by Jed Rothstein, Appearances by (with great shame for all) Ashton Kushner, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rebekah Paltrow, Adam Neumann, A Hulu Production.

Screening Notes:  Not bad as a traditional style doc, necessary story to tell, and very hard for me to watch and relate generationally and socio-economically.  Nice way of saying these folks are all utterly ridiculous to me, and grotesquely egocentric to the level of doing great harm - clowns and privileged brats with infinite financial means.  Welcome to the 21st Century boom.

Definitely feeds into and enlightens all the weakest and most confused elements of the young, socially-challenged generation behind me.  This is the great Millenial Tragedy, on repeat and homogeny included.  A generation lost in time between the before and the after of the Technological Revolution - hard empathy but empathy nonetheless.  

Recommendation Level:  R

39.  The Batman (2022):   Watched at Alamo Drafthouse, C'ville, 03/13.  Directed by Matt Reeves, Performances by an insanely gifted cast that tried real hard to carry a weak script (Zoe Kravitz was not necessarily a strong link in that chan).

Screening Notes:  Eh, that was that.  I saw it and won't be getting those 3 hrs back.  I think Matt Reeves and I have a very different cinematic and social world view.  It is worth noting the generic "white male American" perspective that Reeves reinforces and slips in with a not-so-slight of hand. 

He appears to think the victimized poor, homeless, and addicts are the problem and need eradicated - pretty simplistic and irresponsible.  I'm disappointed not to see this aspect discussed more, but perhaps the lack of depth in the film just has folks forgetting to consider the filmmaker's social messaging.

Plenty of candy and some cool visual stuff, even a few cool directorial decisions.  

Damn good cinematography.  By the middle and even more by the end, I just couldn't care less what happened, and the good candy wasn't nearly enough to carry.  

Note to Reeves - 'Save the Cat'.  No intro and five endings - hmm?  Can't imagine why the storytelling felt so labored and the viewing so tedious.  

Recommendation Level:  N

40.  Silver Linings Playbook (2012):  Watched on Netflix, 03/14.  Directed by David O Russel, Performances by Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro. 

Screening Notes:  O'Russel is a skilled filmmaker, but always seems a notch overrated.  Never quite as good as his acclaim.  That comment can carry over to the two lead actors as well.

This was an Academy darling and 'that' pretend-indie of the year that became the singular indie buzz of award season.  Hence, I never watched it quite purposely.  I just needed a decade for it to come down to earth.  

- Boy o boy, that big W (TWC) coming up on the screen sure doesn't conjure what it once did.  

- Seems pretty respectful to the topic for most part.  Perhaps a bit playful at wrong times, and underdeveloped reality. Constant trash bag is a bit much and largely ignores the illness past the beginning.  Room for ethics of filmmaking discussion.

- Pleasant, charming, well shot.  Not reinventing the wheel for sure, but aware filmmaking.  More comedic than expected, which is probably a good thing, but inconsistent tone as it progresses.  

- Witty 'odd couple' movie - good characters, pretty good performances.  Kinda like Jerry Maguire for the 2010's ;

- O'Russel likes dysfunctional families and is good at it, but some scenes with family toward the end just too silly to work.

- Same as I feel about other O'Russel films - good movie, not great.  Overhyped and devolved as it went on, but still enjoyed.  I get the appeal.  Easy watching that's still relatively substantive.  

Recommendation Level:  R

41.  Promising Young Woman (2021):  Watched on HBO, 03/15.  Directed by Emerald Fennel, Performances by Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie.

Screening Notes:  Buzzy indie fem revenge film that I'm hoping fulfills it's promise.  

- Campy, heavy handed, unapologetic, and I think it works.  Some nice 80's throwback shots, stylistically - a little Heathers-esque. 

- Somewhat lo-fi production style, done well.

- Nice nods to cinema of the past.  

- Romantic parts intentionally cheesy, but charming.  I don't like romance montages, even mocking. 

- Clever dialogue at times, but a lot of near hits and misses.  Just not quite as clever or smart as it tries.

- Bo Burnham Performance?  Cliche dialogue and narrative trajectory, even beyond the parody.

- Good concept, good premise, and fulfills promise at moments.  Maybe trying to be too many things at once.  Seems to lose it's bite at times, switch pace and tone a bit stumbly.  

- 3rd Act redeems and brings it all back around - it fooled me good.  Ha.  Shite.  I really like.  Wicked.  Harsh twist but exactly right.  That's what I wanted to see, and very much invested.  

- The end got harsh and twisted.  Did Not see it coming - the kind of twist end that makes me reevaluate the whole film.  Well done.

Recommendation Level:  R

42.  Parallel Mothers (2021):  Watched on Apple TV, 03/16.  Written and Directed by Pedro Almodovar, Performances by Penelope Cruz, Milena Smit. 

Screening Notes:  I am very much an Almodovar fan and at one point was particularly smitten by his work and thoroughly explore his early filmography.  I consider him one of the true originals and great auteurs of our time.  I haven't been as drawn to his more recent films for whatever reason, and haven't seen his films for the past decade or so - time to catch up.  

- Insanely good Production Design/color palettes, of course.  Love it.  It's a return to his bold notorious decor and design of old.  Feels like home cinematic home.

- Oh the tricky subtle brilliance of his shots and style.  His frames are unlike any other - Angles, Depth! Small creative camera moves.

- Cruz gives an extraordinary performance.  

- Almost forgot how good and original his stories are, and he continues be the champion of alternative families.  Interesting themes of ancestry. 

- Almodovar had something to say quite specific and bold, politically.  Awesome.  Relevant to Spain - need to research the Spanish history and injustice referenced.

- Common technology difficult to shoot and integrate into cinematic storytelling.  Almodovar did it heavy and extremely well.  Dude can make anything interesting.  

- Almodovar of old in an updated world - F'n fantastic.

Recommendation Level:  HR

43.  Drive My Car (2021):  Watched on Hulu, 03/17.  Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Performances by Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Reika Kirishima.

Screening Notes:  Competed at Cannes 2021, which was its world premier, and won 3 awards.  Won Academy award for Best Foreign Film.  I don't know much about the film or filmmaker other than seemingly consensus acclaim.

- Slow, poetic and beautifully shot.  I get why and how it garnered much critical attention.

- A whole lotta dialogue and bedtime/sexual storytelling.  Not usually by cup of tea.  Boy/Girl relations of this sort (the marriage) bore me - we'll see.  The Driver girl relationship is very interesting.

- 30 mins. into a 3 hr film and already looking for a way out.  Are we sure this isn't a French Cafe Film?

- Driving montage and motif?  eh.  Sooo many parking garages.

- Nice, subtle soundscape - amplified buzzing.

- I find the pace and runtime of this to be a bit audacious.  I knew I should have been suspicious after it became an Academy darling, ha. 

- The narrative beats are way too convenient. 

- Rewards patience, which I appreciate.

- Lovely film with great performances all around, that I just couldn't connect to.

- Very good film.  Overrated by critics and awards, but good.  The film is like the subject and the text - meticulous and tedious but sort of beautiful.

Recommendation Level:  R (if you have 3 slow hours to spare)

44.  This Is Not A Burial, It's A Resurrection (2021):  Watched on Apple TV, 03/17.  Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Performance by Mary Twala, Jerry Mofokeng

Screening Notes:  I'm not sure when this film first came on my radar, as it has garnered numerous awards and attention at notable festivals, including Hong Kong IFF, Sundance, Montreal, and more.  Looking forward to this one.

- Full on from the tradition of art/experimental cinema through beginning.  More lo-fi and transparent digital shooting than expected, but gorgeous and innovative use of that aesthetic.  

- Brutally slow push-in dollies, and break fourth wall.  Love love the opening shot (pre-title).  

- Eerie good soundscape - hollow essence of new meets old.

-Traditional storyteller framework.  Ancestry, spirituality, and colonial impact. 

- Not the easiest of experimental narrative styles for me to connect to, but intrigued.

- Lighting - wow!  Worth watching for the imagery alone - spectacular cinematography at times.

- It works its way into a more traditional narrative.  Less experimental as it goes on.  Familiar narrative beats - not sure I love the shift.

- Requires a conscious meditative giving of oneself to the film, but offers appealing trance-like bridges.

- Hmm?  Challenging and legit original, well made, potent, poetic.

Recommendation Level:  R (for folks interested in Art Cinema and International Cinema - not so much for others)

The Optical Files #40: KRS-One - Kristyles/The Kristyle (2003)

This album exists in 2 versions: the retail one, Kristyles (which I bought on release day, shout out to the long-dead record store in the Gum Springs shopping center on Rte. 1 in Mount Vernon VA) & the self-released street version, The Kristyle, which I bought from KRS at a show. Apparently Kris had a problem with the people at Koch proceeding with the tracklist & album artwork before he signed off on it .(He didn't like how tough he looked in the cover photo.) The Kristyle has a different track order, some of the songs have different titles, & there are a few songs on each version that don't appear on the other one. I'll elaborate on those differences below, but whichever version you listen to, this is probably the pinnacle of 2000s-era KRS-One.

Kris always excelled at concepts. Very seldom do you feel like he's just rapping to rap. Every song has a point, & that gives his albums purpose & personality. Here we have tracks like "Underground," where Kris explains what the title word means to him over hard kicks & spacious ride cymbals; "How Bad Do You Want It" featuring Pito, where a grandiose beat with orchestra & choir accompanies Kris as he discusses how people keep asking him to "put them on" without being willing to make the necessary sacrifices; & "9 Elements," which doesn't appear on the street CD. That's a pity for 2 reasons: (1) I really like the flutes, & (2) "9 Elements" is the most cogent, concise explanation Kris has ever given of the connection between study of the elements & the ultimate goal of victory over the streets. Other songs missing on The Kristyle are "All a Struggle," which rides a nice '70s-flavored blaxploitation soundtrack-esque beat; "Things Will Change," & "The Movement," which frankly I can do without--both beat & lyrical sentiments sound a little too familiar without much to set either apart. 

The beats are handled by a variety of producers: KRS's tour DJ Tine E Tim, his brother Kenny Parker, Ghetto Pros, & a few others. The production heroes are Da Beatminerz, who give us the eponymous intro on the self-published version as well as "Underground," plus the best song on either album, "Somebody." Over an epic orchestral beat with heavy timpani, Kris uses a triplet flow to accent the kick drum triplets as he raps about how everybody has a part to play in the beautiful chaos of life. This song was, & is, meaningful to me because I've always suffered from low self-esteem & envy, & I compare myself to people doing what I perceive to be better than me. In those moments, this song is a balm, reminding me that we are all where we are supposed to be at any given moment, maintaining the balance of the universe. "Somebody gotta be up, somebody gotta be down/ somebody gotta be the teacher, somebody gotta be the clown/somebody gotta be lost, somebody gotta be found/somebody gotta be in the economy making the money go round [...] somebody gotta be somebody, for somebody else to be somebody."

Two other highlights are both beats produced by KRS himself: "Survivin'" & "Gunnin' Em Down." The former sits atop a funky drum loop while Kris & Priest rap about what it takes to stay alive, both physically & spiritually, augmented by a heart monitor beep added to the percussion. Kris laces "Gunnin' Em Down," the purest boom-bap song on the album, with a dusty chopped jazz bassline while he talks greasy to his haters & doubters. Even in a pure ego trip song like this one, Kris always has some gems of wisdom, like this observation about the street life's sell-by date: "If you're over 25 & you never got live when it was time ride, you ain't got no heart/but if you're over 26 & you're still in the mix & your life you ain't fixed, you ain't doing your part."

Aside from being Kris's preferred version, I think The Kristyle (self-released) is a better album on the whole. The sequencing is smoother (I like getting both "Somebody" & "Gunnin' Em Down" earlier in the album, the intro is better (on the aforementioned Beatminerz beat full of funky organ stabs) & it includes 2 songs featuring the always-entertaining Mad Lion: "That's It," produced by Lion himself, & "Stop It," produced by the duo. KRS albums are always better when they have a little dancehall flavor. Another nice touch: on The Kristyle version of "How Bad Do You Want It," instead of spitting his last verse, KRS leaves space at the end of the beat for the listener. "How bad do you want it? Do you know what this mean?/You listening to this CD, drop your own 16." Every time I hear the song, I have to kick a 16 out of respect. It's a cool move, inviting participation & also reminding us that hiphop is a show & prove culture.

(There's also another track on The Kristyle that doesn't appear on the tracklist, perhaps called "True Story," narrative movie-score-bap with a Preemo-esque scratched vocal chorus.)

Both versions of the album end with "The Only One," a beautiful, simple love song about Kris's wife, G. Simone. The gentle piano & background vocals highlight KRS's mundane details about married life, rather than the flashy materialism a lot of hiphop love songs tend to fall into: "We be hanging out late night at Dennys/having conversations about every & any." Just another way the Blastmaster does it a little bit different from everybody else, & why he has such a devoted fanbase.

Pound for pound, I'm not certain this album is necessarily better than The Sneak Attack, Keep Right, or anything that came after in the 2000s. I do think there's an extra level of artistry to the beats here that isn't found on those albums (which sometimes fall into the early 2000s trap of cheap MIDI in lieu of sample chops). Everything on The Kristyle is a little bit punchier. But the objective differences are slight. The real boost that sets this one apart is the time in my life when it came around. I had just graduated high school, & I rode around with this CD all summer. It was the perfect combination of time, place & purpose. KRS has a whole rack of near-perfect CDs, but this is the one I might choose for that desert island.

The Optical Files #39: Bubba Sparxxx - Deliverance (2003)

It's not often you can trace an entire subgenre back to a single album, & you're even less likely to love the album in question but dislike pretty much everything it inspired. Both are true for Deliverance & me. The album is responsible for the plague of whiteboy country rap that has given us such figures as Colt Ford, The Lacs, Adam Calhoun & (ugh) Ryan Upchurch. But before any of that happened, this album hit me at exactly the right time, & I still uphold it as a masterpiece of production & lyrical dexterity.

Country & rap had crossed over before, but never had any white artist approaching mainstream status rapped over harmonicas ("Jimmy Mathis") & banjos ("Comin' Round"), dueted with a country singer, ("She Tried"), or rapped about fishing & deer hunting ("Nowhere"). Unlike the cynical, conservative dog-whistle racist shit that followed in his wake, when Bubba pivoted from the more mainstream Southern rap sounds of his debut into rustic, rootsy territory, he did it with an open heart & a spirit of authenticity.

The other half of what Bubba terms "this musical marriage" is, of course, Timbaland, an indispensable part of Deliverance's success. Tim manages to embrace Bubba's folksy direction while keeping his own trademarks intact: breezy wordless vocals, sound effects, unusual percussion with lots of clicks & clacks, & that inimitable Timbaland bounce. It's hard to pick favorite beats out of such a grip of stone-cold classics, but I've always loved "Warrant," with its anxious bass played by Thaddeaus Tribbett & Larry Gold's big string arrangement. Those strings show up again on the orchestral fanfare "Overcome" along with a bold brass section in a musical tribute to southern college marching bands. Of course, we can't forget about ONP, who produce 4 tracks. The album intro interpolates Cream's "I Feel Free" in a clever flip with the refrain "not yet free." The closer "Back in the Mud" is an audacious 4-on-the-floor number that owes more to avant-garde dance music than hiphop. But the best ONP production is "Like It Or Not," a smoky, deep southern funk tune with a jaw-dropping horn section by Dungeon Family mainstays Hornz Unlimited. Honestly, the only dud on the whole album is "Take a Load Off"--not sure if Bubba & Tim were aiming for the dance floor or what, but they missed--& on a 62-minute album, that's a damn good killer-to-filler ratio.

All Bubba & Timbaland's best work comes together on the album's 2 best songs, the triumphant, hopeful "Comin' Round," & the pensive "Nowhere." On "Comin' Round," over a bluegrass Yonder Mountain String Band sample augmented by a glorious programmed string section, Bubba uses an effortlessly complex rhyme scheme to discuss how he seems his place in the musical landscape. "There is no king for the throne I seek," he muses, before painting a picture of a typical Bubba Sparxxx listener: a rural-dwelling 14-year-old boy, grown up too fast from an unwanted baby, forced to provide for his family. "He listens to his own, can't relate to none other [...] If Daddy wasn't ready, all it took was one rubber/to prevent the pain that his family done suffered/thankfully his son is a real come-upper/'cuz there's gon' be something on the table come supper/there, the plight of my people is uncovered."

On "Nowhere," the subject matter is similar but the mood is more somber. Here instead of upbeat, the strings are morose & apprehensive; instead of celebrating his connection with people, Bubba finds himself worrying about his legacy, a common theme in his work. After offering some specific details about his impoverished upbringing, he focuses on the inevitable comparisons the listening public will make between him & Eminem--& he already seems to have decided he will fall short, perhaps due to regional bias: "All my plans of being viewed as something special, more than just 'the other one'/will vanish into vapors of the plague the South has suffered from." A few bars later, he predicts the flood of white emcees that came in his & Marshall's wake: "There's gon' be a million more, who knows if they'll be worth a damn."

Turns out, unfortunately, Bubba's fears were justified. I linked this Rolling Stone piece in my last Bubba Sparxxx writeup, but I think it bears repeating for Bubba's take on the racist "hick-hop" movement that took its inspiration from his sophomore album. "My heart was always in, ‘Man, these people aren’t as different as they think,' [...] My goal was always to build a bridge between people. [...] It wasn’t trying to say, ‘Let’s take this and go have our own party.’" Bubba, who never displayed the confederate flag & made a point to work with almost exclusively Black collaborators on his early albums, has become an outlier in the world he had a major hand in creating.

The Optical Files #38: Snoop Dogg - Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$ (2002)

Back on a major label after his late-'90s 3-album sojourn on No Limit, getting his money up after being screwed over by Death Row, Snoop had to prove that he still belonged in the mainstream, so he linked up with current heatmakers The Neptunes & dropped 2 singles: "From the Chuuuch to da Palace," an ego trip over a simple but kinetic beat with live drums, a descending keyboard line & DJ cuts, did pretty well but "Beautiful" was the smash. I loved the latter song because I've always been a fan of single-rhyme rap songs (i.e. 1 rhyme is repeated through the whole song), but the beat was unique for the time as well, built on syncopated strummed guitars & Latin percussion. Although those are the only 2 Neptunes beats on the album, they sum up the record's overall sound: lots of live instrumentation & soulful textures. Snoop's music always owed an obvious debt to '70s funk & R&B, but this album was the first time the scales tipped & he became more pimp than gangsta.

The more organic Paid tha Cost sounds, the better. Synthy, electronic sounding beats like Jelly Roll's duo of dancefloor misfires, "Hourglass" & "You Got What I Want" are almost instant skips, but Jelly redeems himself with "Stoplight," the album's first real song, an interpolation of Parliament's "Flashlight" with mostly live playing. I remember buying this CD at Tower Records in Landmark Plaza, Alexandria VA, putting it on in the car, & jamming out to "Stoplight" while at a stoplight I pronounced it a good record.

Longtime Snoop associate Fredwreck contributes 3 beats, all of which are neo-G-funk, with smoky basslines & portamento synth leads. The best is probably "From Long Beach 2 Brick City," which also has the album's best feature courtesy of Redman. (Like I said about Speakerboxxx, that's high praise when the album has a Jay-Z verse on it. In this case, Hov sounds like he doesn't really want to be there on the fellatio ode "Lollipop," & the star of that song is really Just Blaze, who laces the beat with skanky guitars & a smooth ass flute played by Brian Horton.)

Talking about Fredwreck brings us to "Paper'd Up." There is an unspoken rule in hiphop against doing covers of other rappers' songs. I understand it, because it sort of undermines the whole authenticity thing. But I happen to like covers, & Snoop is one of the few rappers who has done several of them, starting with "Lodi Dodi" on his debut album. "Paper'd Up" is a cover of Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full," one of the few songs that every single hiphop head in the world knows by heart, & he does it justice, tastefully editing the lyrics where it makes sense to. Fredwreck does it even more justice, with a smoky interpretation of the original beat, adding more exotic percussion & a Middle Eastern sounding wordless vocal into the mix.

Hi-Tek, another producer Snoop has a history with, laces 2 beats that are polar opposites: "I Believe in You" is a tasteful jazzy number with electric piano & wah-wah guitar, while "I Miss That Bitch" trips over its robotic & awkward keyboard stabs. The Dramatics show up for the Battlecat-produced interpolation of "I Fell For You" in "Ballin'," a gentle production with smooth electric bass. It's tied for the album's best song with "The One & Only," immediately identifiable as the work of DJ Premier. Preemo brings his signature bounce & scratched chorus to a song that finds Snoop in pensive mode, rapping about his background & his legacy. As I said the last time I wrote about a Snoop album, I like him best when he's deconstructing his own image. Preemo shows up again with "Batman & Robin" featuring underrated lyricist Lady of Rage dropping some clever bars incorporating the names of Batman's rogue's gallery. The song is almost too corny to take seriously, but Preemo manages a great flip of the '60s Batman theme & Snoop & Rage sound like they're having so much fun that you can't help but enjoy it with them. The album ends on a strong note with "Pimp Slapp'd," an overdue Suge Knight diss with plenty of street signaling.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Snoop album without some cringey moments of gender politics, here courtesy of "Wasn't Your Fault," an unironic song encouraging the slapping of women over a boring beat. On the plus side, there's only one of those! This isn't a brilliant album--it's at least 4 songs too long--but at least it isn't frontloaded like a lot of records of this length tend to be. Snoop did what he had to do on his return to the majors, & this record set the stage for his rise to true Bo$$ status.

The Optical Files #37: The Clash - London Calling (1979)

I'm hearing music from another time...

Now I come to a tricky question: how do I approach writing about an album that I know as well as the sound of my own breath? London Calling is one of my top 5 desert island albums (maybe top 3, hell, maybe even top 1). The only album, unless I'm mistaken, that I've purchased 3 times. It's also one of the most written-about albums ever. What can I possibly write that will feel new, necessary, & sufficient? This is why I believe in critical subjectivity; the only story that hasn't been told about London Calling is my own.

I remember the first time this album really clicked for me, I found myself thrashing around in the car screaming along to "Rudie Can't Fail." I think that song, plus "The Right Profile" & "Wrong 'Em Boyo," are the root of my love of horn arrangements in rock music (although I disliked most of the ska-punk that was popular when I was in high school), & I'm certain my love of half-time choruses comes straight from "Rudie."

I'm fascinated by the compounding of nostalgia, & "Spanish Bombs" is a nostalgia fractal. I will attempt to map it here: today, I have nostalgia for when I discovered this album in 1999. Listening in 1999, I had false nostalgia for 1979, when the album was made, 6 years before I was born. Hearing "Spanish Bombs," I also have nostalgia for 1992, the childhood year I spent in Spain. Writing the song in 1979, Joe Strummer had false nostalgia for the Spanish Civil War, which occurred 15 years before he was born. Because "Spanish Bombs" is actually a love song, dedicated to Strummer's girlfriend Paloma Romero, a.k.a. Palmolive, the drummer from The Slits, who was born & grew up in the Francoist shadow of the war's aftermath. I am normally wary of songs that seem to romanticize war, but I can't escape the gravity of lovely lyrics like "The hillsides ring with 'free the people,' or can I hear the echoes from the days of '39? With trenches full of poets, the ragged army," reminding us that the past is never past if we can still feel its reverberations, the fascist regime that stained his beloved's childhood--"my señorita's rose was nipped in the bud." It's an uncharacteristically emotionally naked song for Strummer to write. I see your trauma, the song says, I understand your wounding, & I love you forever. "Yo te quiero infinito." The yearning of a songwriter in 1979, the yearning of a teenager in 1999, my own yearning in 2022 for times that feel increasingly simpler as they dissolve into memory, all combine to bring this song to my ears, with its gorgeous clean chords that speak of the untrammeled expanses of youth. "I'm hearing music from another time" indeed. "Spanish Bombs" is a candidate for best song on a flawless album.

Then there's the consumerist anomie of "Lost in the Supermarket" (for years I irrationally hated Billy Idol because I thought he ripped off this song for "Dancing With Myself"), the first time we hear Mick Jones's fragile, pleading lead vocals on the album. I've always said Mick's voice had the same quality as his guitar tone, as if it would break like glass if struck too hard. But it's Strummer's backing vocals that come in at the end of this song that really sell it; the harsh sociopolitical background realities, everpresent & threatening the false capitalist serenity. Simonon's bass is also tasty on "Supermarket"--people like to shit on him as the least talented Clash member, but his creative basslines liven up songs like the title track, "I'm Not Down" with its searching, aspirational ascending chord progression, & of course, "Guns of Brixton."

The Clash convinced their label to allow them to package a free single with the LP. They then, quite innocently, asked if the single could be a 12", & the label acquiesced. Since the label never specified how many songs could be on this 12", the band added a whole 9-song LP, providing their fans with a double album for the price of a single album, a great example of how you can play record label politics & still be punk as fuck. This has nothing to do with my own experience of the album (especially since, as I said, I paid for it 3 times), but I think it's a fun anecdote.

I don't give ratings on here--because come on, how old are we?--but if I did, London Calling would get one of the few 10/10s I'd ever bestow. Everything about this album is perfect. I'm gonna go play it again.

150 Films/150 Days #05: Films 27-35

To open the new year, I began this series, 150 Films in 150 Days, as a means of returning to my screening habits of old. Click the link to read the Series Introduction.  The general idea is to return to my film school roots of obsessively watching all the films from all the places all the time.  

The Comprised List is over 150 films deep with integral films missed from the past 10 years and beyond, as well as a few just for popcorn giggles.

I'll be making regular posts of 5-10 films at a time, including my screening notes, random and unedited.  Each film will be listed with the release date, relevant creative contributors, the means of screening, and a written response.

After the screening, I will assign a level of recommendation to each film as follows: 

HR-highly recommended, R-recommended, N-neutral, F-failings too extensive to appreciate (hopefully never or rare).

The first film watched was February 1, and the final day will be June 30 (exactly 5 months).  

All are welcome to watch along.

Films 27-35:  Screening Notes added soon - need time to transcribe and decipher my notes ;

Note:  Films 19-54 are predominately from 2021, as we have simultaneously been comprising our 

Top Films of the Year List.  The first 50 films of the Series, in large, have been pointed toward recent releases and contemporary films, with a few cult classics sprinkled in.  Moving forward, we will broaden the range of cinema explored and grow back thru time, as well as continue with current films.

27.  The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021):  Watched on HBO, 02/27.  Directed by Michael Showalter, Performances by Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Vincent D'Onofrio, Cherry Jones.

Screening Notes:  

Recommendation Level:  R

28.  The Gift (2018):   Watched on Netflix, 02/28.  Directed by Joel Edgerton, Performances by Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton. 

Screening Notes:

Recommendation Level:  HR

29.  Passing (2021):  Watched on Netflix, 03/01.  Written and Directed by Rebecca Hall, Performances by Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, Andre Holland, Alexander Skarsgard.

Screening Notes:

Recommendation Level:  R

30.  The Velvet Underground (doc, 2021):   Watched on Apple TV, 03/02.  Directed by Todd Haynes, Appearances by a brilliant and eclectic cast of individuals and mythical legends.

Screening Notes:

Recommendation Level:  R

31.  Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (doc, 1991):  Watched on Prime, 03/03. Directed by Eleanore Coppola, Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper, Appearances by Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Sheen, Dennis Hopper, Marlon Brando, Laurence Fishburne, John Milius, Sophia Coppola, Eleanore Coppola, George Lucas. 

Screening Notes:

Recommendation Level:  HR

32.  Dark Waters (2019):  Prime (rent), 03/04.  Directed by Todd Haynes, Performances Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Anne Hathaway, Bill Pullman.

Screening Notes:

Recommendation Level:  R (if you stop after Act 2), N (if you watch until the end)

33.  Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (doc, 2021):  Watched on Hulu, 03/05.  Directed by Quest Love, Appearances by Dorinda Drake, Barbara Bland-Acosta, Darryl Lewis, Ethel Beatty, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Cyril Innis Jr, Hal Tulchin, Billy Davis Jr, Gladys Knight, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stevie Wonder, Mavis Staples, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, B.B. King, Chris Rock... , Cinematography by Shawn Peters.

Screening Notes:

Recommendation Level:  HR

34.  The Green Knight (2021):  Watched on Prime (rent), 03/08.  Directed by David Lowery, Performances by Dev Patel, Joel Edgerton, Alicia Vikander, Sean Harris, Cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo. 

Screening Notes:

Recommendation Level:  HR

35.  The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021):  Watched on Apple TV, 03/08.  Directed by Joel Coen (w/o brother Ethan), Performances by Denzel Washington, Francis McDormand, Corey Hawkins.

Screening Notes:

Recommendation Level:  R

The Optical Files #36: White Zombie - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One (1992)

Back in 1990, White Zombie must have seemed like an odd choice for major-label attention. Their 2 LPs & 3 EPs worth of material were ragged, noisy, fuzzed-out Frankenstein headtrips with lurching tempos & shrieking vocals that almost dared you to like them. But once they caught the attention of Geffen (probably the most important label in '90s mainstream rock), they turned around & delivered 2 albums of streamlined, radio-ready groove metal, starting with 1992's La Sexorcisto. Along the way, Rob Zombie managed to reignite the flame of Monster Kid culture, like a stoned dreadlocked Forrest J. Ackerman for the 1990s.

A major reason for the slick sound of La Sexorcisto is budget: suddenly the band had real money to make a record, & the production is about as polished as heavy music gets. Occasionally this works to its detriment, as some of the riffs on songs like "I Am Legend" & "Spiderbaby" are sludgy enough to make me wish for a little more mud behind the board. Another result of the major-label budget is the abundance of samples, which would become a Zombie trademark. There were some samples peppered here & there on the band's previous records, but La Sexorcisto has them on practically every track, not to mention the 2 interstitial "Knuckle-Duster" sample collages. They are the first (& so far only) indication of the industrial direction that Rob would take the band through the next album & his solo career. As for this album, keyboards are mostly absent, & the only danceable beats are the ones Ivan DePrume is making behind the kit.

Maybe the most significant reason for the band's riffier sound is the entrance of guitarist Jay Yuenger, who churns out a reliably muscular performance through a fistful of sinister riffs that convey the overall impression of spooky fun. A handful of the riffs (e.g. the verse riffs on "Soul-Crusher" & "Cosmic Monsters Inc.") resemble slowed-down thrash riffs, but overall the album escapes the derisive "half-thrash" label a lot of groove metal got tagged with during this era. Most of the riffs owe more to '60s psychedelia, with a smattering of Melvins influence in the sludgier moments, remnants of the band's earlier styles. The groove metal movement's de-emphasis of guitar solos holds true here, though, as there are lots of instrumental breaks where your ear expects a solo, but none is forthcoming. Sometimes Yuenger throws in some slidey, woozy leads instead, but more often the band just rides the groove, with maybe a spoken movie sample interlude. Not until "Soul-Crusher," the 4th song, do we get our first guitar solo, more bluesy & tone-focused than technical. A similar solo follows in "I Am Legend" 3 songs later, & an unimpressive wispy one in the late-album letdown "Grindhouse A Go-Go." For the most part, the guitars on La Sexorcisto aren't multi-tracked, so perhaps the band was worried about sounding thin. Maybe they wanted to put more emphasis on atmosphere & groove than guitar theatrics. Or maybe Yuenger just didn't like solos. Whatever the case, to my ears the band could have benefited from adding a lead guitarist & letting Yuenger focus on the twisted, smoking heap of riffage.

Sean Yseult on bass gets a little more tricky than your standard groove metal bassist. Every so often she breaks away from unison with the root guitar notes & does her own thing, like in the chorus of "Thunderkiss '65" & the intro to "Black Sunshine." In a metal band with only 1 guitarist, especially one who is fond of throwing in atonal Voivod-esque chord stabs (again, "Black Sunshine"), the bassist is often responsible for instrumental harmonies, & the album's most interesting musical moments are the ones where Yseult & Yuenger are playing against one another. She has freedom to do this thanks to DePrume's rock-solid, no-frills, so-showy-fills drumming: he never gets a solo, he never draws attention to himself. His snare tone is a little over-reverbed for my liking, but at least it isn't pingy.

Rob Zombie adjusted his vocal delivery from the earlier album's nasal shrieks to more of a midrange bellow. He hadn't quite landed on the bark he'd employ on his solo albums, but there was a lot of emphasis on rhythmic precision--some people compare it to rapping & see this as a precursor to the Korn sound, but I liken it more to Tom Araya's Hell Awaits delivery. But as always, the vocals are Rob's least important contributions to this album. His lyrics, artwork, style, sample choices & overall artistic direction are unmistakably vital, & were the big selling point for me & a lot of other horror-obsessed kids in the '90s. It's thanks to him that this whole album smells like 30 year-old bongwater. With lyrical topics & dialogue samples ranging from Night of the Living Dead to Richard Matheson to Spider-Baby to Russ Meyer to Urotsukidoji, Rob turned as many kids on to high-class trash as the aforementioned Forry Ackerman. Say what you will about him, I can't think of anybody who has done more to thrust lowbrow horror culture into the mainstream, & I can't not love him for that.

Still, this isn't a perfect album. It's too long, & tracks toward the end like "Grindhouse A Go-Go" feel a little samey in terms of riffs & vocal delivery, & then there's the aforementioned soloing weak spot. But on Halloween or Mischief Night when you turn on the blacklight, turn up the volume & start looking for trouble, it's not like that really fucking matters.