By Jack Silbert on November 28, 2023
EPISODE #566: HURT
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Elmore James — “It Hurts Me Too”
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band — “I Won’t Hurt You”
Timi Yuro — “Hurt”
Pianosaurus — “A Little Love (Never Hurt)”
Terry McCarthy — “It Hurts”
Patsy’s Rats — “It’s Gonna Hurt”
Giant Sand — “Hurtin’ Habit”
Patsy Cline — “I Love You So Much It Hurts”
Johnny Thunders — “Hurtin’”
William Loveday Intention — ”I’m Hurting”
Everly Brothers — “Love Hurts”
Brenda Holloway — “Every Little Bit Hurts”
Johnny Cash — “Hurt”
Randy Newman — “I Want You To Hurt Like I Do”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Billy Childish, Brenda Holloway, Elmore James, Everly Brothers, Giant Sand, Johnny Cash, Johnny Thunders, Patsy Cline, Patsy's Rats, Pianosaurus, Randy Newman, Terry McCarthy, Timi Yuro, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, William Loveday Intention
By Jack Silbert on November 28, 2023
2.5 stars out of 5
When you put salt in wound, you get saltburn. (Sorry, had to get that out of the way.) I knew I was maybe in trouble when the trailer for this movie shouted Written and Directed by EMERALD FENNELL and my reaction was “Who the #%^@!& is Emerald Fennell?!?” But oh, she was the filmmaker behind the much-lauded Promising Young Woman — for which she won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar — and which contrary me thought was pretty lousy. Still, I was ready to give her another chance. That trailer looked good and creepy, with the psychological torture of an innocent young man who is lured into a sinister “in” crowd. And the lead was Barry Keoghan, who impressed me so much in both The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Banshees of Inisherin.
So Barry, as Oliver, arrives as a nerdy new student at Oxford, where apparently no one ever says, “Hey, could somebody flip on the lights?” He quickly takes a shine to Felix, the super-handsome Big Man on Campus. I was pleased to see Jacob Elordi in this role, where he gets to show a lot more range than he did as Elvis in Priscilla. Felix takes Ollie under his wing and we’re waiting for the mind-fuck to begin… and waiting… and waiting… and I’m thinking, “My, this is a slow build, Fennell.”
After not much of anything happens, old-money Felix invites scholarship Oliver to his family’s estate, Saltburn, for summer break. At this point the movie becomes a lot of fun, as our fish Ollie goes even farther out of water in this bizarre dress-for-dinner world. As Felix’s parents, Richard E. Grant and the lovely and talented Rosamund Pike are delightfully batty. Also very good is Archie Madekwe as Farleigh, sassy fellow Oxford student who has a bit of a rivalry with Oliver. Throw in Felix’s flirty sister Venetia (Alison Oliver) and Ollie has his hands full.
But as we learn that Oliver is an unreliable narrator and protagonist, the cracks in the film’s structure begin to show, and I noticed I was enjoying myself less and less. I’m not going to spoil any more of the plot, but suffice to say that I felt cheated. Oh Emerald, we get it, you love to shock us, but making a genuinely good, consistent film is harder work, and I don’t know if I’ll be in the crowd the next time.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 20s movies, Barry Keoghan, Emerald Fennell, Jacob Elordi
By Jack Silbert on November 28, 2023
1.5 stars out of 5
The credits list three screenwriters but I have to think ChatGPT was behind this script, because it does not make a lick of sense. (Keywords: SUPERHEROES + NOT-YET-BLED-DRY YOUNG FEMALE AUDIENCE + OUTER SPACE) I’m a big fan of Brie Larson and the first Captain Marvel movie was… eh, mostly ok… so instead of sitting in my Quality Inn room all night, I headed to the theater. (My other options were Napoleon which I’d seen the night before, Trolls Band Together, Wish, and The Hunger Games Pt. 47.)
I’d seen the only other Captain Marvel movie, so I’d have no problem whatsoever following this, right? So very wrong. She is now living on a space station, taking calls from Samuel L. Jackson, who has such lame dialogue and makes so little effort throughout, I kept expecting him to say, “What’s in your wallet?” And there’s a blip on the radar. So they summon Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) to help investigate. Hey, she’s the little girl who Captain Marvel knew on Earth in the first movie! Except how come she’s a grown woman now? Oh right, it’s because Captain Marvel was set in the ‘90s which I didn’t remember because I’m a casual viewer and it’s been 4.5 years including a freaking global pandemic and, oh yeah, Captain Marvel looks exactly the same after decades because she’s a space alien. Throw me a bone, Marvel!
And then there’s a whole Freaky Friday element, because teen Captain Marvel fangirl Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) has one half of some golden galactic wrist armor (called “bangles” throughout because they’re pandering to a nonexistent female audience) and she keeps accidentally trading places with Monica and Captain Marvel. Wacky!! And she lives with her family in Jersey City and they filmed some here, woo Hudson County represent!, except it might as well be Toronto because you don’t get the slightest sense of geography. I might have known some of her backstory had I watched the streaming series Ms. Marvel but I didn’t even know it existed.
And remember the green Halloween-mask-wearing people from the first movie? They’re back, and warring with some other aliens (“FREE HALA!” the college-age aliens are posting on Instagram). The leader of the other aliens, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) has the missing bangle! Oh I bet she’ll stop at nothing to retrieve the matching one! Oh, also, she’s got a mad grudge against Cap’n Marvel. Now, I figured all of this must’ve been covered in some streaming show but, no, this is the first anyone’s seen of Dar-Benn. Oh please, Marvel, needlessly complicate things further, won’t you?
I don’t know what else to tell you, except that glowing tiles keep coming loose from the universe’s ceiling. The movie alternates between nonsensical pseudo-scientific speak, and forced “fun” sequences aimed hard at Barbie viewers who are skipping this in droves. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying: Marvel, please get back to basics and make a movie with one hero fighting one villain on Earth. The Universe starts with u.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 10s movies, 20s movies, Brie Larson, super powers
By Jack Silbert on November 28, 2023
4 stars out of 5
Going in, I readily admit I didn’t know very much about Napoleon, besides that he was a military guy who had a Napoleon complex. So I learned an awful lot from watching this film. But beyond just that, as the younger dude who was the only other person staying till the end of the credits said to me, “That was a really good movie!”
I wasn’t a guaranteed attendee, with my general aversion to both pre-20th-century period pieces and to war films. But the trailer was pretty compelling, and Joaquin Phoenix is a reliably strong screen presence. So there I was, in the theater seat. As soon as the movie began, I realized I wasn’t paying attention to the scene-setting explanatory text on-screen, and worried, “Oh no, I’m screwed, I’ll never understand any of this.” But I hung in there, and picked up that it was the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution, royalty was overthrown, and Napoleon Bonaparte quickly rises through the ranks of the military.
Along the way he meets Josephine (actress Vanessa Kirby), and it’s their codependent relationship that is true through-line of this film. Love and war is a recipe for melodrama but legendary director Ridley Scott has a deft hand here, and there’s a looseness and frequent humor to his telling that I found quite appealing. Bonaparte is a brilliant commander on the battlefield and yet is totally vexed by Josephine. He struggles to control her but alas cannot. Phoenix has a field day with this role, strutting, whimpering, pacing, affectionate, frustrated, immature. And he loves wielding that crazy hat. As for Kirby, though she hasn’t particularly impressed me in the last two Mission: Impossible flicks (as the White Widow), here she holds her own with the mercurial Phoenix, taming him, dominating, rolling her eyes.
The movie literally covers a lot of ground — battle to battle to battle — through the early decades of the 19th century. Despite a running time over 2.5 hours, the film does seem to be skipping around through Nap’s greatest hits. (My pal Clarke surmised that the less history you know watching this — hey that’s me! — the more you’ll actually appreciate the film.) Even I noticed part of the story that wasn’t followed up on. And though visually very impressive and sweeping throughout, there was one “troops advancing” sequence that looked like the sort of stock footage Monty Python would’ve used. Minor gripes, though.
If you like impressively constructed and performed films with cannons booming (plus horses and muskets and bayonets and hats), or if you’ve had that one lover who you just couldn’t quit, who haunts you still, march on the double to Le Cineplex for Napoleon.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 20s movies, Joaquin Phoenix, Ridley Scott
By Jack Silbert on November 21, 2023
EPISODE #565: THANKSGIVING 2023
Ray Davies — “Thanksgiving Day” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Overmountain Men — “Leaving England”
The Glands — “Mayflower”
The Give — “Massachusetts”
Billy Ward & the Dominoes — “Rock Plymouth Rock”
Screaming Females — “Electric Pilgrim”
The Only Ones — “The Happy Pilgrim”
Victoria Williams w/ Julian Lennon — “The Pilgrim’s Tale”
Satan’s Pilgrims — “Pilgrim Party”
Doctor Ross — “Turkey Leg Mama”
Dee Dee Sharp — ”Gravy (for my Mashed Potatoes)”
The “5” Royales — “Pumpkin Pie”
Vince Guaraldi Trio — “Thanksgiving Theme”
Mary Gauthier — “Thanksgiving”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Billy Ward & the Dominoes, Dee Dee Sharp, Doctor Ross, Julian Lennon, Mary Gauthier, Overmountain Men, Ray Davies, Satan’s Pilgrims, Screaming Females, Thanksgiving, The Give, The Glands, The Only Ones, The “5” Royales, Victoria Williams, Vince Guaraldi
By Jack Silbert on November 19, 2023
3.5 stars out of 5
You can go see this movie or, just watch the trailer, as there isn’t too much difference. Meet Paul Giamatti; he’s a curmudgeonly teacher! Now meet a bunch of students left behind over winter break at a fancy school — and Giamatti has to oversee them! Throw in the cafeteria lady, and they’ll form hard-won, unlikely friendships!
The basic idea reminded me a little of Unaccompanied Minors, which I watched a lot of on cable one lazy day and recall kind of enjoying. And Alexander Payne directed this, so I thought maybe he’d turn the feel-good trailer into something special. However, Payne generally does his best work when he also writes the movie, and this time he did not. That honor went to TV writer David Hemingson.
Giamatti could play this role in his sleep; alas he doesn’t go above-and-beyond that. The lead student is newcomer Dominic Sessa, who shows he’s able to play both edgy and wounded. And Da’Vine Joy Randolph is the down-to-earth cafeteria manager who slowly reveals her own pain.
Loss and abandonment are recurring themes here, and while I’ll give Hemingson credit for subverting some clichés, I do feel he tried to shoehorn too much drama into the script, and wasn’t able to resolve it all effectively.
Still, it’s a nice wintry setting in the earliest 1970s (kudos to the opening credits design), with some decent light humor much of the way through. So if you want to see this in the theater, hurry up, as I can’t imagine The Holdovers will be held over for very long.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 00s movies, 20s movies, Alexander Payne, Paul Giamatti
By Jack Silbert on November 14, 2023
EPISODE #564: RIVERS
Yo La Tengo — “The River of Water” [ALTERNATE THEME]
John Cozz — “The Passaic River”
The Special Pillow — “Hudson River Dreamboat”
Bruce Springsteen — “The River”
House of Usher — “River to River”
The Beths — “River Run: Lvl 1”
Chuck Willis — “Going to the River”
R.E.M. — “Find the River”
Justin Townes Earle — “Harlem River Blues”
Mattie Delaney — “Tallahatchie River Blues”
T-Bone Burnett — ”River of Love”
Robert Forster — “The River People”
David Byrne & Brian Eno — “The River”
Tom Waits & John Lurie — “River of Men”
The Minders — “Into the River”
The Lost Crusaders — “There Used To Be a River”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged Brian Eno, Bruce Springsteen, Chuck Willis, David Byrne, George Usher, John Cozz, John Lurie, Justin Townes Earle, Lost Crusaders, Mattie Delaney, R.E.M., Robert Forster, Special Pillow, T-Bone Burnett, The Beths, The Lost Crusaders, The Minders, Tom Waits, Yo La Tengo
By Jack Silbert on November 10, 2023
3.5 stars out of 5
I read Peter Guralnick’s superb two-volume Elvis Presley biography, but it is not at all fresh in my mind. And thus far, I haven’t watched the 2022 Elvis movie. So I was pleased to revisit the Priscilla years, and Sofia Coppola is much more my speed than Baz Luhrmann.
This film is based on Priscilla’s memoir Elvis & Me, so we’re definitely getting her side of the story. We begin when 24-year-old Elvis, suffering from the G.I. blues in Germany, takes an interest in army brat/high-school freshman Priscilla. Her parents worry about his intentions and even Elvis’s crowd privately joke about how young she is. (It helps the movie that we believe 24-year-old actress Cailee Spaeny is in her early teens.) But Elvis gets what Elvis wants.
Coppola captures the starstruck and lovestruck girl and her isolation — in the classroom, it’s like she’s the only one there. When they arrive in Memphis, the isolation continues, but not of her own making. Elvis (portrayed by Jacob Elordi) is shown as a very controlling figure. Priscilla becomes almost a prisoner at home; a doll in the dollhouse that is Graceland, while “E” heads off to make bad movies and have affairs. Coppola makes the compelling choice not to show us Elvis having his fun, but rather staying with bored, lonely Priscilla, reading sordid stories of Presley in celebrity mags. When he is home, Elvis dictates what she wears and her overall appearance; hmm how about some black hair dye and dark eyeliner so she looks more like… him! Marriage and motherhood improve things but only too briefly.
Coppola revels in period details and has a lot of fun conveying passage of time. Always music-minded, she doesn’t bind herself to the songs of the era, but rather what best captures the mood. And ultimately as writer and director, Coppola gives us this very public coming-of-age story in which Priscilla initially craves affection but ultimately wants to be her own person.
The film is formatted as a series of telling anecdotes (in which Coppola wisely shows instead of telling). Toward the end, though, it felt like an additional anecdote or two might’ve helped us reach the conclusion, which as-is I found a little unsatisfying. I don’t know, maybe I’ll watch the Luhrmann one now and see if I prefer getting hit over the head.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 20s movies, Baz Luhrmann, Elvis Presley, Priscilla Presley, Sofia Coppola
By Jack Silbert on November 7, 2023
EPISODE #563: ANGER
Public Image Ltd. — “Rise” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Rolling Stones — “Angry”
Noun — “Just How Angry I Am”
Marvin Gaye — “Anger”
Nice Try — “Angry”
George Usher — “The Angry Smile of a Lonely Man”
Ex Void — “Angry at You Baby”
Sleater-Kinney & Fred Schneider — “Angry Inch”
Neil Young — “Angry World”
White Fence — “Anger! Who Keeps You Under?”
For Against — ”Why Are You So Angry?”
Everly Brothers — “I’m Not Angry”
Elvis Costello — “I’m Not Angry”
Thee AHs — “I’m Not Angry Anymore”
David Bowie — “Look Back in Anger”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Posted in internet radio playlists | Tagged David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Everly Brothers, Ex Void, For Against, Fred Schneider, George Usher, Marvin Gaye, Neil Young, Nice Try, Noun, Public Image Ltd., Rolling Stones, Sleater-Kinney, Thee AHs, White Fence
By Jack Silbert on November 3, 2023
3.5 stars out of 5
This is like a jumbo episode of La Loi et L’Ordre. And perhaps they purposely used a title similar to the legendary courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. Our story begins in the French Alps. German actress Sandra Hüller plays German author Sandra Voyter, being interviewed in her family’s chalet by a young journalist. Both the two women and we the audience feel tension right away, as someone is rudely playing very loud music upstairs at their home. Turns out it is Sandra’s French husband. Their mostly blind son Daniel takes Snoop the dog for a walk, perhaps to avoid a harried situation at home. When he and Snoop return, Daddy is lying dead on the ground outside the chalet! Did he jump… or was he pushed?
Sandra’s old lawyer pal Vincent shows up to calm her down, and represent her as evidence against her begins to pile up. Swann Arlaud, who plays Vincent, looks like an anime version of Martin Short.
Thus the procedural aspects of the story go into high gear. And the movie is quite compelling as we see the role of police, attorneys, investigators (looking at, yes, the actual anatomy of a fall), the media, and soon enough, the French court system — with a vision-impaired child “witness” in the mix. Sandra’s “outsider” status — she never wanted to leave London and move to her husband’s hometown — is further amplified by the request that she speak French when testifying (and when talking with her son in the presence of a court-appointed guardian), a language she clearly struggles with. Though not exactly cinéma vérité, director/co-writer Justine Triet keeps things realistic; when there’s a surprise in the courtroom, even the camera appears to be caught off-guard.
As details unfold, we learn of a variety of strife in the marriage. And thus the relationship is seemingly on trial as much as the possible murder is. To me, that was less interesting than all the legal wrangling, and I found that the later part of the film dragged a bit (unfortunate with a total running time of 2.5 hours). To top it off, late-surfacing details in the case were convoluted and that left me frustrated. For someone raised on judge-and-jury stories, bring in that just-discovered piece of evidence and/or a surprise witness, give me an unassailable verdict, and let’s clear the courtroom!
Nevertheless, Anatomy of a Fall is a well-performed, nice piece of filmmaking, and if you have greater tolerance for squabbling couples (Marriage Story, anyone?), you’ll likely enjoy this even more than I did.
Posted in movie reviews | Tagged 20s movies
Jack Silbert, curator