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Reviews
Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
Entertaining but overwrought
This guy's life wasn't tragic. Unlike Van Gogh at least he had the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of his success while he was still alive. I bet Vincent would have chosen that everyday over suffering for his art in poverty and being shunned as a freak by society only to be hailed as a genius after his death. Kurt Cobain however was an unappreciative brat who got lucky and got to have it all while he was alive before he threw it all away. I don't care how talented or exceptional you believe him or anyone else to be, but luck plays a huge part in determining your success. He was in the right place ( Seattle, Sub Pop flying a journalist from Melody Maker to review their bands in the name of creating hype that wasn't there before) at the right time ( late 80s early 90s when raw rock was due a revival). Most equally ambitious hard working musicians / artists aren't and we never hear of them.
In other contexts, his childhood wouldn't be perceived as so bad either. He was just a sensitive kid who took the break up of his family harder than most would. Young Kurt ending up homeless for a short little while was brought on by himself being divisive and acting out. There are no stories of his parents physically nor emotionally abusing him. The only thing we keep hearing is that they got divorced and Kurt didn't like that, so he withdrew and rebelled when he was teenager. He smoked too much weed and preferred to slack off rather than graduate despite clearly having a higher than average intellect. His pain later in life can almost solely be attributed to his drug addiction - something he perpetuated by unconsciously inventing psychosomatic illness as an excuse for himself to keep using - which lead to his eventual early demise. What a waste.
The Dark Knight (2008)
I cant believe that way more intelligent people than me buy into this crap
Heath Ledger's performance aside, this is a kid's movie masquerading as a serious one. Get over it. Ok, maybe I am being a bit of a snob and shouldn't judge people for their ardor towards a comic book hero they grew up idolising. But still, could someone please explain to me why the painfully dull Bruce Wayne and wooden Batman character has to be wasted on a brilliant actor like Christian Bale? Michael Keeton at least had a sense of humor about the whole thing which helped in the resurgence of his career in Birdman 20 years later. But there is absolutely nothing you can take home from Bale's performance which could have been played by absolutely ANYONE - Yes, even Ben Affleck, haha.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Perks of ruining your own classic novella
Actor playing Charlie was way too good looking. I always pictured a young Elliott Smith. I read that the director/writer caved into pressure from the lead actor who was originally cast as another character in the book (probably the jock who looked like a total wimp next to this lofty strapping young man) As for the rest of the kids they were an I-Phone away from being typical millennials rather than early 90s misfit / drama kids. I understand that the book was originally written for a young audience at the time who could relate, and it makes sense that the movie would be targeted at today's youth, but the whole thing just feels phony and forced. Especially when they get faux excited about discovering a band like the Cocteau Twins, all the while living in a world where they had never heard of David Bowie's 'Heroes'.
If you liked the book stay far away from this adaptation.
Nobody (2021)
Unapologetically un-woke, dumb and fun
I'm a big fan of Better Call Saul and Bob Odenkirk, but worked out pretty early that this was going to be an unabashed throwback to 80's action hero takes on the entire enemy cartel on his own and wins. I switched off my brain, strapped myself in and went with it. FAR OUT!!
I got the sense that the film makers were fully aware of every politically incorrect transgression they made here - Stereotypical Russian gangsters, gun fetishes, not a single rounded female character all cast as nothing more than eye candy for the male gaze, Oh, and no 80s action movie is complete until the token black good guy sidekick gets shot and killed - well almost, but it was here when they really drove their point home that they were clearly poking fun at themselves and the movies they grew up watching.
To sum up Nobody is a movie made by Gen X dads for Gen X dads,
American Masters: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)
Come back some other day, you sound like a hillbilly
Dylan was the first outsider superstar. Male movie stars and pop idols were supposed to be tall, broad shouldered, wholesome looking with perfect teeth and greased back hair. If they were singers, they were supposed to have voices that were at least pleasant on the ears. 1961/62 Bob Dylan possessed none of these things. He was a short, skinny, dishevelled looking country boy with what would be described by most as an ear piercingly annoying singing voice. Although not explicitly stated, it's painstakingly implied when you listen to regalings from his Greenwich Village peers like Dave Von Ronk, Liam Clancy and Tony Glover that Bob being signed to Columbia was not only met with astonishment but also resentment from them. How could they have picked this twerpy little kid before the rest of them who were doing exactly the same thing but better and in a far more refined manner than him? What John Hammond saw in this kid when he was introduced to him at a party is academic. The question should rather be '' how on earth did Bob get to that party?'' The clues to this answer are given in the interviews with his peers: Bob was a sponge, a hustler, a chameleon, this irritating kid who was always there every time you turned around and just wanted to swat him away (Clancy).
His first album's flopping most likely vindicated the rest of the NY folk scene's prevailing beliefs about Bob being undeserving and ''nothing special''. Bob's excuse for the sheer mediocrity of his debut was that he didn't want to ''give anything away '' Implying that he had already written songs like '' Blowin in the Wind'' and '' A hard rain's a gonna fall'' that would only feature a year later on his next album. Had Hammond/ Columbia/ Grossman passed on Bob and went with a safer more obvious candidate like eg. Von Ronk, with all due respect to Dave and his talents - would he or any of others have had that '' it'' factor, the unutterable, inexplicable thing that it took to rise to the level of superstardom that Bob rose to? I somehow doubt that.
Almost Famous (2000)
Almost too far-fetched to be based on an almost true story
I'm surprised to find so many negative reviews calling this movie far-fetched and ridden with cliches and stereotypes. How can it be if it's a semi autobiographical retelling of director and screenwriter, Cameron Crowe's life? He really did graduate from high school at 15 because his mom lied to him about his real age. He really was hired by Rolling Stone magazine at 16, and shortly after assigned to go on tour with The Allman Brothers to write a cover story about them (''Then-senior editor Ben Fong-Torres also said of Crowe: "He was the guy we sent out after some difficult customers. He covered the bands that hated Rolling Stone."'') Name me 5 other people who lived an equally unique and triumphant experience growing up , and I'll concede that this movie is trite and should never have been made.
Jimi: All Is by My Side (2013)
Understated and underrated
Avoid if you expect theme park rides when it comes to rock biopics, Watch, if you liked movies like Control, Last Days and Greetings from Tim Buckley. As for those hating the movie just because it retells facts about how a certain influential white musician helped Jimi along the way to his meteoric rise to fame, what can I say? For me, its actually pretty cool to learn that the dorkiest Beatle of them all, famous for his mullet of kintyre and granny songs, played a part in introducing the world to the most bad ass musicians of all time.
#Stuck (2014)
More than just an MTV Before Sunrise
I wasn't too sure about this, but it piqued my interest somewhat, So I took it out. When it opened with some really bad girly girl music, I was like 'oh god, this was a mistake'. But then it got better , and thank f*** so did the music.
What I really took from this movie was how my fondness for each character gradually developed by seeing him/her through the eyes of the other character - And it was like a vicarious light-bulb moment you share with them when they start to realise; 'hang on a sec we're actually very compatible'. I can't, off hand, think of another movie that does this so effectively.
So it doesn't posses that same sleeper indie understated cool that 'Before Sunrise' does. But there's something about these two characters that make them seem more real, honest and relatable. I guess this juxtaposition between the two films (where this one could so easily have been called 'After Sunrise'), is the movie's whole point.
I don't know, but an average rating of 5.7 just doesn't seem fair for a beautifully written script with such excellent dialogue. Well done to everyone involved