This video was filmed at the Inn, which is a bar in Long Island. The video features Britney performing with her then-backing band. It also features a speaker that appears to be on the verge of exploding and a motorcycle. To be honest, if I was performing this song, I would probably want a motorcycle on stage with me too. This is a song that just makes you want to ride a motorcycle.
(Seriously, I’ve always had like a major weakness for motorcycles. It’s not so much that I like to ride them as much as I just like to lean up against them.)
I can remember that, when this cover was first released, a lot of people complained that it wasn’t as good as the previous versions and Britney also got a lot of criticism for saying that she had been inspired by Pat Benatar’s cover when the cover was actually performed by Joan Jett. Myself, I like Britney’s cover. It’s fun to dance too and Britney always seemed like she was happy when she was performing it. So, the haters can just shut up as far as I’m concerned.
Don’t worry, everyone. We’ve got another few trillion years to go before the universe ends. We’ll all be dead by the time the sun goes supernova but hopefully, this site and all of my film reviews will still be here to provide future readers with some sort of solace before they’re vaporized into nothingness.
The Stand at Paxton County, which is currently playing on Netflix, opens with an ominous title card warning us that what we’re about to see is “based on a true story.”
I may be alone in this but I find the term “based on a true story” to be fascinating. It’s signifies that the film that we’re about to watch was inspired by something that actually happened but it’s not actually a recreation of that event. It’s an invitation to watch and to try to figure out how much is true and how much is just a product of a screenwriter’s imagination. “Based on a true story” is a real cinematic tease.
The Stand at Paxton County tells the story of Janna Connelly (Jacqueline Toboni), an army medic who is still haunted by her memories of serving in Afghanistan. When her rancher father, Dell (Michael O’Neill), has a heart attack, Janna returns home to Paxton County, North Dakota. What she discovers is that, after she left home, the ranch fell into disrepair. Dell only has one ranch hand, a seemingly amiable doofus named Brock (Greg Perrow) and it doesn’t appear that Brock’s been doing a very good job.
When Sheriff Bostwick (Christopher McDonald) shows up to do a compliance check on the ranch, he finds a lot of problems. When he returns with a cold-eyed veterinarian named Dr. Morel (Marwa Bernstein), Dell is informed that his ranch is in such disrepair that the sheriff can take away his livestock and essentially put Dell out of business!
How can the sheriff get away with this, Janna asks. Dell explains that, years ago, the voters of the state voted down a proposition that would have given law enforcement the right to confiscate a rancher’s livestock. However, a bunch of unelected lobbyists and left-wing activists went ahead and forced the law through the state legislature! Now, the sheriff can pretty much do whatever he wants and anyone who tries to stand up for their Constitutional rights is subject to harassment and perhaps even murder!
While all of this is going on, Brock vanishes from the ranch. It turns out that Brock is a professional bad employee who goes from ranch to ranch and goes out of his way to mess things up so that the ranchers lose their livestock. The livestock is then sold to the highest bidder or sometimes the sheriff will just keep a horse for himself. With Brock gone, Janna hires sexy Matt (Tyler Jacob Moore) to be the new ranch hand and then sets out to get justice for her father.
I had mixed feelings about The Stand at Paxton County. On the one hand, I’m not a fan of the government regulation in general and I’m always happy to watch a libertarian-themed film. Christopher McDonald’s smug and corrupt sheriff felt like a stand-in for all of the authoritarian-minded politicians and bureaucrats who have recently come out of the woodwork and used the COVID-19 pandemic to increase their own power. (“Hey, it’s Clay Jenkins!” I said as soon as the sheriff showed up.) So, on that level, I enjoyed the film.
Unfortunately, The Stand at Paxton County doesn’t just stick to criticizing the government for overstepping their authority. Instead, it also portrays animal rights activists as being a part of a sinister financial conspiracy and that’s where it lost me. It’s a lot easier to buy into the idea of a corrupt sheriff than it is to imagine the head of the PSCA sitting in a darkened war room and ordering his minions to torment one rancher, all so he can resell the rancher’s livestock. That doesn’t mean that activists should be immune from criticism or that there isn’t a legitimate argument to be made that even well-intentioned regulations are vulnerable to abuse. But the film’s portrayal of its central conspiracy just got a bit too cartoonish to be effective. Once the villains went from being smug to being downright evil, it became impossible to take the movie seriously. If the film had simply stuck to criticizing government overreach instead of imagining a shadowy conspiracy, it would have been a lot more effective.
The Stand at Paxton County has some lovely shots of the North Dakota countryside and Christopher McDonald is a wonderfully smarmy villain. I always appreciate a film that has an anti-authoritarian subtext but The Stand At Paxton County is ultimately dragged down by its own heavy hand.
Since today would have been Dennis Hopper’s 84th birthday, I decided to watch the 1971 documentary, The American Dreamer.
Filmed in 1970, between the success of Easy Rider and the release of Hopper’s infamous follow-up to that film, The Last Movie, The American Dreamer is a cinematic portrait of a very specific time in both Dennis Hopper’s life and American film history. Dennis Hopper was 34 years old at the time The American Dreamer was shot and he was at the top of his career. As a result of the success of Easy Rider, he was regularly touted as being the future of American film. He was a self-styled revolutionary who specialized in spacey yet compelling monologues about how American movies were about to enter into a new age. Eager to try to capture the same audience that had made Easy Rider a success, Universal Pictures gave Dennis Hopper a million dollars and allowed him to take the money to South America, where he used it to film The Last Movie, a film that was designed to show who Hopper truly was as a filmmaker. The American Dreamer was filmed while The Last Movie was in post-production and we do see a few scenes of Hopper editing the film.
That said, Hopper doesn’t really seem to be too interested in talking about the specifics of The Last Movie. He does talk a lot about how he’s leading a revolution that’s going to forever alter the American cultural scene but again, Hopper doesn’t really go into too many specifics when it comes to his artistic vision. He’s more into slogans than details. Fortunately, Hopper was a compelling speaker so he holds your attention regardless of how incoherent his frequent monologues are. The American Dreamer may not convince you that Dennis Hopper was a great director but it does prove that he was a good actor. In this film, he’s acting the role of being an outlaw and a visionary.
As vague as he is about his artistic vision, Hopper gets a bit more specific whenever he’s talking about his love of weed, sex, and guns. In between leading encounter groups with all of the women who are living with him in New Mexico, Hopper brags about being such a considerate love that he’s a “male lesbian.” In another scene, Hopper talks to three giggling girl in a bathtub. He explains that free love is a part of the revolution and that he’s helping people get over their hang-ups. It’s impossible not to cringe as Hopper comes across less like a lovable eccentric and more like one of those cult leaders who ends up living in a compound in Nevada and getting into a stand-off with the government.
Hopper’s a bit more likable when he’s filmed rolling a joint. Watching the film, you can tell that he was a man who truly loved getting stoned and he actually lets down his guard a bit and grins once he’s ready to light up. However, Hopper is probably at his most natural and likable when he’s shooting a gun in the desert. Hopper spends a good deal of the film talking about his love for guns. On the one hand, it’s a bit alarming as Hopper doesn’t exactly come across as being the most stable person on the planet. On the other hand, Hopper appears to be having such a good time that it’s hard not to be happy for him. Hopper explains that, when you’re an outlaw and you’ve living in New Mexico, you have to have guns for your own protection and he makes a pretty good argument. One of the frequent misconceptions about Hopper is that he was a hippie. (This despite the fact that Easy Rider more or less ridiculed the hippies.) The American Dreamer, with its emphasis on individual freedom and the right to protect yourself, shows that, even during the height of the Hollywood counterculture, Hopper’s outlook was essentially libertarian. Watching The American Dreamer, it’s easier to understand how Hopper went from directing Easy Rider to becoming one of the few Republicans in Hollywood. Indeed, whenever the bearded and often unwashed Hopper is seen walking through the desert or firing a gun at a cross, he comes across less like the revolutionary visionary that he’s trying to be and more like an old soul in a new world.
With its frequent use of freeze frames and its intentionally ragged editing, The American Dreamer is very much a film of its era. That’s actually the main appeal of The American Dreamer. It captures a very unique and very specific point of time. It captures an artist during the brief period between his biggest success and his greatest failure and while the film may be frustrating on a narrative level, it’s fascinating as a time capsule. The film is probably more poignant when viewed today than it would have been back in 1971 because, today, we know that The Last Movie bombed and that Hopper’s revolution ended as quickly as it began. It was not Dennis Hopper who determined the future of American film but instead Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Hopper struggled, both professionally and personally, through the rest of the 70s and the early 80s before finally kicking drugs and emerging as not just as an in-demand character actor but also something of a pop cultural icon. Watching The American Dreamer, it’s fascinating to compare the older Hopper — the one who gave witty interviews and who joked about his past excesses — with the pretentious and self-serious Hopper of the early 70s.
Still, The American Dreamer shows that Dennis Hopper was always a compelling figure. It’s impossible not to roll your eyes while watching and listening to the youngish Dennis Hopper but, nonetheless, you do continue to watch and listen.
Today’s music video of the day features Danny Trejo riding a motorcycle through the desert and doing other badass, Danny Trejo-type things. I know that a lot of people will watch this video and think to themselves, “My God, he can sing too!” However, believe it or not, Trejo is just lip-syncing. I know. I was shocked to find that out, too. That said, Trejo does a pretty good job lip-syncing and it’s possible that he may have been singing during the filming.
Seriously, who doesn’t love Danny Trejo? Not only is he a good actor who appears to sincerely want to improve the lives of other people but he’s got a pretty inspiring personal story too. So today, we happily wish the best of birthdays and we invite you to….
I have to admit that I groaned a bit when I discovered that the fourth episode of part 3 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was going to center around yet another holiday. Seriously, how many holidays do these witches have to celebrate over the course of year? This time, the holiday was the Hare Moon, which involves everyone dressing in white, going on a picnic, and not killing a rabbit. The holiday itself doesn’t make much sense and, to the show’s credit, this episode opens with Sabrina telling her aunts that it doesn’t make much sense.
So, I wasn’t expecting much from The Hare Moon but, to my surprise, it actually turned out to be a pretty good episode. At the very least, it held my interest and that’s more than I can say for the episode that came immediately before this one. I think it helped that a good deal of this episode took place in the woods during the day, which meant that I could, for once, actually see what was happening without having to strain my eyes. I know that I spend a lot of time complaining about how underlit and dark the majority of Sabrina‘s interior scenes are but I think this episode proved my point. When I could actually see who was talking, it was a lot easier for me to actually care about what they were talking about.
The highlight of this episode came when, during the Hare Moon ceremony, the witches ran into the pagan carnival people, who were all celebrating a holiday of their own. The interaction between the two groups was wonderfully awkward and, even more importantly, the carnival people seem like worthy adversaries to the witches. The carnival people worship the Green Man and, by the end of the episode, they had delivered an ultimatum to the witches. The witches can either worship the Green Man or they can die. Since the covens powers have been weakened by a petulant Satan, the witches are momentarily at a disadvantage.
In other developments, Harvey and Roz decided to investigate the carnival on their own, which led to Roz getting turned into a statue and …. well, I mean, it’s Harvey and Roz. If either one of them had a personality beyond Harvey being amiably stupid and Roz having an overprotective father, it might be interesting but they don’t so who cares? Nick also ended up setting Satan free because Nick’s main reason for being on the show is to do stuff like that. Of course, the Spellmans were going to free Satan anyway so that they could get back their powers but Nick decided to go ahead and do it so now the Spellmans are still weak and even more screwed than before. Way to go, Nick!
Anyway, this was actually a pretty entertaining episode. The carnival people are wonderfully sinister and Will Swenson was well-cast as their leader. Kiernan Shipka remains the show’s greatest strength and even Miranda Otto and Lucy Davis got a few good lines in this episode. There was still a bit too much filler but all in all, this was one of the better episodes. If only every episode was this good.
What’s this?, you ask. Just now, you’re finally getting around to reviewing Chapter 23 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina?
Admittedly, it has taken me a while. The third season or third part or whatever the Hell you want to call it of this show was released on Netflix all the way back in January. That’s a long time ago even by normal standards. In May of 2020 (this is May, right?), January seems as if it might as well have been a decade ago. You remember what the world was like in January — Iowa caucuses, open movie theaters, strong economy, and no social distancing — and it feels like some sort of lost age. Case reviewed the first twoepisodes of Sabrina‘s third season back in February. I was supposed to review episodes three and four as soon as I got back from my vacation in March. Of course, as soon as I got back, the entire world went into lockdown and it was easy to get distracted from the latest Greendale drama.
Plus, I have to be honest. So far, for the most part, I just haven’t enjoyed Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. There have been a few tolerable episodes and Kiernan Shipka deserves to be a bigger star but the show itself often feels like a dead end. The pace is often maddeningly slow and, other than Sabrina, almost all of the characters are rather flat and dull. With the exception of Sabrina, everyone gets one defining trait and the show tends to beat viewers over the head with that trait. As such, Aunt Zelda is always going to be arch and dismissive. Hilda is always going to be naive and neurotic. Ambrose is always going to decadent in the most boring ways possible. Harvey is always going to be a dullard. Roz is always going to be boring. Beyond the one-dimensional characters, the whole look of the show bugs me. Why does no one in Greendale ever turn on a light? Why do I always have to strain my eyes trying to see what’s happening? It gets frustrating. Working up any enthusiasm to sit through another one of Sabrina’s adventures can be a struggle.
And yet, I will continue to watch the show because I do think that it has potential. Now, to be honest, some of that is because the show is often so bad that it has nowhere to go but up. But occasionally, there will be an interesting twist or a line of dialogue that doesn’t crash to the ground with a thud. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen enough that I keep hoping Chilling Adventures will get things together. My main hope is that, someday, the show will actually be worthy of Kiernan Shipka’s consistently excellent lead performance.
Just take the third episode of Part Three for example. On the plus side, this episode features a trip to a wonderfully creepy carnival. And even though the carnival itself is pretty obviously borrowed from Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, it’s still a lot of fun and effectively surreal and ominous. However, to get to the carnival, we have to suffer through a lot of underlit drama featuring one-note characters. We have to sit through Roz and Harvey having the least interesting relationship ever to appear in a Netflix drama. We have to deal with Nick and his PSTD. We have to deal with Miranda Otto delivering all of her lines in the same monotonous style. We also have to sit through yet another quest. In this case, Sabrina has to find three artifacts to hold onto the title of the ruler of Hell. She manages to find Herod’s Crown but she still loses it to her rival for the throne, Prince Caliban. So, I guess Sabrina is going to have to find the other two artifacts over the course of the season. I’d probably care more if Hell, as presented on this show, wasn’t so damn boring. Presenting witchcraft as being tedious might make for an effective short film but making an entire series out of it is another thing all together.
And yet, Kiernan Shipka gives such a good performance in the lead role that you can almost overlook how annoying the show itself tends to be. Shipka brings so much sincerity to her role that you want Sabrina to succeed. I just wish the show was more often worthy of the talents of its star.
Oh well. Fear not! I actually liked the episode that came after this one. I’ll be rewatching and reviewing it soon!
Earlier this week, I watched The Sopranos on Prime. I started with the very first episode and then I watched all the way up until that famous black out at the end of the final episode. It took me about 6 days to watch the whole series. In case you were curious why I haven’t posted many film reviews over the past few days, it’s because my mind has been preoccupied with the New Jersey mafia.
Needless to say, I’ve now got the Sopranos theme song — Woke Up This Morning — stuck in my head and it only seems appropriate to select it for today’s music video of the day. Now, I should point out that Alabama 3 did not write Woke Up This Morning for the show. (And the version in this video is, needless to say, a bit different from the version that most people know from the opening credits of The Sopranos.) In fact, Woke Up This Morning is not about the mafia at all.
Instead, the song was based on the true story of a woman who, after years of being abused by her husband, finally killed him. She stabbed him to death but “got yourself a knife” doesn’t have quite the same impact as “got yourself a gun.” The song was a minor hit when originally released. It became a much bigger hit once it was featured on The Sorpanos, though its doubtful that Tony Sopranos and his misogynistic crew would have approved of the song’s actual theme.
Originally, David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, wanted to start every episode with a different song but he was overruled by HBO, who felt that viewers would be confused unless they heard the same song at the start of each episode. However, Chase did end each show with a different song.
I’ve always liked Garbage as a band. Only Happy When It Rains seems like a song that could have been written about me and, of course, Shirley Manson and I are both members of the 2% of the population who were blessed with red hair. Having red hair means that …. well, basically it means that we’re better than everyone else in the world and that’s just the way it goes.
Magnetized appears on Garbage’s 6th studio album, Strange Little Birds. I like this video because it’s creepy and dream-like and I’ve always wanted to have a mad scientist laboratory to hang out in. Not that I would actually want to do anything in the laboratory because that’s not really my thing. I’d just like to have it there as a conversation starter.
When I watch this video without the music, my immediate assumption is that it’s about someone who joined a cult and who has just discovered that the leader of the cult is either from outer space or from the future. The video just has that sort of threatening, science fiction feel to it. That said, the song is actually about someone looking back on a breakup that was apparently a long time coming but which she still might not have been emotionally prepared for.
