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As of March 2008, the Dixie Chicks were the highest selling female band in any musical genre with 36 million albums sold. Not bad, for a band that has had to struggle with death threats, the refusal by radio stations to play their music and an entire fan base turning against them.
This documentary, 'Shut Up and Sing', shows the fallout of a throw away line made at a London concert, that was badly timed with US President George Bush's decision to invade Iraq to uncover the certain cache of weapons of mass destruction.
The women have become known worldwide for their music, their fashion sense but motly for their outspoken political comments. Smells like a scapegoat hunt to me as we learn that lead singer Natalie Maine's exact words were:
Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas. ”
That's all she said, but for the American people that was all she wrote. This quote bounded across the world within hours of the show, igniting a wave of anger and a financial backlash to the band. 'Shut Up and Sing' is very interesting as we see the women and their entourage go from giggling shock to questioning the honesty of the damage control that is necessary to save them as a business and a band. The omnipresent camera shows us how Natalie Maines' stubborn personality and youth worries the other members of the band, and their manager, even while she shows integrity to stand by what is after all an American ethos - freedom of speech.
After the Fallout 2006
'Shut Up and Sing' is a very interesting magnifying glass on the turn of events surrounding the start of the war in Iraq, the fear, the anger and the search for a punching bag for the frightened American people to vent on. The documentary swings back and forward somewhat dizzyingly and confusingly between the reaction across America and their lives and recording of their latest album in 2006 the autobiographical 'Taking The Long Way' in which they penned a number of songs with Dan Wilson including 'Not Ready To Make Nice' letting their public know just how they felt.
Youtube link "Not ready to make nice"
I found it interesting to note a discussion where the women muse that being good county girls, it was easy to make them be bad guys. Their manager tells them that they will be forgiven by their country music fans because the current number one artist is a wife beater, and they forgave him. Also, disturbing scenes of disc stomping that call to mind descriptions of book-burning...have we really not changed in all this time?
Martie, Natalie and Emily make a decision to change their genre - to walk away from their country music stereotype and write a 'non-commercial' album which has seen their popularity soar, and they acknowledge in the doco that at the end of the day, what Natalie said - right or wrong- changed their lives. Certainly, my interest in them grew after the events that headlined them, and Taking the Long Way is certainly the Dixie Chicks at their best and most interesting. (Check out Silent House on that album, written by Neil Finn)
'Shut Up and Sing' may really be only for fans, although it is an interesting retrospective on America at the inception of their latest war. I'm glad to know that in Australia, it's OK to put your foot in your mouth from time to time. Hell, I do it all the time. How could you get so cranky at women who would do this for a laugh?
Youtube link: Dixie Chicks funny
Sometimes life gets in the way of your plans. That's why I've been so quiet lately. Sometimes you write a post and then you accidentally discard it and you have to write it again and then you close the page and lose it again. And sometimes you are so frustrated that you want to kill your Mother-In-Law (or is that just me?) but you sit down and try for a third time to write about films that include possible reasons for divorce proceedings.
Amazon
My husband tricked me.
'Come and watch a movie with me,' he said. 'It's got Amanda Peet in it,' he said
'What's it called?' I asked. I like Amanda Peet, I've seen her in everything.
Amanda Peet. Funny & pretty; what's not to like?
'Griffin & Phoenix,' he said. Strangely, I hadn't heard of it but I also hadn't heard of 'Alot Like Love' with Amanda and Ashton Kutcher until my sister put me onto it, and I loved that.
'It's also got that guy with the scar on his lip,' said my husband.
'Joaquin?' I wondered.
'No, the other guy you like. The one that's in everything but he isn't really big.'
'Dermot Mulroney! Cool, OK, I'm in!' I said. Both of these actors play mostly supporting roles in romantic comedies and I certainly could use a laugh. I love Amanda Peet - she sticks straws up her nose. And Dermot is that guy you can love or hate and still like without being overpoweringly handsome. He is Real Guy.
'Real Guy' IMDB
Griffin and Phoenix was originally written for TV by John Hill (no relation) in 1976. It's tag line was 'The greatest love story since Love Story'...there's a clue. It starred Columbo's Peter Falk another 'real' guy,
Peter Falk (right) & friend
and Jill Clayburgh, who currently plays Letitia Darling in Dirty Sexy Money! Odd couple? Certainly, but they broke hearts across America with their portrayal of a couple forming a relationship whilst keeping the same tragic secret from each other.
Cut to 2007, the same writer, John Hill, adapts his screenplay for the big screen and selects Dermot Mulroney to play Geoff Griffin, a divorced father of two diagnosed with cancer and determined to take what life he has left by the throat and shake it for all it's worth. At a local university lecture on understanding death, he chances upon Amanda Peet's Sarah Phoenix, a Dean at the University and a strangely conservative and quiet woman for Peet to play. Despite Phoenix's rejections the unlikely pair start to form a relationship of sorts based on the shared adventures of naughty (not sexy naughty, more like bad kids naughty) and risky behaviour, that is outside of her life experiences and she finally blossoms into the Amanda Peet character we know and love. Love blooms for the couple and we see a very pretty New York through the eyes of the lovers, until Phoenix discovers Griffin's 'coping with cancer' books and confronts him for taking advantage of her. This is the best scene in the movie. The realisation that they both really DO have something in common. A very nasty something. The rest of the movie is about their ups and downs, right up to the ultimate tear jerking final romantic scene.
There are back stories that are underplayed: Griffin's ex-wife is remarrying a pleasant enough man, and Griffin tries to build up what appears to be a non-existant relationship with his two sons. He tells none of his family the news. Phoenix has been terribly hurt in her last relationship with implication that it ended at the time she was diagnosed. Both of these stories would have built empathy for the characters and rounded out their situation better, and should not have been edited out if in fact they were ever written in.
Griffin and Phoenix has been said to be a film in the genre of dramedy. I would disagree. I would say it has been written with the intent of wringing every last drop of salt water from your body, and hoping for a wry smile every now and then as relief. I guess Peet and Mulroney like to stretch themselves from time to time, but I don't think these roles suited them together.
I only discovered that this was previously made for TV upon researching for this post, but I must say, after seeing it my initial thought was that it was one of those made for TV movie that the videoshop slip in from time to time.
Mother's Day present - Tick! IMDB
It is not 'poignantly funny' as the cover would have you believe. It is very prettily filmed but still incredibly disappointing to watch if you are expecting light comedy. My husband is so dead. Good gift for the Mother In Law for Mother's Day.
Vantage Point promo poster
A great cast plays out the leadup and fall out of an assassination attempt on the US President (Willam Hurt) during an anti-terrorist summit in Spain. We initially see it in the control room of GNN's OB Van, where Sigourney Weaver plays a very credible News Director (I've worked with them before, she was spot on, except for a distinct lack of caffeine). Dennis Quaid has his less attractive cats-bum face on for his role as Special Service personnel Thomas Barnes, nervously back on the ropes after taking a bullet for the President 6 months earlier. His partner played by hunky Mathew Fox is keeping an eye out for him. The President is shot as he gives his address, and a bomb goes off in the square with thousands of panicking people trying to escape. We are given the film from the vantage point of a number of people starting with the News Director seeing it through the camera lens.
Each viewpoint feeds us a little more information until finally, we have an omnipresent sense of the whole thing through what is supposed to be the collective of terrorists involved. The premise is interesting....but...
Did you ever get a sense that a movie was written purely to justify the writer's satisfaction at seeing one scene come to life? It is only my opinion..but I couldn't help but feel that Vantage Point came to fruition when some screenwriter/director thought how cool it would be to have a huge chase scene where the police car is being chased, instead of being the chaser. That, and what if you could format and control an entire terrorist act with a Blackberry?
Yeah, I'm starting to imagine who this writer/director/producer might be because then there is the use of different character perspectives and time looping to show how all the perspectives fit into what amounts to be an enormous convoluted puzzle. He's young and funky and (he thinks) original and he likes and plays with modern technology an awful lot.
It's too perfect- too well constructed. The terrorists plan is apparently flawless but it raises too many questions. How can Secret Service people placed close to the President, be sleepers? If you're happy to kill thousands of innocent people, why would you brake for a random child standing in the middle of a street? Amongst thousands of people, how can three or four people accidentally come across the unusual combination of two other random people. How can Forrest Whittaker's character afford to travel to Europe when he has just broken up with his wife and pays maintainence on four kids? Why doesn't someone just give poor Dennis Quaid a laxative before he comes on set? Why is the audio so bad...to imitate the noise of a frightened, crowded city or to confuse the viewer until everything falls into place. Or is it just me?
It loses consistency by keeping strictly to each character's viewpoint and then wandering randomly to the viewpoint of the terrorist group, but keeping an ominpresent eye on things at the end. What I mean to say is, the viewer becomes accustomed to receiving small bits of information at a time, but then we have ALL the information dumped on us at once. It kind of ruins the feel of what they have set up throughout the movie.
Is it a good movie? Meh. It's fine for DVD, and it's PG13 so you can watch with whichever of your kids would be interested. But they'll be asking questions. Mark my words. Nobody can keep their face like Dennis does all through this film without everyone wanting to know why he doesn't just eat some fruit, for pity's sake.
'Raiders of the Lost Ark' was certainly one of my favorite movies as a kid and the best of the three Indiana movies released thus far. All the little things about it were good: the scripting was light and tight, the effects were believeable, the music was dramatic and overt and the casting was fabulous. Is that Alfred Molina in the first scene in the jungle?
Movie Poster: Raiders of the Lost Ark
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Mr & Mrs Jackman
Given an opportunity to have my dream dinner party, there is no denying that, like many hotblooded Aussie women, I would certainly have a place set for Hugh Jackman. Wouldn't he be fun? He sings, he dances, he's funny and pretty as a picture. Especially with his X-Men arms and chest all done up the way they are at the moment. Mmmmmmm. Sorry. I would be terribly disappointed, however, if he did not bring his very lovely wife Deborrah Lee Furness. In fact, I think I've had a crush on her for longer than I've even been aware of Hugh. She has flown under the radar really as an Australian actress, which seems to me to be a bit of a shame - cut to a very bad segue to one of her early films, let me know if you get my joke
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After a recent conversation with a few 'Orblers', about horror films and the merits or lack thereof of M.Night Shyamalan's movies - it was universally agreed that his film Unbreakable, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson, was an interesting film dealing as it does with the idea of superhero origins.
Today, in the news we hear of a baby in Switzerland that blew onto traintracks and survived being run over by a train, with only a bump on his head.
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Sugar Rushing's great post about walking out of movies got me inspired. Walking out of a movie is a very decisive action. It requires a certain amount of internal dialogue: Is it going to get better? What about my hard earned $15? What about my date/friend/mum? Do they really hate it too or are they just being nice and going to punish me later? Can I see well enough not to trip over or cripple anyone on my way out?
Falling asleep in a movie, however, is mostly an involuntary thing. With it comes a slew of different problems - few of them controllable: snoring, the nods, drooling and the startle reflex that you have when something suddenly wakes you. Like your date/friend/mum
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I haven't seen Zodiac yet, and I can't wait to get it on DVD. In fact, I'm busting! My bladder is the size of a walnut, thanks to the birth of three kids in 5 years, and I knew in all good conscience that I could not go and see a movie like that without missing a huge chunk because I was busting and couldn't concentrate until I ran to the loo and back. You can't run to the loo and back during a movie like Zodiac because you will, for certain, miss something crucial. Zodiac runs for 2 hours and 40 minutes, and apparently its original was 3 hours 5 minutes, so I'm pretty sure it's a tight ship.
It's a compliment in a way that film producers/directors think we are smart enough to deal with so much information that they need to make movies run over two hours, or is it just vanity? Writers are constantly told to 'kill your babies' meaning the little bits that they are inordinately proud of, but don't move the story along. I can't help but wonder if film makers need a little workshop in this area. The cool thing about film making is presenting a story in the economy of a couple of hours (Woody Allen's films are all under 2 hours, and some are barely more than 90 minutes) - but modern film is edging along to three hours currently. For me that means that a) I'll be waiting for it on DVD, so I can pause for a pee, or b) it aint that great to hold me squirming in my seat to the end
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For me the best type of horror movie needs to be (dare I say it) light on gore, and large on tension AND story details. Don't give me any of the US versions of Japanese movies like The Ring and in particular, The Grudge. The damn things don't make any sense to me. I like supernatural themes at the best of times, but they have to make sense. Having bad things happening (to good people) just because of an evil presence that simply wants random revenge on something - is not good enough to keep me watching. I am not engaged, because I'm trying to figure out 'why?'...'why is it picking on them?', 'why is it so deadly?', 'Why did I pay $15 for this?'. Similarly the Halloween series, and others like them seemed a bit random to me. Just a thin story to prop up the slicing and dicing.
But that's OK because M. Night. Shyamalan exists, people. Want story...here's a beaut. Want tension? I'll build you up, with clues all the way and hand over the biggest puzzle piece at the end - you'll be scratching your head for days, thinking how it added up, and you'll be bragging at dinnerparties about how you knew he was dead! Want originality? Here's a bucket and...another bucket full of the stuff. Want interesting people to look at and BELIEVE...here's Mel, here's Bruce, Joaquin, Samuel L., Abigail Breslin (who he discovered for Signs) and coming soon...here's Mark Whalberg! I can't wait
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A movie is currently being made of the author Jodi Picoult's great story 'My Sisters Keeper'. The parents are to be played by The Lost Boys Jason Patric and Cameron Diaz, and the two girls are Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin and Sofia Vassilieva (who plays Patricia Arquette's oldest daughter in TV's Medium). Joan Cusack and Alec Baldwin play parts as well - and are pretty much easy to spot if you've read the book - which means I'm not gonna tell you if you haven't. Nick Cassavetes, director of The Notebook , John Q and She's So Lovely, conducts this film as well which apparently promises to be a great feature, and quite convoluted.
Here's the thing...Jason Patric - sure, he's right on the mark for father roles. Joan and Alec have both sucessfully played parts in comedic and dramatic roles, and clearly Nick's range as director is really broad...John Q AND The Notebook??!! The kids are right on the money and pretty much all that's available from the serious kiddie pool who isn't pregnant or out partying with Mom..but Cameron Diaz? Crikey! I have nothing against her, but she's not for dramatic roles. She's not sincere enough..or is it that she's so sincere she makes me ill? I would be surprised to see this film had much humor to it, and really she's a romcom kind of gal
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on Nicole Kidman - Perhaps There IS a Human Under All That Botox?