rock movies

Surprisingly Previously Unexplored: Quadrophenia

May 112020

In our first pandemic relief Dugout Chatter, Townsman chickenfrank proposed the following surprisingly previously unexplored topic for discussion:

One of my cable channels showed Quadrophenia recently. I was pleased to see that it really held up for me as a well-made movie. I played the original album later, and kept having mixed emotions as to whether the whole concept was brilliant or silly. Where does it fit among all their albums in terms of quality? Is it better than Tommy? Does it have too may forgettable songs? Is the remixed movie soundtrack better or worse, and even necessary? Just curious how others react to the 3 different available Quadrophenia products. I have a sneaky feeling this topic might have been beaten to death already on RTH, but too many years ago for me to remember!

Let’s have at it!

Musical Artists You Like Better for Things They Do Beside Their Music

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 132020

Since she first hit the public eye as one half of a singing duo, let’s agree that Cher is a singer. For me, despite liking a couple of Sonny & Cher songs well enough, I can’t think of a singer with a less-appealing voice than Cher’s. Are you one of those people who say, “Oh no, I can’t sing to save my life!” I bet you have a more appealing singing voice to my ears than Cher’s.

Love & Mercy: The Cave in the Forbidden Zone

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 102015

OK, so Love & Mercy Week wasn’t the thread-a-day, gripping discussion shot in the arm to Rock Town Hall that I’d hoped it would be. Traffic to the site continues to be down, and Facebook and actual telephone calls continue to be an easy way out for even regulars to discuss threads outside the forum. One Townsman was content to air his objections to my movie review via private messages on Facebook, while E. Pluribus Gergely, the man who accompanied me to the movie felt his daily phone calls with encouragement for my “great work” would do the job. Offlist feedback and deep friendship are much appreciated, but that’s not why any of us drafts a post for public consumption in the Halls of Rock.

Who knows, perhaps enough people haven’t seen the movie to focus on my follow-up piece regarding Dennis Leary’s involvement. Regardless, as too often is the case, life (including work) got in the way of me drafting all the excellent threads I had in mind. In case you’d like to pick up any of the projected threads that I’m not going to have time to flesh out, they are as follows:

Friday the 13th: Eugene vs Murray
Paul Dano Seals Best Performance in a Terrible Movie Oscar
Antisemitism in Love & Mercy
Love & Mercy Through the Prism of the Manson Family

The one thread that I will complete this week is the concern I’ve had with Beach Boys worship since the late-’80s. It’s an issue I don’t believe will ever be resolved until my hot mute cavewoman of the prehistoric future drops the needle on “I Get Around” in the Cave of the Forbidden Zone.

Dennis Leary as Dennis Wilson in Love & Mercy

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 072015

Dennis Leary (far right) as Dennis Wilson.

There was much to take in during a recent screening of the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy, which Townsman E. Pluribus Gergely and I took in over the weekend. My overall critique appeared yesterday and is still open to discussion, but I plan on spending the rest of this week examining some of the finer points of the film. Today I’d like to discuss the troubling casting of a young Dennis Leary as Dennis Wilson as well as the broader issues I had with other casting decisions in regard to the ’60s-era Beach Boys.

I’ve grown to like Dennis Leary over the years, although I found his entire act entirely contrived when he burst on the scene with his MTV faux-chain-smoking rants. (He never looked like he inhaled, did he? Bogus!) Anyhow, Leary grew on me a bit when he followed up his failed fallen cop show with that fallen fireman show, Rescue Me. For the first time he struck me as actually passionate about something: himself playing this character. The show and Leary’s commitment too it were absurdly sincere. Although I rarely appreciated the show at anywhere but chuckling arm’s length, the peak into Leary’s humble freak aspirations helped me appreciate him and his act. It was an impressive run.

Even more impressive is how Leary transformed himself into a young man for his role in Love & Mercy. The problem, however, is twofold:

Movie Review: Say Anything 2: The Healing of Brian Wilson

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 062015

Brian plays Melinda his early sketch of “Lick My Love Pump.”

There’s a scene early in Say Anything 2: The Healing of Brian Wilson, in which John Cusack’s Brian attempts to find the condo of his new infatuation and future wife, Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks) by walking in circles and calling her name up to the dozen balconies overlooking the courtyard of her complex. I kept expecting Cusack to pull out a boombox and serenade his new infatuation with Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.” There were some strong scenes in Say Anything 2, when the story inexplicably strayed from the middle-aged exploits of our hero, Lloyd Dobler, and zoomed back to the 1960s, to follow a confusing parallel tale of a brilliant, troubled musician during the creation of his band’s masterpiece, Pet Sounds, but the Dobler-Ledbetter second-chance-at-love scenes, set anachronistically around the same time as the original film’s timeframe, could not have been what any fans of the original Cameron Crowe classic were expecting!

What’s Right and What’s Wrong About the Casting of Paul Dano as Young Brian Wilson?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 022015

What's right and wrong about the casting of Paul Dano as Brian Wilson?

What’s right and wrong about the casting of Paul Dano as Young Brian Wilson?

A new biopic on Brian Wilson is coming out, Love & Mercy. I will likely dread seeing this, as is the case with almost any artist biopic, but I am a glutton for punishment when it comes to rock biopics and I do like John Cusack, who I read was set to star as the troubled genius behind the Beach Boys and the puppet for a succession of hangers-on, charlatans, and certainly well-intentioned healthcare professionals and adoring musicians. Then I saw this still from the movie. “That’s not John Cusack,” I exclaimed in my head, “it’s that creepy guy I don’t like!” I had to look him up to be sure: Paul Dano, a talented actor with a knack for playing troubled, annoying guys, but an actor worthy of the shotgun nevertheless.

It turns out Dano plays Young Brian Wilson, which I’m sure he’ll be good at, subtly projecting even Young Brian’s obvious anxieties. The more I studied this still from the movie, however, the more I started thinking about the Pros and Cons of this casting decision. I’ll leave it to you to get inside my head—and to share your thoughts on the casting of Dano and Cusack as one of the greatest songwriters of the 1960s.

Check out the whole cast here. I don’t know who the guy is who’s playing Mike Love, but I’m counting on him to deliver!

Cool Movie Cameos

Posted by funoka

Jan 162015

We have a sick boy at home, so that means movie time—and he’s young enough (7) to watch just about anything that shows up on TCM without much complaint. Earlier this week, a movie called Hootenanny Hoot was on—and who pops up but a young Johnny Cash, looking pretty doggone cool.

The movie, which is sort of a cash-in on the early ’60s folk movement, isn’t very good, but does include a couple of great performances by Judy Henske. She kind of steals the show for me because they only have the one Cash song. I’d never heard of her, but she seems like a precursor of Janis and Grace Slick. I guess her most famous song is an early version of “High Flyin’ Bird,” which predates the Jefferson Airplane cover by 3 years or so.

I also like movies that pop in surprises—like Marshall Crenshaw playing Buddy Holly in La Bamba or Aimee Mann in The Big Lebowski.

What are some of your favorite artist cameos: musical performance or acting?

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