Day: September 26, 2012

LFM Reviews The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music that Changed America @ The 50th New York Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. To his colleagues, Chick Webb was a musicians’ musician. For dancers, he was their bandleader of choice. Yet, the man who drove the Savoy’s house band is not as widely recognized alongside the Dukes and Counts of jazz royalty as he ought to be. Surviving friends and fans help rectify that in Jeff Kaufman’s thoroughly entertaining documentary profile, The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music that Changed America, which screens as part of the 50th New York Film Festival’s On the Arts sidebar.

Chick Webb did not have much margin for error in life. He was an African American, naturally slight of stature, whose childhood back injury led to a broken body and a short lifetime of pain. He could play those drums, though. A reluctant bandleader, Webb held his outfit together during some decidedly hard times, largely thanks to the quality of his personality and music. Eventually, they hit it big through the perfect combination of venue and band.

Under progressive management, the Savoy Ballroom was unlike other Harlem nightspots, allowing interracial socializing. It welcomed neighborhood residents onto its dance floor—and dance they did. The eternally youthful Frankie Manning explains how the Chick Webb Orchestra became the band of choice for Lindy Hoppers in general and especially for him. In fact, it was Webb providing special rhythmic support for the first time Manning publicly unveiled his still dazzling air-steps.

Those familiar with Ken Burns’ Jazz will also know the basic story of Webb’s legendary battle of the bands with Benny Goodman. Yet, Savoy King tells it from a slightly different perspective, through the written recollections of his friend and promoter, Helen Oakley Dance. Webb also had the distinction of giving a band singer named Ella Fitzgerald her first big break. It all happened in thirty-four all too brief years.

Indeed, one of the many drawbacks of dying at a young age is the difficulty of staking one’s claim on history. Savoy King rightly does so on his behalf, calling upon expert testimony from the likes of Manning, the impossibly cool Roy Haynes, and trumpeter Joe Wilder, a true gentleman of jazz if ever there was one. He also enlists an all-star cast to give voice to the giants of the era, including Bill Cosby (a frequent host of the Jazz Foundation of America’s Great Night in Harlem gala concerts) fittingly cast as Webb himself. For his colleague and favorite arranger Mario Bauzá, Andy Garcia is also about as perfect a match as you could hope to make. However, Janet Jackson as Ella Fitzgerald? She wishes.

Savoy King is a compelling blend of cultural and social history that shrewdly always keeps the music prominent in the mix. Although director-producer-writer Kaufman fully explores Webb’s many tribulations, it is a pleasure to revisit the early swing era in his company. Hip and sensitive, Savoy King is an obvious highlight of this year’s NYFF for jazz fans, but it is also highly recommended for general audiences when it screens this Saturday (9/29) at the Walter Reade Theater and the following Tuesday (10/2) at the Francesca Beale.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on September 26th, 2012 at 3:32pm.

Puritans Kicking Butt: LFM Reviews Solomon Kane

By Joe Bendel. Yes, it’s been said before, but it bears repeating—don’t pick a fight with the Puritans. Seventeenth Century ruffians are particularly advised to give a wide berth to a reformed killer with a satanic price on his head. There will be a fair amount of dark fantastic swashbuckling as Robert E. Howard’s hero searches for redemption in Michael J. Bassett’s Solomon Kane, which wayfares into theaters this Friday.

Kane was once a warrior so ruthless, he sort of accidentally made a pact with the Devil. When Scratch’s minions come to collect, the adventurer is a bit freaked. Taking refuge in a monastery, Kane converts, pledging to never take another life. With the forces of darkness still pursuing him, Kane’s presence is rather bad for business, so the penitent sets out to confront his destiny. He finds it with the Crowthorns, a truly Christian family of pilgrims.

When his traveling companions are attacked by a demonic militia, Kane watches helplessly out of obedience to his oath. However, when they carry off the eldest Crowthorn daughter, Kane pledges to rescue her, even if it costs his very soul. Yet Kane will find that her fate is intertwined with the secrets of his past, as we would expect.

If nothing else, Kane is a nattily accessorized action hero. Although some liberties are taken with his origin story, Bassett taps into something powerfully archetypal in his depiction of the menacing Puritan. His script treats concepts of damnation and redemption with deadly earnest, which is appreciated. In a way, SK is a far more effective evangelical film than those made for the express purpose of proselytizing. There is also a fair amount of hack and slash.

From "Solomon Kane."

James Purefoy is about as good fit for Kane as one could hope to find. He is no Ryan Gosling or Reynolds, thank the merciful Heavens. Quite good in the superior Ironclad, he is equally credible here both in the action scenes and brooding like a man accursed. Adding further heft, the late great Pete Postlethwaite memorably portrays the dignity of faith as William Crowthorn. Max von Sydow is also very Max von Sydow as Kane’s noble father, seen in flashbacks.

Yet, when you get right down to it, SK ought to be more fun than it is. The religious overtones are actually rather distinctive, but the film just gets bogged down too often. There are simply too many scenes of Kane riding through forests, while the climax over-relies on Harry Potter style magical pyrotechnics.

Still, Bassett was definitely onto something in Kane. Howard readers should appreciate how well he captured that sense of ancient corrupting dread. Not perfect but a worthy effort, Solomon Kane is recommended for Howard fans and more adventurous evangelical audiences when it opens this Friday (9/28) in New York at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: C

Posted on September 26th, 2012 at 3:31pm.

LFM Reviews Vulgaria

By Joe Bendel. How are producers different from the world’s oldest profession? There is nothing the former won’t do for money. Don’t believe it? Well, watch as the producer-protagonist explains it all to his film school audience in Pang Ho-cheung’s Vulgaria (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

To Wai-cheung is a second rate producer of C-grade sexploitation films. He owes Lawyer Tsang, his sharkish ex-wife, scads of alimony and takes the blame for all his little girl’s troubles in school. Nothing is going right with his life. Nonetheless, he keeps cobbling together dubious film projects. After his latest pitch crashes and burns, he takes a dinner meeting with Brother T-Rex, a Guangzhou gangster with outrageous kinks (that mule is on the poster for a reason). Against his better judgment, To agrees to produce a comeback vehicle for Tyrannosaur’s old crush, 1960’s Hong Kong sex symbol Susan Shaw (appearing as herself).

Of course, the last thing the down to earth Shaw wants to do in her sunset years is make a nudie movie. No problem, To will just CGI her head onto ambitious sexpot Tsui Ka-yan’s curvy body. Known as Popping Candy for reasons we can’t explain on a family website (well, sort of), Tsui turns out to have more substance than To gave her credit for. However, he might have completely sold out his soul and his dignity to stay in the producing game. Yet, if he can dredge up the repressed memories, he will confess them all to the film studies class he is addressing in the film’s flashback narrative device.

A real change of pace from Pang’s relationship dramedies like the misleadingly titled Love in the Buff, Vulgaria (rather aptly titled) follows more in the tradition of The Player and other satiric treatments of the movie-making process. While never showing anything really graphic per se, Pang goes for broke embracing the film’s outrageous jokes (again, you saw that mule, right?). Yet, the comedy works more often than not, traveling quite well from Hong Kong to America.

Pang regular Chapman To easily fits into the role of his namesake and the embarrassing situations that go with it. Never too cringy, he portrays producer To in that Larry David-George Costanza zone, where the sad sack and the roguishness intersect. As Tsui, Dada Chan is quite the discovery, exhibiting a sweetly endearing presence, but with plenty of va-va-voom. Young Jacqueline Chan also gives the film some genuine heart as To’s forgiving daughter, also named Jacqueline. While many in the supporting cast play it way over the top, the material sort of lends itself to that approach.

Vulgaria is a lot like original The Producers-era Mel Brooks transplanted to the internet age, infectiously delighting in its political incorrectness. It is a lot of laughs, but not for anyone who gets hung up on a naughty joke or the occasional mistreatment of animals. Consistently funnier than the intermittent Klown, Vulgaria is recommended for those who appreciate the boldness (especially by HK standards) of its gags when it opens this Friday (9/28) in New York at the AMC Empire and in San Francisco at the AMC Metreon, courtesy of China Lion Entertainment.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on September 26th, 2012 at 3:30pm.