Dear Readers,
I hope you are having lovely Fall season. Here are several documentaries about music and movie people that I've watched recently. Happy Film Viewing everyone.
HAL (released 2018) Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯✯ (out of four)
Hal Ashby w/ actress Ruth Gordon. pc: getty images
Hal Ashby was one of the 1970s American New Wave/Auteurs along with Scorsese, Coppola, Allen, Bogdanovich, Spielberg, etc. but Ashby has become a forgotten name among the group despite his films routinely appearing on greatest movies lists. Hopefully this excellent documentary will bring him back to prominence. Ashby started as a film editor, winning a best editing Academy Award for his work on In the Heat of the Night, before moving to directing with 1970's The Landlord. Following his debut is a string of seven critical and commercial successes from 1970 to 1979 (Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Bound for Glory, Coming Home, and Being There). He was a free spirit and a bit eccentric (as you can tell by any one of the films listed) yet his movies had a warmth and quietness that was not often present in Coppola or Scorsese films of the era. Ashby's style, because of his editing background, was to film as much as possible and then form the movie in the editing room which worked in the artist centric Hollywood of the 1970s. When the system changed in the 1980s and the studios began to exert their control over filmmaking they often stopped him midway through the process thus leaving his released films unfinished and rearranged without his input. This also explains why his 1980s films are often incoherent his free style was butting heads with the restrictive new studios. I do want to say his final theatrical film, 8 Million Ways to Die (though very little relation to the book it is based on), is a fine Neo-Noir mystery/thriller despite its reputation as a bomb. Hal Ashby was an important director of 1970s American Cinema, his influence can be seen on directors like Noah Baumbach and many of the 1990s Independent Filmmakers. I loved this documentary and I hope it exposes more people to Ashby's work. Check this one out.
What Happened, Miss Simone? (released 2015) Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯
Nina Simone, pc: netflix
I am a little ashamed to say I did not know anything about Nina Simone before watching this documentary. I knew she was a famous musician/singer usually labeled jazz (though I learned here she mixed a number of styles) but that was it. This film (made with the participation of Simone's daughter) chronicles her life from being drawn to playing the piano as a child in the local church, to her not being accepted into a music conservatory college because she was black, through her popularity in the 1960s, her struggle with mental illness, and eventual comeback in the 1980s. Simone was a spectacular songwriter and pianist with a distinct voice who embraced the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Her 1964 composition "Mississippi Goddam" became a famed protest song. Her abusive husband and manager wanted Simone to stay away from anything political but Simone ignored the demands of popular music to fight for equal rights, and she paid for it as concert venues and radio stations cancelled her and her songs. She eventually left the United States settling in Barbados and Liberia among other areas. She spent a large part of her life undiagnosed with bipolar disorder. While the documentary is well made it may only skim the surface of Simone's story. It was a good introduction for a neophyte like me. My two favorite moments herein are a scene late in the film during her 1980s comeback when she stops the concert to instruct a specific audience member to "sit back down" and does not return to performing until the person complies. The most moving moment is a performance of "To be Young, Gifted, and Black" at a college campus where only a small number of black students are studying, and the song brings everyone to their feet. Simone's piano playing is on display throughout and it is a treat to listen to.
 |
| Natalie Wood on the movie poster. PC: HBO |
Made for HBO Documentary Films and directed by Laurent Bouzereau (who made the excellent docuseries Five Came Back) is an American Masters style film looking at the life and career of actress Natalie Wood. Produced by Wood's oldest daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner (who also serves as the on camera interviewer). She speaks with many of Wood's closest friends/family including Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Richard Gregson (interviewed shortly before his death in 2019), Courtney Wagner, Elliot Gould, and naturally Robert Wagner among many others. Since Natasha knows all of these people very well the interviews have an intimate quality and I suspect the shared stories are ones the individuals would have only shared with Natasha. I learned a great deal about Wood's business ability in which she negotiated off-hours from filming each week to see a therapist, or as a teenager she created contracts which allowed her to pick one film a year that was not a studio choice (something very rare at the time especially for a young actress). I didn't know she started acting at such a young age because her father lost his job and Wood, while still in elementary school, supported her whole family with her acting career. My main complaint is the film makes a statement that Wood's career and life are overshadowed by her mysterious death in 1981 at age 43 (which is true) and they state this film does not want to focus on her death as so many stories do. This sounds great but the last section of the film focuses entirely on her death with Robert Wagner recounting his memories in detail and what he suspects happened. A number of reviewers felt this turned the film into a PR stunt (also only friends are interviewed) because in 2018 Wood's death was reopened and Robert Wagner was now a person of interest. I was a bit dismayed at the fact Wood's death (again) overshadowed the story of the documentary. I am a big fan of Wood's work especially Love With the Proper Stranger and of course West Side Story and Splendor in the Grass among many other films. I enjoyed the home movies and personal touches of this documentary. If you are looking for a Dateline style expose this is not it, if you are interested in a well made documentary about an important actress this would be for you even with its flaws.
Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band (released 2019) Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯
The Band with Robbie Robertson center. pc: getty images
A companion piece to Robbie Robertson's 2017 memoir/autobiography Testimony this film chronicles Robertson's history as well as the history of the seminal rock group The Band of which he was a member. In the years since the group's break up in 1977, Robertson has remained in control of the group's music and also received much of the royalties. Fellow group member Levon Helm made very vocal claims that Robertson was cheating the other members. This is Robertson's story and his view of the history of the group (as one of only two remaining members he has become sole spokesperson), it could also be an image rehabilitation as he stayed quiet regarding the one sided business accusations. He does not address those accusations directly though says he visited Helm shortly before Helm's death (but Helm was not awake due to illness). There are a number of great archival items shared here and Robertson is very charismatic throughout as he narrates the story. Also included are interviews with Ronnie Hawkins, Veronique (Robbie's wife), Bruce Springsteen, Martin Scorsese, David Geffen (seeming more pompous than usual) among others. Helm and other Band members appear in archival footage and Bob Dylan's interviews are taken from previous documentaries though edited to seem like they were conducted for this film. Your enjoyment of this movie will really depend on your taste for Robertson. I'm glad this film was made and regardless of your opinion on Robertson, the music is great and the history of the Band is always interesting.
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (released 2014) Ryan's rating ✯✯✯
Richard Stanley in his home. pc: Letterboxd
Richard Stanley is a white South African film director who made a handful of short films and music videos in the 1980s then had two cult hits with his independent Hardware (1990) and Dust Devil (1992) both of which were science fiction/horror films that were later purchased for distribution in the USA. After these two films his dream project was to present a more faithful adaptation of H.G. Wells's 1896 novel The Island of Dr. Moreau. This documentary chronicles Stanley's plans for a film that was not made because Stanley was fired by New Line Cinema only a week into production and replaced by veteran director John Frankenheimer. The eventually released 1996 movie bore little resemblance to Stanley's vision. This is probably one of the best (though presented in a purposefully ragged style) documents of independent creators not able to work in the mainstream. This documentary features interviews with members of the cast and crew who were brought into the film by Stanley but then left adrift (and still having to make the movie) when Frankenheimer took over. Also featured are executives and back room people who shed light on the decision making process. And finally we have present day interviews with Stanley (still wearing a safari hat and vest) living seemingly in a cabin in the wild. This documentary can take a place next to It's All True, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, and the recent short TCM documentary on the UCLA and Black Independent Film Movement of the late 1980s focusing on Charles Burnett.
