This song of comes from Frank Black’s second solo album, Teenager of The Year. Frank Black, of course, is better known as Black Francis, the lead singer of the Pixies. His real name is Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV and he’s one of the most important musicians of the last 40 years.
This video was directed by Adam Bernstein, who also worked with They Might Be Giants.
Enjoy!
Laura Mosbach (Terry Farrell) is a former basketball player who is hired to be the assistant coach of the Lady Warriors, a high school team. When the beloved Coach Holliday (Lawrence Dane) has a stroke during a game, Laura becomes the new head coach and had to deal with parents who want to win at any cost, players who think they can bend the rules, and a town where no one has a private life. If you think it’s difficult being a new coach, try being a new coach who is publicly dating the father (Adrian Pasdar) of a player who you’ve just made a starter. Coach Mosbacher coaches the team her way, telling them that they are no longer Lady Warriors but now Women Warriors.
There are so many scenes in this movie that just get stuck in your head for the wrong reason. I enjoyed Laura getting so frustrated that she threw a box of cereal at a wall, where it exploded in slow motion. And there’s the scene where two basketball teams decide to just end the game rather than play the second half because the adults got into a fight in the school parking lot. I’m sure that’s a decision that many teenagers would make. It felt like one of those commercials for the Foundation For A Better Life. “Sportsmanship, pass it on!” Coach Mosbacher tells the girls that its their decision and is shocked when the the town wants to fire her as a result.
The movie’s most satisfying moment is one that isn’t meant to be satisfying. Adrian Pasdar punches out a ref who hasn’t gotten one call right the entire game. Who among us hasn’t been tempted to do the same? Let those without sin cast the first stone.
I actually agree with the movie’s message about parents putting too much pressure on their kids to win at any cost. Lawrence Dane was good as the beloved coach and so saw Adrian Pasdar, as the father who seemed nice but ultimately turned out to be even worse than the other parents. Terry Farrell, though, gave a one-note performance as Laura and the film’s plot had too many unbelievable moments to work.
Today is Tax Day here in the States so this music video of the day feels especially appropriate.
George Harrison originally wrote this song in 1966. It appeared on Revolver. The song was inspired by the fact that, even tough the Beatles were making a huge amount of money, they were also expected to give a huge amount of that money to the government. Harrison said that the music was inspired by the theme song for the Batman TV series and once you learn that, it’s impossible to listen to this song without thinking, “Batman!”
Enjoy!
Nancy McKeon gives a good performance as Cindy Fralic, the first woman to become a firefighter in Los Angeles County. The film follows her as she takes the written exam, passes the physical exam (becoming the first woman to do so in the 60 years history of the Los Angeles Fire Department), and proves herself as both a firefighter and paramedic. She also finds love after her unsupportive husband divorces her.
Firefighter‘s story is bookended by a scene of Cindy telling a group of kids about what it is like to be a female firefighter. The film was made to inspire more women to pursue a career as a firefighter and sometimes, it seems like it pulls its punches when it comes to portraying just how difficult it probably was for the real-life Cindy to be Los Angeles’s first female firefighter. With the exception of her husband and one sexist captain, every man on the force is portrayed as being open-minded and rooting for Cindy from the start. No one at the firehouse has any trouble adjusting to a woman suddenly sharing their quarters. Almost everyone is supportive. The only time Cindy gets truly upset is when she has to get her hair cut. Sometimes, the film makes it seems like it was almost too easy for Cindy to be a groundbreaker.
It’s a good for what it is, though. Nancy McKeon gives a good performance. Ed Lauter plays her supportive boss and Amanda Wyss plays her best friend. It’s a made-for-TV movie so don’t go into it expecting a raging inferno. Instead, it’s just a sincere story about a woman who made history and who can maybe inspire others to do the same.
This is one of the best-known of They Might Be Giants’s songs. Though the song was released first, it also appeared on their 1990 album, Flood.
Director Adam Bernstein was a frequent They Might Be Giants collaborator. He also directed music videos for everyone from Public Enemy to Dead Milkmen to BareNaked Ladies and Sir Mix-A-Lot. He’s also a television director, having won an Emmy for his work on Fargo.
Enjoy!
In Rated X, two real-life brothers play another set of real-life brothers.
Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen play, respectively, brothers Jim and Artie Mitchell. Two pot-smoking entrepreneurs who found fame and fortune during the so-called Golden Age of Pornography (Behind the Green Door was their most famous film), Jim and Artie owned the O’Farrell Theater in San Francisco and became famous for their numerous legal troubles and their advocacy for freedom of speech. While Jim became a semi-respectable figure who hobnobbed with the city’s elite, Artie became known for his consumption of cocaine. In 1991, Jim drove over to Artie’s house and shot him twice. Jim, who claimed Artie had threatened to kill him, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison. Jim was released after serving three years. (He died in 2007, long after this film aired on Showtime.)
Rated X tells the story of the Mitchell Brothers in a flat and perfunctory manner. Emilio Estevez not only plays Jim but he also directs. He doesn’t bring much visual style or storytelling style to the film, despite a few scenes that appear to have been cribbed from Boogie Nights. Estevez doesn’t seem to be sure what he wants to say about the Mitchell Brothers and they come across as being the most boring pornographers in history. What’s really strange is that Estevez and Sheen are not believable as brothers, despite both wearing matching bald caps. There’s nothing about their performances that would lead you to believe that they grew up with each other. Casting Sheen as an out-of-control drug addict seems like a no-brainer but he’s not even believable when he’s snorting coke and handing out cheerleader uniforms. In fact, the film probably would have worked better if Sheen and Estevez had switched roles. Estevez was always better at showing emotion than Charlie. In Rated X, Jim is always intense while Artie always has the wide-eyed stare that Oliver Stone made such good use of in Platoon.
I can understand the casting, though. Jim and Artie were brothers so it makes sense to cast brothers to play them. Because Charlie has always been best-known for his flamboyant life off-screen, it probably seemed to the obvious decision to cast him as the wild brother while Estevez, who has always come across as being a stable guy offscreen, seemed right for Jim. But onscreen, Estevez is always better as an unpredictable outlaw and Charlie is always better as someone who tries to keep his real emotions bottled up. This film was cast based on Estevez and Sheen’s off-camera personas and they’re both miscast as a result.
There’s an interesting movie to be made about the Mitchells. Their rise and fall mirrored the rise and fall of the 6os counterculture. (A year before he killed his brother, Jim even tried to launch a Ramparts-style magazine for the 90s.) Unfortunately, the Showtime-produced Rated X is not it.
This is a historically-important video. It’s the final Whitesnake video to feature Tawny Kitaen. After the video, it was all downhill for Whitesnake as far as much videos were concerned. It turns out that people weren’t watching them because they wanted to see David Coverdale’s hair.
Marty Callner should be a familiar name by now. He was one of those music video directors who worked with everyone who was anyone.
Enjoy!
After a patient that he’s sleeping with commits suicide, psychiatrist Ed Altman (Mickey Rourke) moves to Palm Springs and sets up a new practice in the desert. His attorney (Carre Otis) is able to get Altman off the hook legally but Ed is soon in more trouble as he meets and falls for Ally Mercer (Annabel Schofield). When Ally’s husband is murdered, Ed realizes that Ally and her fur coat-wearing boyfriend (Anthony Michael Hall) are trying to frame him for the crime.
Plotwise, this is a standard late night cable neo-noir, the type that was very popular in the late 90s. The one thing that distinguishes this Showtime production from the film that were airing on Cinemax at the time is the lack of explicit onscreen sex. (Despite the pairing of Mickey Rourke and his then-wife, Carre Otis, this is not another Wild Orchid. Carre Otis is somehow even less convincing as an attorney in Exit to Red than she was in the earlier film.) Instead, Ed just talks about sex constantly and even gives us a long monologue about why he loves long legs as if that’s something that makes him somehow unique. Every guy loves long legs but most of us can appreciate them without having to recite a Spalding Gray-style performance piece about them. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to listen to Mickey Rourke read one of those “How To Be A Player” books, you can just listen to his narration in Exit in Red.
Director Yurek Bogajevicz is one of the many 90s filmmakers who went from doing arthouse films like Anna to directing films like Exit In Red. Watching the movie, I got the feeling that Bogajevicz was trying to be subversive with his genre film, in the style of Paul Verhoeven. There are a few times when he almost succeeds but, far more often, his direction seems as if it’s trying too hard to keep audiences from noticing the bad script and the wooden performances. Luckily, Mickey Rourke goes all out as Dr. Altman. The film would have been incredibly dull if he hadn’t.
Originally, this video was going to feature Claudia Schiffer but, when Schiffer had to withdraw at the last minute, director Marty Callner suggested using David Coverdale’s then-girlfriend, Tawny Kitaean, instead. This was the first of four Whitesnake videos that would feature Kitaen. It’s also one of the reasons why my generation has a weakness for redheads.
Marty Callner was one of those directors who worked with everyone who was anyone. If you had a successful band in the 80s, there’s a good chance that Marty Callner directed at least one of your videos. Unfortunately, you weren’t dating Tawny Kitaen so your video was not a hit on MTV.
Enjoy!
Small town boxer Charlie Davis (Ray Mancini) travels to Reno with his best friend and manager, Tiny O’Toole (Michael Chiklis). Charlie wants to become a professional and he has the support of Tiny and Gina (Jennifer Beals), a saintly hitchhiker that they pick up on the way to Nevada. Charlie managers to impress a legendary trainer (Rod Steiger) but, as Charlie moves up the ranks, he comes under the influence of a corrupt promoter (Joe Mantegna). Seduced by a bad girl (Tahnee Welch) and allowing his success to go to his head, Charlie alienates Tiny just when he needs him the most. A chance to become the champion is coming up and the promoter expects Charlie to throw the fight.
There’s not a boxing cliche that goes unused in this movie. Simple-minded by talented boxer? Check. Loyal best friend? Check. Overwrought narration? Double check because merely calling this film’s narration overwrought doesn’t begin to do it justice. Saintly good girl? Check. Dangerous bad girl? Check. Gruff trainer? Check. Corrupt promoter? Another double check. It’s not that the cliches are necessarily unwelcome. Most boxing movies follow the same basic plot. Instead, the problem here is that the film neither has the direction or the performances to make the cliches compelling.
You would think that casting Ray Mancini as a boxer would give this film some authenticity but Mancini looks as uncomfortable in the ring as he does when he’s having to actually act. As bad as Mancini is, his performance is nowhere near as desultory as Michael Chiklis’s. Chiklis not only plays Tiny but he also narrates the movie and watching and listening to him, you would be hard pressed to believe that he would someday star in The Shield. Meanwhile, Rod Steiger and Jennifer Beals are wasted in underwritten roles.
If there is one thing that redeems the film, it’s Joe Mantegna as the crooked promoter. Using his Fat Tony voice, Mantegna at least seems to have a sense of humor about the film.
I always appreciate a good boxing movie but this ain’t it.
Through the Shattered Lens