4 stars out of 5
This rock doc checks all the boxes: sex, drugs, sibling rivalry, breaking up, getting the band back together. There’s one tiny problem: It’s quite possible you have no idea who they are. Yes, lovers of glammy power pop absolutely worship Redd Kross, and record store ghouls have certainly come across an album or two or five in Miscellaneous R. But to the general public, I’m not quite sure. I remember in 2002, brother Steven McDonald got a lot of attention in the national press for adding bass to songs from the White Stripes’ album White Blood Cells, and releasing them online as Redd Blood Cells. And that’s not even mentioned in the documentary!
And yet this obscurity is one of the fascinating aspects of the film. It’s not that they didn’t want fame — at least Steven did, Jeff not so much — and it’s not like they never had opportunities. The band krossed paths with the Go-Go’s and the Coppolas and the L.A. punk scene and Nirvana etc. etc., signed to a major label, played on big TV shows, were cast in a Hollywood movie. But sometimes fate was fickle, and sometimes the McDonald boys just blew it, turning left when they should’ve turned right, not willfully sabotaging themselves, just simply being themselves, occasionally looking back and wondering “Why’d we do that?”
The other real selling point of this doc is the incredible music, decades and decades of should’ve-been hits. If you’ve never heard a Redd Kross song, there’s a very high chance that you will instantaneously become a fan. They seemingly effortlessly churn out these super-melodic, crunchy gems. You’ll want more and more! Off to Miscellaneous R or a streaming app near you. And the story of finding and honing this songcrafting gift — after starting out as goofball southern-California teens, steeped in ’70s pop culture — is so fun to watch.
Beyond Go-Go’s Vicki Peterson and Charlotte Caffey and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, director Andrew Reich doesn’t have a lot of star power to work with in his interviews. (Though the more of a music nerd you are, the more people you’ll recognize.) But one delightful thing going for Reich: Everybody seems totally happy to talk about Jeff and Steven McDonald. In addition to the boys themselves, we meet their parents, childhood friends, bandmates, musician friends/fans, and everyone is smiling when discussing Redd Kross. Yes we learn of troubles and some darkness but it’s the pure joy of Redd Kross that always seems to win out, and that keeps them going even today.
Movie Review: Born Innocent — The Redd Kross Story
Aquarium Playlist, 12/17/24
EPISODE #620: HOLIDAY SPECIAL 2024
Darlene Love — “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Gene D. Plumber & the Plumber’s Helpers — “Mele Kalikimaka”
Nicole Atkins — “The Sweetest Season”
Franklin Bruno — “Invisible Mistletoe”
Pylon Reenactment Society — “Christmas Daze”
Ed Seifert — “Last December”
Phoebe Bridgers — “So Much Wine”
1039 Washington Appreciation Society — “Alone on Christmas Day”
Gene D. Plumber & the Plumber’s Helpers feat. Elena Skye — “Blue Again This Christmas”
Sonny Boy Williamson II — “Sonny Boy’s Christmas Blues”
Swansea Sound — “(I Wanna Wear a) Mirrored Hat Like Slade”
Brownbutter — “Oy Chanukah”
Movie Movie — “Another Holiday”
Plastic Palms — “My Treee”
Car Colors — “O Holy Night”
The Pogues w/ Kirsty MacColl — “Fairytale of New York”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Y2K
3.5 stars out of 5
I began to realize a girlfriend wasn’t right for me when she couldn’t pay attention to Kyle Mooney’s previous screenwriting effort, the ingenious Brigsby Bear. Now it’s 7 years later, the SNL vet has added director to his credits, and I went to the theater alone to see Y2K.
Mooney, with co-writer Evan Winter, has crafted what begins as a classic 80s-style teen comedy. Our protagonist is a sweet high school nerd who has a heavyset best friend. The nerd is in love with a beautiful popular girl who has been dating a blond jock. The filmmakers class things up with some quality casting: Our hero is Jaeden Martell who starred in the It movies, the dream girl is Rachel Zegler, terrific as Maria in Spielberg’s West Side Story, and in a fun bit of stunt casting, pop star The Kid Laroi plays the bully. We also get Cuba Gooding Jr’s son as Zegler’s ex, Tim Heidecker and Alicia “Vaccine Denier” Silverstone as Jaeden’s parents, and Mooney himself as the town’s stoner/skater video-store clerk.
Ah, but we’re not in the 1980s; it’s very late 1999 and, as it turns out, Y2K is real. Starting at a New Year’s Eve party, the story goes in a wildly different direction — global apocalypse, survival, and man vs. technology. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a comedy. Mooney’s skill here — besides his well-established comic mastery of teen awkwardness — is keeping this movie from becoming too silly or over-the-top. The story is about a boy and a girl and no matter how insane matters get, Mooney never strays far from that central idea.
Add in a soundtrack packed with turn-of-the-millennium pop hits, and you get a fun, smart/offbeat, even sweet movie. Watch it now by choice, or wait till the machines make you watch it.
Aquarium Playlist, 12/3/24
EPISODE #618: 13th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL (RADIO XII)
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The Rollers — “Turn On the Radio”
The Silos — “Just This Morning”
Oceanator — “Last Summer”
Mojo Nixon — “Pirate Radio”
Mary Weiss — “Cry About the Radio”
Alison Brown and Steve Martin — “Bluegrass Radio”
Jon Langford — “Nashville Radio”
The Doors — “Texas Radio & the Big Beat”
Pizzicato Five — “Readymade FM”
Maren Morris — “My Church”
R.E.M. — “Just a Touch”
Miaow — “Belle Vue”
Roxy Music — “Oh Yeah”
Tobin Sprout — “Radio”
The Olivia Tremor Control — “The Same Place” r.i.p. William Cullen Hart
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Gladiator II
4 stars out of 5
All I remembered about the first Gladiator, from 2000, is that I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, and also that it was one of the movies which made me realize that even though Russell Crowe seemed like a jerk in real life, he was a really good actor. Now, with a quick plot refresher from Wikipedia (note to self: send them three dollars), I was ready for part II.
We meet Anno (Paul Mescal, who was Connell in that sexy series Normal People), who is really Lucius, prodigal son of Russell Crowe and Connie Nielsen, sent away from Rome as a child for his own safety. Grown Anno’s town gets run over by Roman general Pedro “The Mandalorian” Pascal, who is Connie Nielsen’s boyfriend. Mescal, now a slave, wants revenge on Pascal, not realizing the Mandalorian has become disillusioned with Rome’s whole military-industrial complex and its inept twin emperors, Don Jr. and Eric. Enter Denzel Washington, who trains slaves to become gladiators, but really has bigger fish to fry, or else they wouldn’t have cast Denzel in the “Mickey” role. And Anno — who, don’t forget, is really Lucius the prodigal son — is a very promising young gladiator.
Director Ridley Scott once again has a top-flight cast to work with, including Nielsen and Roman senator Derek Jacobi who both return from the first film. For the third time, Scott works with screenwriter David Scarpa, most recently on last year’s Napoleon, which starred Joaquin Phoenix, who was the bad guy in the first Gladiator. Scott and Scarpa know their way around large-scale battles, and Scarpa must have a thing for monkeys, because there is quite a lot of monkey content in this movie, including one bit that made me howl with laughter.
For the bulk of the film, I found it watchable, comprehensible, and generally enjoyable. But towards the end, the story takes on more heft — I’ve mentioned that Anno is a prodigal son? And we known what prodigal sons do — raising the stakes of politics, family, loyalty, backstabbing, and the desire for authoritarian power versus the loftier ideals of democracy (hmm where have I heard that before?). And for me, this bumped up the overall quality of the film — not quite to Gladiator’s Best Picture/Best Actor status, but as a worthy sequel nonetheless.
Aquarium Playlist, 11/26/24
EPISODE #617: THANKSGIVING 2024 (TOGETHERNESS)
Ray Davies — “Thanksgiving Day” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Heatwave — “Happiness Togetherness”
Big Dipper — “All Going Out Together”
The 5th Dimension — “Living Together, Growing Together”
Kool & the Gang — “Love & Understanding (Come Together)”
Spiritualized — “Come Together”
The Beatles — “Come Together”
The Youngbloods — “Get Together”
Eels — “Stick Together”
Paley Brothers — “Baby, Let’s Stick Together” r.i.p. Andy Paley
Mary Gauthier — “Thanksgiving”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Small Things Like These
4.5 stars out of 5
In my review of the excellent 2022 movie The Quiet Girl, I wrote that the “script is adapted from the novella Foster by Claire Keegan; will have to check out her work.” Since then I’ve indeed read the bulk of Keegan’s work, including her masterwork to date, Small Things Like These. My 5-star Goodreads review of that book:
A short story disguised as a novel, its power sneaks up on you. I had read a story by Keegan in the New Yorker and was so impressed I rushed out to buy this and a collection of her short fiction. I don’t want to say too much about this one except to say, it’s a Christmas story and a morality play and an exploration of family, specifically: what makes a family. We’re in working-class Ireland in 1985 but there’s a timeless quality here. Keegan is expert at capturing the titular small things of life.
So, for me at least, screenwriter Enda Walsh and Belgian (!) director Tim Mielants certainly had their work cut out for themselves adapting this story. The casting of Cillian Murphy as the lead, Bill Furlong, helps tremendously. The character is a family man with a gaggle of girls and is also the local coal man. Through his deliveries to the church and convent, he learns it is a “Magdalene laundry,” the real-life nun-run facilities where “bad” young women were sent to work, and their babies were taken away. (The very good Showtime series The Woman in the Wall also deals with this shame of Ireland’s too-recent history.)
The central question becomes: Confronted with such cruelty, can Furlong stand to look the other way, and if he doesn’t, what will that mean for his work and his family? Murphy is excellent in the role, creating a quiet, pensive person who seems to be absorbing all the sorrow around him, to the point where he can barely contain it. Emily Watson has a small but key role as Mother Superior, who wields much power and influence in town. Watson downplays it very well; she is everyone’s friend but it’s crystal-clear that you should not cross her.
The film stretches out the novella with extended flashbacks to Furlong’s own youth. Unresolved family issues definitely aren’t helping adult Furlong’s anxiety quotient.
DIrector Mielants creates a very strong sense of place, resisting the temptation to rely too heavily on the small-town Irish holiday season. And by sticking pretty closely to Keegan’s book, he gives us a low-key gem of a movie.
Aquarium Playlist, 11/19/24
EPISODE #616: REESE McHENRY and SHEL TALMY TRIBUTE
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Reese McHenry — “I Do What I Want”
Dirty Little Heaters — “Champions of Imperfection”
Reese McHenry — “If He Don’t”
Reese McHenry — “Someday I’ll See”
Reese McHenry w/ Spider Bags — “Rose of Monmouth County”
The Kinks — “You Really Got Me”
The Who — “My Generation”
The Easybeats — “Friday on my Mind”
Davy Jones [David Bowie] — “You’ve Got a Habit of Leaving”
Pentangle — “Light Flight”
Goldie & the Gingerbreads — “That’s Why I Love You”
The Creation — “Making Time”
The Interpreters — “Dogskin Report”
Lee Hazlewood — “Bye Babe”
Big Brother & the Holding Company — “Bye, Bye Baby”
Reese McHenry — “Bye Bye Baby”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Anora
4 stars out of 5
Brooklyn exotic dancer falls for son of a Russian oligarch, but daddy doesn’t approve. In different hands, this random draw from Hollywood’s Big Hat o’ Plots could’ve been: a raunchy comedy with Adam Sandler [large budget] or Rob Schneider [small budget] as the dad; a Pretty Woman-esque rom-com [full disclosure: Have never seen Pretty Woman]; or an international spy thriller starring Tom Holland and Sydney Sweeney. But with writer/director Sean Baker — whose The Florida Project I really liked (except for the screaming kids) and Red Rocket I mostly liked — it’s an… indie dramedy, I think?
We meet Ani (Mikey Madison), who doesn’t like to be called Anora, a dancer at a Manhattan strip club called HQ. I’m just now learning that Madison was one of the daughters on the show Better Things which I liked a lot. Here she gives a dynamic, multi-layered performance. She is completely believable as Ani from the Brighton Beach block, who knows exactly how to charm/manipulate her clientele. But do not cross her; she is one tough broad who will absolutely not be f’d with. Ani brightens when her dreams of a better life look like they might become reality.
The aforementioned oligarch’s son is Vanya, played by Mark Eydelsheyn with a goofy sweetness that leans toward entitled immaturity; I was physically reminded of Jean-Ralphio from Parks & Rec. The oligarch sends his man in New York, Toros (Karren Karagulian), to investigate the rumor that his son has gotten married. Toros then sends his henchmen Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Yura Borisov) to Vanya’s house to do the hands-on work.
Sean Baker isn’t afraid to switch gears in this movie. We spend arguably too long establishing both the sleazy strip-club world (I was getting an Uncut Gems vibe) and then Vanya’s spoiled decadent party life. When the henchmen arrive, it nearly becomes a slapstick comedy, with Weissman humorlessly absorbing much of the abuse. As the film shifts again — no spoilers — the characters start to become more human. Karagulian as Toros displays the exhaustion and frustration of a middle-aged middle manager. Borisov, who is slightly too handsome as Igor, is quiet and pensive as his character begins to wonder if he’s doing the right thing. And when we finally see some cracks in Ani’s hard shell, it’s quite affecting.
Baker does an excellent job capturing the Russian and Russian-American existence in Brighton Beach, and when all is said and done, he delivers a very realistic, satisfying moviegoing experience.
Jack Silbert, curator