movie review
The best music movies throughout history.
Documentary Review: 'Woodstock 99 Peace, Love, and Rage'
Reliving the terrible memory I have of Woodstock 99 in the new HBO/Bill Simmons documentary, Woodstock Love, Peace, and Rage, made my skin crawl. It’s a memory I had apparently repressed all of these years. I wasn’t at Woodstock 99 but I recall laughing at the hubristic spectacle as it devolved beyond the simplistic metaphor of Lord of the Flies and into a genuine modern tragedy. I took dark comic pleasure, schadenfreude, while enjoying the spectacular failure of Woodstock 99 and remembering that now upsets me.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Beat
Review of McCartney 3, 2, 1
The first thing I want to tell you about McCartney 3, 2, 1 -- Rick Rubin's incandescent black-and-white three-hour six-episode interview with McCartney on Hulu -- is that in addition to being mind blowing and musically joyful, it made me very sad.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Beat
Review of Summer of Soul
My wife and I just saw Summer of Soul on Hulu. We loved it. It's a musical documentary, directed by Questlove, about a festival in Harlem in July 1969, in what is now Marcus Garvey Park. Around the same time as Woodstock and human beings first walked on the Moon. The concerts were superbly recorded -- both sight and sound -- at the time. The line-up included included Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Fifth Dimension, the Staples, Mahalia Jackson, the Chambers Brothers, David Ruffin (he had just left the Temptations), and more. The mystery is why hasn't this been seen until now?
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Beat
Documentary Review: 'Summer of Soul' and the Empathy of Shared Memories
Summer of Soul is one of the most emotional documentaries I have ever experienced. Watching this more than 50 years after it had seemingly disappeared, the music at the heart of Summer of Soul is more powerful than ever. Time has given Summer of Soul a power that it did not have when it happened. Don’t misunderstand, as you watch this remarkable footage, the moment captured had power in the moment it happened. I mean that time and incident have given the footage even greater impact.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Beat
10 Best Thriller Movies of All Time
10º – Se7en (David Fincher, 1995) A serial killer appears terrorizing an American city with several victims, always having as a source of inspiration for their crimes the capital sins. Two detectives are tasked with discovering the identity of the killer, initiating a complex investigation. ‘Se7en’ makes use of a cold cinematography and an exhibition of irreplaceable plans to give dynamicity to the beautiful history, counting on one of the most emblematic endings of the seventh art.
By Student Matters5 years ago in Beat
Billie Eilish: The World's A Little Blurry Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write reviews like this of every movie I see. I got a free trial of AppleTV+ just for this documentary, okay, don't judge me! It was so worth it! Now listen, I actually originally didn't want to see this film. It wasn't because I don't like Billie Eilish -- on the contrary, she's one of my favorite artists to listen to currently and one of my favorite currently working artists (I love when the swapping around of words brings two entirely different meanings). I love pretty much every single one of her songs (although there are some I just find less interesting than others), I adore her live performances (yes, including her Oscar performance), her brother Finneas is a genius when it comes to producing and songwriting, and come after me if you want, but in my opinion, she and Finneas earned every single Grammy they've been nominated for. So why didn't I want to see this movie if I'm such a big fan of Eilish? Because in general, the marketing made it seem like another run-of-the-mill artist-struggles-with-fame-and-touring documentary that, sure, is entertaining to watch once but doesn't really have any lasting impact beyond that. There's been a pretty recent trend of these films lately, and I don't know, I just got burned out from how many came out at once even though I admittedly haven't seen that many of them.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Beat
‘In the Heights’ Review—An Energetic Musical Feat
Lights up on Washington Heights as Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, Now You See Me 2) directs In the Heights, a musical drama based on Qiara Alegría Hudes and Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Tony-winning musical of the same name. This film follows the members of the Washington Heights community as they face a blackout, all while pursuing their dreams.
By Jonathan Sim5 years ago in Beat
Documentary Review: 'Moby Doc' A Pretentious Look at a Pretentious Artist
If you plan on watching the new documentary Moby Doc, all about the music artist Moby, then you must be a fan first. The documentary is utterly impenetrable to those who aren’t already in Moby’s fandom. Being someone outside of the Moby fandom, aware of him mostly through cultural osmosis, I was rarely engaged or invested in the rather obtuse and off-putting artiness of Moby Doc. I appreciate that Moby and director Robert G Bralver wanted to do something different and fitting for Moby’s unique personality, but the artful touches are a little too extravagant for those who aren’t already familiar with Moby’s personality and art.
By Sean Patrick5 years ago in Beat
The Genius of Psycho's Score
One of the most important aspects of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho is Bernard Hermann’s tense score. In addition to Hitchcock’s brilliant direction that feels meticulous in every shot, the music serves to convey the emotions of the characters, the terror in their eyes, their deepest fears, and their determination to learn more about the strange events at Bates Motel. At its most prominent, the score allows us to get inside the head of Marion Crane, feel the weight of the actions of Norman’s mother, and accentuate the actions of the characters with the help of the editing.
By Jamie Lammers5 years ago in Beat
My Review of "Biggie: I Have a Story to Tell"
Biggie: I Have a Story to Tell is a biography of Christopher Wallace better known as the Notorious B.I.G. A lot of us probably know of the rapper but this documentary goes into more details of how he was brought up. It's also one of Netflix's latest song writer biographies. They've been killing it with a lot of the biographies lately so I couldn't help but check this documentary out.
By Brian Anonymous5 years ago in Beat
On The Rocks: A Rocky Road
On The Rocks is is a drama from Sofia Coppola starring Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, and Marlon Wayans. The red flags started early in this lackluster drama when its first words were, (spoken by the main character’s father): “And remember, don’t give your heart to any boys. You’re mine. Until you get married. Then you’re still mine.”
By Roya Weiss-Weinberg5 years ago in Beat
Five Must-See Music Documentaries
The Filth and The Fury Julien Temple – 2000 The first of my must-see music documentaries is The Filth and the Fury. Temple’s exposé explores the rise and the ensuing chaotic demise of the Sex Pistols. It is a damning critique of the 70s’ Britain told from the perspective of the surviving members of the Sex Pistols.
By Ricky Chopra5 years ago in Beat
