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popentertainment-moviereviews · 4 years

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THE BEE GEES: HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART? (2020)

Featuring Barry Gibb, Peter Brown, Eric Clapton, Vince Melouney, Mark Ronson, Noel Gallagher, Mykaell Riley, Lulu, Nick Jonas, Linda Gibb, Alan Kendall, Yvonne Gibb, Bill Oakes, Dennis Byron, Blue Weaver, Karl Richardson, Chris Martin, Albhy Galuten, Justin Timberlake, Nicky Siano, Charlie Steiner, Vince Lawrence, Dwina Gibb, and archival footage of Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Hugh Gibb, Barbara Gibb, Robert Stigwood, Arif Mardin, Lindsey Buckingham, Alice Cooper, Mick Fleetwood, Steve Dahl, John Travolta, Ed Sheeran and Andy Gibb.

Directed by Frank Marshall.

Distributed by HBO Documentary Films. 111 minutes. Not Rated.

Screened from the 2020 Philadelphia Film Festival.

Although they don’t always get the respect of say Lennon/McCartney, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon or several others, the Gibb brothers – Barry, Robin and Maurice – should be right up at the top of the list of the great songwriters of the 20th Century. Not only that, they were amazing performers – natural singers with an uncanny sense of harmony. They created some of the most gorgeous ballads of the 1960s and early 1970s before reinventing themselves as a dance band, which led to one of the greatest hot streaks in music history. As pointed out in this film, from 1977 through 1979, it was not unusual to find songs that they either performed or wrote in four of the top five positions of the pop charts.

The songs speak for themselves. “Massachusetts.” “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?” “Jive Talkin’.” “Staying Alive.” “Run to Me.” “Too Much Heaven.” “To Love Somebody.” “I Started a Joke.” “How Deep is Your Love?” “Nights on Broadway.” “You Should Be Dancing.” “Lonely Days.” That’s just scratching the surface of the Bee Gees’ hits. Most artists would give anything for half as many songs that became musical standards.

This is at least the third full documentary on The Bee Gees of the new millennium, each one exactly a decade apart. Previously, there was Bee Gees: This Is Where I Came In in 2000, which was released in conjunction with what turned out to be the band’s final original album of the same name. Then, in 2010 they released Bee Gees: In Our Own Time. And now, as timely as the census, we have our 2020 Bee Gees doc, Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.

Unfortunately, since two of the brothers Gibb are now dead (three, if you count youngest brother Andy, who had a very successful solo career), the filmmakers had to use archival interview footage of everyone but Barry (and they even used some older footage of him). I can’t swear to it, because it has been a long time since I saw it, but I am almost certain that the interview footage from Robin and Maurice (and some of Barry, too) was the same footage used in This Is Where I Came In. Not only that, since Maurice died in 2003, I’m almost positive that they previously had resurrected some of this same interview footage from In Our Own Time.

However, there is new interview footage of Barry here, as well as from their producers, musical fans and members of their band, so this is not all just a repeat of previous films.

And, let’s face it, the Bee Gee’s life story and most importantly their music is endlessly entertaining, so if they are going to release a film on it every decade or so, even though the band has not released any new product in about 20 years, I’m on board.

How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? actually adds a touch of tragic pathos to the story. Barry Gibb – the oldest of the brothers and probably the most recognizable – is now alone. As he states towards the end of the film, he still misses every single one of them and still feels like they should be performing together, even though they are long gone. Andy died soon after his 30th birthday in 1988, of a heart attack due to a previous drug problem. (He had just been announced as an official member of the Bee Gees soon before his death.) Maurice died in 2003, due to a surprise complication on what was supposed to be a fairly standard surgery. Robin succumbed to cancer in 2012.

The film occasionally plays fast and loose with their history. During Robin’s early 1970s break with his brothers, the film says that the band was completely broken up for a year and a half, but Barry and Maurice released the Bee Gees’ Cucumber Castle album and telefilm as a duo, while Robin tried his hand as a solo artist – which was shown here. (However, the film ignores Barry and Robin’s solo attempts in the mid-80s.)

Also, as far as the disco backlash that finally knocked the band from the top reaches of the charts, the film blames the – granted stupid – novelty song “Disco Duck” for the death of disco. But they forget to acknowledge that song came out a year and a half before Saturday Night Fever – in fact, it was even used mockingly in the film (though not on the soundtrack album) during a scene of middle-aged squares learning how to disco dance.

However, it is nice that as a talking head, house musician Vince Lawrence, who was working as an usher at Chicago’s Comiskey Park on the day of Steve Dahl’s infamous “Disco Demolition” stunt, which did essentially kill disco, called it out for what it was – a racist and homophobic book burning.

However, calling the Bee Gees a disco band would be way, way underestimating them. They were one of the great pop groups of their time, and Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is almost two hours of sheer bliss.

(Ed. Note: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 annual Philadelphia Film Festival has been changed to a virtual festival. All films and Q&As will be available for streaming. You can get information on the festival at their website target="_blank"http://filmadelphia.org/festival/)

Jay S. Jacobs

#Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?#2020 #Movie Reviews #The Bee Gees #Jay S. Jacobs #PFF29 #Philadelphia Film Festival

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tinseltine · 4 years

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#MiniMovieReview THE PERFECT CANDIDATE Filmmaker HAIFAA AL-MANSOUR | Germany, SAUDI ARABIA | Arabic, English | 2019 | 105 MIN

http://tinseltine.com/29th-annual-philadelphia-film-festival-coverage/#theperfectcandidate

#saudiarabia #womensrights #The Perfect Candidate #female filmmakers #Film Festival #Philadelphia Film Festival #PFF29 #Tinsel& Tine #Film promotion #Film Critic #Movie site

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popentertainment-moviereviews · 4 years

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JUMBO (2020)

Starring Noémie Merlant, Emmanuelle Bercot, Bastien Bouillon, Sam Louwyck, Tracy Dossou, Jonathan Bartholmé, Eduard Nemcsenko, Noah Daccrissio, Idao Daccrissio, Stephen Rohde, Chris Caligo, Jimmy Raphaël and Barbara Hellemans.

Screenplay by Zoé Wittock.

Directed by Zoé Wittock.

Distributed by Dark Star Pictures. 93 minutes. Not Rated.

Screened from the 2020 Philadelphia Film Festival.

Jeanne, the heroine of the oddball but fascinating French film Jumbo is in love with an amusement park ride. When I say that, I’m not just saying she enjoys taking the ride. She is literally in love with it. She feels romantically for the giant machine, and even sexually. She is considering committing to share her life with it. She fantasizes about it covering her with its hot, sticky oil.

Yes, her obsession is strange, but is she really hurting anyone, other than perhaps herself?

Particularly since it appears that the ride is actually communicating with her. Or is that all in her head? The film stays pretty ambiguous on this matter.

The ride is a Move It machine, all bright blinking lights, throbbing wires, huge grasping arms and cushioned seats. Jeanne calls it Jumbo, because as she explains the name Move It doesn’t suit the huge attraction.

Jeanne is an intensely shy woman, living with her overbearing mother and desperately afraid of both love and loneliness. Her life revolves around her work at a local amusement park. She is bullied by some of her co-workers, being flirted with by her slightly smarmy new boss and seems to only find happiness making little intricate dioramas of the theme park rides.

It is into this empty life that Jumbo arrives, the new star at the park, with its twinkling lights and its long questing arms.

Jeanne is bravely played by the terrific French actress Noémie Merlant, who played a very, very different kind of role as the lead in last year’s art house favorite Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Yet despite all of Jeanne’s neuroses and flaws – and believe me, she has many of those – Merlant is able to make Jeanne a sympathetic figure. A bit pathetic, perhaps, but the audience instinctively wants to protect her.

Not that you necessarily want to see her marry a carnival ride, but you do want to see her get her life under control, and maybe have her find the love that she so obviously craves but scares her. Hopefully not with an inanimate object, but, hey, if it works for her, who are we to judge?

However, even with this oddball high concept, Jumbo has more astute things to say about the human condition than many other more “realistic” films. Because Jumbo is not really about Jumbo, though of course it plays a big part in the film. More to the point, it is a smart and sensitive look at a lost soul, an outcast who is trying to find her way in the world, even if it is not necessarily a road that most would take.

Jay S. Jacobs

#Jumbo #2020 #Movie Review #Noémie Merlant #Jay S. Jacobs #PFF29 #Philadelphia Film Festival

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popentertainment-moviereviews · 4 years

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BLACK BEAR (2020)

Starring Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott, Sarah Gadon, Paola Lázaro, Grantham Coleman, Lindsay Burdge, Alexander Koch, Jennifer Kim, Shannon O'Neill and Lou Gonzalez.

Screenplay by Lawrence Michael Levine.

Directed by Lawrence Michael Levine.

Distributed by Momentum Pictures. 104 minutes. Rated R.

Screened from the 2020 Philadelphia Film Festival.

I’m not sure what to think about Black Bear. It’s extremely well made, terrifically acted, very atmospheric, and makes little or no sense. Literally, the first 40 minutes of Black Bear tells one story and the last hour tells an entirely different – though often vaguely parallel – tale. The same actors are playing different characters, with different relationships and often different personalities.

At first you think the first part is simply a film being made in the second part, but even on that basic level the storylines don’t match up. Big inconsistencies – like one character being pregnant in the first part and the same actress in the second part not even playing a pregnant woman – cause you to wonder what the heck is going on.

And what does the black bear in the woods have to do with either story, really, even though he appears in both?

Honestly, I never quite figured it all out.

Occasionally you come across a movie which seems to be a little too arty for its own good, and I’m afraid Black Bear falls in that category. I’m sure it’s trying hard to be some wonderful human allegory and was made with the idea of becoming a film festival favorite (little did they know when filming this by the time it hit the festival circuit that film fests would be through necessity be virtual), but honestly it is working too hard at quirkiness.

Which is a shame, because Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Rec) got a rare occasion to play a lead role – well, technically, she is playing two lead roles, here, I suppose – and she is wonderful. She is willing to be raw and exposed at the same time as she plays with her reputation for being smart and slightly snarky.

The other actors are also mostly terrific – and there are a lot of them, at least in the second part, the first section is pretty much three characters.

I really wanted to like Black Bear, and to a certain extent I did. It’s a smart and atmospheric and well-made film. If either one of the two storylines were focused upon and fleshed out and the other part was cut out, I would have probably thought it was a pretty terrific movie.

However, in the end the complete ambiguity of the film did not leave me feeling satisfied, merely confused. Maybe there is some deeper meaning which I’m missing here, in fact I’m rather sure there is. I believe that art needs a certain amount of ambiguity, but honestly Black Bear takes it too far. It’s an interesting experiment that doesn’t quite succeed.

Jay S. Jacobs

#Black Bear #2020 #Movie Review #Aubrey Plaza #Jay S. Jacobs #PFF29 #philadelphia film festival

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popentertainment-moviereviews · 4 years

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BANKSY MOST WANTED (2020)

Featuring Steve Lazarides, Craig Williams, Martine Berg Olsen, Claudia Joseph and Robin Barton.

Written by Aurélia Rouvier and Seamus Haley.

Directed by Aurélia Rouvier and Seamus Haley.

Distributed by Canal+ Pictures. 93 minutes. Not Rated.

Screened from the 2020 Philadelphia Film Festival.

So, who is Banksy?

Banksy Most Wanted is a pretty fascinating look at one of the art world’s greatest and most famous provocateurs, but honestly it gives us very little insight into the artist himself (or herself, or themselves). In other words, it doesn’t tell us all that much that we did not already know.

Which, I suppose is to be expected. The mystery of Banksy is a huge part of his appeal. (I’ll refer to Banksy from here on out as “him,” although as noted above no one knows exactly what the artist’s sex really is, or even if it is just one person.) Without the cloak of anonymity, his work would not be nearly as intriguing.

People obsess about the identity of the guerilla artist. In fact, Banksy Most Wanted features extended interviews with three journalists who passionately claim that they have figured out the secret identity of the artist. (Strangely enough, two of these three unmasked “Banksy”s are the leaders of well-known arty dance bands – Massive Attack and The Gorillaz.)

Are any of the three really Banksy?

Maybe. Maybe not. (I tend to think it’s the latter.) However, just the fact that people are working so hard to figure it out is rather brilliant on Banksy’s part.

A few people interviewed in Banksy Most Wanted claim to know the identity of the artist for a fact. One of them (his former agent Steve Lazarides) most certainly does know. However, they all play along, dropping little hints and distractions, but always keeping the secret safe. As it should be.

Banksy’s anonymity is his raison d’etre. Without it, he’d be just another graffiti artist. More talented than many perhaps, and certainly a man of bravery and cunning, but he would not be nearly as special and well regarded as he is currently.

Banksy is a practical joker as well as a painter. He is a political flamethrower. He is a joy buzzer in the staid art gallery world. Giving him a real name or a face for the public to latch onto would undo the very essence of the man and rob him of the thing that makes him special.

In the film, one of the talking heads suggests that Banksy is the most well-known artist in the world, more popular than Rembrandt or DaVinci. While I find that very, very hard to believe, he is undoubtedly the most culturally important pop artist since Warhol.

Even looking at a procession of Banksy’s “greatest hits” – both as an artist and as a rabble-rouser – is endlessly entertaining, so Banksy Most Wanted is time well spent.

Still, Banksy Most Wanted could have used a bit of the puckish humor and adventurousness of Banksy’s own 2010 documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, which is a much better film in general. However if you want to see a pretty by-the-books overview of Banksy’s career, his work and his mischief, you could do a lot worse.

Jay S. Jacobs

#Banksy Most Wanted #2020 #Movie Review #Banksy #PFF29 #Philadelphia Film Festival #Jay S. Jacobs

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tinseltine · 4 years

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#PFF29 Wishing @PhillyFilmSoc a Super 29th Annual Philadelphia Film Festival 2020 style! Here's the team from Filmadelphia Short doc ON THE FENCELINE: A FIGHT FOR CLEAN AIR - which screens tomorrow (10/24) 5:30pm Check out their Tinsel & Tine 5 Questions for Filmmakers Q&A ... T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film and/or the theme that is the heart of your film? Tara Eng: The more time we spent with Philly Thrive, the more we realized how special it was to have a group of people who leaned on each other, uplifted each other, and empowered each other whether they were meeting for the first or hundredth time. We were inspired by that strong sense of community and deep level of caring, and it became the heart & soul of the film. Alisha Tamarchenko: We also wanted audiences to come out of the screening feeling uplifted and inspired. The topics we tackle – the inequity of climate disaster and environmental degradation can often be demoralizing. We really wanted people to walk away feeling the resiliency of a community, the power of grassroots organizing and hopefully inspired to take action. T&T: One Pro and One Con regarding Shooting Independent Films in and around Philadelphia Kristen: I am in love with Philadelphia and the people of Philadelphia. Having lived in the suburbs for most of my life, I was in and out of Philly often but never fully knew the community within all the different neighborhoods. Getting to know South Philly through the lens of Philly Thrive brought to light a whole community that has come together to fight this huge polluting entity that I can’t say has affected me as greatly from living a bit farther away. Every interaction we had with Thrive made me realize just how distant I was from these communities. This understanding shifted my personal perspective and I feel so lucky to learn more about the people in the Point Breeze and Wilson Park neighborhoods that we filmed in. We also absolutely love Wawa so that was a major pro. Also since Tara and I are both from the area, we were able to see and stay with our families during our trips to Philly. They accommodated our whole team for which we are incredibly grateful. I can’t think of any cons, other than drone restrictions around the airport and refinery were a bit sketchy at times. I would love to make another documentary in Philly... READ ALL 5 ANSWERS - http://tinseltine.com/5-questions-for-filmadelphia.../

#short film #documentaries #Environmental issues #Philadelphia Film Festival #filmmaking #directing team #PFF29 #OntheFenceLine #AFightForCleanAir #PhillyThrive #SouthPhilly #moviesite #Filmpromotions

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