Album reviews will be coming up next, in the meantime I have a couple of movie reviews for you all-- one old and one new. Before I get to that though, I'd like to point out the little box at the bottom of the webpage. No, it's not an ad, but rather a list of my top listened to artists for the week, just in case you're ever wondering what I'm listening to. The website responsible for it is last.fm, a really nifty webpage that allows you to download a program that will track what you listen to purely for statistical purposes, and from that you can access the website and find other similar artists or even meet other people that like the same music as you. So in case you were wondering what that was, now you know.
Dave Chappelle's Block Party
It's a shame that this film will probably go unnoticed when Oscar-time comes around again, as it has been unable to even make a dent in terms of ticket sales. Directed by Michel Gondry (who directed Eternal Sunshine... as well as an immense number of music videos), Block Party offers some great insight into a world that's not often explored, much in the same way of the festival that this documentary was somewhat based on Wattstax. The movie begins by watching Dave Chappelle in his hometown of Dayton, OH, interacting with locals as he talks to them about going to see his Block Party, as he appropriately enough hands out "golden tickets" as invites. It's both here and in the Bedstuy neighborhood of Brooklyn-- the locale in which the concert takes place-- that the foundation of the film shines through. The audience is given a sneak peek into the humble life of Dave Chappelle as well as many of the musicians who in some cases grew up in the very same area that they were performing in. For those going to see it only for Dave Chappelle's humor, you'll more than likely be sorely disappointed, although he does have a few skits within the piece that are simply hilarious. For anyone else that is even remotely interested in hip-hop culture and music, or just wants to see a feel-good story in which people of all backgrounds are able to not only come together but enjoy each others company for hours on end, this film is for you. Gondry has always been outstanding in capturing the human fabric within the realm of music, and this documentary is no exception. The quality of the film might be crude, and the rough cuts and handheld camera angles might be off-putting to some, but it truly just solidified how down to earth all these people are. In a world where people like 50 Cent get the headlines or all the "rap" artists that are getting in fights (or "beef") for no apparent reason, its projects like these where people who usually don't have access to true hip-hop can see that there's a lot more to it than that, and hip-hop is a unifier of a culture, not a divider. If you're willing to soak it all in, you'd be hard pressed not to leave the theatre with a smile on your face.
Overall Rating: 93
Jarhead
Overall Rating: 86
Dave Chappelle's Block Party
An incredibly inspiring piece, this is a film everyone should be talking about.
It's a shame that this film will probably go unnoticed when Oscar-time comes around again, as it has been unable to even make a dent in terms of ticket sales. Directed by Michel Gondry (who directed Eternal Sunshine... as well as an immense number of music videos), Block Party offers some great insight into a world that's not often explored, much in the same way of the festival that this documentary was somewhat based on Wattstax. The movie begins by watching Dave Chappelle in his hometown of Dayton, OH, interacting with locals as he talks to them about going to see his Block Party, as he appropriately enough hands out "golden tickets" as invites. It's both here and in the Bedstuy neighborhood of Brooklyn-- the locale in which the concert takes place-- that the foundation of the film shines through. The audience is given a sneak peek into the humble life of Dave Chappelle as well as many of the musicians who in some cases grew up in the very same area that they were performing in. For those going to see it only for Dave Chappelle's humor, you'll more than likely be sorely disappointed, although he does have a few skits within the piece that are simply hilarious. For anyone else that is even remotely interested in hip-hop culture and music, or just wants to see a feel-good story in which people of all backgrounds are able to not only come together but enjoy each others company for hours on end, this film is for you. Gondry has always been outstanding in capturing the human fabric within the realm of music, and this documentary is no exception. The quality of the film might be crude, and the rough cuts and handheld camera angles might be off-putting to some, but it truly just solidified how down to earth all these people are. In a world where people like 50 Cent get the headlines or all the "rap" artists that are getting in fights (or "beef") for no apparent reason, its projects like these where people who usually don't have access to true hip-hop can see that there's a lot more to it than that, and hip-hop is a unifier of a culture, not a divider. If you're willing to soak it all in, you'd be hard pressed not to leave the theatre with a smile on your face.
Overall Rating: 93
Jarhead
Not perfect, but a very thoughtful and engaging film.
I picked Jarhead up on DVD this past weekend, as it's a movie that I really wanted to see but never had the opportunity to. Not usually one to blindly purchase DVDs, I had a very good feeling about this one given that it was both directed by Sam Mendes (of Road To Perdition and American Beauty fame) and starred Jake Gyllenhaal (of Donnie Darko and Brokeback Mountain fame). The problem with war films, particularly now, is that you never know what to expect from them. It has reached the point where there are now genres within the war film genre. There are the psychological war films, the grandiose epic war films, and then the brutal war film. The intriguing aspect of Jarhead is that it doesn't fit into any of those categories, the commentary of it being an anti-war film is apparent just through its cinematic qualities. There are no major-scale battle scenes here, no dramatic classical score, nothing. Now while it might seem disappointing, it really is such a poignant film in the sense that it doesn't meet any expectations and then the more you process the movie, the more everything becomes clear. Sam Mendes once again does a stellar job directing this film, and both Jamie Foxx and Peter Sarsgaard were so compelling in each of their roles that they essentially made the movie from an acting standpoint. That being said, there still seems to be something missing from the film, and in a way, that might've been the point. To me however, it's the only thing that kept it from being in the same company as all the other great war films.Overall Rating: 86
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