Music Video of the Day: Madness by Muse (2012, directed by Anthony Mandler)

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I, I can’t get these memories out of my mind
And some kind of madness has started to evolve
I, I tried so hard to let you go
But some kind of madness is swallowing me whole, yeah

I don’t smoke because 1) I have asthma, 2) I have a predisposition to addiction, and 3) I’m so obsessive compulsive that if I did start smoking, I would become the biggest chain smoker in the world and I’d end up being one of those women you see in anti-smoking commercials, popping out her fake teeth and pointing at the hole in her throat. That’s not for me.

That said, if I ever do start smoking, it’ll probably because of this song and this video. Seriously, just the opening bass line makes me want to light up. And then the video itself proves that smoking is pretty photogenic when the cigarettes are being held by beautiful people.

The song, itself, was written by Matt Bellamy after he had a fight with his then-girlfriend, Kate Hudson. According to Bellamy, he was reflecting on the fight and thought to himself, “Yeah, she was right, wasn’t she?”

As for the video, it features two lovers on a train, dealing with their own issues while a riot rages around them. The two lovers are played by Erin Wasson and Max Silberman, both of whom are achingly pretty. (For some reason, the usually reliable imvdb insists that the man on the train was played by Emile Hirsch. Sorry, that’s definitely Max Silberman.)

Of course, the idea of two lovers in the middle of a protest immediately makes me think of this famous picture, which was taken in Vancouver during a riot:

And, of course, there’s this Ray-Ban advertisement:

(If the majority of protesters looked as good as the people in the video and these two pictures, I might even be inspired to go to a march or two.)

(Also, be happy that I resisted the temptation to include a picture from that Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial. I came really close to doing it but, in the end, I couldn’t do it. I was born a Coke drinker and I’ll die a Coke drinker. Pepsi tastes too much like Vermont for me.)

This video was directed by Anthony Mandler, who has directed several videos for everyone from Jay-Z to Taylor Swift to Justin Bieber. (The imvdb credits him with 74 videos.) The gorgeous cinematography is credited to David Devlin.

Mario Contini, who is credited as being 1st Assistant Cameraman on Madness, was later the director of photography for Saint Motel’s My Type.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum (1967, dir by ?????)

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

What to say about A Whiter Shade of Pale? This is one of the essential songs. I grew to love it as a result of it showing up on the soundtrack of some of my favorite movies. If you’re watching a film that’s set in the 60s, chances are that you’re going to hear A Whiter Shade of Pale at some point. (The song is also used to haunting effect in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves.) To be honest, even before I knew the song’s title or that it was originally recorded in 1967 by a group called Procol Harum, I knew that organ melody.

A Whiter Shade of Pale was one of the biggest hits of 1967. John Lennon reportedly loved it so much that he would often play it over and over again in his limousine. I don’t blame him. It’s good driving music. There’s a lot of debate as to what exactly the song is actually about. Who or what are the Vestal Virgins meant to represent? Who is skipping the light fandango? What’s up with feeling seasick?

Here’s what lyricist Ken Reid told Songfacts about the song’s meaning:

“It’s sort of a film, really, trying to conjure up mood and tell a story. It’s about a relationship. There’s characters and there’s a location, and there’s a journey. You get the sound of the room and the feel of the room and the smell of the room. But certainly there’s a journey going on, it’s not a collection of lines just stuck together. It’s got a thread running through it….I feel with songs that you’re given a piece of the puzzle, the inspiration or whatever. In this case, I had that title, ‘Whiter Shade of Pale,’ and I thought, There’s a song here. And it’s making up the puzzle that fits the piece you’ve got. You fill out the picture, you find the rest of the picture that that piece fits into.”

As for the video itself, this is actually the second video that was made for A Whiter Shade of Pale. (Of course, in 1967, they were called promotional films and they often played on a type of jukebox known as a scopitone.) The first video featured footage of the band walking through the ruins of a castle and playing the song. It also featured a few quick cuts of Vietnam War footage. This was considered so controversial that Top of the Pops banned the video from airing. Hence, a second, far less political video was filmed.

(Apparently, a third video was filmed in the 80s. It featured Harry Dean Stanton and, since it’s on YouTube, maybe we’ll feature it at some point in the future.)

Anyway, I really like the video above. It’s a real time capsule, even if it is bereft of references to Vietnam. I like the fact that the members of the band appear to be struggling to keep a straight face throughout most of the video.

Plus, it’s just a kickass song!

Enjoy!

Here’s The Latest Teaser For Showtime’s Twin Peaks!

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Only ten days to go before the big premiere!

This certainly does look ominous in the usual David Lynch style. I go a little emotional seeing Miguel Ferrer there.

Only ten more days until the wait is over…

Twins Peaks on TSL:

Music Video of the Day: My Type by Saint Motel (2014, directed by A/J Jackson)

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s music video of the day is Saint Motel’s My Type. I don’t have too much to say about this one, beyond the fact that I like the retro feel of both the song and the video. This is a fun song to dance to and that’s certainly something that this video captures.

This video was directed by A/J Jackson, Saint Motel’s lead vocalist. Jackson has said that he was going for a cross of “early 70s cigarette ads and New York street photography.” Myself, I like to think of the video as being an outtake from a lost Joe Sarno movie.

This video’s cinematographer was Mario Contini while Cody Fusina is credited with production design.

Enjoy!

Insomnia File #25: The Winning Season (dir by James C. Strouse)

Posted on May 10, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!

If, last night, you were up at 11:45 then … well, you were probably like most people. To be honest, I don’t know if The Winning Season, which aired on Cinemax last night, really counts as an insomnia file. Being up at midnight probably doesn’t qualify as insomnia.

That said, The Winning Season is an extremely sweet and likable movie that, until I came across it last night, I had previously heard nothing about. Even if it wasn’t directly inspired by insomnia, this was a film that I was happy to discover and I’m going to recommend that, if you haven’t seen it, you discover it too.

Of course, I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked that I loved this film because it stars Sam Rockwell. Sam Rockwell is one of my favorite actors. It’s not just that he’s talented and that he frequently takes risks and chooses interesting projects, though all of that is certainly true. There’s a sincerity to Sam Rockwell’s performances. He’s one of those actors who, when you watch him, you feel as if he’s literally opening up his heart and soul to you. There are few actors who can make me cry quite as effectively as Sam Rockwell. That he didn’t win an Oscar for Moon (and has, in fact, never even been nominated) remains one of the most glaring mistakes in the history of the Academy Awards.

Sam Rockwell is at the center of The Winning Season and it’s hard to imagine the film working with anyone other than him in the leading role. Sam plays Bill, a former high school basketball star who is now a divorced alcoholic with a 16 year-old daughter that he struggles to communicate with. Like many of Rockwell’s character, Bill is irresponsible but he means well. Bill spends most of his time drinking and working as a busboy at a restaurant.

One night, Bill is approached by his former teammate, Terry (Rob Corddry). Terry is now a high school principal and he has an offer for Bill. Terry needs a new coach for the Girls’ Basketball Team. Even though Bill doesn’t consider Girls’ Basketball to be a real sport, he accepts the position.

And you can guess what happens. When Bill is first hired, no one takes the team seriously. There’s only six players on the team and none of them — not even the ones played by Emma Roberts and Rooney Mara — believe that they have a chance at a winning season. In fact, their best player breaks her ankle before the season even begins. After a rough start, Bill and the girls bond and soon, they start to win games.

Again, it’s not surprising but it is incredibly sweet. And, as predictable as it may be, the film still throws in a few unexpected twists. One thing that I liked is that, even after they started to get good, the team still struggled and lost the occasional game. They didn’t all magically become the best basketball players ever and, for that matter, Sam didn’t magically become the best coach in the world. This is an unapologetic crowd pleaser that still keeps one foot in reality. Everyone, in the film, fully commits to their roles. In particular, Margo Martindale is great in the role of Bill’s assistant. It’s always a pleasure to watch two good actors play off of each other and Martindale’s scenes with Sam Rockwell are fun to watch.

But really, the entire film belongs to Sam Rockwell. Sam Rockwell can take the most predictable dialogue imaginable and make it sound like poetry. About halfway through the film, Bill loses his driver’s licence and is reduced to showing up at the games on bicycle. There’s little that is more adorable than Sam Rockwell pedaling across the screen.

The Winning Season is an incredibly sweet and likable movie. I’m glad that I discovered it.

Previous Insomnia Files:

Music Video of the Day: Upfront With You By Universal Honey (1996, dir by ?????)

Posted on May 10, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As we all know, music video of the day has always been and always will be Val’s baby. Starting with If You Don’t Know Me By Now in June of 2016, Val has shared and analyzed over 300 music videos! It’s become one of my favorite of our regular features here on the Shattered Lens.

As most of you know, for health reasons, Val is taking a temporary break from this feature. Until Val comes back, I figured that I might occasionally share a video or two. Admittedly, I do not have Val’s encyclopedic knowledge of music (and I should admit that my musical taste pretty much begins and ends with EDM) but what Val and I do share is a deep appreciation for a little Canadian show called Degrassi.

See, it was that love of Degrassi that led me to the video below. Earlier tonight, I was rewatching Death of a Disco Dancer, the third episode of Degrassi’s fifth season. In this episode, Paige is upset that her friend, co-worker, and classmate, Alex, doesn’t seem to care about going to college. When Degrassi hosts a college fair, Paige attempts to entice Alex to attend by offering her a joint.

“Will you go if you’re high?” Paige asks.

“I’ll go if you’re high,” Alex answers.

The two of them duck into an alley and light up the joint. What follows is perhaps the best three minute montage in the history of Degrassi as a very stoned Paige and Alex walk through the fair, giggling at all the Canadian college recruiters. It’s all good fun until Paige discovers that a friend of her mother’s is at the fair. Uh-oh!

Anyway, I’ve always loved the song that plays during the montage. It’s called Upfront With You and it’s performed by a Canadian band called Universal Honey. After watching the episode tonight, I looked the song up on YouTube and that’s when I came across the video that was made for it in 1996.

Now, despite doing a handful of Google searches, I can’t tell you who directed or worked on this video. I can tell you that Universal Honey has been around since 1992 and the band is made up of Leslie Stanwyck and Johnny Sinclair. (Before Universal Honey, they were both in a band called The Pursuit of Happiness.) Up Front With You is off of their first album, Magic Basement.

Not surprisingly, this is a Canadian band. One of the great things about Degrassi is that it exposed me to a lot of Canadian bands that I, as an American, might otherwise have never heard of.

Anyway, enjoy!

Here’s The Trailer for Strafe!

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I can’t wait until this movie comes out!

(I know, I know. Strafe’s a game and this trailer is an elaborate parody. It’s also a very well-done parody which is why I’m sharing it here!)

(I have a feeling this game will be very popular in certain offices of the TSL Bunker…)

Watch Kirsten Dunst In The Haunting Trailer For Woodshock

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’ve been hearing rumors that Kirsten Dunst might have an outside chance of getting an Oscar nomination for her performance as a recovering drug addict in the upcoming film, Woodshock.

Well, judging from the trailer below, it’s hard to say for sure. I love this trailer but it seems to indicate that Woodshock is either going to be brilliant or a mess. If nothing else, Kirsten Dunst appears to be playing a character similar to the one that she played in Melancholia. Dunst may have become a star playing a cheerleader in the first Bring It On but her best performances have always been the ones, like Crazy/Beautiful, Melancholia, and perhaps this one, where Dunst has played troubled characters who seem to be lost in the world.

Woodshock will be released on September 15th.

And finally, here’s the latest trailer for Dunkirk!

Posted on May 8, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This trailer actually came out on Cinco De Mayo, so I’m a little bit late in sharing it.

Oh well, these things happen.

ANYWAY — here’s the latest trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk!

Here’s The Final Trailer For Wonder Woman!

Posted on May 8, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh God.

Every few months, a new DCU trailer is released and everyone says that the DCU is finally going to be as good as the MCU.

Man of Steel was going to be an Oscar contender.

Batman v Superman was going to be the epic that made us reconsider everything we thought we knew about super hero films.

Suicide Squad was going to be the most fun that anyone had ever had at the movies.

Now, everyone’s saying that Wonder Woman is going to be the first good DCU movie. Well, I certainly hope that’s the case.

The latest (and final) trailer seems to confirm that the best thing that Wonder Woman has going for it is Gal Gadot. The trailer also has a self-aware feel to it that I hope will be present in the actual film. After three films that took themselves way too seriously, the DCU needs to have a little fun.

Anyway, here’s the trailer!