Happy Valentine’s Day! The new release from Hoboken’s own Karyn Kuhl Band drops today and I wrote the review for hMAG.com. It’s the candy-heart inspired title “Be Your Friend” and it’s a rocker! Bandcamp link within.
Aquarium Playlist, 2/13/18
EPISODE #268: VALENTINE’S DAY 2018 (LOVE)
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The Partridge Family — “I Think I Love You” R.I.P. David Cassidy
The dB’s — “I’m in Love”
The Buzzcocks — “Love You More”
Fats Domino — “I’m in Love Again” R.I.P. Fats!
Steve Forbert — “I’m in Love With You”
Robyn Hitchcock — “I Love You”
Beat Happening — “I Love You”
Flowers — “I Love You”
The Zombies — “I Love You”
Liz Phair — “Love Song”
The Cure — “Lovesong”
The Kinks — “Love Me Till the Sun Shines”
Lone Justice — “I Found Love”
Lucinda Williams — “Real Love”
John Lennon — “Real Love”
Wilco — “I’m the Man Who Loves You”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Darkest Hour
3.5 stars out of 5
On a few occasions at my old job, I’d fly into St. Louis and then make the long, lonely drive to Jefferson City. Each time, I’d pass the exit for the National Winston Churchill Museum, which struck me as pretty random in the middle of Nowhere, Missouri. (They didn’t even have three billboards there.) But I was always on a schedule, so would drive on by. Finally in 2000, I built in enough time to visit the museum. The placement wasn’t random at all; it was located at the college in Fulton where Churchill delivered his “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946. I enjoyed my visit, even buying a Churchill t-shirt.
So I had enough interest, and enough forgotten knowledge due to the passage of years, to see Darkest Hour. It’s a good but not great movie, that early on feels like a pale imitation of Phantom Thread. Both are set in decades-ago London, both feature a quirky, driven male who unwittingly terrifies young women until calmed by an older woman.
By far, the main strength here is Gary Oldman’s performance. It’s the most prosthetic makeup he’s used since Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and it renders him into a nearly unrecognizable Old Man. There’s a hint of Albert Finney in there too. He’s fun, odd, stubborn, brilliant, desperate, and quite persuasive. Oldman deserves his Oscar nomination though does not deserve to win. (Point, Day-Lewis.)
Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs. Churchill doesn’t get much chance to impress. King George VI is here, and I kept thinking that if this were the Marvel Universe, he’d be played by Colin Firth. He’s one of a couple of actors here who have that weird, annoying, upper-class British lisp.
There’s much solid information to learn here; if you’re like me, you often think World War II didn’t really begin until we entered. USA, USA, USA! But things were pretty freaking bleak in Europe, and ol’ Winston faced a hell of a first month in office. Unfortunately, especially in terms of Churchill biography, the movie is sloppily written: too much tell, not enough show.
However, the big man really knew how to deliver a speech, and that’s another real strong point of Darkest Hour. You can’t help but root for the guy. There’s a total baloney scene with Churchill on the London Underground getting advice and support from the regular folks — who knew there was a black guy in London way back when? — but it still works beautifully in a rah-rah populist way. Beat those goddamn Nazis! Oh, also, they summarize the Dunkirk story so now I don’t have to see that movie. Score!
Aquarium Playlist, 2/6/18
EPISODE #267: BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2018 (HIP HOP HOORAY)
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Naughty by Nature — “Hip Hop Hooray”
Trøn & DVD — “Afraid of the Dark”
Jay-Z — “Public Service Announcement (Interlude)”
Gravediggaz — “Six Feet Deep”
LL Cool J — “Rock the Bells”
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince — “Parents Just Don’t Understand”
Run-D.M.C. — “You Talk Too Much”
Digital Underground — “The Humpty Dance”
Cypress Hill — “Insane in the Brain”
De La Soul — “Jenifa (Taught Me)”
The Knux — “Bang! Bang!”
Lupe Fiasco featuring Nikki Jean — “Hip-Hop Saved My Life”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 1/30/18
EPISODE #266: MOON II
salute to the simultaneous full moon/blue moon, supermoon, and lunar eclipse on 1/31/18
The Fall — “Fiery Jack” [ALTERNATE THEME] R.I.P. Mark E. Smith
George Harrison — “Here Comes the Moon”
Jimmie Dale Gilmore — “Blue Moon Waltz”
Nick Drake — “Pink Moon”
Screaming Females — “Black Moon”
The White Stripes — “White Moon”
Jonathan Richman — “O Moon, Queen of Night on Earth”
Neko Case — “I Wish I Was the Moon”
Tom Waits — “Drunk on the Moon”
The Microphones — “The Moon”
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks — “Senator”
Shane MacGowan & the Popes — “The Rising of the Moon”
Space Merchants — “One Cut Like the Moon”
Willie Nile — “Vagabond Moon”
Neil Young — “Harvest Moon”
David Poe — “Moon”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Phantom Thread
4 stars out of 5
Upon first seeing the trailer, I must admit I wasn’t too excited to see this. I often avoid period pieces — and I had no idea when this was set; upper-class England could be the 19th, 20th, or 21st century — and as anyone who’s ever looked at me could confirm, fashion ain’t my bag. But Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my favorite writer/directors, and hey, maybe Daniel Day-Lewis will actually stay retired.
I’m glad I overcame my hesitance, because Phantom Thread is an excellent film. Apparently it’s set in 1950s London, though even while sitting in the theater I was guessing the 1920s. Day-Lewis is sought-after dress designer Reynolds Woodcock. He’s a particular and peculiar fellow, obsessed with his late mother, who he’s found a surrogate for in his sister/right-hand woman Cyril (Lesley Manville), a.k.a. “you old so-and-so.” She humors him, babies him, protects him from the distractions of the outside world, and takes care of the messy business, such as “firing” the latest lover he’s lost interest in. For Woodcock is married to his work.
But Reynolds can also turn on the charm, as he does with his wealthy clientele, and the waitress at a country inn, fresh-faced Alma (Vicky Krieps). Reynolds courts her by — of course — making her a dress; the act of fitting the garment taking on a true sexual charge. And soon Alma is whisked to London to become a member of the House of Woodcock. Early on she realizes that the specter of Cyril hangs over the relationship. Alma must learn to manage the situation, including Reynolds’ quirks and bouts of coldness and nastiness, if she is to survive in the household or else become another ex-lover with a haute couture gown as parting gift.
Ah, but Alma is no shrinking violet — to wit, she’s a spanner in the works! Alma has a mind of her own and is unwilling to accept all of Woodcock’s shit. Can she win him over? Will he break her down? Or can she break him down?
It’s a fascinating dynamic, as we watch the relationship slowly evolve, for better or for worse (we’re never entirely sure). And the performances are brilliant. Day-Lewis is once again “all in” as this upper-class odd bird; I fully expect him to win Best Actor. Krieps looks like Julianne Moore with a dash of Drew Barrymore. Alma’s accent — we don’t know from where, though the actress is from Luxembourg — sets her even further outside Woodcock’s exclusive world. The character is alternately charmed, smitten, frustrated, angry, sad, resigned, resentful, and determined, and Krieps makes it all seem totally natural. Manville may walk away with the Supporting Actress award. She navigates Cyril through clipped efficiency and ranks-closing, then emits glimmers of compassion and stands up for herself, Alma’s feisty spirit beginning to rub off a bit.
As always, ol’ P.T. Anderson gets to have some fun. For example, the usually closely controlled Woodcock loves to drive really fast, and the director makes these sequences positively thrilling. Later, a dinnertime argument between Reynolds and Alma rivals the intensity of Anderson’s breathtaking jailhouse confrontation in The Master. If there was an Oscar for Best Scene, this could very well prove victorious. And, without giving anything away, Anderson weaves some twisted elements into the script. This ain’t your mama’s costume drama.
Aquarium Playlist, 1/23/18
EPISODE #265: GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
The Beach Boys — “Shut Down”
Lindsey Buckingham — “Shut Us Down”
A.C. Newman — “They Should Have Shut Down the Streets”
Colour Me Wednesday — “Shut”
Jawbreaker — “Down”
Higgins — “Shut It”
Nirvana — “Downer”
The Monkees — “Goin’ Down”
Bruce Springsteen — “I’m Goin’ Down”
Robyn Hitchcock — “The President”
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks — “Senator”
Spoon — “The Government Darling”
Talking Heads — “Don’t Worry About the Government”
The Hold Steady — “On With the Business”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: The Commuter
1 star out of 5
The warning signs were all there. It’s a January release (as with the end of summer, a traditional dumping ground for shitty movies). The poster proclaimed, “From the director of The Shallows [which I awarded 2.5 stars] and Non-Stop [1.5 stars].” And it stars Liam “Anything for a Buck” Neeson, who ceded his last shred of self-respect a long, long time ago.
And yet, there I was in the theater lobby, saying, “One for The Commuter, please.” What can I tell you? I like trains a lot. And sometimes this sort of action thriller can be fun. For a while, I was actually enjoying this flick. “Better than Murder on the Orient Express,” I remember incorrectly thinking. And it genuinely looked good. Director Jaume Collett-Serra does have a strong visual eye, as previously evidenced in The Shallows. We do feel like we’re aboard a moving Metro-North train in real time, and as it speeds along the Hudson from Grand Central toward Cold Spring, there are some really lovely nighttime shots. Earlier, Serra does a nice job capturing the stressful redundancy of the commuting life.
For Liam Neeson’s titular commuter, the hamster wheel careens off its base when he meets New Jersey’s own Vera Farmiga (Norma Bates) on-board. Is this sexy woman flirting? No, wait, she has a hypothetical request of Neeson the ex-cop (will that résumé item possibly come in handy?!?) that suddenly becomes not so hypothetical. He has to find a, uh, stranger on the train, and will be paid handsomely in return. Having just been laid off from his insurance job, Neeson reluctantly agrees. The stakes increase dramatically when he learns that if he doesn’t complete the task, his wife and son will be, you know, taken. (Proud to say I have, at least, still not seen any of those movies.)
I remained invested in the story. It felt a little like a technology-lite episode of Black Mirror. Neeson calls his still-a-cop buddy Patrick Wilson to help him out of this mess. Wilson and Farmiga? Oh, if only this were The Conjuring 3 and they were riding a ghost train!
But then matters just started getting stupider and stupider and stupider, with no build-up of tension to offset the crumminess. I feel like the movie studio green-lighted a fairly compelling pitch and then never looked at the completed script. And for that dreadful piece of writing I will mostly blame Ryan Engle, who was also a co-writer of Non-Stop, which shares the same basic plot: Identify one of the passengers before something really bad happens. Which is just a lazy twist on the aforementioned Orient Express anyway.
The train chugs farther upstate, the movie getting worse and worse, Neeson repeatedly getting his ass kicked without other passengers really noticing (he goes underneath the train twice fer crissakes), screenplay ineptly meandering here and there, with a few laugh lines bombing miserably, and clever twists that are neither clever nor twisty. Give me the Darjeeling Limited, or Silver Streak, or Runaway Train, or Money Train, or even the Polar Express, but I beg you, Mr. Conductor, let me off The Commuter.
Aquarium Playlist, 1/16/18
EPISODE #264: LIVE HIGHLIGHTS 2017
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Matthew Sweet — “I’ve Been Waiting”
U2 — “I Will Follow”
Los Straitjackets — “Gatecrasher”
Reigning Sound — “Lyin’ Girl”
Nick Lowe — “Somebody Cares for Me”
Syd Straw — “Future 40’s (String of Pearls)”
Dave Alvin — “King of California”
Howe Gelb — “Left of Center”
Jimmie Dale Gilmore — “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown”
Freedy Johnston — “In the New Sunshine”
Ted Leo — “You’re Like Me”
Superchunk — “Precision Auto”
Yo La Tengo — “Sudden Organ”
Laura Cantrell — “All the Girls Are Complicated”
Aimee Mann — “Patient Zero”
Luna — “Fire in Cairo”
The Smithereens — “Crazy Mixed-Up Kid”
Tommy Keene — “Places That Are Gone”
Jack’s Aquarium podcast is proudly recorded in Hoboken, NJ.
Jack Silbert, curator