Hey, all. "Moriarty" here.
One of the things most frustrating about trying to write a regular column here at AICN is there's so much work going on behind the scenes right now to turn the site into the Six Million Dollar Man version of itself - better, faster, stronger - that I tend to get overwhelmed. Yes, I have the henchmen to help, but they're more useful in the manual labor end of things. Once we actually get down to the act of putting it all on the page for you guys to enjoy, it's just me again, alone in the Labs.
I haven't even had Harry, my usual sounding board, to talk to these last few, since he's been off at Cannes being a superstar. I notice that he's been sneaky above and beyond the call of duty lately, freezing even us on the inner circle out of some of his spy missions. I hope whatever he saw in France was crap so the whole plane ticket was a waste.
Is that wrong of me?
Not that I mind being trapped here in my underground bunker. I've had some lovely company at the Labs lately, so it makes the work far more enjoyable. I just want you to understand that I haven't been slacking off. Far from it. I've been working my ass off to make sure that this edition of the RUMBLINGS would be jam-packed with all sorts of goodies. As a result, I'm going to get out of my own way and just start throwing all of this at you.
ALL I CAN SAY IS HIS LIFE IS PRETTY STRANGE
You may not know Brad Smith, but I'll bet money you know at least one song he wrote. It's impossible to have missed "No Rain" when it hit in 1993. I know that for me, when I think of that summer, I think of working at Universal Studios and having a great new girlfriend and seeing JURASSIC PARK and hearing that song. It just sort of caught that moment for me, the way great songs often do. I know when I think back to any specific period of my life, there's always a song or two that seem to be attached, underscoring what was going on. The story of Shannon Hoon and what happened to Blind Melon was heartbreaking for fans of the band, just as I'm sure it was devastating for the people who actually had to live through it. For years now, I've had these guys in the back of my head, like Weezer, wondering when we would hear from them again.
Right now, the cavernous Moriarty Labs are filled with the sounds of "Cessna," echoing off every surface, cranked to maximum volume. Despite my advanced age, I am up and moving. I cannot help myself. You see, Blind Melon bassist Brad Smith and guitarist Christopher Thorn have a new band, a new album, a new single, and if there's any justice, a new monster hit.
I first caught wind of the return of these guys in the recent ROLLING STONE with Britney Spears on the cover. Austin Scaggs ran a brief tidbit in his column about the new the band Unified Theory. Describing the sound of the new band, Smith said, "The music is way more ethereal, vocal and guitar driven [than Blind Melon's]." Just that mention got me excited.
Then someone tipped me off to the fact that they were playing a show at the Dragonfly, a club here in Hollywood. I had to check it out, and I'm so glad I did. As much as I liked Blind Melon, I love Unified Theory. They've rebuilt their sound, building on the preposterously catchy hooks that marked the best of Blind Melon's songs and adding a decidedly edgy aggressive guitar sound. Chris Shinn, the vocalist for the band, reminds me of a more melodic, controlled Geddy Lee. Their live show was simple, direct, and totally controlled. If there's one thing that you have to say about Unified Theory, it's that they are professionals. The music they're making is as good and as tight as bands that have been together for a decade or longer.
Don't just take my word for it, though. You're going to be hearing a lot about Unified Theory in the months ahead. The buzz has already started with Matt Pinfield's new music radio show in New York. He broke the band's first single "California" over the weekend after hearing it and falling in love. I know that they're currently looking at directors for the video for that single, and the names they're talking to - guys on the level of Michel Gondry - indicate a great deal of faith in the band on the part of Universal Music and 3:33 Music Group, Tom Shadyac's company. Tonight, at the Key Club in Hollywood, the band is playing a show in front of an industry crowd, a sort of coming-out party. If you're interested in hearing them for yourself, try catching them at Zeke's Backyard (at the Opium Den) this coming Monday night, the 22nd.
Personally, as much as I like "California," I think there's other material here that's much stronger. After seeing the live show, I ordered Mongo to infiltrate the 3:33 offices and procure me a copy of the CD. He did so immediately, and I've been playing it nonstop ever since. Smith, Shinn, Thorn, and Dave Krusen, the original drummer for Pearl Jam, have a propulsive power pop sound that works in very different ways on the CD and live. On the CD, the vocals are front and center, achingly lovely. Live, the guitars are overwhelming, and the energy is much more insistent. I know that I'm already a giant fan of "Cessna," the song that opens the CD. Live, Unified Theory played a cover of Pink Floyd's "Breathe" that led into "Cessna," somehow seeming to be the most natural transition in the world. "Passive" is a tender anthem about finding some strength in yourself, the syncopated rhythms of the piece putting me in mind of "Kashmir," and the effect live is powerful. "Wither" knocked me out when I heard it live, and the version on the album is hypnotic, shimmering and hopeful at once. It's the two songs that serve as the album closers that really kills me, though. There's "Keep On," with its simple keyboard progression that kicks in with a sort of lurching, drunken rhythm. Then there's "Not Dead," a song that gave me chills. To hear guys like this, real life rock'n'roll survivors, sing "I'm not dead, o, god, I'm not dead yet" becomes oddly touching. There are shadows of the band that once was Blind Melon here, but only the best kind… the way a melody builds, some particularly clever bit of phrasing… but Unified Theory has also managed that trickiest of feats: they have rebuilt from tragedy, stronger and better than before. I, for one, couldn't be happier.
Check them out here, where you can hear "California," "Cessna," and "Passive" for yourself, and then mark August as the tentative release date for their CD. You'll be as happy as I am.
Kamen Blabs & Score Samples Suck!!
One of the hardest things to keep up with for me personally right now is all the sites like AICN that seem to pop up almost daily. For example, I'd never heard of The Daily Radar until Garth's Dark Horizons ran a link to the site yesterday. The link was for this story, a pretty major scoop no matter how you look at it. Michael Kamen evidently played many of the film's major themes for the site's reporter, allowing him to record the themes and post them on the site in MP3 form. I can't believe Fox hasn't kicked Kamen's ass yet considering how touchy they are about any uncontrolled release of information about their big movies. Even more importantly, I can't believe how lame the music is. I've been to scoring sessions, and I've sat with composers as they played demo versions of themes. I'm not just underwhelmed because of lack of orchestration on Kamen's part. These themes are genuinely lame. All of Kamen's film music sounds rehashed, warmed over. In my opinion, he's only ever scored one film he didn't fuck up, and that was BRAZIL, an arranging job more than a composing one. Check out the link and come back here to rant and rave about what you hear. Maybe if we all piss loudly enough, Fox will boot Kamen and find someone worthy to score the picture. I know that guys like John Williams and Danny Elfman have passed on the film, but there's other composers out there who are appropriate. Hell, Trevor Jones' DARK CITY cues seem to work pretty well for the second X-MEN trailer... why not get him? Where's David Arnold when you need him? If there's not a studio approved traditional composer available, why not reach out to someone like Moby or The Dust Brothers who could give the film a truly cutting edge sound? Please... don't let Kamen slap another coat of mediocre on a film. He's the one thing that kept THE IRON GIANT from sitting atop my list of the best films of 1999. He must be stopped before he kills again.
Got SUNDANCE CHANNEL? You'd Better!!
You are aware that Krzysztof Kieslowski's THE DECALOGUE is playing currently on The Sundance Channel, aren't you?
Even if you're not, you are aware that you can get the entire series of ten short films from Facets Video right now, aren't you?
I mean... you do know what THE DECALOGUE is, don't you?
Tell you what... tune in to Sundance on Thursday and Friday of this week, from 9 pm to 11 pm, and then come back to this column next week. We'll talk about all ten films in the series and their staggering, blinding power and beauty.
Cage Picks A Winning MANDOLIN
Miramax and Universal had such a winning run with SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE that it only makes sense they would try to come up with a film that is equally passionate, equally literate, and equal as potential Oscar-bait. Now that they're teaming Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz with director John Madden for CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN, it looks like they're on the right track to do just exactly that. I've never read the novel by Louis de Bernieres, but I've just finished reading Shawn Slovo's screenplay adaptation, and I thought it was a wonderful, smart, engaging piece of writing that could well serve as the basis of a classic romantic tale.
I thought for sure, based on the few early descriptions I had read of the film, that I was in for an earnest, overly dramatic romance along the lines of THE ENGLISH PATIENT, full of forbidden longing and tragic sacrifice. Instead, this is a script that's full of feisty, unpredictable life. I knew I had to set aside my expectations when I saw the first page of the script, on which a single sentence was written:
"Greece Is The Word."
Set during WWII on the island of Cephallonia, Greece, this is a dense, rich story about an entire community and the long shadow that war casts over it. In order to make the horrors of war mean something when they intrude, time and care is spent to establish the warmth of the people who fill this village. We meet Doctor Iannis, Alekos the Herder, Father Arsenios, Velisarios the Strongman. Most importantly, we meet Pelagia, the beautiful daughter of Dr. Iannis. This is the role Cruz is set to play, and it's another great one for her. After this and ALL THE PRETTY HORSES inside of a year, she should finally be as well known to mainstream American audiences as she already is to fans of international cinema. I think she's bound to end up a star. She is a sensitive, intuitive actor, and she also just happens to be a raging superbetty of the highest magnitude.
Pelagia is in love with a local fisherman, Mandras (who I believe is being played by Christian Bale), and plans to marry him. When the war intrudes into the idyllic world these people have created, Mandras is one of the first to volunteer to go and fight. Pelagia is heartbroken and writes him several letters a day. She gets nothing back, though, and as the war rages on, she becomes convinced that he isn't coming back and that her letters are all for naught.
Things become truly complicated when German and Italian troops take up occupancy in the small town, quartering their forces with the locals. Dr. Iannis and Pelagia end up with Captain Antonio Corelli (Cage) in their house, a young man who comes to Greece with a mandolin among his gear and peace in his heart. He's not a fascist, and he certainly doesn't wish anyone in the village any ill-will. In fact, none of the occupying forces are painted as faceless thugs or monsters. Instead, the film humanizes everyone, showing how the troops become part of the rhythm of the village, part of the life that's going on there.
Corelli and Pelagia end up falling in love, which isn't much of a spoiler, but what happens after that would be. I found myself genuinely engaged by each page of this script, interested by each character. There are some hard, painful moments in the script, and there are scenes of lyrical beauty as well. Madden has lucked into another great piece of material here, and he should be able to bring it to rough and rowdy life. This is a film that earns the tears that will flow freely towards the end of the second half, but it never lets tragedy overshadow the small quirks that make this village and these people all seem so real. In many ways, this script reminds me of the thunderingly good CINEMA PARADISO, a compliment as far as I'm concerned. There's a chance that this won't just be a good film, but might in fact be a great one. Let's keep our fingers crossed and wish them all a successful shoot.
TRIP Worth Taking?
If AMERICAN PIE is PLAYBOY, then ROAD TRIP is HUSTLER. It may get you off, but you won't feel good about it.
That's the best way I can encapsulate my feelings about the new Dreamworks comedy, ROAD TRIP. I don't want to give you the impression that I didn't laugh while sitting in the theater. I did. I know that my lovely companion for the evening, Trinity (yes... that Trinity... skipping out on a kickboxing class just to hang with the Professor), caught me laughing out loud several times during the film. There are some well-built gag sequences throughout. Tom Green is gold every single time he shows up in the film. My problem with the movie is that there's a general level of skank to it that's a little off-putting. If there's a way to take a mildly dirty joke and just plain make it gross, ROAD TRIP manages every time. True, it's never quite GUMMO gross, but it doesn't fail for lack of trying.
I originally thought that Dreamworks was out of their minds for releasing two comedies on the same day, but the chances of there being much crossover audience between SMALL TIME CROOKS and this film are about the same as the chances that I'm going to become Lorenzo Di Bonaventura's personal secretary. ROAD TRIP is perfect if you want to see elderly people with giant erections, prostate milking sequences, a man with a mouse in his mouth, illicit toe sucking, Amy Smart's breasts, a whole lot of gratuitous breasts, giant leopard skin panties, or a stoned talking dog. Just be warned... a shower may be required afterwards.
EVERYONE'S FAVORITE MORIARTY PHRASE
... to be continued. Yes, I'm going to have to hold the second half of today's RUMBLINGS until this afternoon or early evening. There's a lot more to squeeze in, including peeks at the scripts for 5-25-77 and NOVOCAINE, more news on Forry Ackerman, some mini-reviews for films making their way from art house to art house at the moment, and a rather personal piece about the worst film I ever saw. And all you have to do is wait!
As Bugs Bunny always said, "Ain't I a stinker?"
