(reviews continued)

"Gimme Danger" (2016, dir. Jim Jarmusch): A documentary by the director of "Stranger In Paradise" and, uh, some other stuff, on the much-cited Ann Arbor-based group The Stooges. It pretty much runs through events in chronological order, with input here and there (some archive) from various commenters.

First the positive side of this release: the archive Stooges film/TV foootge contained here has been fully restored, and has never looked or sounded better (so throw away your You Tube rips now). Now the negative: Does the entire planet REALLY need yet another variation of The Iggy Pop Story? I didn't have great hopes when I sat in front of this, and very quickly my suspicions became fully confirmed. I'm sure that Jarmusch and Osterberg are both fine erudite wits on a general level, but why the fuck does Jarmusch not ask ONE actual insight-led question, and let James Newell recycle the same old (disproved) "facts" all over again? I felt sorry for poor James Williamson, who is relegated to a mere sideman role in this whole documentary. Oh and by the way Jimbo J, well done for excising any mention of Mike Watt at all, considering he and Mascis helped single-handedly kick-start the Stooges reunion in the first place.

In many ways, this is a documentary that should never have been made in the first place. Seeing as both Asheton brothers are no longer with us, how on earth can this in any shape or form be considered to be any form of actual documentary, let alone "definitive"? Also, Jarmusch should, for obvious reasons, never have been allowed to direct this, if this really had to be made at all. Imagine, if you will, if this had been made in, say, the late 90's, with some real key insight from ALL the main players, plus insight from those with an actual encyclopedic knowledge of this group (Mick Farren, the original line-up of The Cramps (Miriam Linna-era), Niagara). I can understand why John Holmstrom decided not to get involved with this documentary, not least because prize clown Legs McNeil would have whined on about it endlessly (fuck you McNeil!).

You know what - and I'm being entirely serious about this - there are people who have posted here in past and present times who could have come up with a far better go at this documentary, which goes to show the utter paucity and pointlessness of the whole thing. Not recommended at all.

(reviews to be continued)

(reviews continued)

"Step Across The Border" (1990, dir. Nicholas Humbert, Werner Penzel) - a documentary about multi-instrumentalist and composer Fred Frith (he of Henry Cow fame), which was initially a direct-to-VHS release, but has subsequently received a whole bunch of cinema screenings worldwide. This monochrome-filmed documentary follows a week in the life of Frith, who was working in Japan at the time, but which contains other location footage (NYC, Germany etc).

"Step Across The Border" of course covers Frith's work, both past and then-ongoing, but it also follows the life of a musician working on the margins in general, with a lot of candid, insightful moments. Highlights for me include Fred and a friend of his discussing life in general at an outside Tokyo eatery, Frith forgetting the melody line to one of his own tunes (and getting all embarrassed about it), and some trademark Frith musings/ramblings, ending on a "sorry, I've forgotten what the question was!" note.

On the musical side, we see Frith rehearsing his then-current ensemble - clearly Fred is not one for po-faced "auteur" business - and him playing live in a whole number of places. The documentary also shows a whole bunch of people he's worked with in the past, including the late Tom Cora and (the brilliant) Iva Bittova. Arto Lindsay pops up rehearsing with the Frith ensemble, and comes across as a genuinely decent and self-deprecating guy. Archive audio clips include many tunes from Frith's solo and collaborative works (including the ever-entertaining "Same Old Me"), and there's plenty of talk about what Frith had in plan for the future.

Although this is a b/w film, it is really effective I think, and the audio on this DVD version is near-flawless. As a feature length documentary, it in no way outstays its welcome at all (hell, I could have watched a five-hour version of this), and the directors I feel have got a good grasp as where Frith is coming from as a human being, as well as a musician. And for those who fear that this all sounds like a "male muso bores only" zone, I watched this last round mine with my most recent ex, and she ended up dancing around to some of the tunes! So worry ye not, this is a documentary that anyone with an interest with how a musician engages with his music and the world in general would be able to appreciate. Highest possible recommendation all round.

Weird. I got around to watching GIMME DANGER last night.

I learned absolutely nothing.

Why am I surprised a shallow filmmaker made a shallow film? Shame on me.

Pretty magical how he made Iggy a boring person, tho. That takes real skill.

I like Jarmusch as a director (well I enjoyed some of his films at least), but his Neil Young documentary was so boring and insightless that I'm not surprised with your thoughts on Gimme danger.

Apparently Danny McBride is a genuine fan of horror, similarly to Keegen-Michael Peele who did "Get Out". So much so that a few weeks ago it was announced that McBride is going to co-write the new "Halloween" movie, one that John Carpenter himself will be a producer on.

Wait, in a scared way or in a hilarious way? Because it does look pretty cool. Just super duper familiar and noting like what I was hoping for.


Same here.

Same. It's in the chest or nothing for me these days.

It's funny, after I posted my review of this, I had a quick look around online to see what the general consensus was, and I came away thinking I was by and large in a minority of one of having a negative view of this documentary, so it's interesting to note your view on it. I can only add that Iggy has done a pretty good job in more recent times of making himself a boring person (I'm aware of the irony of me saying that one, internet wags).


I was wondering if you'd read Jimmy McDonough's biography on the Young-man ("Shakey")? A highly entertaining and engaging read, even if, like me, you're not really all that mad keen on the bloke. I think that McDonough's years of hanging around with the late Bill Landis (who loathed NY, as it happens, being more of a VU/J Thunders man) stood him in good stead in dealing with Young's many contradictions, and later outright obstructions, when putting together his biography. Going by what you note about the Jarmusch/Young film, I think I'll....pass on that one!

i really love some jarmusch movies, and by this i mean lots of them, i mean all of them i've seen except for permanent vacation which sucked for me, looking at some mental talking to himself all day, BUT everything else from stranger to down by law to the one with "william blake" to broken flowers to the limits of control has been great for me.

never had him pegged as a documentarian except as "of human life, through fiction."

i only assume that his apparent shortcomings are due to an excess of love for his subjects, which turns them into a puff piece.

im okay with some puff pieces though, especially when it comes to musicians. it's a kind of adolescent look at "rockstars" and who didn't like those as a kid?

some years ago i saw one about patti smith that made me love her more than ever.

and that's fine though--it's more than fine. i dont wanna hear about her secret shame or whatever. i want to idolize her as i've always had.

so anyway i havent seen his documentaries though ha ha ha but if theyre just love letters fine by me

You've hit something squarely on the head (pardon the pun) about "nice people getting shot". As a young film watcher, I was always surprised and took some weird glee in the nasty plot moves where innocent people get shot. Whether its the Tarantino effect or just a better perspective on life and how valuable it really is, I can't stand the nonchalant nihilism some filmmakers take in this. Films like "The Purge" I've walked out on (which is RARE for my sensibilities) and recently, good word of mouth got me out to see "The Belko Experiment" and I just cringed all the way through it. There's enough shit in this world without a slapdash piece of violent-agitprop like that. Give me films with a deeper understanding of the human character like "Arrival", "Brooklyn", "Phoenix" or about 1000 others any day.

There's a few Jim Jarmusch films I really like (Mystery Train, Stranger than Paradise) and I don't think I've seen any I didn't at least like, but for some reason I never consider myself a fan.

I really enjoyed this movie. This movie has one of the best trailers I've seen in awhile, and the movie itself did not disappoint.

yeah im not a fan of his as a person but i liked most of the stuff ive seen by him

having said that, for all of his generational clichés he definitely took the torch of independent filmmaking in the 80s way before people like sodherberg launched the era of big indies

rewatched CLERKS the other day and whatsisname gives jarmusch, spike lee and others a big shoutout in the end credits


whattit about?

Raw- French coming of age movie about a cannibal.

What's this now? Zombies? Vampires?

ETA: Ahh, cannibals

and here i thought all modern cannibals were germans!

i'll add it to the halloween list, thanks

looks fucking awful.

yesterday watched PEEWEES BIG ADVENTURE which i hadn't seen before. i expected something edgier from a public masturbator but no. it wasn't completely terrible for a satuday morning cartoon but it disappointed my expectations.

speaking of fellinesque, the opening credits by danny elfman sounded definitely rotaesque

and today i watched BAD BOYS. it's my first michael bay movie and it's hilariously over the top. it's impressive how he can squeeze the last drop of spectacle from every single fucking shot and cut, but at the same time the movie is fucking terrible. terrible! it makes zero sense. and yet i can't stop watching for academic reasons--yeah i wanna study how he does shit. the absolute auditory and visual excess. like, a guy doest just get shot--he gets shot and falls backwards onto an electric panel and all sorts of sparks ensue. because the eye must not rest. hilarious.

man I loved Bad Boys back in the day. I haven't seen it in well over a decade. But I loved it then haha.

We saw the new Beauty & The Beast over the weekend, along with The Neon Demon.

when you don't think it can get any worse

we have "Prevenge", "Boss Baby" and, for toppers, Adam Sandler signed for another 4 movies