From her 1997 album “20th Century Blues,” Marianne Faithfull performs a moving cover of one of Harry Nilsson’s best (and least-known) songs. Faithfull gives a nice tribute to Nilsson at the beginning of this. I can’t think of any one better to cover this song, except (maybe) for Tom Waits.
Nilsson’s original version is from his album “Pussy Cats,” credited to both Nilsson and John Lennon and recorded during Lennon’s infamous “lost weekend” period in the early-mid 1970s. You can find Nilsson’s original version of this elsewhere on Dave’s Strange World.
There are some movies that are so terrible, they’re funny. There are other movies which are intentionally campy, but not so funny, because they’re too knowing of their own stupidity. And then there’s some movies that fit between both camps. They are movies that are over-the-top, so off-the-charts weird that you’re never quite sure if the filmmakers were in on the joke or not.
The two best examples of this are: the Russ Meyer-directed/Roger Ebert-scripted “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” … and “Road House”.
“Road House” is the most ridiculous, hysterically funny, and arguably, one of the greatest action films of all time. It’s a film that never ceases to entertain and amaze. And every time I see it, I find something new that makes me break out in an idiotic grin. Patrick Swayze was THE perfect choice to play the mulleted, King-of-All-Bouncers Dalton. I could go on and on about how brilliant this film is, but I thought I would let the movie speak for itself:
Doctor: Your file says you’ve got a degree from NYU. What in?
Dalton: Philosophy.
Doctor: Any particular discipline?
Dalton: No. Not really. Man’s search for faith. That sort of s–t.
Emmett: Calling me “sir” is like putting an elevator in an outhouse, it don’t belong. I’m Emmett.
Steve: Being called a c–ksucker isn’t personal?
Dalton: No. It’s two nouns combined to elicit a prescribed response.
Steve: What is somebody calls my mama a whore?
Dalton: Is she?
Wade Garrett: That gal’s got entirely too many brains to have an a– like that.
Wade Garrett: This place has a sign hangin’ over the urinal that says, “Don’t eat the big white mint.”
and … last … but certainly not least:
Jimmy: I used to f–k guys like you in prison.
Why the Library of Congress has not selected this as a film for the National Film Registry deserves a criminal investigation.
My all-time favorite Go-Go’s song that really should have been a huge hit for them, circa 1984. However, I think the video for this song may have had something to do with why the song stalled out. While it’s very cool on a meta-pop cultural level, the vision of the Go-Gos in male drag probably freaked out a lot of their core audience. Since I can’t find the video, you’ll just have to groove to the Go-Go’s finding their inner Buzzcocks … the band, that is.
POSTSCRIPT: Loose Handlebars has kindly provided a link to the video, located currently at Daily Motion:
It turns out the Black Keys were not the first band to pay loving homage to the joys of paracinema in a music video. Muse’s video for “Knights of Cydonia” is a fake sci-fi, kung-fu spaghetti western from Europe (circa 1979) that would probably rank high on Quentin Tarantino’s favorite movie list if it actually existed. It doesn’t hurt that the song is an ultra-cool homage to 70s prog rock either.
Carrying on the theme of rockin’ greetings from my last post, this is the lead-off track from Cheap Trick’s terrific 1977 album “In Color.” It was also used memorably at the beginning of Jonathan Kaplan’s seminal 1979 troubled youth film “Over the Edge.”
From Courtney Love’s criminally underrated 2004 album “America’s Sweetheart” is this raver, which (aside from “Celebrity Skin”) may be the best thing she’s ever done.
This is the legendary appearance by the hardcore punk band Fear on Saturday Night Live for the Halloween episode in October 1981. Fear were hired at the behest of John Belushi, who was a huge fan of Fear’s, and Michael O’Donoghue, that season’s head writer. Producer Dick Ebersol asked O’Donoghue what Fear was like and the infamous Mr. Mike explained that they were a pop group, just like the Carpenters. What resulted is mayhem and underground TV history.
O’Donoghue and Belushi bused in multiple punks from Washington D.C. (including, legend has it, Ian MacKaye). After being introduced by actor Donald Pleasance, the band started playing and the punks went completely nuts, violently slam dancing and stage diving. During the third song, one of the punks grabbed lead singer Lee Ving’s microphone and either said “F–k you New York” or “New Your sucks!” The scene faded to black and transitioned to a repeat of the infamous (and funny) satire of Norman Mailer’s sponsorship of Jack Henry Abbott, “Prose and Cons”.
Nowadays, such antics seem corny and quaint. But back when hardcore punk was virtually unknown to the masses, this moment was a sight to behold. One of the all-time best performances by a music guest on SNL.
Dennis Hopper had an interesting, but extremely spotty career as a filmmaker. His biggest hit was the 1969 cultural zeitgeist “Easy Rider.” But in my opinion, the best film that Hopper had any involvement with (aside from “Blue Velvet,” “True Romance” and “Apocalypse Now”) was 1980s “Out of the Blue.” Hopper was originally hired on just to act, but when the first-time director wasn’t delivering the goods during the first couple of weeks in production, Hopper rewrote the script and took over as director.
“Blue” is an ultra-bleak look at the collateral damage that alcoholism and drug abuse can have on a family. The lead character CeBe, brilliantly played by Linda Manz, is a lonely 14-year old girl with a chip on her shoulder and an obsession with Elvis and punk rock. Her father, played by Hopper, has been in prison for killing multiple children on a school bus in a drunk driving accident five years prior. Her mother, played by Sharon Farrell, is a waitress and heroin addict. Hopper’s character gets out of prison and for a brief moment, it looks like CeBe will finally have the normal life she has craved. But it’s not to be and the film gets increasingly dark and bleak, leading to a really horrific ending.
Needless to say, “Out of the Blue” is not a film you’d want to watch in a foul or depressed mood. It is THE definition of a “feel-bad” movie. However, the movie is brilliantly directed by Hopper, who really conveys the desolation of these characters and the world they inhabit. And the performances by Manz, Hopper, Farrell, and Don Gordon are all frighteningly real. Especially Manz. She plays a very angry character, an anger that masks a desperation for a normal family. The hopeful look in her eyes when she thinks things are going to work out is heartbreaking. “Blue” was in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival and Manz was talked about as a strong contender for the Best Actress prize that year (she lost to Anouk Aimee).
The trailer above gives a very strong flavor of what this movie is about. However, it’s definitely not safe for work given the subject matter.
“The Believer” is one of the best (and most controversial) films of the last decade and contains one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen. Forget what you think you know about Ryan Gosling. Gosling’s performance in “The Believer” is one of the most ferocious acting performances I’ve ever seen.
Based on a true story and brilliantly written and directed by Henry Bean, Gosling stars as Daniel Balint, a rising star in a neo-Nazi skinhead group who has a major problem… Balint is an Orthodox Jew. His hatred … and deep love of his Jewish faith keeps him conflicted throughout the film. As he starts to feel more conflicted, he becomes more dangerous and unstable. There’s not a happy ending.
“The Believer” won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, but was condemned by some as anti-Semitic and wound up without a distributor. Showtime bought it, planned on premiering the film September 2001, but then 9/11 happened. Due to Showtime not wanting to show such an incendiary film so close in time to a national tragedy, the film got its appearance on the network delayed by several months.
It’s too bad this film got such short shrift. It’s a truly great, albeit extremely disturbing and upsetting masterpiece. The screenplay was published in book form by Thunders Mouth Press in 2002, with additional essays and thoughts by Bean. If you like the film, you definitely need to hunt the book down with the screenplay. Spike Lee said “Henry Bean is a big talent and ‘The Believer’ is his most courageous and thought-provoking work yet!'”
The problem with coming up with an all-time Top 10 film list is that afterwards, you think of a lot of films you should have included instead. “Wise Blood” is one of them.
Based on Flannery O’Connor’s novel, “Wise Blood” is about Hazel Motes, an angry young man who is fed up with religion and wants to start a new church, without Christ. Several things get in his way and inevitably, the more he tries to run away from religion, the more it seems to creep into his life. Believe me, this is not a pro-religion tale by any means. The fact that Hazel can’t escape religion is seen as ironic and comically awful.
Brad Dourif should have gotten an Oscar nod for his performance as Hazel, if not the statue itself. This is one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen and it’s definitely the best thing Dourif has ever done. He plays the entire role like a caged rat, but ready to bite the head off anyone who gets in his way. The supporting performances by Ned Beatty, Harry Dean Stanton, and Amy Wright are all terrific.
This was kind of a comeback film for legendary director John Huston. He made this during a low point in his career, got a lot of praise for it, and then two years later got the “honor” of directing the film adaptation of “Annie” in 1982 … yeah … my thoughts exactly. But Huston soon directed “Under the Volcano” and “Prizzi’s Honor” and acquitted himself quite nicely.
Long very hard to find, the Criterion Collection came out with a beautiful DVD of this approximately 5 years ago. This is a great, great movie.
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