Author Archives: Lisa Marie Bowman

Music Video of the Day: Water Music by Kelly Moran (2019, dir by Katharine Antoun)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On Saturday, it rained nonstop.  From the minute I woke up until I finally pretended to go to bed, it was raining.  As a result, the backyard looks like a swamp right now and I imagine it will probably be a few days before everything dries out.  The creek at the end of the street is overflowing with water so we’ll probably have a lot of confused ducks in the neighborhood tomorrow.  That’s what the rain usually seems to bring around here.

Anyway, all of that rain put me in the proper mood for this video.  It’s kind of a mood piece.  It involves a lot of water.

Enjoy!

 

Music Video of the Day: Icke’s Struggle by Blanck Mass (2015, dir by Alex Turvey)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Wow.  This video’s depressing.

Seriously, I love Blanck Mass.  Blanck Mass is responsible for some of my favorite writing music.  (And, by that, I mean that I often have Chernobyl playing in the background whenever I’m writing.)  Songs like this are all about creating and capturing a mood.  And really, I guess how you react to or interpret the song will probably depend on what’s going on in your life when you listen to it.  Right now, I’m giving a lot of thought to the circle of life so, when I hear this song, I think about the inevitably of death.

And then I watch this video, where is pretty much permeated with doom.  Everything is going to die, even the plants.  That’s just the cycle of life.  New things will ride to replace the old.  Sometimes, those new things aren’t going to be good things but, fortunately, they’ll eventually become old things and then die.  And they’ll be replaced by something else.  And I guess that’ll keep happening until the sun goes supernova or the Earth gets sucked into black hole or whatever it is that all the fatalists are predicting this week.  Myself, I think the world will end someday but it won’t be for at least a century or two so I’m not too worried about it.

(Of course, what would suck would be to discover that reincarnation is a real thing and, as a result, we’re all destined to continually be reborn until we all experience the end of the world firsthand.  That would be a really cruel joke on the part of the universe.  However, I do not believe in reincarnation.  I mean, I know at least half a dozen people who all claim that they were Cleopatra in a past life so they can’t all be right.  Can they?  If I did believe in reincarnation, I would say that I was probably once Edie Sedgwick.  Or maybe Clara Bow.)

Anyway, it’s all about cycle of life.  Don’t start singing that Lion King song at me, either.  I’m just stating a fact.

(Actually, it could just as well be taking a dig at the infamous David Icke.  At least, I hope it’s taking a dig.  If Benjamin Power is a follower of David Icke’s, I’m going to be depressed.)

Enjoy!

Here’s The Trailer For — Deep Breath — Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here’s the new trailer for an obscure little art film called …. Stars Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker!

My first reaction, to be honest, is that the title is extremely unwieldy.  I imagine that most people in the real world will just call it “the new Star Wars film” while people on twitter will demand that it only be called “Episode IX.”  I’m not going to speculate on which Skywalker is rising.  The majority of them seem to be dead.  Perhaps the film will end with Adam Driver taking over the universe and destroying it, Thanos-style.  That would be kind of fun.

I’m not really big into Star Wars.  You may have already guessed that.  While everyone else is going crazy over this trailer, I have to admit that my first reaction was, “Again with the desert?”  But, snarkiness aside, it’s a nicely done trailer.  There’s no way not to be excited by that scene of Rey doing a back flip over that cruiser.  And any trailer that ends with mocking laughter is okay with me.  Apparently, the Emperor is back.  And so is Billy Dee Williams.

(For that matter, Carrie Fisher will be in the film, as well.  Director J.J. Abrams has said that there was enough unused Fisher footage from the previous two sequels that Leia will be able to play a role in The Rise of Skywalker.)

It’s always somewhat weird to me to see how controversial the Star Wars films have become.  I really don’t have enough shrug emojis available to me to express how I react whenever I see people on twitter debating whether or not the last movie was any good or not.  I liked The Force Awakens and I respected the fact that Rogue One killed off the entire cast.  I was kind of indifferent to both Solo and The Last Jedi.

But, let’s hope the best for The Rise of Skywalker!  Apparently, the Star Wars franchise will be going on a bit of a hiatus after the release of this one.  (That said, if The Rise of Skywalker does better at the box office than Solo or The Last Jedi, that hiatus could be a short one.)  So, let’s hope that they (temporarily) end on a good note!

Lisa’s Way Too Early Oscar Predictions for April

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

To repeat what I say every month, it’s pretty much a fool’s errand to try to guess what’s going to be nominated for an Oscar this early in the year.  Some of the choices below — A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, The Irishman, Little Women,Once Upon A Time In Hollywood — are there because of their directors or their stars.  Some — like Cats and 1917 — are there because they sound like they’re either going to be brilliant or total disasters.  Call of the Wild and Fair and Balanced are listed because of my own instincts, for whatever they’re worth.  Harriet is listed because Clayton Davis over at Awards Circuit is currently predicting that it will be nominated and he’s got a pretty good track record as far as predicting these things is concerned.  Queen & Slim is listed because I saw a few people on twitter raving about a preview of it that they were lucky enough to see.  Myself, I have no idea what Queen & Slim is about, beyond the fact that it deals with two people on a date who are pulled over by the police.  (That’s according to the imdb.)  See how random this is?

So, I guess what I’m saying is that you should take these predictions with a grain of salt.  In fact, you should pour salt all over these predictions.  The Oscar race usually doesn’t even start to become clear until around September.

The Cannes Film Festival will be held next month.  Sometimes, Cannes lends some clarity to the Oscar race.  (Tree of Life and BlackKklansman both stated their Oscar campaigns at Cannes.)  Just as often, Cannes turns out to be totally useless as far as being  predictive tool is concerned.  Though the official lineup has not yet been announced, it seems probable that Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and perhaps a few more contenders will be screened at Cannes next month.  We’ll see what happens!

If you’re interested in more predictions that you shouldn’t pay too much attention to, be sure to check out my Oscar predictions for January, February, and March!  See how my thinking has progressed.  Check out just how random my guesses occasionally are.

Best Picture

1917

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Call of the Wild

Cats

Fair and Balanced

Harriet

The Irishman

Little Women

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Queen & Slim

Best Director

Tom Hooper for Cats

Kassi Lemmons for Harriet

Sam Mendes for 1917

Martin Scorsese for The Irishman

Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Best Actor

Ben Affleck in Torrance

Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

John Lithgow in Fair and Balanced

Eddie Murphy in My Name Is Dolemite

Edward Norton in Motherless Brooklyn

Best Actress

Amy Adams in The Woman In The Window

Cynthia Erivo in Harriet

Blake Lively in The Rhythm Section

Saoirse Ronan in Little Women

Alfre Woodard in Clemency

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon in Ford v Ferrari

Harrison Ford in Call of the Wild

Malcolm McDowell in Fair and Balanced

Sir Ian McKellen in Cats

Brad Pitt in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Best Supporting Actress

Dame Judi Dench in Cats

Laura Dern in Little Women

Tiffany Haddish in The Kitchen

Nicole Kidman in The Goldfinch

Margot Robbie in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Here’s The Trailer For The Professor!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Johnny Depp’s is Richard, a college professor who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

During his final days….

….HE SOLVES CRIMES!

No, not really.  instead, it looks like he decides to live life to his fullest and do all the wild stuff that he put off doing earlier in his life.  I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of the whole “being diagnosed with cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me” genre of films.  There’s been a few good ones but, far too often, they descend into clichés of seizing the day and all that stuff.

(One thing that you’ll notice about these films is that most of them are about people who actually have enough money that they can afford to seize the day while also dealing with a terminal illness.)

That said, Johnny Depp can be a very good actor when he wants to be so I’ll be curious to see if this is one of those times.  The Professor will be released on May 17th.

Here’s The Trailer For Spirits In the Dark!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

AGCK!

I don’t know anything about this film but this trailer is super creepy and dream-like!

According to the imdb, this is a Hungarian film that was directed by, written by, and stars József Gallai.  The imdb plot description reads: A lonely widower finds a mysterious video on his computer that leads him to an abandoned town occupied by an ominous entity.  The film is listed as having a 70-minute running time.  That may sound short but that’s actually kind of a good sign.  Some of the best horror films are quick and efficient.

The film was released in Hungary earlier this year and, whenever it’s available here in the U.S., I’ll be sure to watch and share my review!

Here’s The Trailer For The Lion King

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Coming soon from Disney …. IT”S THE LION KING!

Apparently, it’s just like the previous Lion King except it’s now live action!  That’s fine with me.  I’ll watch anything involving cats.  Besides, I want to see how they do this scene:

Donald Glover will be providing the voice of Simba while James Earl Jones will be breaking heats all over again in the role of Mustafa.  The film will be directed by Jon Favreau, who worked wonders with The Jungle Book.  It’ll be interesting to see if he can pull it off again with this remake of one of Disney’s most beloved films.

The new Lion King comes out on July 19th!

Music Video of the Day: Peace by Alison Wonderland (2019, dir by CUE THE BIRD)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’ve actually had several dreams that are just like this music video.

Now, I’m sure that someone out there is probably saying, “CUE THE BIRD?  Is that really the director’s name?”  Well, actually, CUE THE BIRD is the name use by the creative duo of JP Stiles and Harrison Mack.  According to their bio over on Vimeo,  “CTB specializes in creating and curating content for the short attention generation.”  That may be one reason why I like this video because, as any regular reader of this site should know by now, I’ve only got a four-minute attention span.

You can take a look at more of CUE THE BIRD’s work by clicking here!

Enjoy!