“What difference can one song make?” asks the titular Vivo. The answer is: A huge difference. One song can change the world. It can transport us back in time. It can sadden us, lift us up, and inspire us. “Vivo” is about the value and power of music, and it’s coordinated by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a man who has spent a lot of his career trying to promote the power of music, and how creativity in music can help and shape how we think. “Vivo” is a movie that kids deserve to experience for that fact, alone.
Tag Archives: Musical
Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958): The Film Detective Special Edition [Blu-Ray]
The Z Movie to end all Z movies, “Frankenstein’s Daughter” is both a cult classic and a classic piece of cinematic trash. It’s a god awful attempt to take the Frankenstein tale and retro-fit it in to a teen horror drama about coming of age, legacy, and uncomfortable scenes of men aggressively hitting on high school girls. In either case, “Frankenstein’s Daughter” is something of an anomaly, it’s a movie that’s been widely accepted within the genre, but it’s just so painfully bad when you finally experience it.
In the Heights (2021) [Blu-Ray/Digital]
In a really crappy summer and a pretty hectic year in Hollywood, one of the bigger releases in 2021 was “In the Heights.” It’s a movie I’d been looking forward to for a long time, since Lin Manuel Miranda is one of my personal heroes. It’s finally brought to film by director Jon M. Chu after being in literal development hell since 2008. Jon M. Chu is no stranger to films involving dancing and urban settings, thankfully, and we’re given an absolutely dazzling, emotional, and energetic musical.
The Show (2020)
Opening in theaters nationwide for one night only on August 26th.
“The Show” is a movie that only Alan Moore is capable of. Moore is a very well known and infamous figure in the comic book world. Known for penning legendary graphic novels like “Watchmen,” he’s also notorious for being incredibly polarizing and opinionated about the comic book medium as a whole, as well as openly hating (and denouncing) anything and everything involving superheroes. “The Show” is a movie that combines a lot of ideas and themes that Moore mixes in to a confusing, but oddly entertaining genre entry.
Wonderful Paradise (2020) (Nouten Paradise) [Fantasia Film Festival 2021]
As a family is forced to sell their house and move, the teenage daughter posts a general invitation on social media to come party in the backyard. As strangers and acquaintances show up, things get weirder and weirder.
Viva (2007)
Will screen on August 27th at the Los Feliz 3 theater in Los Angeles, California as part of the American Cinematheque’s new ETHERIA screening series. More information about the screening can be found on the American Cinematheque’s official website.
Your mileage with “Viva” may vary depending on how much you’re willing to play along with the film’s very subtle satire. About twenty minutes in to the movie is when I finally caught on to the gag, as “Viva” is as much a satire of sixties sexual dynamics as it is a tribute to the aesthetic of the sixties and seventies. “Viva” is a film in the tradition of Andy Warhol, and Russ Meyer, and exploitation gems like “Maid in Sweden” and “Score” where people open up (literally and figuratively) to sex and sexual exploration.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) [4K UHD/Blu-Ray/Digital HD]
Celebrating its 50th anniversary June 30th of 2021, “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” is a movie that hasn’t aged since 1971 and shows no sign of aging any time soon. Even with the Tim Burton second adaptation and the upcoming prequel, Mel Stuart’s cinematic version of the Roald Dahl fantasy book still remains on the top of the heap. Even looking at it without nostalgia lens, the Gene Wilder fantasy is excellent in every sense of the word, while Wilder’s titular performance is unrivaled.