*Woody Allen On Tour- "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Click On Title To Link To Wikipedia's Entry For Woody Allen.

DVD REVIEW

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Javier Barmen, Penelope Cruz, directed by Woody Allen, 2008

I have been reviewing Woody Allen productions in this space over the past year or so. I have highly rated such old Woody classics as “Annie Hall, “Manhattan” and “Radio Days”, those memorable films with New York City its trials, tribulations and traumas as an epicenter. I have also given mixed reviews to some of his later productions like “Manhattan Mystery” and others based in other geographic locales (“Purple Rose Of Cairo”, etc.). I was, however, fully prepared to fulsomely praise the film under review, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, after having heard the hype about Penelope Cruz’s performance as, Maria Elena, the talented estranged artsy wife of the central male character, Juan Antonia (Javier Bardem), a Spanish avant guarde artist. After viewing the film Ms. Cruz's performance was certainly Oscar-worthy. Nevertheless the overall production falls flat. And here is why.

Woody Allen has created an important cinematic niche for himself as a performer, director, writer and producer in that netherworld of the alienated modern urbanite, especially of distracted women unsure of their place in the world and their ability to navigate it with (or without) a man. The classic examples of such angst and confusion were various film vehicles created for Diane Keaton (“Annie Hall”) Mia Farrow (“Broadway Danny Rose”, “Stardust Memories”) and along the way Woody himself, his doubts and his inhibitions (in about six billion of his films starting with “Take The Money And Run”). Here Woody has gathered the old familiar concerns about sexual inhibitions, the vacuity of upper middle class suburban life, the eternal problems with the opposite sex and various social conventions like bisexuality, adultery, threesomes and the like. All very familiar Woody material, although not always set in Barcelona.

With the above-mentioned exception of Ms. Cruz the other characters are Woody’s stock and trade of late: young woman with various personal and social problems, with or without Woody as conduit. The truly beautiful and talented Scarlett Johansson is wooden here as Cristina. The lesser known actress, Rebecca Hall, playing Vicky's role is the same. In the end I did not care whether the two women (or three, if we include Ms. Cruz) got their issues resolved, or not. That is not a good sign in a Woody Allen film where in earlier, better film , if nothing else, we are at least left wondering about their fates. Woody, come back to your New York hearth and home with all its tangled energies, excitement, enigmas and hangups. There you are “king of the hill”. Leave Europe for the kids.

*Not Ready For Prime Time Class Struggle- A Folk Revival, Revival? - “A Mighty Wind”- A Film Review

Not Ready For Prime Time Class Struggle- A Folk Revival, Revival? - “A Mighty Wind”- A Film Review

A "YouTube" film clip from the movie "A Mighty Wind".


DVD Review

A Mighty Wind, 2003




One of the strands of leftist cultural expression, apart from the central struggle to get people fighting for a workers party that fights for a workers government, that this space has attempted to explore and give some meaning to is the folk revival of the 1960s that was a critical nodal point in this writer’s turn away from mainstream popular culture. Now, as an attentive reader might well know, I have reviewed more well-known folk figures like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Pete Seeger than one could shake a stick at. I have also paid plenty of attention to lesser figures like Dave Van Ronk, Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton, as well as reaching back to the iconic figures from the mist of time that motivated those revivalist performers, like Harry Smith and the Lomaxes, John and son Alan. In short, I have paid my dues and have treated that folk revival with proper respect.

Not so this mostly witty sent-up of a film that takes on the whole revival of the folk revival question head first, and gives it a big boot in the behind. The story line, such as it is, and which is not really the factor that keeps this thing moving, is that an old folk music agent has died, leaving a request to his erstwhile dutiful son to try to bring the top three acts that he acted as agent for back for one more shot in the limelight. Nothing wrong with that premise, unless of course it is merely done to take a crack at the pocketbook of the nostalgically-inclined sector of the now aging folk music component of the post-World War II “boomer” generation. And this film does just that, doing a nice job of putting-on the whole PBS-like public television apparatus that thrives on just such events to satisfy their demographics, and helps raise that every constant need for cash from its listeners.

Of course, as is to be expected, it is no easy thing to get the three groups to cooperate, especially the star attraction, Bob and Joan, oops, Mitch and Mickey. Along the way there are more sent-ups: where the folk niche fits in today’s download-driven music market; the problems with aging voices; and the dippy doings of some of the folk musak entertainers. This one is for laughs, and although some bits are corny, intentionally or not, there is enough to keep you interested for the one and one half hours that the movie has you in its grip. From a guy who takes his folk music straight, and with no nonsense, that means something.

*Films To While Away The Class Struggle By- The Halls Of Justice The Only Justice Is In The Halls- The Life and Hard Times Of Lenny Bruce

Click on the headline to link to a "YouTube" film clip of "Lenny Bruce On The Irish". Ouch!

Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By”-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some films that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. In the future I expect to do the same for books under a similar heading.-Markin

DVD Review

Lenny Bruce: Without Tears, Lenny Bruce and various commentators, directed by Fred Baker, New Titles Productions, 1972

Okay, the average black male kid on the average ghetto city block knows, and knows without blinking, and knows from some seemingly unspoken source deep within his genetic structure that the cards are stacked against. That the cops, the courts, or some other part of the “justice” system will, eventually, come knocking at the door or grab him off the street for something, usually dope. The average Latino male kid on the average barrio city now knows pretty much knows that same thing, again usually on some bogus drug charge. And nowadays even young black and Latina women are getting that same message coded into their psyches. What is not encoded is for a white, Jewish comic guy who has an off-beat sense of humor and has something to say, sometimes something profound to say to face that same music, anytime. That, my friends, is the Lenny Bruce story in a nutshell and forms the theme for this commentary.

Really, I could leave the headline, taken from something Lenny Bruce said when he was in deep and surreal legal trouble back in the 1960s, and that would tell the tale here. Nevertheless the case of one off –beat comic who tried to “go outside the envelope” of confines of safe, secure, no waves, post-World World II cultural expression is an object lesson for the rest of us. Being a little bit uppity, being a little too black or brown, or being a little too red will get you in more trouble than you can shake a stick at then, and now.

On viewing this documentary my first impression was “what is all the fuss about?” At the vantage point, forty or fifty years after the events, it is hard to see what the so-called moral police of the day got in a dither over in Bruce’s work. On any given day you can hear more lewdness, lunacy, and sheer vulgarity on “talk” radio or television than Lenny ever uttered. That, however, is the point. Lenny was the point man, the trenchant social critic cum comedian who was honored after the fact, but not while the heat was on.

One of the highlights of this documentary is Lenny Bruce performing in various venues interspersed with “talking head” commentary by those who knew or interviewed him. The most interesting one is with jazz critic and social activist, Nat Hentoff, when Lenny is deep in trouble and has physically been ravished by his struggle. Kenneth Tynan, of 1950s San Francisco poetic fame, and Malcolm Muggeridge add their somewhat bizarre two cents worth. As does Bruce fellow social critic, Mort Sahl.

Throwing out the above names and discussing the time frame of Bruce’s troubles brings one final point. Was Lenny, like Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs and Tynan, part of the 1950s “beat” generation? Certainly he was part of the avant guarde back door jazz scene and miles in front of any one else in the Milton Berle/Sid Caesar 1950s comedy world. One of the commentators noted that Bruce was primarily an entertainer, a man trying to make a living at what he did best. That seems right. But whether he was “beat” or not, he certainly pushed the envelop. And that is part of his legacy, and worthy of honor by us.