Monthly Archives: September 2019

Judy

Garland

In late 1968 Judy Garland was a pill-popping has-been. Oh, sure, she was legendary and beloved but she was broke and she couldn’t get a gig. Except in London where promoters were willing to book her despite her erratic ways.

The new film Judy, with Renée Zellweger in the title role, chronicles those few weeks when she worked her magic before adoring British audiences. She also had several disastrous episodes there, brought on by her drinking and her pills.

That’s right, Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland. With hair dye, makeup and a pucker, she gets the Garland look. Or close enough. My recent memories of Miss Z are of a slightly heavier Bridget Jones but Renée Zellweger is, in fact, a slim woman, as was the latter day Judy Garland.

Zellweger also nails the Garland kinetic body motion, like a bobblehead almost, likely a result of Garland’s being wired much of the time.

Judy is not a full life biography film but includes many flashbacks to Garland’s younger Wizard Of Oz and Andy Hardy days when producers and handlers were constantly hounding her about her weight. Even in those early days of her career, she was guided away from food and toward diet pills.

The film features several entertaining musical numbers and recreates the magic of Judy Garland’s ability to light up a room. But even with the accommodations afforded her by the London folks, she continues to live on the edge.

Along with her career issues, her personal life is a mess. She regrets having to leave her two younger kids with their dad Sid Luft (Rufus Sewell) when she goes across the pond. In London, she marries the much younger Mickey (Finn Wittrock) who she barely knows. While she relishes the chance to perform again, her London promoters assign Rosalyn, a handler (Jessie Buckley), to make sure Judy shows up on time.

Judy Garland was a tragic figure and this film captures a representative slice of her life with its highs and lows. As much as the world loved her for Wizard Of Oz, A Star Is Born and her TV work, existence was a struggle for Judy Garland.

Cheers to Renée Zellweger for giving us a glimpse of Judy at her best and her worst. Is Zellweger Oscar-worthy? Portrayals of famous individuals do sometimes lead to awards. There will be buzz but she’s not a shoo-in. As they often say on TV, only time will tell.

 

 

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Bio Movies: Dramatic vs Documentary

When presenting a story about a famous person on film, which is better: a scripted dramatic film starring professional actors or a documentary film featuring actual footage of the person with comments from friends, family and other associates?

This question comes to mind after seeing films during the last year about Freddie Mercury, David Crosby, Miles Davis, Linda Ronstadt and Judy Garland. Also, the Ken Burns PBS series about country music caused me to recall dramatic movies about Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash, among others.

My examples listed here are music stars but the question also applies also to films about well-known individuals in other walks of life. It’s my belief that each style (dramatic or documentary) has its own virtues.

In a dramatic telling of a person’s life story or, as with the Judy Garland movie, a brief period of a person’s life, the filmmaker has the opportunity to massage the facts to present a coherent narrative with elements of conflict, romance and the ups and downs of life. Timelines can be condensed or expanded. Events that may have seemed inconsequential at the time can be presented as key turning points.

In a documentary film, the filmmaker also has the ability to shape the content that makes it to the screen, but he or she is working with actual events and real people. Is a documentary biographical film the complete and unvarnished truth? No. It is a version of the truth. But with archival footage and present day commentary, it has a level of authenticity. The best documentaries, I believe, have a point of view and may not present all sides of a story.

A successful biography type film, be it dramatic or doc, adds to our understanding of an individual and our appreciation for that person’s challenges and accomplishments.

Of course, a key consideration is money. Production costs for Bohemian Rhapsody are estimated on imdb.com at $52 million. The film’s worldwide gross is nearly one billion dollars. Documentary costs or revenues are never anywhere close to those numbers. For that reason, producers may be more quickly willing to risk an investment on a documentary about a person such as Linda Ronstadt whereas a dramatic telling of her life/career story would be a much riskier proposition.

With both styles of storytelling, there will always be complaints that a real life event was depicted incorrectly or that certain events or people are totally omitted. But, hey, you can’t please everybody.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ad Astra

Screen Shot 2019-09-19 at 8.47.55 AM

Is Ad Astra more than just another entertaining space drama? Not really. But if you want to layer some special meaning onto the story, that’s your privilege as a moviegoer.

Many males have complex relationships with their dads. This has been addressed in movies ranging from The Empire Strikes Back to Field Of Dreams to the under appreciated 2014 film The Judge. In this sci-fi tale set in the not-that-distant future, a son’s feelings about his father are a key element in the son’s psyche.

Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is an astronaut whose dad Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), also an astronaut, led a mission to the outer rim of our solar system and has not been heard from in decades. Power surges that threaten human survival have been linked to this distant outpost just off Neptune.

Roy is directed by leaders here on Earth to go there and fix the situation. He is directed to “fly commercial” to the moon before heading to a station on Mars. Along the way, he gets intel about his dad from a crusty Colonel Pruitt (Donald Sutherland).

Throughout the movie, Roy’s psychological fitness is periodically checked by AI devices. Many of Roy’s inner thoughts are shared via Pitt voiceovers.

On Mars, an evaluation of Roy’s mental state and his emotional attempt to communicate with his dad cause officials to scrub his further participation in the effort to mitigate the Neptune crisis. But he goes rogue and flies off to check on dad.

Ad Astra is filled with amazing effects and images but writer/director James Gray incorporates them in a way that’s not as flashy as those in some space flicks. His futuristic visions seem more matter-of-fact than included for jaw-dropping spectacle. (Or maybe I’ve just seen several space movies in recent years and my personal “wow” level has been recalibrated.)

Brad Pitt brings his usual A game to the screen and shows his range via a character who is wildly different from the one that will likely net him an Oscar nomination. (The expected nod would be for his Cliff Booth in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. But sometimes awards voters cast a vote for cumulative efforts so his work here can only add to his chances of a win.)

Also in the film are Ruth Negga as a Mars base staffer and Liv Tyler as Roy’s wife Eve.

Ad Astra is a film to be enjoyed for what it is. If you want to read more into it than is made clear in the narrative, go right ahead.

 

 

 

 

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Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool - Poster

The music of Miles Davis “makes my soul smile,” says Quincy Jones in the new documentary film Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool. “I want to feel the way Miles sounds,” says another of the many voices whose comments fuel the story of the jazz legend with local roots.

Along with the memories shared by childhood friends, fellow musicians, music business associates, historians and several of the women in his life, the words of Miles himself offer candid recollections. Those words are delivered by actor Carl Lumbly who employs the Davis rasp, the result of surgery on Davis’s larynx in 1956.

Davis was born in Alton and raised in East St. Louis. His was a well-to-do upbringing. His father was a dentist who also owned a farm in Millstadt. Despite his family’s economic situation, he experienced the sting of racism in St. Louis and later in other places. An encounter with a New York city policeman in the 60s resulted in significant injuries to Davis.

Director Stanley Nelson has assembled a huge volume of archival film clips and photos to tell Davis’s musical and personal stories. The trumpeter’s talent took him away from home and on the road as a teen. His recording career included the masterpiece album Kind Of Blue, released in 1959. He hired and nurtured several notable jazz musicians including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Ron Carter, each of whom contributes to the film.

Davis’s periods of drug use are not skipped over. Davis fell asleep at the wheel in 1972 and crashed his Lamborghini. The pain he suffered afterward led him back to heavy drug use and a period in the late 70s when he did not pick up his horn for nearly five years.

Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool is a film that brings new details of Miles Davis’s life to hardcore jazz fans. It also provides a great introduction to music lovers who may be less familiar with the music of Miles Davis because it exists just outside of the mainstream. For those who may know his name but not his story, the film offers a fresh appreciation of a major figure in American musical history.

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