It all started with the Beatles. From there it was a slew of really interesting British Invasion groups, and singers, many of whom ranged from absolutely abysmal, to quite unique. It’s a shame many of these bands never quite garnered the legacy that the Beatles did, but “Go Go Mania!” has value, if anything, in showing how many bands climbed out of the woodwork to claim their own fame once the Beatles stormed America.
The highlight of “Jodorowsky’s Dune” is the sheer enthusiasm of Alejandro Jodorowsky who viewed his acquisition of Frank Herbert’s Dune as less of a film project and more as a life changing event. He is very excited and joyous whenever he discusses how he wanted to change the world, and even insisted on changing the cast he recruited for his adaptation. He refers to his cast and crew as “spiritual warriors,” and is never afraid to admit that he was intent on giving audiences something to take away beyond a mere science fiction space opera. He wanted to build a world, and he was willing to do whatever he could to achieve what he considered a master mold of cinema. He’s a very likable and charming personality who more or less became a burden on his “spiritual warriors,” managing to travel the world in search of the perfect crew to bring his vision to life.
Roger Corman’s contributions have been unmatched by most Hollywood directors, and sadly he’s become a mostly unappreciated presence in filmmaking. As viewed in “Corman’s World,” Roger Corman is one of the most ambitious but very money conscious filmmakers that’s managed to build an entire legacy out of creating entertainment on low budgets, while discovering some of the best filmmakers of all time. From giving Martin Scorsese and Peter Bogdonavich their breaks, to teaching Ron Howard how to direct around limited resources, Roger Corman has been a wizard of giving studios what they want, and doing it his way.
Whether you love or hate George Romero and his films, there’s no denying that without his zombie movies there wouldn’t be the zombie culture we know today. Surely we might have two or three zombie movies concerning the sleepy servants of voodoo masters, but we wouldn’t have the flesh eating hordes that are currently consuming pop culture and the world as we know it. There’s also a very good interview where filmmaker Alex Cox notes that were it not for “Night of the Living Dead” becoming public domain, there likely would not have been inspiration for filmmakers to offer their own zombie entertainment for horror fans.
Director Patrick Meaney’s chronicle of the group of innovative artists that gave Marvel and DC the collective bird and took control of their own lives is a wonderful insight and word of warning at what happens when there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Surely, no one person is to blame for helping Image nearly drop out of the scope of pop culture and crash, but when you team a group of artists together who could walk the walk and talk the talk, there is bound to be conflict and inevitable resentment. I consider myself lucky enough to have grown up during the Image Revolution, where most of my money was spent on DC and Marvel, and immediately went over to Image. I bought titles like “Prophet,” “Youngblood,” and “WildCATS” religiously, while cutting my teeth in Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld’s art for many years.
No matter how much we love someone, no matter how much time we spend around them, we never truly know them. Even when we’ve spent enough time to know their routines and their flaws, we can never really know the person we love. Director Sarah Polley constructs an extraordinary documentary in where she attempts to figure out who her mother was. Surely, she knows who her mother was, but after her death, she’s spent an immense amount of her time during her film trying to figure out who she was. And surely enough, she realizes the person her mother was, wasn’t the person everyone else knew her as.
Yesterday the trailer for “Step Up 4” or “Step Up: All In” hit the net, and we were psyched to see the movie return with some of the series best characters. There will be plenty of dancing, and a lot of excellent choreography and that’s all the fans care about with these movies. They’re fun entertaining films, and we’re definitely in on the new installment. In honor of the upcoming sequel, here are five great contemporary dance films.