Movie Log 2009: #6-11

Song Sung Blue - I have heard that it's easier to make a decent living playing tribute shows than it is to break into music performing your own material. Your audience already exists and you go out and cater to them. If that's not a myth, then doing your own thing must be nigh-impossible, because the folks in this film, husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute act in Milwaukee, are barely hanging on -- and then things start to get worse.


Velvet Goldmine - I couldn't tell whether the filmmakers loved or hated glam rock. They managed to craft Bowie-esque songs that were exactly as inane as the geniune article. No small feat there.

Coraline - I find Neil Gaiman to be hit-n-miss. I read Coraline, but remembered nothing of it so can't speak to the film's fidelity. But what's here was enjoyable enough, and the 3-D is outstanding.

Rize - huh. yeah, clowning & krumping. Some pretty moves, but I don't know that I learned much.

Michael Clayton - When your gambling has you $75K in the hole to "The Greek" from The Wire, you may have taken some wrong turns in life. All I'm saying.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster - I'm getting wary of the documentarian-becomes-part-of-story school of nonfiction filmmaking. Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, Nick Broomfield...now Bill Maher's in on the act. In his look at performance-enhancing drugs in sports (and "legitimate" medical use, and porn, and the Air Force) Chris Bell also does some welcome self-reflection, examining the moral issues of steroid use among himself and his two brothers, all bodybuilders. The Bells are all good people, and their conflicts between themselves, parents, and spouses over to use or not to use are heartbreaking. Bell may only have one movie in him, but it's a fine one.