Merry Music of May 2020

[Antares]

The soundtrack to which she (and a few other dancers) perform is a pretty bland and dismissible mashup of well known chart hits, beats and rap sans attitude.

The original songs that the rappers sample are great, unfortunately you have to hear the rap crap added to it. Black Sabbath, The Brothers Johnson & The Ramones don't deserve to be diminished so.

No one else sees this statement as problematic? Talking about "rap crap", especially in contrast to popular white artists, is a dog whistle I thought was dead and buried.

The Brothers Johnson were white, I did not know that?

My point was that rap is predominantly misogynistic, narcissistic crap. When Gil Scott-Heron made his albums, they were cutting edge and spoke to what was happening in society. He was creative and didn't ripoff other performer's music for his own profit. The stuff for the last 30+ years has been predominantly what I mentioned. I also feel that almost all country music is crap, does that make me bigoted towards whites too? Please stop looking for subliminal messages of racism in everything, it's not good for the soul.

[Sam the Cinema Snob]

Broad generalizations are broad. There's plenty of misogynistic rap. There's plenty that is not.

And sampling isn't ripping off people's music.

The soundtrack to which she (and a few other dancers) perform is a pretty bland and dismissible mashup of well known chart hits, beats and rap sans attitude.

The original songs that the rappers sample are great, unfortunately you have to hear the rap crap added to it. Black Sabbath, The Brothers Johnson & The Ramones don't deserve to be diminished so.

No one else sees this statement as problematic? Talking about "rap crap", especially in contrast to popular white artists, is a dog whistle I thought was dead and buried.

I am certain I would have enjoyed the movie better if it had used proper rap music like N.Y. State Of Mind by Nas or something similar.

"Proper" rap music. 

Sampling is one of the pillars of the genre. Not to say every rapper has to do it, but rap wouldn't exist without sampling. Or at least not as we know it.

Also, is Prog Rock not proper rock music because it does renditions of classical music?

[Bondo]

I guess I'd consider GirlTalk to be EDM more than rap anyway.

[Eric/E.T.]

The soundtrack to which she (and a few other dancers) perform is a pretty bland and dismissible mashup of well known chart hits, beats and rap sans attitude.

The original songs that the rappers sample are great, unfortunately you have to hear the rap crap added to it. Black Sabbath, The Brothers Johnson & The Ramones don't deserve to be diminished so.

No one else sees this statement as problematic? Talking about "rap crap", especially in contrast to popular white artists, is a dog whistle I thought was dead and buried.

The Brothers Johnson were white, I did not know that?

My point was that rap is predominantly misogynistic, narcissistic crap. When Gil Scott-Heron made his albums, they were cutting edge and spoke to what was happening in society. He was creative and didn't ripoff other performer's music for his own profit. The stuff for the last 30+ years has been predominantly what I mentioned. I also feel that almost all country music is crap, does that make me bigoted towards whites too? Please stop looking for subliminal messages of racism in everything, it's not good for the soul.

Who called you bigoted toward anyone? You took my comment about a dog whistle and went far further with it than I did. And lumping in an African American act doesn't provide cover for what is such an easily identified as an age-old piece of coded language. Maybe you didn't mean it that way, but it is nevertheless the way it reads, especially to someone who has spent a long time listening to, following, and commenting on hip-hop/rap music.

The snark in your post is purely defense. My soul is great, though, thanks for the concern.

I guess I'd consider GirlTalk to be EDM more than rap anyway.

Of the GirlTalk I've heard, he does use a lot of rap vocals. Overall, I'd just call it "mash-up", though I don't know if that's really a genre or sub-genre.

[Junior]

Hail, Caesar!

There are three scenes that could be put up against the best in the Coen's catalogue and hold their ground. Two of them come in the first 25 minutes or so: the discussion with the religious leaders about the studio's new Jesus-based blockbuster is a farce of both the religious institutions and Hollywood at the same time, and funny as hell; while the "Would that it were so simple" scene is just one of the funniest things committed to film in the past 10 years or so. This time around I found great pleasure in Laurence Laurentz constantly correcting the pronunciation of his name, then the reveal that his imprimatur is called "Laurence Laurentz Presents." Then, like half an hour later, the third great scene, "No Dames" comes in an steals the show. There's nothing I want to see more than a full, old fashioned Coen Bros musical. I need it. I need more song and dance numbers from them. Preferable with Channing Tatum in tow. Is this one of the best Coen bros movies? Yes. Yes it is.

A


Stop Making Sense

Always incredible. I don't think I'll ever get tired of this one.

Asuperplus

[1SO]

Two for Tonight (1935)
Oh, what lovely features.
Talk about adorable creatures.
You have so many thrillables,
That I’m all out of syllables

I’m always surprised to find an early Bing Crosby film where his on-screen persona is largely set. This is one of his best, not taking things too seriously and playing into the meta-plot of a songwriter hired to write a play based on screwball events that happen at the start of the film. He’s paired with Joan Bennett who also already had her skills in place. I’ve seen numerous Crosby films where he croons a tune and the female lead just gazes on him, but Bennett internalizes his words and emotes right back to him.
RATING: ★ ★ ★ - Good

Say One For Me (1959)
The little gift you send on Christmas day,
Will not bring back the friend you turned away.
So may I suggest the secret of Christmas,
It's not the things you do at Christmas time,
But the Christmas things you do all year through

Frank Tashlin directs Debbie Reynolds and Bing Crosby. Crosby plays a priest and there's a climactic song about Christmas. Can't miss. Or can it? "The Secret of Christmas" works, absolutely, and you only have to sit through two hours to get to it. Crosby is fine, but the film really belongs to Debbie Reynolds and the redemption of Robert Wagner, who spends most of the film behaving like Gaston. It's a spectacularly misjudged film from a director who usually has judgement years ahead of his audience.

The only time I can tell Tashlin was involved is the film contains the most filthy joke I've ever heard slip past the censors of the 1950s. "The Girl Most Likely to Succeed" has Debbie Reynolds playing a college graduate who isn't very smart but she has other talents and when the title is sung it is given a pause so that we learn the key to her success is her ability to 'suck seed'.
RATING: ★ ½

[Dave the Necrobumper]

The censors must have been having a day off to let that pass.

[1SO]

Where Do We Go from Here? (1945)
Morale is the gal that you're fond of.
Morale is the pal at your side.
It's the smile that you're wearing.
The buck that you're sharing.
It's your home town filled with pride.

Starting as a typical musical designed to cheer up the boys fighting in the war, this takes a fantastical trip through the early days of America where one poor sap (Fred MacMurray) keeps the country on the right path all while realizing the party girl he loves (June Haver) isn't as right for him as his good friend (Joan Leslie). Casting the actress who played the wife of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy seems calculated as this film feels like one of those Cohan musicals. Just as corny and cute and broadly appealing.

Where the stork is... storkier,
and the pig is porkier.
And the beer is beer-ier,
and the soup, superior.

Sometimes, the comedy dives completely into parody, like how the British troops of the Revolutionary War are German, played on the buffoonish level of Schultz in Stalag 17. In a daring bit that largely works, MacMurray infiltrates these soldiers by talking like Adolph Hitler. (I can't imagine how this played in a time when Hitler was still around.) Later on, Anthony Quinn shows up as the Indian that sold all of Manhattan to the colonies. Here, he's the one who wins the hustle and the dialogue between him and Fred is handled like two comedians standing in front of a mic.

You're believing that the world is round,
is a belief that we believe unsound.
With our feet on the ground,
and so far we have found
the world is flat, like that.

Often listed as the highlight is a full musical back and forth between Christopher Columbus and his sailors who are looking to mutiny. It's a rare early example of a scene in a Hollywood film where everything is sung, and it works really well, especially once MacMurray has to join in to convince the crew to stay on the correct side of history. ("When all the world is vocal/this is my point of view. I'd feel just like a yokel/if I didn't sing along too.")
RATING: ★ ★ ★ - Very Good

A Discovery, and a pretty high bar for any film this month to surpass.

[1SO]

On the Riviera (1951)
It makes me feel so good,
when I see a happy ending.
Give me a happy ending every time.

We have to start with that image. According to the internet, that is in fact the actual iconic portrait of Gene Tierney from the noir classic Laura. It briefly steals the movie. The portrait hangs because Gene Tierney is here too and as lovely a presence as ever. I've seen her in 26 films and she has no mannerisms to lean on, just a constant welcoming presence. The cast includes Corinne Calvet (The Far Country) and Sig Ruman (A Night at the Opera), but it stars Danny Kaye.

Danny Kaye for me is a lot like Mickey Rooney. He was born to sing and dance and joke and entertain and whatever he's doing he does extremely well, but he's also annoying as anything. It's a special flavor of ham that turns my guts, though the two are connected to so many classic films I always brace myself and hope for only mild indigestion. That's mostly what I get here, except during a number called "Popo the Puppet". He actually plays two roles in this, and again he does it really well, but he also wants you to know how well he's doing. He's willing to act anything for our enjoyment except humble.
RATING: ★ ★

[Knocked Out Loaded]

The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone (Shane Meadows, 2013)



A flat-rate documentary on the band's reunion and the subsequent tour where they played in front of 75,000 people three nights in a row in Heaton Park in Manchester. These guys have less charm than the cerials I have for breakfast but I have to admit that they have a couple of good songs in their bag. The movie ended with a pretty cool version of Fool's Gold, but apart from that this is for completists only.

20°