The Velvet Underground (2021)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Velvet Underground (2021) – T. Haynes

Probably my favourite band – and therefore their history is overly familiar to me (from the Up-Tight book by Malanga/Bockris; the Under Review DVD; and countless other sources). So, what could director Todd Haynes (e.g., Safe, 1995; Dark Waters, 2019; and a bunch of Sonic Youth videos) bring to this tale? For one thing, he adopted Andy Warhol’s split screen technique (used prominently in Chelsea Girls, 1966, which I saw years ago at the Walker Art Center) – often showing one of Warhol’s screen tests (Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and more but maybe not Maureen Tucker) on one side, while the other includes rare live recordings, an interview subject, or other remarkable found footage and period ephemera. Haynes is clearly more enamoured with the Velvets’ early days, spending much time with denizens of the Factory and the Village more broadly (the film is dedicated to Jonas Mekas). Of course, this is one key to their sound – Tony Conrad, Henry Flynt, and La Monte Young all provide necessary backstory about the drone influence, as does Cale himself. But Pickwick Records and poet Delmore Schwartz are not forgotten, as inspirations or contributing factors in Lou Reed’s development as a songwriter and lyricist. Naturally, we hear some of the early demos and formative noises that accompanied the Exploding Plastic Inevitable and foreshadowed the first album (with most of its songs on the soundtrack). Nico is introduced (with footage from La Dolce Vita) but we move fairly quickly past her, then touch on the California tour (Moe really hated the hippies), and the firing of Warhol. The subsequent albums whiz by, each given progressively less coverage (Cale is given a chance to reflect on his departure but Doug Yule is barely introduced). Then, it is time for the finale at Max’s, where Lou’s walkout is recounted by Danny Fields. No mention of Squeeze but we do get footage from Le Bataclan. A coda offers a scattering of moments for each of the principals in the decades to come (and a glimpse of the 1993 reunion).  This sort of documentary always rises and falls based on the quality of the talking heads and they are pretty good here, particularly Jonathan Richman (who says he saw VU sixty or seventy times!). To Haynes’ credit, there’s precious little gossip here, with the focus primarily on the story of the band at the time it unfolded (and no irrelevant future stars recounting their later influence). As such, two hours seemed too short – I wanted more detail, more depth, longer music clips, more more more!  But as music docs go, this is definitely all killer/no filler, perhaps best particularly for the uninitiated (if any such people exist), as an entrée to the music itself, of course.

Licorice Pizza (2021)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Licorice Pizza (2021) – P. T. Anderson

My first comment about Licorice Pizza was going to be that Paul Thomas Anderson has done a pretty good job of recreating 1973 Los Angeles, considering that he himself was only born in 1970.  But then I read the trivia on IMDb about the film which reveals an amazing number of interconnections between Anderson, the actors in the film, and elements of the plot. As the writer-director, it now seems clear that he’s created this tapestry from his own memories, knowledge, and experiences. No need to be aware of any of this to enjoy the film which follows its own internal logic and feels real in a way that many narratives about young love do not.  But for the record, Alana Haim is from the band Haim and her mother was Anderson’s elementary school art teacher (he later did some music videos for Haim). She plays the 25-year-old object-of-desire for 15-year-old Gary, who is played by Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, a good mate of Anderson’s and star of many of his films. Apparently, Gary is based on another Hollywood figure from the 70s (Gary Goetzman, a producer now but previously a hustling kid, it seems) and so too are characters played by Sean Penn (channelling William Holden) and Tom Waits (channelling either John Huston or Sam Peckinpah). For some reason, Jon Peters (hairdresser and Hollywood producer, in a relationship with Streisand in ’73), played by Bradley Cooper, isn’t given a pseudonym – perhaps he doesn’t mind being portrayed as something of a psycho!  There are a lot of rabbit holes to follow if you want to: Anderson’s dad was an announcer on the Carol Burnett Show and there are some nods to that show and its cast here, there are references to a Clint Eastwood-directed film called Breezy and probably also to Taxi Driver. But again, none of this really matters because the love story itself feels genuine, full of the kind of wacky anecdotes and incidents that pepper your own life (especially in your teens and twenties). There’s an infectious joie-de-vivre here (sparked by a great use of period music) that makes this one of the best films in recent memory. Highly recommended!

 

No Time to Die (2021)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

No Time to Die (2021) – C. J. Fukunaga

Clearly, I’m not a big enough Bond fan – I had to look at my blog to figure out whether I had actually seen the previous film (Spectre, 2015) a full six years ago (I had and didn’t like it). Poor memory may have put me at a disadvantage because the current film seems to pick up where the last one left off.  Another reviewer has remarked that the Daniel Craig series features a Bond that does not exhibit chronic amnesia, he actually remembers the events of previous films. We shall see what happens next, because this 25^th “official” outing for 007 is seemingly Craig’s last. And despite my own failure to remember either Vesper (lost love) or Madeleine (current love, played by Léa Seydoux), I still enjoyed this film (perhaps splitting it across two nights helped as well). Somehow the yearning melancholic themes – everyone here has lost someone violently (including the villain played by Rami Malek) – rise above the specific details of the plot to provide an emotional impact. Mixed with these poignant moments are the expensive action sequences for which Bond films are renowned and they don’t disappoint. True, most of the characters besides Craig and Seydoux don’t have enough to do and it is hard to feel interested in them (including the villain played by Rami Malek) and this may be why some true Bond fans seem to have felt that this film is a letdown.  In fact, it is more of a downer and there’s a difference.