4.5 stars out of 5
I wasn’t familiar with Dory Previn. Even the 2006 song “Dory Previn” by one of my favorite groups, Camera Obscura, didn’t inspire me to look up Dory Previn, and the name slipped out of my head. I must’ve seen her name multiple times, yet it never stuck.
Until February, that is, when I witnessed singer/songwriter Julia Greenberg perform a couple of songs by Ms. Previn. Though dating from the early 1970s, I was struck by the modern sensibility (let’s call it the Liz Phair era) of the lyrics. Plus, the songs were good! Right up my alley. I wanted to know more.
As luck would have it, Julia Greenberg has co-directed a documentary about Dory Previn, and it is excellent. Of course, it doesn’t hurt for a documentary to have a fascinating subject, and oh boy does Previn fit the bill. Girl from Woodbridge, New Jersey with a rough, domineering dad suddenly finds herself paired with André Previn (him I’d heard of!) writing songs for big-time Hollywood movies (two I’ve seen: Tall Story, 1960, and Inside Daisy Clover, 1965); he wrote the music, she wrote the words. It’s Hollywood, so they fall in love and get married.
All’s mostly fine until André leaves Dory for Mia Farrow (post-Sinatra, pre-Woody). Having previously weathered a mental breakdown, this turn of events sends Dory into a tailspin, and the documentary kicks into another compelling gear.
I won’t reveal more of Dory’s story, but suffice to say, rather than being crippled by mental illness, Dory Previn reinvents herself and thrives. (Good timing, too, as the ’60s gave way to the loosey-goosey 1970s.) And this is what sets On My Way to Where apart from mad-genius music documentaries such as The Devil and Daniel Johnston, You’re Gonna Miss Me (Roky Erickson), and Have You Got It Yet? (Syd Barrett). Dory Previn has a very different relationship with what’s going on in her mind.
To capture all this in a coherent and entertaining fashion, Julia Greenberg teamed with experienced filmmaker Dianna Dilworth (writer/director of the well-received mellotron documentary Mellodrama). The directors had full access to Ms. Previn’s archives, including thousands of pages of journals. One thing I was riveted by in the journal pages shown: Dory’s wordplay could teeter out of control, turning a word every which way, breaking words down and building them up, almost trapping her in a loop. I was immediately reminded of Woody Guthrie’s writings as Huntington’s chorea ate away at his brain — wild creativity devolving into gibberish. Yet once again, Dory is different, keeping the wolves of mental illness at bay.
To visually bring Ms. Previn’s journals to life, Greenberg and Dilworth deploy their secret weapon: esteemed veteran animator Emily Hubley. Previn’s simple character drawings are a perfect launching pad for Hubley to take flight, filling the screen with whimsy and awe, thoughts colliding, flitting this way and that. So much of Hubley’s work has been inspired by and paired with music, so this film is an ideal project for her. Her animated segments raise it to yet another level.
Currently on the festival circuit, I cannot recommend this documentary highly enough. Keep your eyes open for it. If you are a fan of glamorous old Hollywood, of ’70s singer/songwriters, of strong, independent, inspirational women who are survivors — not to mention a unique take on mental health — Dory Previn: On My Way to Where will absolutely captivate you. Personally, I know I’ll never again forget the name Dory Previn.
Movie Review: Dory Previn — On My Way to Where
Aquarium Playlist, 6/25/24
EPISODE #596: CASEY KASEM TRIBUTE 2024
“The New Scooby-Doo Movies” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Elvis Presley — “Suspicious Minds” [Billboard No. 1, 11/1/69]
The 5th Dimension — “Wedding Bell Blues” [No. 1, 11/8/69 – 11/22/69]
The Beatles — “Come Together/Something” [double A-side No. 1, 11/29/69]
Steam — “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” [No. 1, 12/6/69 – 12/13/69]
Diana Ross & the Supremes — “Someday We’ll Be Together” [No. 1, 12/27/69]
The Jackson 5 — “I Want You Back” No. 1, 1/31/70 – 2/7/70]
The Black Keys — “This Is Nowhere” [long-distance dedication from Jimmy to the Mapman]
Sly & the Family Stone — “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)/Everybody Is a Star” [double A-side No. 1, 2/14/70 – 2/21/70]
Simon & Garfunkel — “Bridge Over Troubled Water” [No. 1, 2/28/70 – 4/4/70]
The Beatles — ”Let It Be” [No. 1, 4/11/70 – 4/18/70]
The Jackson 5 — “ABC” [No. 1, 4/25/70 – 5/2/70]
The Beatles — “The Long and Winding Road” [No. 1, 7/13/70 – 7/20/70]
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Tuesday
4 stars out of 5
Tuesday is the day to go to the Clairidge Theater in Montclair, because that’s discount day. But we who are truly in the know (and who have a member discount anyway) will go on Wednesdays, when no one is around. (They all went on Tuesday.) Things didn’t work out for me this week, however. Wednesday, as you know, was a national holiday. But what I couldn’t predict was a kid’s birthday party at a screening of Inside Out 2. (Since returning under new ownership during the pandemic, the Clairidge has been showing mainstream releases in addition to their standard indie fare.) Would I ever make it to the concession stand behind this giggling pack of children ordering Gummi Worms and Hi-C fruit punch? Maybe I shouldn’t have picked Wednesday to see Tuesday.
I had the last laugh, however. Because theater 5 was nice and quiet and, in your face, kiddies: My movie even had a talking parrot!
OK, the parrot represented Death, but, still. This is a pretty fascinating movie anchored by two wonderful performances. The story, at its most basic, is a mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) trying to cope with the imminent death of her teenage daughter Tuesday (Lola Petticrew). Oh, and there’s a parrot, who is the Grim Reaper, continually flying around the world killing living things whose time is up: the old, the sick, the injured. Beg, plead, bargain, but it’s no use. The parrot — haunted by your pain — will not be swayed.
Until he meets Tuesday, that is. Pale, frail, wheelchair-bound, labored-breathing Tuesday. The parrot does not grant her a new lease on life, per se — but is moved by Tuesday’s kindness. (Some of this sequence is stupid.) The parrot puts just enough extra time on the clock so Tuesday can say goodbye to her mom. And then a whole series of things happen that I won’t spoil.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is as good as she’s ever been, madly rotating through the five stages of grief, while still being the sharp, funny Louis-Dreyfus we count on. Lola Petticrew, who is new to me, is terrific. Her Tuesday is proud, stubborn, innocent, awe-struck, afraid, but never self-pitying. (They’re in England and Tuesday has a British accent but Mom doesn’t and there’s no mention of Dad or their backstory, and it honestly doesn’t matter.) You could almost take the parrot out of the equation, but it does put Death in a larger context — death is everywhere, always — while pointing out that to the mourning, nothing and no one else exist in the world. It’s just the dying, the grieving, and the parrot.
I became a wee bit angry at the movie very late in the game, when the script kind of claimed to have all the answers. Um, ya don’t, debut feature writer/director Daina Oniunas-Pusic. Let the mystery be, as Iris DeMent once sang. (Or at least wait a little longer in your career before waxing so philosophic.) But overall, I really appreciated this offbeat yet still affecting meditation on death and the mother-daughter bond. And now for some strange reason, I want a cracker.
Movie Review: Flipside
3.5 stars out of 5
The name Christopher Wilcha looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Ah, but years ago, someone tipped me off to his directorial debut, the 1999 first-person documentary The Target Shoots First, about working at the Columbia Record Club during the “alternative rock” era. (I watched it on Vimeo.) And in 2007, I was a regular viewer of the This American Life TV show, which he also directed.
And now he’d directed Flipside, supposedly a documentary about a record store in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, which I’ve visited. Wilcha worked there years ago with my friend Tracy, and she’s in the movie. This was a must-see!
Wilcha, who is a couple of years younger than me, clings to/is haunted by a cornerstone belief of Gen X: Never sell out. But he makes a fair point by asking: How can one pay rent/eat food/get married/raise children/get healthcare/etc. etc. without selling out to some extent? Wilcha ended up starting a family and directing commercials, but could never full shake the dream of being a documentarian. However, bad luck and “life getting in the way” has resulted in countless hours of footage for unfinished documentaries. It seems Wilcha spends a lot of time questioning his own choices. And that is what this documentary is actually about. I think.
Flipside explores these ideas — having goals/dreams, pursuing them, the sacrifices we make for chasing dreams, and often failing regardless. Wilcha does this by revisiting some of his old unused doc footage and also literally revisiting Flipside Records to perhaps finally begin a documentary he suggested years earlier. (How to save this failing, beloved old shop with an owner who doesn’t want to modernize, clean, etc.?) We also meet dying jazz photographer Herman Leonard, finally celebrated for his work after decades in semi-obscurity. And here’s film of This American Life contributor Starlee Kine, crippled by writer’s block. Or how about her boss Ira Glass who pursued an odd creative outlet while experiencing personal problems. And then there’s Judd Apatow, and David “Deadwood” Milch. So many tales of failure and illness — it started to bum me out!
There were many high-interest subjects in this film for me. I didn’t even mention Uncle Floyd (who I’ve interviewed, thank you), or a quick glimpse of the beautiful old WMCA building, and I could swear I heard someone mention Weckerman. But when all was said and done, I felt more like I’d sat through 90 minutes of therapy for Christopher Wilcha, instead of one real focused documentary for myself. So in tribute to him, I’m going to leave this review unfin
Movie Review: Ezra
3 stars out of 5
There’s been a lot of hubbub the past couple of months about Timothée Chalamet being in Hoboken to film the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. And yet there’s been zero hubbub about a current major motion picture that is actually set in Hoboken. And that motion picture is called Ezra.
When I saw the trailer for this tale of a cross-country road trip by a father and his autistic son — starring Bobby Canavale as the dad and Robert DeNiro as the granddad — I knew I would see it (those are two of my guys!) and I hoped it would be good. Because there was a decent chance it would not be very good at all.
The director is Tony (Metro) Goldwyn (Mayer), who had no trouble casting name actors. In addition to Cannavale and DeNiro, we have Rose Byrne as Cannavale’s ex-wife, Whoopi Goldberg as his manager, a very likeable Rainn Wilson as his best bud, Vera Farmiga looking uncharacteristically “earth mother” as his long-ago flame, plus a cameo or two. Goldwyn himself plays Byrne’s current beau. And young William A. Fitzgerald, a neurodivergent actor, does a solid job — and importantly, isn’t annoying — as Ezra.
One potential pitfall the filmmakers do avoid: This could’ve been irredeemably sappy, and it isn’t. The early going, with the loving but frustrated parents arguing over the best type of school for Ezra, feels especially real. Unfortunately, much of the movie doesn’t feel very true-to-life, and the writing could’ve been sharper. One glaring example: Cannavale is supposed to be a quality stand-up comedian and former TV writer, yet yet the script doesn’t make him seem very funny.
So, not great, but the movie means well, is watchable enough, and was filmed in New Jersey. And though no scene were actually filmed in Hoboken, my Mile Square pals can take comfort in shots of the hospital, the police station, and the PATH station, and even a mention of the 14th St. Viaduct.
Aquarium Playlist, 6/18/24
EPISODE #595: SUMMER 2024
The Flashing Lights — “Summertime Climb” [ALTERNATE THEME]
The Proper Ornaments — “Waiting for the Summer”
So Cow — “Summer Is Icumen in Again”
Sweater Girls — “Summer Girls”
Wolfmanhattan Project — “Summer Forever”
The 5th Dimension — “On the Beach (in the Summertime)”
The Pastels — “Summer Rain”
The Smittens — “Summer Sunshine”
The Fiendz — “Down the Shore”
Gumball — ”Summer Days”
Partridge Family — “Summer Days”
Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd — “Looks Like Another Hot Summer”
XTC — “Summer’s Cauldron”
Superchunk — “Cruel Summer”
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart — “Summer of Dreams”
The Hypos — “All Summer”
The Gentle Waves — “There Was Magic, Then…”
World Famous Blue Jays — “Mud Flap Boogie” r.i.p. Jeremy Tepper
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 6/11/24
EPISODE #594: POP
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Prince — “Pop Life”
Blueboy — “Popkiss”
The Consultants — “Pop Pop”
Noise Addict — “Pop Queen”
The Chills — “Heavenly Pop Hit”
Art Brut — “We Make Pop Music”
France Gall — “Baby Pop”
Heavy Lag — “Dirt Pop”
Colin Clary — ”Boogiepop (Don’t Stop)”
XTC — “This Is Pop?”
Tullycraft — “Pop Songs Your New Boyfriend’s Too Stupid To Know About”
All Ashore! — “Perfect Pop Song” [7″ version]
R.E.M. — “Pop Song 89”
Material Issue — “International Pop Overthrow”
Men Without Hats — “Pop Goes the World”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Evil Does Not Exist
4 stars out of 5
In the past 2.5 years, I’ve quietly become a fan of writer/director Ryûke Hamaguchi. His previous effort, Drive My Car (based on a Haruki Murakami short story), was my favorite film of 2021. And his anthology film Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy was pretty compelling as well. Now this would be my first time seeing a feature-length tale that had sprung wholly from Hamaguchi’s own mind.
Did he take to heart my warning in the Fortune and Fantasy review “against making movies that are too talky”? Regardless, silence plays a major role in this film. (It begins with several wordless minutes as the camera looks up at trees.) This is a contemplation of nature in which the drama slowly unfolds, thanks to us pesky humans of course.
We meet Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), a odd-job man in a rural Japanese village. He cuts wood, transports water, you name it. Young daughter Hana (Ryo Nishikawa) is learning — with dad’s help — to appreciate the natural world. Life is simple, life is good.
The badness lurks in the background. The village was only formed after WWII for people to flee Tokyo. Also, what happened to Hana’s mom?
And now an Evil Company wants to build a glamping (glamorous camping) site in the village. Takahashi and Mayuzumi are p.r. hacks from the evil company explaining all the wonderful aspects of the site to the villagers. The people are suspicious. Is the septic tank big enough? Will their water source be ruined? Will tourists start fires, destroying the forest?
In many ways, it’s a classic Man vs. Nature scenario. The p.r. hacks don’t have an answer. And neither does Ryûke Hamaguchi. But he wants you to think about our relationship with nature, and our often feeble attempts to tame it. The ending has sparked discussion, and indeed, I found myself in the lobby afterward chatting with fellow moviegoers. Not too shabby when art can accomplish that.
Movie Review: Furiosa—A Mad Max Saga
4 stars out of 5
“Mad Max” was a nickname, which described his behavior, which was — you know — mad. But saddling a kid with the name Furiosa — are you sealing their fate right then and there? And don’t even get me started on her arch rival, Dementus.
As with recent sequels involving ghosts and apes and sandworms, I initially resisted Furiosa. I liked Fury Road a whole lot; it was my 7th favorite film of 2015. But this just looked like more of the same: vehicles and dust. Still, positive early word got me to shake off my own dust, and though not quite as great as Fury Road, I’m glad I caught this one in the theater.
This is a prequel, with Anya Taylor-Joy taking the reverse baton from Charlize Theron as heroine of the wasteland, Furiosa. This is her origin story.
As such, we spend a lot of time with Lil’ Furiosa (very nice work by young Alyla Browne). She’s raised in a utopian (though still post-apocalyptic) female-centric society, kinda like like Wonder Woman. Alas, as curious children do, she wanders from the herd and is snatched by goofy bad guy Dementus. Chris Hemworth has a blast playing this role; sometimes with a cape and steampunk club, he even looks like a student-film version of Thor.
But the really evil bad guy, just like in Fury Road, is Immortan Joe. (Dementus is bad, but at least has a sense of humor.) Joe’s two dumb sons are played by the same actors from the last movie (Don Jr. and Eric). And it’s Joe and his thugs vs. Dementus and his thugs for control of the gasoline and the bullets. Oh boys and their toys, war what is it good for, absolutely nuthin’, meanwhile Furiosa grows into Taylor-Joy who is just trying to get back to the ga-ar-den.
Taylor-Joy is terrific here, delivering a truly feral performance. And though she was a wild child, by sitting back and learning she now subtly shows problem-solving acumen in addition to the kick-ass-itude we knew was within. Taylor-Joy plays Furiosa’s emotions very close to the vest, yet allows a touch of humanity to drip out as fellow road warrior Praetorian Jack slowly earns her trust.
Plus you get all the giant trucks and old cars and guns and spears and explosions and hang gliders you could ever want. Opening-credits sound bites give us a few hints of how the modern world collapsed — wouldn’t ya know it, war and pandemics were involved!
At age 79, director/co-writer George Miller shows no signs of slowing or mellowing, and I’ll happily follow him into the dust once more if such is his bidding. An epic spanning Taylor-Joy to Charlize? Just putting a bug in your ear and silver spray paint around your mouth.
Aquarium Playlist, 6/4/24
EPISODE #593: LULLABIES
The Pogues — “Lullaby of London” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Lightheaded — “Dawn Hush Lullaby”
Thigh Master (now Dippers) — “Porto’s Lullaby”
UV-TV — “Distant Lullaby”
Jonny Couch — “Lullaby”
Long Neck — “Lullaby”
Health & Happiness Show — “Sinner’s Lullaby”
Neko Case — “Furnace Room Lullaby”
M. Ward — “Lullaby + Exile”
Built to Spill — ”Nowhere Lullaby”
T-Bone Burnett — “Sweet Lullaby”
The Cure — “Lullaby”
The Czars — “Lullaby 6000”
Amor de Días — “Hampshire Lullaby”
Liam Finn — “Lullaby”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Jack Silbert, curator