Monthly Archives: August 2016

Music Video of the Day: Freeze Frame by J. Geils Band (1982, dir. Paul Justman)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

The J. Geils Band is one of those groups that I only know a couple of songs from because when they would come on the radio when I was a kid, my mom would say it was one of her favorite songs. We’ll get to the one most people know by the group, but I decided to start with Freeze Frame. This song is pure fun. There’s nothing to be said about that.

There really isn’t much to say about the music video either. The band performs in what looks like an area prepared for painting as it cuts between them and Old Hollywood period stock footage. The only one I recognize by name is Nosferatu (1922). There are some other ones that look familiar, but I can’t come up with the names. That’s really all there is to this. There’s more to talk about with Centerfold.

The only particularly interesting part is at the end when they animate the cover of the album the song is on. I liked that it calls me back to Don’t Answer Me by The Alan Parsons Project, which was one of the first music videos I did as a music video of the day. I also like that one of the band members is dressed like a painter in overalls. I don’t know how I have passed 50 music videos without doing that homage to painters and women named Eileen, but I have. I’ll get to it eventually.

Director Paul Justman has directed a few other music videos, but not many. He has also done some feature films. That includes some B-Movies like Gimme an ‘F’ (1984) as well as some documentaries about music like Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002).

Andrew Dintenfass shot this music video. He shot a few other music videos along with some other work.

I’ll get to Centerfold soon. In the meantime, enjoy this song that still gets airplay today with an okay music video to go along with it.

Scenes that I Love: Edie Sedgwick and Gerald Malanga Dance in Andy Warhol’s Vinyl

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes to use from an underground 1965 film called Vinyl!  Believe it or not, this adaptation of A Clockwork Orange was directed by Andy Warhol and predates the famous Kubrick film by 6 years!

This is a film that I hope to get a chance to review very soon but until then, check this out scene of Edie Sedgwick and Gerald Malanga dancing to Nowhere to Run by Martha and The Vandellas.

Watching her in this scene, it’s sad to think that, in just six years (and at the same time that Stanley Kubrick was releasing his version of A Clockwork Orange), Edie Sedgwick would die at the age of 28.  Like all of us, she deserved much better than what the world was willing to give her.

Edie Sedgwick (1943 -- 1971)

Edie Sedgwick (1943 — 1971)

Music Video of the Day: Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve (1997, dir. Walter A. Stern)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

The Verve was a group that I know a lot of people liked in the late 90s, but I never got into them. I had the album this song is on, but that was it. I actually enjoyed The Verve Pipe more. However, in both of their cases it was only one song. I probably caught a minute of the music video here and there, but that was it. This is the first time I have watched it all the way through carefully. There’s not much to talk about.

The video starts off with our lead singer deliberately standing on a sidewalk at an intersection where construction would block him from walking straight backwards. He can only go straight forward. After that, he continues to walk down the street without caring too much about who or what gets in his way. Wikipedia says he is a oblivious, but he isn’t. That’s noticeable when he does move around some people. Not to mention that if he were truly oblivious, then he would have walked into several cars. He is unconcerned because this walk isn’t just for fun, but a cathartic experience for him. This is most noticeable in the way he walks to where he needs to stand, and seems to have to work up the courage to walk down the street. He ends up walking the metaphorical street where in the end he is joined by the other members of the group. He might hurt some people along the way, but he can’t let that stop him from being who he is, and to move forward with his life. I did find it interesting that they deliberately show shots of his feet. I don’t think it’s meant to be a Saturday Night Fever (1977) reference, but to show that he is not avoiding the cracks in the sidewalk.

This is another music video where we know more than just the director.

The director is Walter A. Stern who seems to have done about 20 music videos, but that’s it.

Editor Nicholas Wayman-Harris has a done a few more music videos having edited about 25 of them along with directing one. He has also worked in other short films as well as feature films

Costume designer Emma Sutton did at least 7 music videos and a few additional shorts, but that’s all I could find.

The music video fits the song and is interesting, but it’s nothing particularly remarkable. That said, I’d say this is required viewing and listening for 90s music.

Film Review: Isle of the Dead (dir by Nick Lyon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

isle-of-the-dead-poster

I just finished watching the premiere of the latest Asylum-produced SyFy film, Isle of the Dead!

Oddly, this film premiered on a Thursday night at 10:00 pm and, especially when compared to Sharknado 4 or 2 Lava 2 Lantula, it did so with relatively little fanfare.  Fortunately, I just happened to see the premiere mentioned on Facebook.  Otherwise, I probably would have missed it all together.

And that would have been a shame because, for a low-budget zombie film that was reportedly filmed in just 12 days, Isle of the Dead was actually a pretty effective little film.

The film’s plot will probably sound familiar but there’s a reason for that.  The action starts at a secret Army research post that is located on an isolated tropic island.  While Dr. Wexler (D.C. Douglas) watches, a virus spreads through the lab, turning doctors and soldiers into ravenous zombies and leaving death and terror in its wake.  Jump forward ten years later.  A team of Navy Seals has disappeared on the island and a strike force has been sent to find out what happened to them.  Leading the strike force is the tough Lt. Gibson (Joey Lawrence).  Accompanying them is a CIA agent named Mikaela Usylvich (Maryse Mizanin).  Early on, Mikaela establishes a simple run: If you’re bitten by a zombie, you’re as good as dead.  A zombie bite means a bullet to the brain.

Eventually, the strike force makes their way to the old research post, where they discover a lot of zombies and one rather crazed Dr. Wexler.  Wexler, who turns out to have a personal connection to Mikaela, has spent the last ten years experimenting on zombies.  As a result, we now have zombies who can shoot guns as well as zombies who can talk and who can plot and plan…

If all of this is sounding familiar, it’s because Isle of the Dead is an homage to the Resident Evil games.  (Douglas may play Dr. Wexler here but he’s best known for voicing Albert Wesker in the games.)  As such, the film follows a pretty standard formula: we watch as the members of the strike force try to move from one area to another without getting ripped to pieces by zombies.  Admittedly, I’m not a huge expert on the Resident Evil games but I’ve been told by people who are that Isle of the Dead was full of references that were both subtle and occasionally obvious.

What I can tell you is that, taken on its own terms, Isle of the Dead was an effective, no-nonsense zombie film.  The zombies were relentless (and I personally like the idea of talking zombies), the gore was both credible and copious, and the entire film maintained a proper atmosphere of impending doom.  Douglas did a good job as crazy Dr. Wexler and Maryse Mizanin got to kick a lot of ass as Mikaela Usylvich.  If you’re into zombie films or you just enjoy the unique Asylum aesthetic, I suggest keeping an eye out for Isle of the Dead.

d.c.-douglas-and-taylor-jean-in-isle-of-the-dead-(2016)

Arthur Hiller: An Appreciation

Posted on by gary loggins

gary loggins's avatarcracked rear viewer

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Peter Brooker/REX/Shutterstock (379086do) ARTHUR HILLER OSCARS / ACADEMY AWARDS AT THE KODAK THEATRE, LOS ANGELES, AMERICA - 24 MAR 2002

The name Arthur Hiller doesn’t really spring to mind when I think about great directors. However, when I heard the news he passed away last night at age 92, I looked him up on the IMDb. Much to my surprise, Arthur Hiller was responsible for some of my favorite funny films. Hiller wasn’t a distinct stylist or auteur, just a skillful handler of actors with a deft touch for comedy. In remembrance of the man, here are a few of my favorite Hiller-directed films, in chronological order:

hiller1

PENELOPE (1966): I covered this movie in-depth at this link about a year ago. It’s a silly, saucy comedy starring Natalie Wood as a neglected housewife who robs a bank. A quintessentially 60’s flick with comic support from Peter Falk, Dick Shawn, Jonathan Winters, and a good turn by Arlene Golonka as a hooker. It’s definitely worth your time if you haven’t discovered it yet.

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Music Video of the Day: Wonderwall by Oasis (1995, dir. Nigel Dick)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I remember when this music video came out. It was for me the first time I heard Oasis. They seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye to be honest. However, they did leave behind several notable music videos, and this is one of them. Watching it now, I immediately thought of Werner Herzog’s Stroszek (1977). I kept looking around for the dancing chicken.

That’s not a bad thing, but I’m kind of disappointed director Nigel Dick didn’t put it in here somewhere. He seems to have used just about everything else in the video. However, it doesn’t feel like Nigel just threw everything he could think of at the screen in haphazard manner either. It gels together quite well and gets the real message across to the audience watching it. That message being that you are kind of supposed to think of Oasis as the new Beatles. That didn’t work out. It does seem to have panned out a bit better for them than it did for The Cyrkle with their song Red Rubber Ball back in the 1960s.

Speaking of the 1960s, take a look at this 1967 performance by The Box Tops of their song The Letter where apparently the syncing didn’t go exactly as planned, the band noticed, and they had some fun with it.

Let’s throw in one more for good measure with The Byrds performing Turn, Turn, Turn.

The point is that Oasis certainly fall into The Beatles lineage in sound even if they were never as good, and Nirvana was realistically The Beatles of the 1990s.

If you haven’t already heard the song Wonderwall, then certainly watch the music video. It’s essential 90s rock that is a time capsule of 1995, and a throwback to the 1960’s endless Beatles soundalikes.

What I find most interesting is the crew. I have done a little over 50 of these, but even without me, two songs that Nigel Dick directed the music videos for have been brought up in the last month or so. He directed both Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears for Fears and Paradise City by Guns N’ Roses. From what I can see by looking over his 300+ directing credits for music videos, he seems to have had a thing for black and white. He used it for Guns N’ Roses, Oasis, and Taylor Dayne at the very least. Nigel Dick has also worked as a producer and art director on about 50 music videos between the two jobs. That includes having produced Do They Know It’s Christmas? back in 1984.

The other crew member I was able to find is the producer Phil Barnes. From what I can see, he has produced somewhere between 80-90 music videos. He seems to have stopped now, while Nigel Dick seems to have just cut back on the number he is making these days. I love that Phil Barnes has at least four separate entries in IMDb because people clearly didn’t know it was the same guy.

Enjoy!