Search

Search only in certain items:

Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
1987 | Action, Drama, War

"I love Full Metal Jacket because Stanley Kubrick made the most authentic boot camp film I’ve ever seen. It is so right on — my wife is appalled while she watches it and I’m sitting in the chair laughing my guts out. Kubrick was willing to take that chance [on R.Lee Ermey]. He had originally hired Ermey to be a consultant, but he realized “Wait a minute; this guy did it for eight years, who could do it better than him?” That’s what gave it full credibility because Ermey is doing exactly what he did for eight years, and that is create Marine corp recruit boot camp kids. It’s so authentic, you love it! The way the whole film breaks down, it’s one of my favorites."

Source
  
Early Man (2018)
Early Man (2018)
2018 | Animation
From the creators of Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit comes the “true”
story of the origin of the world’s most popular sport-football (or soccer
as we call it in the U.S.). A charming film that takes us back to the dawn
of man, The Stone Age, where a motley band of cavemen and women live an
archaic lifestyle foraging and hunting for their food.

Their way of life
is shattered as the Bronze age approaches, and mining for metal becoming
superior, along with the love of football (soccer) playing second. The
leader of the Bronze Age conquerors Lord Nooth strips the cavemen from
their land to mine for more metal and for smelting. Eager to keep their
way of life and get their home back, the Cavemen challenge Lord Nooth to a
game of football.

Who doesn’t love a good underdog story? As you can guess, it’s hysterical
slapstick humor and sheer silliness of epic proportion. In true Wallace
and Gromit fashion, Aardman animation create a movie with an underlying
sweetness that makes the audience fall in love with such delightful
characters.

Featuring an all-star British voice cast featuring Tom
Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Tom Redmayne, and Timothy Spall, Early Man may
not be your typical run of the mill bright, boisterous, tug at the
heartstrings type of movie, but it definitely provides enough physical
comedy to keep the audience laughing and a great message about teamwork and
learning to coexist.
  
40x40

Faris Badwan recommended track Jerusalem by Sleep in Dopesmoker by Sleep in Music (curated)

 
Dopesmoker by Sleep
Dopesmoker by Sleep
2003 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Jerusalem by Sleep

(0 Ratings)

Track

"There’s loads of dark metal bands that I really like: the first Mayhem record, Darkthrone, people like that. But in the end, ‘Jerusalem’ is heavier and more powerful than any of the dark metal bands. It takes the best elements of Black Sabbath and then amplifies them even further. “It’s a record that I always used to put on before I went out and I’d listen to the whole thing because it was so emotive. It gave me loads of energy, even though it’s so slow and doomy. I love the fact that they released it all as one, hour-long song and how it was able to come out in that form. It means it’s never been vetted really. For me, it’s the best heavy guitar record ever made. “There’s something almost meditative about ‘Jerusalem’ and part of the band Sleep went on to form another band, OM, which is extremely meditative. So in Sleep, you can really hear the meditative atmosphere aspects of it, I like how hypnotic it is, that’s the reason I would always put it on. “Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were my entry points to metal, then I read a book called Lords of Chaos which I suppose a lot of people who are interested in learning about black metal have read. Then moving on and listening to the first Mayhem record, I thought it was pretty much like punk, but rather than just being snarling and aggressive, it goes beyond that and turns into something really evil. And I realised I liked the roughness of metal. “’Jerusalem’ is a flow. You’re hearing the band in the room as it happens and because it’s so unplanned it feels like a jam, which makes it much more subtle. They probably played through the whole hour a load of different times and it was probably different every single time. That’s what I love about it, when you hear the record you’re really getting the atmosphere they created at that time and they managed to capture that on record. There isn’t another record quite like it, and I also love all the records that the band members of Sleep made after it. “Josh from The Horrors and I went to see Sleep live and – although the guitarist was barely able to stand up because he was very, very drunk – it sounded amazing. People don’t realise how hard it is to make this music sound so good on stage. It’s something I aspire to and it’s an invaluable skill, right down to the way you position the mics on stage. For me the best metal is lo-fi, it’s highly sought after, getting music to be distorted in the right way. There’s such attention on the guitar in this record. Some guitarists play with a lot of pedals, but it can be really inspiring when you have a guitarist who can make music with very little and Sleep do that. “The first time I heard it was on The Horrors second American tour in 2008. We went to LA, and went to the place everyone goes to, which is Amoeba Records. I got a copy of Dopesmoker, which is the album after Jerusalem and that’s how I first heard ‘Jerusalem.’ But all I remember at first was thinking how awful the artwork was. It was really terrible"

Source
  
Sound of Metal (2019)
Sound of Metal (2019)
2019 | Drama, Music
Rooted in Humanity
SOUND OF METAL has a pretty simple “one-line summary”: Heavy Metal Drummer deals with going deaf. But is it the humanity at the center of this film that makes it worthwhile.

Written and Directed by Darius Marder (THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES), SOUND OF METAL tells the tale of Ruben, the drummer of the Heavy Metal Band BLACK GAMMON, who must come to terms with suddenly losing most of his hearing.

Starring Riz Ahmed - in an Oscar nominated turn - SOUND OF METAL follows Ruben’s journey as he comes to terms with the wrinkle that his life has thrown at him and the silence makes him study the non-stillness inside of him.

This all sounds like it could be corny, right? Well…under the guidance of Marder and with a central performance that is grounded and real by Ahmed, it is anything but. This film finds itself in it’s humanity and the very real, personal interactions.

Credit must start with the performance of Ahmed (heretofore known to me as Bodhi Rook in STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE), he is in almost every scene in the film and he must bring a vulnerability to the screen for the audience to care about him - and he accomplishes this in spades. Even when his character makes mistakes (and, trust me, he makes a TON of them), you end up rooting for him to succeed.

Paul Raci was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Joe, the head of the Deaf Community for Addicts that Ruben eventually goes to. His turn is also grounded in the reality - the reality of addicts who have yet another twist in their life thrown at them. Raci has a road-weary look to him and gives off an aura of someone who has seen - and heard - it all, so must take a “tough love” approach. This performance works very well.

Also strong in this film is Olivia Cooke (READY PLAYER ONE) as Lou, Ruben’s girlfriend/lead singer of the Metal Band they are in. She must make some tough decisions in the course of this film - and you end up emotionally engaged in her story as well. Both Ruben and Lou are good people at heart that must make hard choices, you root for both of them to succeed even though, through these choices, pain and suffering and separation must occur.

All of this sounds good, but there has been many a film that falters under the “good intentions” of it’s Director/Screenwriter, but SOUND OF METAL avoids most of the pitfalls of these types of films by not dwelling too much on the pain and suffering of the leads - it’s there, but (as Joe would say), deal with it. I’m a little surprised that Marder did not get a Best Director Oscar nod (the work is that good), but am glad that he did get an Original Screenplay nomination.

And…as you can imagine…a film about Deafness is reliant on the Sound Design to help bring that aspect of Ruben’s experience to the audience - and this film delivers the goods. The sound team was, rightfully, nominated for the Oscar for sound design - and they should easily win - for the sound is another character in this film and that is what, ultimately, makes this film works. The audience is put in Ruben’s shoes and, at times, are unable to hear what others on the screen are saying.

A very satisfying film experience - one that needs to be seen with no distractions (especially sound distractions), so find a quiet time, lower the shades and dive into the world of the SOUND OF METAL.

Letter Grade: A-

8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)
  
Lords of Chaos (2018)
Lords of Chaos (2018)
2018 | Drama
ANARCHY!
Every once and a while a film comes along that truly surprises you (I love it when that happens) and Lords of Chaos did that for me tonight. I was thinking going in was going to be a metal version of This is Spinal Tap maybe or an anti version of Bohemian Rhapsody, or definitely a film I would have to keep the volume turned down as not to annoy my wife with the extremely booming soundtrack, but none of those were true.

Instead we get a supposedly true, or mostly true, story of the 90s Norwegian Black Metal band, Mayhem, its members, its music, its tragedy. I knew there would be horror and it delivered on that for sure. There are some truly graphic scenes which are not for the squeamish or for those who get offended easily. Having said that, it is also about friendship, mental illness, bullying, fitting in, being different than the rest, anarchy, paganism, relationships and how true (or fake) are your convictions.

For those that enjoy the out of the ordinary, I would highly recommend.

  
Show all 3 comments.
40x40

Andy K (10821 KP) Dec 14, 2019

Let me know what you think when you watch it.

40x40

Versusyours (757 KP) Dec 14, 2019

I will need to watch it when the darkeness of the twilight hour is upon us for full satanic efffect