3.5 stars out of 5
Upon re-watching 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap early in the pandemic, I rated it 10 out of 10 on IMDb, and if the scale allowed me, would’ve gone to 11. I was 15 years old when the movie first came out and it was a perfect blend of smart and stupid, mocking the Heavy Duty Rock and Roll that was then such a big part of my life. Next, Nigel Tufnel a.k.a. Christopher Guest took that mockumentary format and ran with it, creating some of my very favorite films (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind). If I couldn’t quote from all these movies, I’d likely have a lot less to say.
So there was no chance I wasn’t going to see Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. No, it is not as non-stop hilarious and brilliant as the original. But I smiled all the way through, laughed quite a lot, and am liking it even more as days pass since the screening. Staging a contractually-obligated reunion concert is an ideal conceit for this film; we aging rock fans have certainly witnessed our fair share of “getting the band back together” while members struggle to overlook whatever conflicts split them up in the first place.
Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Guest slip back into their old characters with ease (likely aided by the fact they’ve dusted them off a number of times in the past four decades). Of course Rob Reiner is here as the real-life director and as fictional director Marty DiBergi. Cameos round out the cast including a few This Is Spinal Tap vets who are great to see, a couple of ringers from Guest’s stable of talent (John Michael Higgins and Don Lake), and a ton of music stars, including a parade of famous drummers understandably hesitant to occupy the Tap’s drum stool. You’ve likely seen Paul McCartney and Elton John in the ads, and their scenes are particularly terrific.
I imagine that improvising comedy doesn’t come as naturally with age, and some exchanges here do fall flat. But there’s more than enough good stuff, all leading up to a laugh-out-loud ending. Ultimately, I am so appreciative that the boys are back in town.
Movie Review: Spinal Tap II — The End Continues
Aquarium Playlist, 9/23/25
EPISODE #660: DUST
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Dolly Mixture — “Dust to Dust”
Bob Mould — “Return to Dust”
Allo Darlin’ — “Only Dust Behind”
The Schramms — “Faith Is a Dusty Word”
The Ballroom — “Musty Dusty”
Elmore James — “Dust My Broom”
UV-TV — “Dust”
Robyn Hitchcock — “The Dust”
Eels — “Dust of Ages”
14 Iced Bears — “Dust Remains”
Cayetana — “Dust”
Mazzy Star — “Into Dust”
Woody Guthrie — “So Long, It’s Been Good To Know You (Dusty Old Dust)”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 9/16/25
EPISODE #659: SATISFIED
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Otis Redding — “Satisfaction”
Jeanines — “Satisfied”
Steve Earle — “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied”
Liz Phair — “Satisfied”
Untamed Youth — “She’s So Satisfying”
The Replacements — “Unsatisfied”
Plastic Palms — “Satisfied”
Tuns — “To Your Satisfaction”
Tom Waits — “Satisfied”
Rolling Stones — “I Can’t Be Satisfied” [radio session]
Skeeter Davis — “What Does It Take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied)”
Palmyra Delran & the Doppel Gang feat. Genya Ravan — “I’m Satisfied”
Blind Willie Johnson — “Praise God I’m Satisfied”
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart — “Words” [demo] ri.p. Bobby Hart
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: The Conjuring — Last Rites
3.5 stars out of 5
If you’re keeping score: First I watched The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, Annabelle Comes Home, and Annabelle: Creation on cable. In 2021, I went to the theater to see The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Since then on cable I’ve watched Annabelle and The Nun.
I returned to the multiplex for The Conjuring: Last Rites. It was 2:15 pm on a Saturday in Brick, New Jersey and I figured I’d have the theater mostly to myself. But no, the ticketing kiosk indicated a pretty packed showing, and I was relegated to the front show. I looked up my review of Devil Made Me Do It and saw that the first screening of that I attempted to attend was sold out. People love this spooky trash! And I kind of do also.
I do get annoyed when they try to convince the audience that the paranormal is REAL. “Some regard the Warrens as leaders in the mainstream acceptance of yadda-yadda.” Phooey! And this one begins with a flashback to 1964, when supposedly a creepy mirror tried to interfere with the birth of the Warrens daughter. And I’m screaming (in my head) at the screen, “Oh just because the hospital’s power goes out and the baby doesn’t breathe immediately doesn’t mean the supernatural is involved! Didn’t these people watch The Pitt?”
My other recurring pet peeve is Vera Farmiga’s wardrobe. The filmmakers are dreaming up all kinds of nonsensical shit. So why are they sticking so close to the facts regarding Lorraine Warren dressing like a Little House on the Prairie school marm??
OK, one more disappointment: They recast the role of daughter Judy. Sterling Jerins had played her from age 9 to 17 (with a quick detour to McKenna Grace in Annabelle Comes Home). Now when Judy finally has a meaty part, Sterling is out and Mia Tomlinson is in. At least the same guy has played Father Gordon five times, and the same guy has been Drew four times. And “Brad” from part I shows up at a barbecue.
All that aside, this installment is a lot of fun: good scares, a few laughs, some nice weird touches. It’s 1986 so the music is solid (including one of my fave raves, “A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)” by Romeo Void). The plot, if you care, has a family in Pennsylvania ending up with OMG the same mirror that tried to off baby Judy back in ’64! And very bad things start happening. Just when the Warrens thought they were out, the man in the mirror pulls them back in.
Last Rites has been positioned as the final flick in the Conjuring Universe (I still need to see The Nun II to be a completist), but it’s clear the Warrens are handing the torch to Judy and her beau Tony, and a quick Google reveals that they are the real-life co-directors of the New England Society for Psychic Research. Oh friggin’ great, she dresses like her mom.
Aquarium Playlist, 9/9/25
EPISODE #658: RIOTS
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The Robins — “Riot in Cell Block #9”
The Ekphrastics — “I Am Going To Read You the Riot Act”
Elvis Costello & the Attractions — “Riot Act”
Tullycraft — “Look How We Killed the Riot Grrrls”
Daddy Issues — “Riot Grrrl”
The Clash — “White Riot”
The Mekons — “Never Been in a Riot”
Sonic Youth — “Teenage Riot”
Stereolab — “Robot Riot”
Elliott Smith — “Riot Coming”
Bush Tetras — “Das ah Riot”
The Standells — “Riot on Sunset Strip”
Kaiser Chiefs — “I Predict a Riot”
The Turtles — “Can I Go On” r.i.p. Mark Volman
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Honey Don’t!
4 stars out of 5
I liked Drive-Away Dolls a lot more than you did, and guess what, I liked Honey Don’t! more than you did too. In fact, I liked it even more!
Hollywood historians will be able to identify the precise “tipping point” when Margaret Qualley became a national treasure: 1 minute, 13 seconds into her Criterion closet video when she stretched for a DVD on a high shelf. Absolutely exquisite. But, as repeatedly stated in these electronic pages, I’d already been a fan for a long while.
Qualley is perfectly cast as the titular private eye Honey O’Donahue. She’s tough, terse, no-nonsense, and she’s sexy and she knows it clap your hands. If this sounds like film noir to you, bingo; Ethan Coen and Tricia have taken the genre, turned it on its head, and added lots of comedy. Honey is a womanizer and always gets her girl, leaving the boys – including hapless police chief Charlie from Always Sunny and crooked womanizing minister Chris Evans – in the lurch. Ah, but work come first.
Here, work comes in the form of a woman dead in a car accident – or was it homicide? Hmm, turns out she was a congregant of Father Evans (who is a hoot). Honey better recruit the assistance of police evidence-locker attendant Aubrey Plaza. In fact, they’d better work very, very, very closely with each other. Hubba hubba.
With its bleak Bakersfield setting, Honey Don’t! works both as a solid detective story and as a Coen-Bros-lite quirky, dry comedy. Which results in a more than satisfying film – consistently entertaining and well-shot – while we patiently wait till Ethan and Joel make good on their promise to collaborate again.
Movie Review: Caught Stealing
3 stars out of 5
I’ve seen Caught Stealing, once, when I was 55. Whoops I mean 56.
Hi Darren Aronofsky. Big fan. Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, The Wrestler, Mother!: awesome. The Whale, Noah: pretty good. The Fountain was incomprehensible garbage but, hey, you tried.
Caught Stealing is… average. Innocent likable guy gets mixed up with gangsters and things get wacky. It stinks of Hollywood formula. And that is not you, Darren Aronofsky! You are unafraid to take chances. You are willfully weird. That’s what we like about you.
I am not blaming you. You did not write this movie. Charlie Huston did. I don’t know who that is, but I was hoping he was a grandson of John Huston. He is not. He wrote a novel and turned that novel into a screenplay. But you directed it, Darren. And it’s your name that got me into the theater. OK I guess I am blaming you.
Austin Butler is our likable protagonist. He’s a bartender in 1998 NYC. Hey I spent a lot of time in NYC bars in 1998, this could be right up my alley! He loves the San Francisco Giants and his girlfriend is Zoe Kravitz. Wasn’t she great in The Studio! They have great chemistry and I wish they had more scenes together.
Austin gets mixed up with Russian gangsters and there is tension and Regina King is a police detective and things are going pretty well, movie-wise. But then things start to get silly. This worked in Anora but it doesn’t work here. Maybe madcap comedy isn’t in Aronofsky’s wheelhouse. Maybe his heart wasn’t in it. The movie really starts to drag.
Then it picks up a little. This is mostly thanks to Liev Schreiber and an unrecognizable Vincent D’Onofrio as Hasidic gangsters, and Carol Kane as their mom. This is the quirkiness the film had previously been lacking. (Griffin Dunne has a small role and I think that wild seedy After Hours NYC energy is what they were hoping to replicate.) And the plot plays out with a decent ending that didn’t make me yell “Feh!” at the screen. It’s watchable, and kind of fun, but you can certainly wait till it’s streaming. Aronofsky, please write a fucked-up screenplay and direct it and make it theater-worthy. Thank you.
Aquarium Playlist, 9/2/25
EPISODE #657: BRIDGES
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
A.T.S. — “Bloomfield Bridge”
Frank Sinatra — “The Brooklyn Bridge”
Bruce Springsteen — “Brothers Under the Bridge”
Black Tambourine — “Throw Aggi Off the Bridge”
Mark Olson — “Clifton Bridge”
The Orange Peels — “Bicentennial Bridge”
Rose Melberg — “Golden Gate Bridge”
Outrageous Cherry — “Bridge”
The Splinters — “Splintered Bridges”
Amy Bezunartea — “Bridges”
Yellowbirds — “Pulaski Bridge”
The William Loveday Intention — “Blud Under the Bridge”
Tacocat — “Bridge to Hawaii”
The Ergs! — “Bridge”
Dean Wareham — “The Longest Bridges in the World”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 8/26/25
EPISODE #656: RAIN II
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Renee Maskin — “Rain, Rain”
Emma Swift — “The Resurrection Game”
The Ladybug Transistor — “Here Comes the Rain”
The Black Hollies — “Here Comes the Rain”
Eurythmics — “Here Comes the Rain Again”
Jack Skuller — “Watercolor Rain”
Edward Rogers — “Rain Becomes Her”
Life in a Blender — “The Rain Makes Me Thirsty”
Elvis Costello — “Jimmie Standing in the Rain”
The dB’s — “Rains Around Here”
Nick Lowe — “Shame on the Rain”
Steve Wynn — “Simpler Than the Rain”
Slim Harpo — “Rainin’ in my Heart”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Weapons
4 stars out of 5
Three years ago, I was quite taken with Zach Cregger’s off-kilter horror flick Barbarian. This summer, Zach is back with Weapons, and he’s once again playing with the horror formula. He sets things up with a strong conceit: Julia Garner (who I last saw in Wolf Man) is a third-grade teacher in a sleepy suburban town. One night, every kid in her class — except one — vanishes. Distraught parents want to know, where are they? Why just Julia’s class? And what’s up with this one kid?
I won’t reveal Cregger’s twist but it absolutely keeps things interesting. Meanwhile, we also get Josh Brolin whose single focus becomes retrieving his son, including getting those big town-planner maps. Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story; Hail, Caesar!) is amusing as a police officer who keeps shooting himself in the foot — not literally, but almost. Doctor Strange’s pal Wong is the school principal. Austin Abrams (Brad’s Status) is very funny as a burnout. Justin Long from Barbarian has a cameo. And Amy Madigan is good and creepy in a villainous role.
Scare-wise, this doesn’t reach the heights of Barbarian. But Weapons is continuously compelling, often quite humorous, and has a delightful climax. Bonus points for Cregger co-composing the score, and for whoever hired indie harpist of the moment Mary Lattimore to play on it. Weapons is fully loaded.
Jack Silbert, curator