4 stars out of 5
I saw this movie on Christmas Day but was then waylaid by the Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows (where at least I did see two Dylan covers performed, “Something There Is About You” and “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down”) So my review has been delayed, sorry. If you wanted to see this film in theaters, you likely already have. I’m reviewing it anyway, so there!
I liked this movie a lot!
I’d been extra-excited to see it since learning last spring that they’d be filming in Hoboken. I never caught a glimpse of any actors, just was mildly inconvenienced by some street closures, and did see some vintage cars, Little City Books transformed into the Music Inn record store, and a catering tent. Hollywood on the Hudson!
Did I mention I liked the movie? I did, a lot. I have to imagine Timothée Chalamet is a favorite for Best Actor, with Edward Norton a likely Best Supporting Actor. Chalamet captures Dylan at each stage over a wild, hyper-productive four-year period. He’s the humble Minnesota kid newly in New York, paying respects to Woody Guthrie at the Greystone psychiatric hospital in Jersey (which we long-time Weird New Jersey subscribers know all about). We see his confidence grow after early success, tinged with a quick revulsion to the trappings of fame and his resultant fandom. And we see a slightly more mature Dylan ready to carve his own path.
Norton delivers not just a spot-on vocal impression of Pete Seeger, but also a balanced portrayal of a man who mentored young Bob while also striving to protect the strict traditions of folk music. Elle Fanning is Dylan girlfriend “Sylvie” (bring me a little water), mostly based on Suze Rotolo. Fanning and Chalamet’s young fascination with each other feels real, as she nurtures him with love, literature, and art, ultimately realizing she’s losing him to Joan Baez and the world. A minor filmmaking critique: There are two nearly identical scenes of a heartbroken Sylvie stage-side. Tighten it up, director James Mangold! (Monica Barbaro brings a darker sultriness and spiky independence to her Baez performance.)
Story and script-wise, we get a fairly standard Hollywood biopic, with a few great “offbeat” moments that raise the overall quality. In terms of accuracy, I’m no Dylan scholar, but there was only one combination-of-two-famous-events that made me do a double-take. (Yes, Mangold and co-screenwriter Jay Cocks, I understand why you did it.)
The music and musical performances by the actors are terrific throughout. They oddly play several songs all the way through, but maybe I’m just jaded by movies usually cutting away from recording sessions and concerts. Fun credits find: Some songs were recorded at Hobo Sounds in Hoboken! (Psst, it’s really in Weehawken, but don’t tell anybody!)
I was thoroughly entertained and satisfied by this quality production, which I imagine could be very informative for younger viewers. May they stay forever young.
Movie Review: A Complete Unknown
Pandemic Cinema, Year 5
A chronological list of non-current or non-theatrical movies (feature length and short films) that I watched at home during the continuing COVID-19 crisis in 2024. The great majority of them were new to me.
Max Dugan Returns (1983)
The Invisible Man (1933)
Señor Droopy (1949)
Beware, My Lovely (1952)
The Vanishing (1988)
Deciding Vote (2023)
Insomnia (1997)
Dominick and Eugene (1988)
The Boston Strangler (1968)
L’Assassin Habite au 21 (1942)
Adventures of Popeye (1935)
Raging Bull (1980)
Absence of Malice (1981)
You Nazty Spy! (1940)
Hot Water (1924)
The Spinach Overture (1935)
The Killer (2023)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Showing Up (2022)
Hound Hunters (1947)
Downhill (1927)
Vim, Vigor, and Vitaliky (1936)
Maestro (2023)
Wham! (2023)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Past Lives (2023)
Klute (1971)
The Greatest Night in Pop (2024)
I Confess (1953)
Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944)
Oppenheimer (2023)
Notorious (1946)
The Killers (1946)
Mikey and Nicky (1976)
The Big Combo (1955)
Where Danger Lives (1950)
Pushover (1954)
The Cameraman (1928)
The Paper Chase (1973)
Dream Scenario (2023)
Experiment in Terror (1962)
Bridge Ahoy! (1936)
The Wasp Woman (1959)
What – No Spinach? (1936)
Free Solo (2018)
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Wave (2015)
Doggone Tired (1949)
I Wanna Be a Life Guard (1936)
Honeyland (1935)
Let’s Get Movin’ (1936)
Le Samouraï (1967)
Safety Last! (1923)
Little Swee’ Pea (1936)
Old Smokey (1938)
Hold the Wire (1936)
The Knockout (1914)
The Nun (2018)
Barnyard Babies (1935)
The Spinach Roadster (1936)
Metropolis (1927)
The Paneless Window Washer (1937)
The Discontented Canary (1934)
Organ Grinder’s Swing (1937)
Brats (2024)
To Have and Have Not (1944)
My Artistical Temperature (1937)
Cronos (1992)
The Bookworm Turns (1940
Hospitaliky (1937)
The Last Detail (1973)
Onionhead (1958)
Have Rocket — Will Travel (1959)
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)
Confidential Report (1955)
How Green Is My Spinach (1950)
Fuzz (1972)
Half-Pint Palomino (1953)
Lost and Foundry (1937)
X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
Daybreak Express (1953)
Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
Brute Force (1947)
Lifeboat (1944)
Wicked, Wicked (1973)
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
Hit Man (2023)
The Jersey Sound (2024)
The Instigators (2024)
The World of Henry Orient (1964)
A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982)
Men (2022)
Beetlejuice (1988)
Tension (1949)
I Like Babies and Infinks (1937)
Perfect Days (2023)
When the City Sleeps (1956)
Dance of the Weed (1941)
Protek the Weakerist (1938)
Henpecked Hoboes (1946)
Let’s Celebrake (1938)
Love Story (1970)
The Thirteenth Chair (1929)
The Old Dark House (1963)
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Mutts About Racing (1958)
The Pizza Triangle (1970)
Diabolique (1955)
Learn Polikeness (1938)
X (2022)
Demon Seed (1977)
The Night Digger (1971)
Misery (1990)
Willard (1971)
Big Chief Ugh-Amugh-Ugh (1938)
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
Torn Curtain (1966)
Lenny (1974)
I Yam Love Sick (1938)
The American Friend (1977)
Pearl (2022)
Crossfire (1947)
Blackboard Jumble (1957)
The Jeep (1938)
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Home on the Range (1940)
Bulldozing the Bull (1938)
Gaslight (1944)
Mutiny Ain’t Nice (1938)
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969)
Klondike Casanova (1946)
The Dot and the Line (1965)
Goonland (1938)
Gave up on:
Nickelodeon (1976)
Pandemic Cinema, year 1
Pandemic Cinema, year 2
Pandemic Cinema, year 3
Pandemic Cinema, year 4
New Year’s Resolutions 2025
1. Do much, much better job camouflaging my drones.
2. Take Godzilla to his old stomping grounds.
3. Mount my new musical Rodgers & Hammer Time!
4. Be ready when push notifications come to shove notifications.
5. Make sure I’m well-rested before beginning any prZzzzzzzzzzzz…..
6. After Robert Kennedy Jr. ravages the U.S. health system, pitch new designer clothing line “Polio by Ralph Lauren.”
7. Be more present and/or buy more presents.
8. Finally forgive myself for not making some sort of joke in 2010 comparing Lady Gaga’s meat dress to a “skirt steak.”
9. To allow A.I. to generate a satirical list of “resolutions” to accomplish in the following calendar year would be unethical even if very difficult to detect shazbot.
10. Always take the high road. Except in races to Scotland.
11. Help the underserved, protect the environment, fight discrimination, and be prepared to assist any group, organization, person, place, or thing hurt by new or eliminated federal policies, because not everything in 2025 will be a laughing matter.
• My resolutions for 2024
• My resolutions for 2023
• My resolutions for 2022
• My resolutions for 2021
• My resolutions for 2020
• My resolutions for 2019
• My resolutions for 2018
• My resolutions for 2017
• My resolutions for 2016
• My resolutions for 2015
• My resolutions for 2014
• My resolutions for 2013
• My resolutions for 2012
Aquarium Playlist, 12/31/24
EPISODE #622: BEST NEW-TO-ME 2024 PT. 2
MJ Lenderman — “She’s Leaving You” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Rebecca Schiffman — “Walking to the Subway”
Thee Sinseers — “Hold On”
Wishy — “Sick Sweet”
Little Jerry Williams (Swamp Dogg) — “Just What Do You Plan To Do About It”
Jamie Perrett — “Masquerade of Love”
The Grasping Straws — “Poetry”
Hello Shark — “Box of Wine”
Giant Day — “Patience”
The Wind-Ups — “Lockdown”
Fraternal Twin — “Skin Gets Hot”
Cupid and the Cowboy — “Born in Reno”
Amy Annelle — “The Ballad of Fire and Water”
Imogen Clark — “The Last of Me”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 12/24/24
EPISODE #621: BEST NEW-TO-ME 2024 PT. 1
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Chinese Telephones — “Tell Me Tell Me”
Jenny Don’t & the Spurs — “Broken-Hearted Blue”
Les Lullies — “Mauvaise Foi”
The Umbrellas — “When You Find Out”
Perennial — “Action Painting”
Hair Magic — “Gale Force Wind”
Beauty — “Mystery Guy”
The Tea & Whiskey — “Take Control”
Bamberdöst — “Havisham”
Manager — “This Is How It Ends for Me (Spy Balloon)”
Golden Apples — “Waiting for a Cloud”
Dead Best — “(Esteemed, Clever & Popular) Roadkill”
Five Hundred Bucks — “I Wanna Die Young”
French Boutik — “Pas la Peine”
Varnaline (Anders Parker) — “Now You’re Dirt”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Born Innocent — The Redd Kross Story
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.
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.
Jack Silbert, curator