Blog Archives

“Carrie” (2013) dir. Kimberly Pierce

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The original “Carrie” from director Brian DePalma is one of my all-time favorite films and I’m fairly certain the remake, coming out this fall, is probably going to suck big time. But I will say that this CGI-“Carrie” remake does have some impressive credentials: “Boys Don’t Cry” director Kimberly Pierce, Julianne Moore as the religious fanatic mom, and Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie. And despite myself, the trailer does look really good. Of course, the fact that I’m a sucker for that song “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” doesn’t hurt either.

“To Live and Die in L.A.” (1985) dir. William Friedkin

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“To Live and Die in L.A.” is one of the best crime films of the 1980s. Looking at the trailer, you’d be hard-pressed to figure out why the film wasn’t a hit, considering its rapid-fire editing, intense action, and excellent cast, which featured Willem Dafoe, William Peterson, John Turturro, and John Pankow early in their careers. On the surface, it looks like every Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer produced box-office blockbuster from the period.

However, director William Friedkin has an uncanny ability to make things complex, where the alleged “good guys” aren’t all that good. In fact, the good guys do a lot of morally and legally objectionable things … but unlike a “Dirty Harry” film, they pay dearly for their transgressions. In other words, “To Live and Die in L.A.” makes you, the audience member, pay dearly for your transgressions, more specifically, your voyeurism at all the graphic violence and sex that Friedkin piles on. Nobody says movie watching is easy, but if you’re OK with films that explore grey areas, “To Live and Die in L.A.” is an amazing experience. I remember seeing it twice in the theater when I was 15 (you gotta love those morally lackadaisical theater owners back in the day who didn’t give a s–t about enforcing R-ratings) and among friends who had seen it, we all thought it was as cool as “Scarface.” To say this is a movie they don’t make anymore is an understatement. I’m actually surprised it got greenlit back in the 1980s. Today, it might get a nod as a cable movie, but that’s about it.

“Dream Baby Dream” – Suicide / Bruce Springsteen / Neneh Cherry

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It says a lot about a song when artists from different backgrounds, genres, and perspectives all record the same song. “Dream Baby Dream” was originally written and recorded by the seminal two-man punk duo Suicide (Alan Vega and Martin Rev), who did their thing long before there was such a thing called punk (they started in the early 1970s).

Many famous musicians were fans of Suicide, most famously, Ric Ocasek of the Cars (who produced one of their albums and had them perform on the 1970s NBC program “Midnight Special”) and Bruce Springsteen. You can hear a lot of Suicide’s influence in Springsteen’s minimalistic “State Trooper” from the 1982 album “Nebraska,” especially the shouts and whelps that come directly from Suicide’s monumentally distressing song “Frankie Teardrop.” Included here is an absolutely lovely live version of “Dream Baby Dream” by Springsteen interpersed with clips from F.W. Murnau’s monumental silent-era film “Sunrise.”

And … Neneh Cherry … who lately has been coming on strong as a punk Billie Holiday from hell, filtered through “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” -era Sly and the Family Stone and Eno-era Roxy Music, has her own killer version of “Dream Baby Dream,” from her monumentally awesome album “The Cherry Thing,” released in 2012.

“Puce Moment” (dir. Kenneth Anger) with music by Jonathan Halper

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The attached clip is legendary underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger’s short film “Puce Moment” from 1949. While I like the film, the music Anger added to the film in 1966 made a bigger impression on me. The music, composed and sung by Jonathan Halper, are two songs “Leaving My Old Life Behind” and “I Am a Hermit.”  “Life” and “Hermit” are damn good psychedelic folk tunes, but Halper’s sneering vocal is what draws me in every time. Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins should be paying Halper royalties.

On a side note, I had heard about Kenneth Anger for years, but his films were impossible to find in most video stores back in the late 1980s. So I felt like Coronado finding a lost city of gold, when I discovered my college library had an extensive video collection and I was able to catch up on a lot of terrifically obscure films that weren’t available anywhere else. The tape that had this Kenneth Anger film on it, along with Robert Downey Sr.’s “Putney Swope,” were the first ones I watched on that glorious Sunday evening.  The library’s big orange chairs and puny video monitors were this film fanatic’s saving grace in a pre-Netflix era.

“My White Bicycle” – Tomorrow

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Another terrifically trippy late 1960s British psychedelic pop gem, this time by the band Tomorrow, which featured Steve Howe (later of Yes) and Twink (later of the Pink Fairies). A more conventional, hard rock cover by Nazareth in the mid-1970s was a hit in the British Isles, but I much prefer the original.

“I See The Rain” – Marmalade

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Marmalade were a Scottish pop-rock band of the late 1960s and 1970s that were a one-hit wonder in America, but had bigger success in England. Their big hit in America (“Reflections of My Life”) was a nice Badfinger / early Bee Gees-style song. However, I really dig their earlier “I See the Rain.” A great trippy wall of noise with nice harmonies and lots of heavy guitar, man.