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Love to Love You, Donna Summer (2023)
An Engaging Watch!
I thought this documentary was great! The filmmakers made great usage of all the archived footage and interviews they had at their disposal. Hearing about Donna Summer's life story and home life was very surprising and introduced so many more layers that I never knew about before. In my opinion, if a documentary does it's job right, it will make you want to look up more information about the artist afterwards. My favorite music documentaries (Searching For Sugarman, A Band Called Death, Zappa, Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All) make you want to look up more about the subject after the film is done. This documentary makes me want to do exactly that, and I love it! If you have a chance to watch this film, do so.
Waiting - The Van Duren Story (2018)
A Great Story Of Perserverance
The first time I had heard about Van Duren was when I walked into a local record store and saw an LP reissue of his first album "Are You Serious?" in the bins. I was intriguied by it, and looked up more information about it. It didn't take too long for me to find out that there was a documentary made about it. "Waiting - The Van Duren Story" had it's own website talking about the film, and a trailer. Unfortunately at that point in time, it was not available for viewing because they were still in the process of getting that ready.
In the meantime, I started to delve into Van Duren's material that was reissued by Omnivore Recordings. They were so great that I bought both of the reissued albums, and that is no small feat to get me to do! While looking through my music library again today, I saw "Are You Serious?" again. That made me think of the film again, as the last time I had checked on it was back in 2021. And there the film was, after all this time!
The documentary did not dissapoint! They took all the steps that I like to see in a documentary film about music. Interviewing the original people invovled, showcasing archival material and (of course) the music. It details the interesting story of Van Duren, and the journey of two fans from Australia who ended up helping him in a major way.
And by major, I mean they helped him get the rights back to his music! After Van split from Trod Nossel studios, he literally had to start all over again back in Memphis. He didn't own his publishing or his masters, and as showcased in the film, they proved to be difficult to work with. The filmmakers used their connections in the music industry to get in contact with some lawyers, and they managed to pull of getting both the rights and the master tapes back into the hands of Van Duren. It's sadly a far too common story for artists to never gain ownership of their works, and it's marvelous to see it finally happen after decades.
"Waiting" is a great documentary, and makes me feel inspired and hopeful that what was done for Van Duren can be done for other artists as well. I reccomend you watch it, and you can watch it for free on Tubi.
Trainwreck: Woodstock '99 (2022)
Great Documentary!
I had watched the other Woodstock '99 documentary that came out on HBO Max in 2021 (Woodstock 99: Peace, Love And Rage), and out of the two I like this one more. Instead of the massive amount of material that comes with Woodstock '99 being squeezed down into 1 hour and 50 minutes, you get an extra 32 minutes of content once with this series. It's spread out over 3 different episodes, so it gives you more time to process the events of each day and to expand upon what was covered in the other documentary. For instance, I didn't know what a map of the event grounds looked like during that festival. I didn't know the extent of what was happening in the rave hangar, or that they were playing Jimi Hendrix on the video screens at the end of Sunday either. These are just a few of the things that were discussed in the documentary that you learn once you have time a little time to breathe every 45 minutes.
The interviews they conducted for this series in my opinion felt less "eye rolling" overall. In "Peace, Love And Rage" they interviewed a handful of people like Moby saying things to the effect of "Oh, it was so horrible!", creating this bleak tone of the whole documentary. In "Trainwreck", the people they picked were more a mix of people who said they enjoyed it, and explained why they enjoyed it. However, they also acknowledge that looking back it overall was a surreal experience that was a product of it's time. One woman they interviewed bascially stated that they had fun, but they know that the things that happened there were wrong and said that they can teach their kids not to make the same mistakes or to accept things as normal that really should not be. That and the other interviews they conducted had the more preferable way of setting the event's tone overall.
The segments where they re-interviewed Michael Lang and John Scher about their involvement in the event seeemed more prepared overall. It's not that they had more time to think up ways to cover their asses, but they had more time to explain themselves after they saw the response from the last documentary. Both of them I felt did a better job of acknowledging what they could have done better with the event and why they did and did not make certain actions. Not to mention this time they did actually sit down with the then-mayor of Rome, New York Joseph Griffo. Flashing back and forth with new archival footage of back in 1999 and then in 2021 helped put me in the mindset of what they might have been thinking at the time.
Speaking of the archival footage, there was a lot more this time around that I had never seen before. This may have been a result of the new interest in the topic sparked by "Peace, Love And Rage" and people uncovering footage that they just had lying around somewhere, or it was footage that just wasn't used in the previous documentary. Not only that, but interviews with different musicians that performed at the festival that I wanted to hear before. In Fatboy Slim's interview, seeing him detail how during his set there was a teenager being raped in the rave hangar ambulance really added some weight to the event's legacy. The archival footage showed how the Red Hot Chili Peppers quickly jumped into a limousine and took off after their Sunday set.
The real highlight of the archival footage that was new to me in this documentary was how the Woodstock employees were dealing with the event overall. There was this woman (whose name I unfortuantely can not recall) who helped organize the food kitchens at the original 1969 festival that was interviewed and shown dealing with the people at the 1999 Woodstock. She was using this cart to drive around the event grounds handing out garbage bags, and addressing some kids about pushing over one of the art installations. And on the events of Sunday, one of the business office employees had a video camera that showed one of the employees barricading the door with 2x4's and the fear in some of their eyes that fateful night. After the dust cleared, there was news footage interviewing this big burly man that was with the original Woodstock as well stating that this was probably going to be the last Woodstock. For someone to say that after being with the Woodstock family for 30 years up until that point is profound.
For my final thoughts of the documentary, I really enjoyed it. Although I would say to watch "Peace, Love And Rage" as a companion piece to this due to the extra topics covered such as the death of David Derosia. If this kind of material interests you, by all means watch this!
Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes (2019)
Wow!
I was drawn in to the documentary for the chance to see some reggae master tapes in action, but I was floored by the content of the film itself! I was not expecting a beautiful story about family and perseverance. I have become more familiar with reggae as a whole recently enough, and it was a real treat to learn even more from first hand tales of people directly involved in the creation process.
The documentary takes it from the beginning of the 1960's, where Jamaica was just gaining it's independence from the United Kingdom. From the country's progression from Ska, to Reggae, and to the present day. All of which had involvement from the Chin family, beginning with the son of a Chinese immigrant to Jamaica, Vincent "Randy" Chin. Vincent would service the jukeboxes around the country with his wife Patricia, and came up with the idea to sell the used records at a second hand price. Thus they opened the store "Randy's Records" on 17 North Parade in Kingston. Randy's quickly became a hotspot and generated enough revenue for them to open up a studio on the second floor of the building, Studio 17. Up and coming talent would come to record in the studio, as well as burgeoning legendary producers. A collection of notable names from this period include Bob Marley & The Wailers, Dennis Brown, Peter Tosh, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Big Youth, Augustus Pablo and so many more.
How it was described in the documentary is that the artists got a package deal with Randy's. They could not only record at a reasonable price, but also sell their records in the very same building! The fun lasted until 1976, when there were political tensions clashing in the country. It got so bad that there were even shootouts in the street because of it! The violence deterred the family to such a degree that they left Jamaica and everything they owned behind, relocating to New York with only $50 in their pocket. They basically had to start over again. The way they described was that the only reggae anyone had heard of in the place they moved to (Jamaica, Queens) was restricted to just Bob Marley. The family continued on in the record business as VP Records, named after the first initials of Vincent and Patricia. Soon the business would become a powerhouse of distribution for reggae both in the United States and in their native Jamaica. After nearly 20 years passed, the producer of many of the recordings done at Studio 17 (Vincent's son, Clive) decided to journey back to the residence of their former store. Most of the store was looted during the 1988 hurricane that swept through Jamaica. Even though the temperature was hot as a furnace in the studio, it was left untouched. By a stroke of luck all the master tapes were still there, preserved on the top floor of the building. Clive was able to take them all back to New York by 2001, where his son would occasionally ask about what his father would do with the tapes (but nothing came to fruition).
Clive's son would move to Jamaica to be near the artists the the label distributed, but was murdered on the way home to his wife and newborn child in 2008. It was because of this tragedy that Clive finally made the decision to revisit the master tapes of recordings he made all those years ago. It was to honor his son, and what a touching way to do so! You will also see and hear many of the recordings in this documentary, which includes behind the scenes studio chatter and vivid stories that Clive has to pair with them. The whole experience wraps up with Clive finding a suitable female singer to complete an unfinished and unreleased Dennis Brown record, and the relationship of the family.
I was awestruck that I had not heard of the documentary before, and was rewarded tenfold by my investigation. There was a massive attention to detail in both sound and audio quality during the whole film. Not to mention all the incredible archive footage, interviews and songs chosen. I highly recommend it, especially if you want to know more about the history of reggae and the people involved beyond the scope of just Bob Marley & The Wailers! I watched it on Qwest TV with a free subscription, and it is defintely worth signing up just for this film.
Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart (2014)
Solid!
I watched this show on a whim just from me seeing someone post screenshots from it, and I got way more than I expected from it! What I got was just a very entertaining show that was just right in all categories. Great writing, animation, voice acting, backgrounds, pacing, length and genuinely funny moments. And when I say that, I actually mean that it got more than a sensible chuckle out of me but an real laugh.
All the characters were really memorable and none of them seemed cliche, which seems to be rare today in TV animation. The 11 minute episodes really worked to it's advantage because they didn't have to space everything out so much. You can have both action and quiet moments in the same space, and none of it feels dull. I really loved the show, and watched all 40 episodes of it so far. I would probably do it again, too. I hope it continues to have great success, because this is a show that truly deserves it.
The Social Dilemma (2020)
Plays Almost Like A Comedy
I did like this film, but of course I did have a few issues with it. To the point of where I just felt annoyed that it kept going in the same direction the whole time. The monetization and way that people spread information around for destructive use isn't anything new to me, I've been aware of this for a long time now at the point even though many in my same age group aren't as well. But the way that this film played was that it was supposed to "open your third eye" or something like that, and judging by all the people who gave this film a 10 it obviously worked!
False rumors would exist without social media, and the documentary does point this out at one point too. However, the composition of the entire film just focuses on the negative aspects of the whole process, and very little on the good things spare for the beginning and end. It's even more amped up with the scripted segments too! I was absolutely blown away by how unintentionally funny these scenes were, where all of them play out exactly like a mediocre Saturday Night Live sketch. I would not be surprised if you put canned laughter over it that it would blend perfectly.
To shed even more light on those segments, it just portrays everybody as being easy manipulated and belligerent. Where the daughter is SO addicted to social media to the point where she has to forcibly break open the container that has her phone after spending a minute away from it is over the top. The boy becoming depressed in a relationship and turning to radical politics? Both of these cases do happen to teens, however the path that's used to convey this would make it seem to a naïve parent that "this will definitely happen to my child". This point of thinking is just enforced by the ending where all these tech insiders are talking about not letting their kids have social media or sitting down to talk with them about "how much time do you think you want on the screen"? How is a kid supposed to know how much time they're going to spend using a device? They could be doing something completely different each time they use it, and it acts more like a loaded question.
For the points that this film was looking to get across, I would say they did what they set out to accomplish. Talking about Pizza Gate and conspiracy theories was an effective way of doing it. Putting all these key players behind designing some key components of the experience lent to it's credibility a great deal as well. Talking about this misinformation in this way would suggest that everybody is mindless and will just believe everything at face value. A lot of people do, but they don't realize you shouldn't believe everything you're told. People will lie to you, whether they know it or not. Could be a fact or news they heard from a connection of people and think it's truth, but the people who it's fed to don't think any deeper about it or say to themselves "is that true"? This isn't a new concept now, it's been like this for years even before social media became popular, but it's just been amplified (again, to the documentary's credit of mentioning this). We don't live in a world where you can do that anymore reliably, always try to fact check, especially for important events.
The way it concluded was a good way to wrap the whole experience up. I wasn't expecting that kind of humility where one of the people they interviewed mentioned "it's not all just doom and gloom". Where these people reflect on the cause and effect of their inventions, specifically the creator of the like button on Facebook. Like he said, there's no way that anyone could have predicted that's how it would be used. You could say the same thing about the algorithm, which is treated like an evil contraption is this piece of work. Which when they explained it it just gave me the thought of "yeah? are you going to tell me something I didn't know?", that's how recommendations work! The program they wrote is like having a real person tell you about it when they say "oh, you like this? well you may like this too" and then give you a sample of it. The train of thought this sparks off for me being portrayed in this film is The Matrix, which unfortunately the film creators were thinking of the same thing, as well as the people they interviewed.
When they explicitly mentioned that, it made me cringe. Even worse is when the inventor of the infinite scroll said "I had to stop myself from using Reddit", turning my non-smile into having an even lower chance of enjoying this film more. The general sense of thinking all of a sudden made sense when these two parts came up, it's the Reddit mindset! Where the general consensus of people who use the website is mostly dedicated to consuming media generated by these very same corporations they're criticizing with glee (trust me, I know. I used it for 7 years). Focusing on the horrible aspects all the time, talking about the world "devolving into chaos" as well. It's a literal echo chamber without (pretty much) no room for thoughts outside the hive mind of group thinking. Considering all that into effect, that's what this movie felt like. An enticing part of intellectual enlightenment or something pleasing, which is ironic considering the whole message of the film is to get away from that. Made the whole experience fall flat for me when it was all said and done.
If you managed to read all that above to get to this point or you just skipped to this point to get the verdict, it's a 6. Do I recommend it? I guess if you know nothing about it, it's a good place to get a start on understanding what goes into social media. It's not the height of this topic being explained, but I know people will think it is and pursue no further.
JoJo no Kimyô na Bôken (2012)
Worth Your Time.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is true to it's title, as I can't think of a better way to title the series. You go from character to character, time period to time period, and all of it is well planned out! The first season was pretty good, but then the second season took it to a whole new level. It became better the longer I watched it. That being said, I did have to watch it for a LONG time! There was 24 episodes in the first season, and 48 in the second. That was quite a dedication to make, but I would say it was well worth it in the end.
Not everything was perfect with those first two seasons, mostly stemming from the first. By no means the fault of the voice actors or the animation, which are both phenomenal in their own right. It's more with the source material. With the first season it was really grating how all the main characters had inner monologue, outer monologue, and did a lot of explaining of the current situation. A lot of that was unnecessary, because I can see it all happening on the screen. You don't need to explain everything to me! Luckily, this was resolved pretty much entirely in the second season, I don't know if I could have gone for much longer if they kept doing that.
Also, nearly all the main character names were named after music bands / artists and pop culture characters. Which you think as someone like myself who's a big music fan would enjoy, but I found myself rolling my eyes into the back of my head each time a new one was revealed. The way they were used were clever, and only a select few being obvious of their origins so I'll give that to them.
I was hesitant at first to even start watching the series because of the way people talked about it online. When they get together in big groups sometimes they can be unbearable by the way they talk about the show or try to show it down people's throat of how great the show is. I agree, it is great, but you should never try to force a piece of entertainment onto anyone. Just let the person decide for themselves if they're going to watch it or not, otherwise it'll have the effect it had on me where it just makes them not want to watch it instead.
The show in my opinion is an 8 / 10, I recommend you give it a watch. Your patience will pay off if you watch enough of it.
White Lines (2020)
Very Good!
I decided to give this show a try based on the premise, and I was able to stick with it all the way through! It was getting into gear in the first few episodes, but it really was able to have you hooked by the end of the 10 episode stint. It was different from most other things I watched due to the fact that there is a lot of Spanish speaking in this film, as it does come from a Spanish director, cast, and setting in Ibiza, Spain. But I did end up liking it a lot, so don't let that deter you.
The whole story of a missing brother being found dead in the dessert opens up into a complex web of history of friends. The same people that are being talked to were all involved in the story 20 years ago, and to see how they have grown over time and what has changed and what hasn't was very pleasing to see. The series deals with some heavy subjects such as relationships, infidelity, the drug trade, excess and morals. It all came together very nicely in the end.
I would recommend this series if you're looking for something engaging and fun to watch. Although I should mention there is a lot of sex and nudity. Lots and lots of sex, it was almost jarring how much there was overall.
Beastars (2019)
Great Show!
Back when I had to really seek this series out, I heard about it through word of mouth. That was when it was airing over exclusively in Japan. I loved the series so much that I read the entire manga that the season was sourced from, and I loved that even more! You can imagine how pleased I was when I heard they announced an official localization on Netflix.
I was skeptical at first by just how it looked, well by first glance it just looks like it's going to be a fur fest. But I gave it a fair chance, and I was more than impressed! The story line is engaging right from the first episode to the last. It was complimented by the performance on the voice actors greatly, as they managed to take the characters, make it their own, and still deliver a high quality product.
Everything deserves a fair chance, so don't let the appearance get out off guard first. If you do that, then you're really missing out on something truly great. I'm not even a person who watches anime / read manga at all and I was gripped. The unique animation style also helped, with a solid blend of drama, romance, and a light amount of comedy to lighten the mood. I highly recommend you give it a watch!
Infinity Train (2019)
This Is Great!
The show is very digestible at 11 minutes a piece, and it's well worth your time. Every part of the "infinity train" they visit is creative, and the writers use each car to it's full potential. The show really could have gone on for as long as it wanted, but it made the right choice to pick the best concepts for the cars and condense them into this 10 episode series.
The characters are great, and the main character, Tulip, does deal with real-world issues of divorce and really is a believable character. The emotion shown is real, and it feels very genuine even at it's most silly points (i.e. Cameo's "Word Up" segment). You learn a good part about her each episode, which that's saying something considering how much time they have to work with. The plots move quick without feeling rushed, and they get to the point and climax of the episode without feeling drawn out. The side character Atticus (voiced by Ernie Hudson!) I was very pleased to see come back from the pilot episode, and not to worry, he's in nearly every episode so you'll get your fill of him! One-one was also very well written, as they didn't need to take his character so seriously and has a nice dynamic with the whole split-personality thing he had going on.
Overall, I highly recommend this series! It's an interesting and fun series that lets you think about it's plot points a little bit without delineating from it's core value: entertainment. It doesn't make you cringe at the subject matter or how it's handled, as it's executed superbly. One of the better animated series I've watched in a while, and it would be real cool to see more!
Bean (1997)
It never gets old!
No matter how much I watch this movie, it's still great. It's over the top, goofy, and ridiculous but that's what makes it have such a lasting appeal. It's a perfect play on cringe humor and physical comedy. At an hour and a half, it's just the right length and it spaces all the story elements and jokes out nicely. Give it a watch, you'll at least chuckle!
The Andy Milonakis Show (2005)
Legendary.
The Andy Milonakis Show was just so different from the very beginning, very unlike what anyone had seen before. People just took the show as a big goof, a waste of time, but little did they know how much impact it would have. Strange and Weird humor is the normal for most shows nowadays, ranging from The Eric Andre Show to even Key & Peele. Surreal humor is king. The sketches on this show were just too simple for everyone to understand.
On the surface level, every sketch on this show looks very dumb and low budget. But that's where the charm of it comes in! Just simple setups can lead to great laughs with a well executed climax. Some of my favorites episodes on this show ("Andy Goes Camping", "Andy Moves To LA", "Episode 1.1", "Episode 2.7") have simple sketches in them with a lot of laughs coming out of it. The whole point of the show is to not take it seriously, you're supposed to have fun! And The Andy Milonakis Show does just that. Combine that with a bunch of Celebrity Cameos and Bumpers and you got a great show on your hands.
Andy Milonakis is so underrated, it's unbelievable. People have bashed him for over a decade calling him "fat", "awful", "untalented" or even "childish". He knows exactly what he's doing, and he's doing a great job. Please continue to bless us with your presence, Andy!
The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police (1997)
A Real Treat!
The writing in this show was phenomenal, and they jam-packed nearly every episode with some of the best jokes out there. Doesn't matter how many times you watch the series, you'll always find something new you didn't notice before.
Coming from playing just the 1993 "Sam & Max Hit The Road", I was SO pleased to find out the show was just as entertaining as the game was. As the game did, it pushes the limits of what can be possible on a show like this. To have great writing, great animation, and be entertaining at the same time? Few can nail it like Sam & Max: Freelance Police can!
I want the media I watch to keep me engaged, and be interesting to watch. This series more than accomplished that for me. This show is definitely one of my favorites ever, and I highly recommend you give it a watch!
The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974)
It was ok.
I really liked the first installment of Fritz, but this one was just mediocre in comparison. Not having Ralph Bakshi direct this one was a huge mistake. The plot moves forward even more jittery, is way more vulgar, and overall nonsensical compared to the first. The few pluses I got out of this film is I really like the animation style of all the characters, and the settings. That is the one thing that they didn't take away from the sequel, and I thank them for that. Obviously effort and time was put into it on that side of the equation, so that is why I give The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat a 4 out of 10.