Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate it | {Insert Appropriate Seasonal Greeting Here}

[Unholy Diver]

Moana 2 - 7/10

A clear step back from the original, big downgrade on the music going from Lin Manuel Miranda to whoever did this one, the story was also a bit thin, seemed like too much focus on the Moana's team to me than the actual story, villains also a downgrade, nobody as memorable as Tamatoa, not a bad movie, but nowhere near the first one


Wicked Part 1 - 8/10

I've never seen the stage version or read the wicked books, and I am not a huge musical guy, so your mileage may vary from mine, but I found the story to pretty enjoyable, the musical scenes were well done, and the film kept me invested and interested. Grande and Erivo were a good pair playing such opposites, and the rest of the cast held their own.

 

[kihei]

The Piano Lesson (2024) Directed by Malcolm Washington 6A

The Washington clan is slowly working through playwright August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle, ten plays of which nine of them are set in that city. Denzell Washington has executive produced all three film adaptations so far, Fences and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom being the other two, and starred in Fences. The Piano Lesson is directed by one son, Malcolm, and its lead actor is another son, John David. Washington's wife and daughters are involved as well, either as producers or supporting actors. August Wilson's plays focus on black American experience with his pitch perfect dialogue being reminiscent of Arthur Miller's best works. Indeed, it is embarrassing that Wilson's plays never received the same level of praise and reward that Miller's achieved.

The Piano Lesson is about a black family living during the mid-1930's in Pittsburgh whose heirloom piano becomes a source of conflict between a brother and sister, one of whom wants to sell it, the other who wants to keep it because of its importance to the family's history. A bit of a ghost story factors in on the decision making. While inexperienced director Malcolm Washington tries to extend the narrative beyond the stage with flashbacks and exterior scenes, The Piano Lesson remains clearly a play first and a movie second. As this is true of the other two films in the series as well, it seems fair to conclude that Washington and family are reticent to tamper with Wilson's works too much, an accusation of theatricality being less onerous to bear than a potentially wrong-headed and disfiguring adaptation. This is the sort of work where one expects the actors to have a field day and they do with one exception. Danielle Deadwyler is suberb and Samuel L. Jackson is better than he has been in years. However, as the headstrong brother John David Washington seems to be playing to the back rows of Yankee Stadium; his performance is way too over-the-top and it distracts slightly from the plays themes of a family's legacy and their relationship to the past. However, Deadwyler's Oscar worthy performance more than makes up for Washington's deficiencies.

Netflix

 

[Bahama Mama]

Terrific film.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047396/?ref_=chttp_t_52

 

[kihei]

Beatles '64 (2024) Directed by David Tedeschi 8A (documentary)

Even if you are sick of The Beatles and think that you have seen every inch of film ever shot about them, you still might want to give Beatles '64 a try. While it goes without saying that this documentary is a must-see for Beatles fans, less enthusiastic viewers should take note that the footage on display, photographed by renowned documentarians the Maysles brothers (Salesman; Grey Gardens; When We Were Kings), has only been released on formats that virtually nobody has ever seen. Produced by Martin Scorsese, who has an excellent track record when it comes to music documentaries (The Last Waltz; No Direction Home; George Harrison: Living in the Material World), Beatles '64 has a tight focus: the arrival and impact of the Beatles in North America in 1964 culminating in appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and two weeks of whirlwind touring, two weeks that changed the notion of youth culture forever.

We mostly see The Beatles either performing or away from the limelight, save for the Maysles cameras. Its the "away from the limelight" stuff that is most revealing. The four seem surprised, delighted but a little wary, too, of the commotion their presence is causing in Manhattan and elsewhere. With the boys just being boys, we get natural sketches of each clearly distinct personality which director David Tedeschi allows us to judge for ourselves rather than to try to shape our perceptions with voice-overs. A number of people, everyone from New York Philharmonic conductor Leonard Bernstein's daughter to fans who had been caught up in the initial wave of Beatlemania, make perceptive comments about the impact this early visit by the band to North America had on their lives and on the social order. Most of them put forth a version of the same reaction that I experienced as a first-year university student watching in something approaching awe as the band performed on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. Not only were they an absolutely wonderful rock and roll band, but somehow there was a glimmer, a vague but still palpable sense that these guys were game-changers who would open doors that the authority figures of the time had sternly tried to close. They seemed like a new direction, an example of how youth suddenly could be hip, sexy and fun. Then, of course, most of this generation grew up and in our dotage voted for Trump. The late author Kurt Vonnegut would have undoubtedly appreciated the bitter irony. Don't blame the Beatles for that, though. They did their bit to make the world a better place. The point is, Beatles '64 does justice to The Beatles unique presence and to their remarkable legacy, too.