Tag Archives: Rock and Roll

Tokyo Pop (1988)

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Opens with a New 35th Anniversary 4K Restoration by Indie Collect in New York at BAM Rose Cinemas on August 4th and in Los Angeles at the American Cinematheque on August 11th, followed by national expansion.

Watching Fran Rubel Kuzui’s gave me a mysterious sense of déjà vu as her movie “Tokyo Pop” is very much about a misplaced American experiencing culture shock and alienation in an Asian country. Then I realize that Sofia Coppola pretty much conveyed almost the exact same narrative in her acclaimed “Lost in Translation.” Fran Rubel Kuzui’s “Tokyo Pop” from 1988 was an obvious influence that apparently never really was discussed very much. So much of “Tokyo Pop” is similar in tone, aesthetic and the idea of using media as a means of helping people to connect. With “Tokyo Pop” characters Wendy and Hiro use music as a means of connecting in a world where they’re separated by language and culture.

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Girls Rock! (2008)

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While “Rock School” was one of my favorite documentaries of 2005, it was a missed opportunity. Arne Johnson and Shane King’s “Girls Rock!” almost get the love of music and rock and roll it right. Almost. What the directing duo of Johnson and King explore is this collective ability of these different women to create music in the confines of this limited space and show how they can sometimes fall apart at the seams due to typically creative conflicts and arguments about band names.

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Rock and Roll Terrorist: The Graphic Life of Shock Rocker GG Allin (and Coloring Book)

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It’s hard to believe that anything in “Rock and Roll Terrorist” ever actually happened. But then you look up GG Allin online and then you’re kind of shocked that GG Allin ever happened. GG Allin is a hotly debated and still polarizing figure in rock and roll, he was a man who could be described in so many ways by so many people. Criminal. Sadist. Messiah. Troll. Icon. Rapist. Rockstar. Scumfuck. He’s a man that doesn’t quite fit one peg and that’s just how he liked it.

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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: In Concert (2014-2017) [2 Blu-Ray]

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The yearly “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” induction ceremony is one of the more iconic and polarizing concerts, often inspiring a slew of controversy from music buffs and musicians alike. There’s always a hailstorm of “Why not this band?” or “Why not this artist?” and you’re always guaranteed to read an interesting headline of someone griping about an overdue band not getting their dues yet. Suffice to say whether the ceremony falls flat or it’s raucous, it’s almost always a promise you’ll get an interesting experience. And that’s from what we get to see on the edited annual broadcast on cable television. There are some bands and or artists excluded from this list as they have been omitted consciously, from what I’ve read, but for your money it’s a pretty solid release from Time Life I recommend.

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Go, Johnny, Go! (1959) (DVD)

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The only reason to watch “Go, Johnny, Go!” is if you want to see some of the best rock and roll artists of all time do their thing on the big screen. Other than that, “Go, Johnny, Go!” is the story of the boring, milquetoast Johnny Melody, a bright eyed, blond white boy who rose from the slums as an orphan to become a rock and roll singer. It’s surprising that a movie featuring Ritchie Valens, and Chuck Berry would only focus on the most uninteresting individual, as when the movie stops to spread its paper thin premise with performances, it ironically becomes worth sitting through.

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Revolution (1968)

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There isn’t much of a love or respect for the hippy culture in “Revolution” which is consistently referred to as the beatnik culture with a lot of derision on the tone of various interviewers. While the idea of free love and peace from war still continues on in this documentary, “Revolution” focuses on the folks that are merely just kind of parasitic and miss the point as a whole. One of the big images that sum up the entire message of the film is the title “Revolution” sprawled across the screen while angelic and thick headed hippy Today Malone lies in a field fast asleep and high on whatever she’d taken the night before. “Revolution” is kind of a mixed message of a film, based around psychedelic imagery and large interludes of great hippy rock music.

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What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993)

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Anna Mae Bullock is a woman that has been screaming music from the top of her lungs since she was a child. Music kind of sprung from her like an unstoppable force of nature, one that was almost squashed out by her abusive and often domineering husband. When we first meet her, she’s a young girl in a church who is escorted out for literally singing her own tune with the choir. When Ike Turner first meets her, Anna Mae, soon to be Tina Turner, belts out music that even shocks Ike Turner to his core. “What’s Love Got to Do With It” is the compelling, and often shocking story of Tina Turner and how she rose to fame in spite of the abusive and violent ownership of her husband, musician Ike Turner.

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The Big TNT Show (1966)

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I have to admit that “The Big TNT Show” isn’t nearly as good as “The TAMI Show.” Despite being a big sixties fanatic and lover of the styles and attitudes, “The Big TNT Show” suffers from being a pretty humdrum concert with an unusual line up. If anything the best way to watch and appreciate “The Big TNT Show” is as a sixties oddity that took a lot of what was coming in the decade, and what was popular and kind of mixed them together in one weird show with an enthusiastic audience. If anything there is a ton of good music and some raucous performances.

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