4.5 stars out of 5
Hmm, how to get Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito to see this movie? Because they really need to. And yet, are any of them bright enough to read subtitles? Happening is a French film which takes place in 1963, though it may as well be Red State America, fall 2022, because abortion is illegal. We meet Anne, a bright college literature student eager to continue her studies. She is very surprised and upset to find out she’s pregnant from a fling. Anne has no intention to keep the baby. But her society has other ideas.
Anamaria Vartolomei is outstanding as Anne. She is strong, independent, unrelenting. Vartolomei deftly shows the changes as sadness and desperation creep in and build up, while never abandoning Anne’s central strength.
Director/cowriter Audrey Diwan, working from a semi-autobiographical novel by Annie Ernaux, ramps up the urgency and tension as the weeks add up, giving the film a race-against-the-clock thriller aspect. But much more so, it’s a psychological exploration. We see a fiercely independent person who realizes she needs help. Tragically, when she does ask for help, she finds that doctors are spooked and/or judgmental, and even close friends don’t wish to discuss the situation.
There are a couple of absolutely harrowing scenes to sit through. And yet, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett need to Clockwork Orange it with eyelids pried open.
In the AIDS crisis, we learned that Silence = Death. Happening unflinchingly reminds us that it will absolutely be the same for outlawed abortion, and that when matters become the most desperate, we allies will need to step up.
Movie Review: Happening
Movie Review: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
4 stars out of 5
Can we please just can it with the multiverse for a hot minute? Couple of pals said, “you gotta see Everything Everything All at Once,” yet three words into the summary I read, it said multiverse, and I was all, thank you but no; myself and my parallel selves are outta here.
The multiballverse was admittedly very cool in that cartoon Spidey movie, and who didn’t enjoy seeing Tobey Maguire (or wait, was that Elijah Wood?) et al. in the recent No Way Home. But at the end of the day it’s really lazy storytelling and needs to stop.
OK then, so why did I purposely go see a movie with Multiverse in its freaking title? Two words: Sam Raimi. The early Spider-Man installments that he directed remain the series’ best. Besides, the modern Marvel Universe could certainly use some of his Evil Dead-style goofiness.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange is thankfully less wisecracky than he’s been in recent appearances. Though a problem with having such a top-flight actor in this film is that some other cast members pale in comparison. Teen Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez, in a key role as the “asset” Strange needs to protect, gets the job done but doesn’t really stand out. And brace yerselves for a hot take, true believers: Elizabeth Olsen is not a very good actress and doesn’t have much screen presence. Plus, her Scarlet Witch outfit looks like a leftover Rite Aid Halloween costume. Luckily, Rachel McAdams is around to pick up the acting slack. I remain a fan.
The film’s first two thirds are alternately entertaining, needlessly confusing, and stupid. I’ll concede that jumping from universe to universe provides some impressive visual effects. But in the final third, the movie improves from merely watchable to something I honestly felt was very good. And that’s because it finally becomes a Sam Raimi flick. In the early going, it seemed like he was hamstrung by all the Marvel canon that needed to be jammed in. But finally, Raimi gets to be Raimi, and we get a zany horror film with genuine scares and laughs. Elizabeth Olsen truly comes into her own as a limping, bloodthirsty killer. Strange multivitaminverse madness, and very much fun!!
Aquarium Playlist, 5/17/22
EPISODE #487: MAYBE
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Eyelids — “Maybe More”
The Connells — “Maybe”
Lesley Gore — “Maybe I Know”
Arthur Russell — “Maybe She”
Okkervill River — “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe”
The Smittens — “Maybe It Is Me”
Colleen Green — “Maybe I’ll Get Hit by a Car Tonight”
Richard Davies — “Sign Up Maybe for Being”
Justin Townes Earle — “Maybe a Moment”
Bad Sports — “Maybe Not”
Minutemen — “Maybe Partying Will Help”
Tony Bennett — “Maybe This Time”
Björk — “Possibly Maybe”
Stevie Wonder — “Maybe Your Baby”
Chuck Berry — “Maybellene”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 5/10/22
EPISODE #486: IMAGINATION
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Exploding Flowers — “Imagine All Possibilities”
Robert Forster — “Let Me Imagine You”
Brian Wilson — “Your Imagination”
The Temptations — “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)”
Bill Withers — “My Imagination”
Joan Jett — “Make Believe”
The Easybeats — “The Land of Make Believe”
Kitty Wells — “Making Believe”
Conway Twitty — “It’s Only Make Believe”
The Exploding Hearts — “I’m a Pretender”
Dany Laj & the Looks — “Sweet Pretender”
Vivian Girls — “Trying To Pretend”
Jackson Browne — “The Pretender”
Edward Rogers — “Imaginary Man”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 5/3/22
EPISODE #485: GROOVIN’
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Katrina & the Waves — “She Loves To Groove”
Wizard Brain — “Keep On Groovin’”
The Lees of Memory — “(We Got To Be) Groovin’”
Leon Bridges — “Twistin’ & Groovin’”
The Equals — “Soul Groovin’”
Earth Wind & Fire — “Let’s Groove”
Isley Brothers — “Groove With You”
The Cucumbers — “Body Groove” [live]
Liquid Liquid — “Lock Groove” [live]
T.Rex — “The Groover”
Robyn Hitchcock — “Saturday Groovers”
Louis Jordan & his Tympani Five — “Oh Boy, I’m in the Groove”
Heatwave — “The Groove Line” [disco version]
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 4/26/22
EPISODE #484: WIND
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Roy Orbison — “Borne on the Wind”
Deena and Chasing Colours — “Everybody Knows the Way the Wind Blows”
Beach Boys — “Let the Wind Blow”
Fats Domino — “Let the Four Winds Blow”
They Might Be Giants — “I Hear the Wind Blow”
Ian & Sylvia — “Four Strong Winds”
Jimi Hendrix — “The Wind Cries Mary”
Bob Dylan — “Blowin’ in the Wind”
Donovan — “Catch the Wind”
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band — “Against the Wind”
Don Covay — “It’s in the Wind”
Graham Parker & the Rumour — “Howling Wind”
Terry McCarthy — “Awkward Wind”
Iron & Wine — “The Wind Is Low”
Paul Westerberg — “Runaway Wind”
Warren Zevon — “Hasten Down the Wind”
Nina Simone — “Wild Is the Wind”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: The Outfit
2.5 stars out of 5
I texted my friend Lex Burling right after seeing the trailer for this movie a while back. I needed to tell her that, on the front window of a tailor shop in the film, it prominently says “L. BURLING.” I also said in that text exchange that initially The Outfit looked pretty good but I was soon wondering, “Does this whole movie take place in one room?”
It indeed it does. Well, two and a half rooms, really: the shop’s front room, the tailor’s work room, and glimpses of a back room. If I’m being generous, this helps give the movie the feel of a stage play. Adding to that (trigger warning: rising snark), the stock secondary characters — the innocent secretary who wants to see the world, the ambitious son of a local crime boss, etc. — seem to theatrically deliver their lines rather than speaking naturally. And, less generously, I was also reminded of sitcoms’ “bottle episodes” in which the action is limited to very few sets for budgetary reasons. (Hijinks ensue when the gang accidentally gets trapped in the meat locker!)
Nevertheless, I got into a groove with The Outfit where I knew it wasn’t great but was enjoying it nonetheless. The excellent Mark Rylance, as the tailor whoops I mean cutter like they call them on Saville Row, was redeeming himself for his extremely annoying performance in Don’t Look Up. Zoey Deutch a.k.a. Lea Thompson’s daughter hubba hubba is convincing as a fresh-scrubbed assistant (“You don’t meet nice boys on Skid Row, Mr. Mushnik”) who collects snow globes of all the places she wants to travel. Hey, I collect snow globes too! I was connecting to the movie! I accepted that there wasn’t extensive character development because this is a genre gangster/mystery piece — the kindly old neighborhood craftsman looks the other way as the local hoods drop off their envelopes — hey I remember those from The Sopranos! — in a slot in a box in the shop.
But that peaceful coexistence goes out the window when the baddie No. 1 son gets shot (“I got a marble in my gut”) and ends up on the tailor’s table. Oh also it’s 1950s Chicago and the snow outside looks really fake. Are we inside one of those snow globes?!? #StElsewhere
The problem as I see it is that director/cowriter Graham Moore (who also wrote the good not great The Imitation Game) was saving up a whole lotta plot, with the whodunnits and the oh I didn’t expect thats, and it all comes spilling out at the end, as the movie collapses under the weight of twists and turns.
“Well, that got ridiculous,” I said to the two older women in the theater as the lights came up. No, they liked it; that’s what happens in this kind of movie. Hey, what do I know; to each his own.
Aquarium Playlist, 4/19/22
EPISODE #483: MUSEUMS
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The Modern Lovers — “Girl Friend”
Pete Galub and Matt Kanelos — “Museum of Brotherly Love”
Daniel Johnston — “Museum of Love”
Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 — “Museum of Sex”
Aimee Mann — “At the Frick Museum”
The Clientele — “The Museum of Fog”
Danny Cohen — “Museum of Dannys”
Game Theory — “Museum of Hopelessness”
Notches — “Museum of More Dumb Art”
Lightning in a Twilight Hour — “The Memory Museum”
They Might Be Giants — “The Edison Museum”
They Might Be Giants — “Museum of Idiots”
Frankie Rose — “Red Museum”
Mount Eerie w/ Julie Doiron — “When I Walk Out of the Museum”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: The Batman
4 stars out of 5
It had been five and and a half weeks and I still hadn’t seen The Batman. Seven-dollar Tuesday came and went. Just wait till Monday and fire it up on HBOMax? No, I’d seen every Batman flick since 1989 in the theater and by god, I wasn’t stopping now! Which is how I found myself at a nearly empty Wednesday afternoon screening.
Hey, I really liked it! Definitely my favorite Batman movie since the Tim Burton ones and the first two hours of The Dark Knight. I’ll even state that this is the best superhero movie in recent history, which is not saying too much, because so many of the current ones are assembly-line garbage.
Director/co-writer Matt Reeves’ name didn’t jump out at me, but he wrote and then directed two of the most enjoyable recent Planet of the Apes movies, and also wrote and directed the American adaptation Let Me In, which was really creepy and good. Here, he creates — are you sitting down? — a realistic world… in a superhero story! New York uh I mean Gotham City is believably run down and Batman is the only costumed freak in town. The Penguin is a mafioso and the Riddler and Catwoman cover up on the cheap just to hide their identities. Most importantly, the plot deals with actual concerns: municipal corruption, fringe online communities, even Bruce Wayne’s privilege. Who needs laser guns and tanks of acid when you’re coping with MODERN LIFE?!?
My man RPatz is terrific as tortured soul Bruce Wayne who, don’t tell anyone, is also Batman. (When a thug early on asks, “What the hell are you?!?” I soooo wanted Pattinson to say, “I’m Batman” but instead he says “I’m vengeance” which is also pretty cool.) Jeffrey Wright steps right out of James Bond and right into Batman as Commissioner Gordon without breaking stride as a reliable on-screen presence. From the trailers I wasn’t sure how I’d react to Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, but she plays it as a genuine person and that really works. I believed that she taught herself to fight. And the character is important here because she allows Bat Boy to show a sliver of humanity.
John Turturro is a mob boss and knows how to play it without going over the top. Between this and Severance, he is on a roll of late! An unrecognizable Colin Farrell is excellent as the Penguin — scary and funny. He also gets in a solid “world’s greatest detectives” crack, nice touch. The only real weak link here is the missing link himself, Caesar from Reeves’ monkey movies, Andy Serkis as Alfred. He provides a workmanlike but unremarkable performance, and should perhaps stick to playing apes and Gollum instead of people.
The movie is long — nearly 3 hours — but keeps a steady pace most of the way through. So hopefully you won’t get too distracted by your phone when watching from the couch. There are a couple of clumsy exposition-heavy scenes, one involving an “oh how convenient!” lengthy and too-well-recorded cellphone message. But in general this is a smartly constructed film. It’s always grey, rainy, and gloomy in Gotham, yet not the phony apocalyptic gloom of past Batmans. They also don’t shove soundtrack songs in your ears, only making very effective use of Nirvana’s “Something in the Way.” The action is clearly shot and pretty thrilling, especially a superb Batmobile chase. (Spoiler alert: It does not lose a wheel.) Call me corny, but Reeves even works in a worthwhile message for teens and young adults. And no spoiler for the ending, but the climax is — here’s that word again — incredibly realistic, which as a viewer I really appreciated. I will definitely join in next time if it’s the same Bat director, same Bat actor!
Jack Silbert, curator