Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter by Alyn Shipton
John Lennon once stated "Nilsson's my favorite group."
Harry Nilsson, the tenor with the golden, three and a half octave vocal range/the brilliant songwriter/the ultimate interpreter of songs/the boozer/the raconteur/the sometimes screenwriter, lived the most of his 52 years. His
life was a colorful one that began with much sadness. Despite his setbacks and despair,
Nilsson managed to keep his spirits high and he chose the path of
adventure. He sang the theme song to Midnight Cowboy, released a brilliant run of albums from 1966-1980 (with music ranging from ballads to Beatlesy pop to country send-ups to wild rockers to standards from the Great American Songbook to Calypso to rude comedy numbers), conceived the animated children's classic The Point!, collected a couple Grammy's, raised hell with Ringo Starr and other music royalty, started a film production company and eventually settled as a family man.
Using a myriad of resources, interviews and quotes from Nilsson's unfinished autobiography, Alyn Shipton writes a loving biography without sensationalizing the life of this sensational artist.
Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie a film by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller
Saying Morton Downey Jr. was a complex man would be the understatement of the century. Son of a famous singer, Jr. began his career in show business as a vocalist himself. He had a small hit with in 1958 with the haunting tune "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams". He later worked in radio and eventually became involved with the world of sports by first buying an American Basketball Association team and later co-founding the World Baseball League.
What brought Morton Downey Jr. national attention was his short run on the syndicated Morton Downey Jr. Show based out of New Jersey. The host who grew up hanging around the Kennedy family, became a loudmouth, conservative screamer on his late 80's program. The documentary pulled many clips that made the air where Downey Jr. gets in audience members faces and says some of the most horrific and offensive things you will ever hear in your life. His show seems to be pure theater and unfortunately it paved the way for future trash television such as the Jerry Springer Show.
Like him or not, Evocateur is a massively entertaining film. It's an excellent documentary of the strange life and quick rise and fall of a man whose life was filled with controversy.
Director Michel Gondry is mostly know for his heady, comedic films with cunning in-camera effects such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind & The Science of Sleep and innovative music videos from Björk, Beck and the White Stripes. In The We and the I, Gondry scales back and tells a story via a bus ride through the Bronx. The French director workshopped this script with a group of teens over the course of three years and the result is this wonderful film.
We see the complex dynamics of high school relationships as we join a group of students after their last day of classes. There's bullying, gossip, swagger, flirting, fighting, some genuinely funny conversations and many heartfelt moments, too. Throughout, the dialog is natural; we almost feel as though we're watching a a documentary at times.
Despite this austere approach to filmmaking, Gondry's presence is still felt with the occasional use of non-digital effects. A small boombox shaped bus rides around town at the intro. Later, we see an interesting scene where he superimposes a pizza shop directly through the window of the city bus. These moments perfectly interject surrealism and introduce lightness into this very realistic movie.
