Disc Type

I’ve reviewed Amy Schumer before she become a mini-phenomenon. She seemed a little desperate and cheesy, but now she is worshipped for being the cutting edge of comedy. I think the cutting edge of comedy is a little cheesy and desperate in general. I remember the first time I saw Amy was on the tail end of a Comedy Central roast of Charlie Sheen, and she was a self-described nobody at the time.  Not long after, Comedy Central decided to make her a somebody. Her show, Inside Amy Schumer, had many flashes of brilliance that were embedded in gross-out humor full of sex and gender issues. That is the heart of what makes Amy Schumer special. She is willing to explore somewhat suppressed areas of gender politics in a subversive manner. She comes off as something of an idiot, but that is the state of sex relations in this day and age. Her humor is overt and tries to claim equal ground with men. Men are generally considered to be chauvinist and complete idiots, so to claim equal ground, you would have to be an idiot as well. Her humor is playful and good-natured but with some hidden sharp edges.

Amy’s ascendency has been cemented recently when Judd Apatow added her to his roster of protégés as the producer and director of Trainwreck, written by and starring Schumer. Apatow has a string of hit comedies but is also the producer of the HBO show Girls, which promotes another young female role model, Lena Dunham. Both Dunham and Schumer share the same attitude of postmodern frankness.  While we are trying to catch up on all things Schumer, I should also mention that she is a niece once removed of the powerful and long-standing US Senator from New York. The two Schumers have done joint press conferences on gun control after 12 people were shot and killed at a Trainwreck screening.

History is important, but there is a lot of it to keep track of. History, by its nature, is about things that are preserved and archived so they won’t be forgotten. In this case, we are looking at a little slice of the history of rock and roll. Is the history of rock and roll something that is important? I would argue that everything about the past is important. Not everyone cares, but some people care passionately about forgotten gems from the past. Everybody cares about something, and some people care about everything, but the further back in the past something goes, the more likely people won’t care at all.

The 1955 Rock ‘N Roll Revue and Rhythm and Blues Revue with Rock, Rock, Rock! Is a 228 minute/2-DVD set, and that title is sure a mouthful. It is like a time capsule from those good old days before music videos, because everything on it looks ancient and outdated by modern standards, but to those who remember those times, it is a wonderful blast from the past. Some of the big-name musical performers on the collection include Nat king Cole, Duke Ellington, Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, Martha Davis, Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton, Chuck Berry, The Flamingos, Lavern Baker, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington, The Moonglows, Herb Jeffries, Johnny Burnett Trio, and Connie Francis. It also includes a very young Nipsey Russell. The first disc is a combo of two entertainment movies that played in theaters at the time that were put together in a Harlem variety revue. Don’t forget that back in those days television was still a new thing, and there was no internet or home video or cable. Entertainment was something you had to go out and find. It is hard to imagine today how different things were back then. The emcee was named Willie Bryant, and he and director/performer Leonard Reed rolled out a roster of talent to appeal to a special race market. Back then black acts weren’t accepted everywhere, and lots of rock and roll material was converted later for white audiences. Those were the bad old days. That’s why material like this is valuable, because it shows important pieces of the puzzle of our checkered past. But despite oppression, there was a vibrant marketplace and a hungry audience for this music that was the cutting edge of the time. Jazz had flourished for decades, and now we can watch the early growth of the new mediums of rock and roll and rhythm and blues. At this stage, it is just beginning to evolve at this time. I’m not going to go in depth, but this collection is a valuable artifact if you want to see the birth of a movement.

I absolutely love it when I go into a film blind, save for my expectations after looking at the cover, and leave with a surprisingly pleasant experience. A Christmas Horror Story provided me with that exact experience. The cover depicts Krampus, the evil Christmas beast of German folklore, battling Santa in a snowy, mountainous area. This particular battle does not surface until the final moments of the film: instead, we are treated to three separate horror tales that are connected by the various characters that occupy them. Each one of the tales does a good job of maintaining the Christmas theme in creative ways.

Each tale takes place in the city known as Bailey Downs, with the exception of one tale taking place at the North Pole.  First, there is a ghost story featuring a murder that took place at a school the year prior on Christmas Eve. Three teenagers decide to break into the school and film a documentary about it. They are able to break into the school with a set of stolen keys, provided by a friend who is forced to visit family rather than participate in the documentary. This family trip is interrupted by a visit from Krampus. The next tale involves the recovering police officer who worked the original Christmas Eve murder case: Still on leave, he is spending time with his son, who gets lost in the woods and is replaced with a changeling. Finally, carnage ensues at the North Pole, where Santa must battle his own elves who have been stricken with an odd form of vampirism.

Swim Little Fish Swim is, above all else, a very charming film. In fact, it may have been a little too charming for me. I appreciate character-driven dramas, but it is the drama in the film that keeps me engaged throughout. Swim Little Fish Swim introduces some really interesting conflicts into the story, and each conflict has a good variance of high and low stakes. However, the conflicts are either never quite resolved or resolved in a rather unsatisfying way. I did really enjoy the film, but it left me wanting more.

Co-directed and written by Ruben Amar and Lola Bessis (who also plays the starring role), the film explores the lives of artists Leeward (Dustin Guy Defa) and Lilas (Bessis) as their paths cross in New York’s Chinatown. Leeward is a starving artist who refuses to sell out to a commercial in order to support his wife Mary (Brooke Bloom) and his daughter Maggie/Rainbow (Olivia Durling Costello). Meanwhile, Mary works tirelessly as a nurse in order to make up for Leeward’s irresponsible tendencies. To complicate matters, Leeward is introduced to a French artist Lilas, who needs a place to stay until she is able to apply for her Visa. Lilas’s artistic spirit invigorates Leeward into making poor familial decisions in an effort to pursue his dream as an artist.

Dumb it Down turned out to be a bit of an indictment on the state of present hip-hop affairs. A group of experts was brought together, both past and present industry professionals who gave their opinion on how the art form has transformed from a way for a person to express their thoughts to apparently the new tactic in advertising.  As a fan of the genre, there is no denying that the music has changed from what it was originally. Admittedly, I find myself gravitating more towards songs with an actual message behind them rather than the club bangers (as they have come to be called). However, I have my doubts about the way this documentary is going to go over.

The overall question for this documentary is how it will be received by the audience. A scathing indictment of the industry by participants who knowingly admit that they took part in the dumbing down of the art form that they are now speaking out against. The hypocrisy of that admission, I imagine, is going to do a significant amount of damage with the audience. T-Pain came out and admitted that he dumbed down his own lyrics so that they would be better received with the listeners; however, he then turns around and talks about how doing such a thing is what wrong with hip-hop today. That contradiction weighed heavily with me as I watched the documentary, because how can you really speak out against something that you took part in? I understand that it is possible to have a change of heart, but that was not my first impression when I witnessed this admission. It seemed more like a “pass the puck of blame” scenario. There are plenty of others who speak out as well, but again I have to wonder how many of them participated in what they are now speaking out against.