The Counselor

Cormac Mccarthy’s stories seem like they are written specifically for old people; which is weird because all of his stories create this dark, terrible, and depressing world. This is the last thing old people need to read, if anything they should be the ones watching Care Bear movies or something uplifting, as their time on this Earth is limited. And the Counselor looked to be more of the same when I first saw the trailer, especially when I noticed that they had Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz cast as the main women in it. At the time I made the awful joke “This looks like No Perky Boobs for Old Men”.  Hey, I told it was awful! I will however admit that Penelope Cruz is still beautiful but it looked like Cameron Diaz was doing everything possible to look like a desperate and evil cougar!

Back in the day I could understand Diaz getting roles because she was young and she was hot.  But it’s not like she could ever act. So now that she’s old and not as hot, she certainly shouldn’t be getting cast in roles that require someone to bring depth to a character. In this movie she plays the role of Malkina, a smart, resourceful, sexy, and conniving woman who is linked to Reiner (Bardem), the Counselor’s connection to the drug trafficking game. The problem is, it’s hard to see Diaz as someone who is smart, and in every scene that requires her to be sexy it just comes off as laughable. There is one scene in particular where she has sex with Reiner’s car (yes, you read that correctly) and it just comes off as sad because she looks like the 40 year old stripper who just started the 4 am shift. Now I don’t mean to bag on Diaz, I actually really like her, but for roles that are made for her. You could tell that she put in the work and tried her absolute best but in a key role like this, if you fail at it, it affects the entire movie.

The Counselor is a movie about greed and how it ultimately leads to man’s downfall. And in this particular case it destroys everything that is good and promising in the Counselor’s life. From a technical standpoint this movie is solid, as you would expect nothing less from a Ridley Scott film. He starts you off with a clean slate by showing you in the opening shot, two bodies that are intertwined in white sheets and  in all white room. You see Fassbender and Cruz in a rather steamy sex scene and you can instantly tell that they are in love. But from that point on, it is all downhill for the couple as you are introduced to shady characters and darker settings. For reasons that are never fully explained, the Counselor needs more money, and the easiest way for him to attain this is to get into this rather large drug deal. Despite multiple warnings from both the middle man (Brad Pitt) and Reiner, he decides to move ahead with deal and it leads to disastrous results.

The premise if the movie is great, the problem however is in the execution. There is little to no action in the movie, it’s just one boring existential conversation after the other. Imagine listening to Morpheus talk to Neo about the Matrix for 120 minutes but take out the agents and the woman in red. Or, and I didn’t think this was possible until I saw this movie, imagine if Tarantino decided to make an even more boring version of Jackie Brown. “I didn’t know you liked the Delfonics.” “They’re pretty good.” Each conversation is important when it comes to setting up the ending but once it finally arrives, you’re either asleep or you simply don’t care anymore.

Now that I think about it, maybe this movie is good for old people. McCarthy fills it with funny jokes about sex and who knows, maybe that will stir up some muscles or some limbs that haven’t been stirred in years. I rate this movie as WEAK and suggest you go watch Nic Cage’s 8mm instead. That movie sucks too but the Cage is like Pace Picante sauce, however long it's been since you've seen one, it's been too long.

Fun Fun Fun Fest Day 1 Preview

 I knew this would happen because the same damn thing happened last year.  I start off complaining about the dust bowl that is Auditorium Shores and the fact that all of the headliners are old and way past their prime; and then I settle down, take a look at the under card, and realize that there are quite a few acts to be excited about. Friday in particular has one of the greatest lineups that has been put together since the Saturday of ACL 2010 that brought us Bear in Heaven, Beats Antique, the Black Lips, Silversun Pickups, The Temper Trap (an awful show btw), The XX, LCD Soundsystem, and Muse. I looked at ACL's schedule for that day and mentioned to the girl I was dating at the time “Wow! I really don’t see a break for us to eat.” Her reply, as she was equally as excited as I was, went something like “Food??? Fuck food!!!!” She only weighed about 100 pounds and I’m fairly sure she had quit cocaine at that point. But looking back, I’m not so sure anymore. And I wonder why I’m still single. On to the acts…

As you know by now, I am not one for getting to festivals at noon but my buddy’s band is in the 12:20 slot on the Black Stage. Spray Paint is a post punk noise band; they are an acquired taste but not too far of a departure from their former band When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. You’ll find yourself moshing in no time, which honestly kind of freaks them out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr71oMiCalw

Up next in the 1 o’clock slot on the same stage is the hardcore scream metal outfit the Code Orange Kids. They have a chick guitarist/screamer who could be considered cute if she didn’t wear shoes that look like they were made by Dr. Scholls. Watch out for their fans who are a bit out of control, it looks like they are literally trying to kill themselves as they are slam dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM_qAwDkFcc

I’ll probably pass on Code Orange to see Rat King, they’re a breath of fresh air out of NYC with their socially observant hip hop. They’re not rhyming about drugs, alcohol, or crime but instead come with an almost punk like style to the mic with their razor sharp lyrics. The cool thing is, they have the ability  to channel early Del La Soul on a few tracks as well. They look 16 years old but can bring some serious head nodding beats which borderline on experimental.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mP96khNdPM&feature=c4-overview&list=UUNqBhMHw4XVzR0mPGb1sqxw

At 2 o’clock I’ll head on over to see the Beach Fossils. They sound similar to Zach Smith’s side project Diiv in that it is also dream pop indie music. I couldn’t stand the Fossils until Diiv came around and it was at that point that I connected with their mellow nostalgia music. This is good stuff to listen to while you eat a Frank’s hot dog, drink a dark beer, and sit on the dirt to relax.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Yt2LcCqrk

This will all work as fuel for when you head on over to see the hard core punk band from California, Ceremony. They don’t quite have the range of the Deftones who can at one moment sound like Morrissey or Depeche Mode and then the next sound like hard core metal but they certainly aren’t limited. They can rock your socks off with Cross Them Out or sound like Black Flag with Talking on the Telephone. The lead looks like he’s having a psychotic episode on stage, they have a Johnny Rotten look-a-like guitarist who jumps from speaker to speaker, and they have a bassist that looks like a pirate. So in other words, they have a little something for everyone!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQYKgeWtXMM&list=PLnJ3Iz-uYjWq16TbtEfPtwSk6NKO7shxE

I will probably split time between them and the Manchester DJ/producer Star Slinger. He can drop some pretty sick beats that have subtle RnB samples in the background that are mixed with traditional house elements. He has made songs with Stunnaman and the awful Lil B so you can tell that this is definitely music you can dance to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9dma92WDZ8

I will be skipping the pop acts Little Boots and Poolside but you may want to pop in if you want to get your guilty pleasure in. I might walk by the Orange Stage to hopefully hear Johnny Marr play How Soon is Now but that’s about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McdqerXrwXE

At 5 I have another schedule conflict between No Age and Small Black. I have seen No Age a ton but with every show they perform, they always deliver. I have talked ad nauseam about them on this site so I won’t spend too much time here but just know that they are a post punk noise band from LA who have anthems like “Wash away what we create/ my sins like funny calls you make” in their most popular hit Teen Creeps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojK3wSmTrC0

The other act to see at 5 is Small Black and they bring nice 80’s music that you can dance to. They're similar to early Cut Copy and have a vocalist who sounds like the lead of Aha, well if he took it down an octave or two that is. It’s a little fruity but all of the 80’s was fruity with that exception of NWA. Well, looking back Dr Dre has always been fruity; he looked like he should’ve been a part of Prince’s basketball entourage. “Game! Blouses!’ Hopefully these guys are rocking the Flock of Seagulls hairdo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ0qz0Qc_D4

Speaking of Cut Copy, I will probably skip them this time around because I feel so white at their shows. They do the classic white guy fist pump with mouth wide open move that makes me feel like I’m in a Mellow Yellow commercial. It always takes me about 20 minutes to forget how white they are before I finally let myself get into it but by then I’m sure I’m on someone’s Facebook page with the tag “doing the Carlton dance at Cut Copy” As a side note I don’t dance like Carlton from the Fresh Prince, more like Hammer from his Pumps in a Bump gangster rap days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eadZ3Z0oDo

The Walkmen are one of my top 5 favorite groups right now so I will definitely check them out. Just don’t pay any attention to FFF’s description of them when they call them “easy listening indie”, they aren’t quite Michael Bolton. These guys can rock it out when they feel like it (check The Rat and All Hands and the Cook) but they are true musicians are decide to write some songs that aren’t completely drowning in distortion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mphTplbiivM

I won’t waste your time with the other larger acts as you can decide for yourself  whether or not to see 50 year olds scream punk lyrics in Black Flag, see a 40 year old smoke weed on stage in Snoop, relive the 90’s with the forgotten but good Quicksand, or listen to the alternative rapper from Chicago, Lupe Fiasco. I will probably skate and push with Lupe until I find that punk who called me Carlton on his Facebook page!

Enjoy.

Carrie

Only in the 70’s and in the 80’s could you get away with showing high school girls naked in the shower. John Hughes did it in Sixteen Candles with Jake Ryan’s girlfriend, Brian De Palma did it in the original Carrie with Sissy Spacek, and I’m sure Roman Polanski wanted to try it but he was eventually run out of the country when he was having um…tryouts! I looked it up and Spacek was actually 26 years old when they filmed Carrie, so it wasn’t all that bad; but man she looked really young back then. She’s always looked like the skeleton from Tales from the Crypt to me but I have to admit that she was a little bit better looking then than I originally thought. Well, thankfully in the re imagination of Carrie, the director Kimberly Peirce decides to forgo the nudity that existed in the infamous opening shower scene.  Chloe Grace Moretz is an awesome actress and you can tell that she is going to be a drop dead knockout when she’s of age but there’s no need to go fishing for local sex offenders in the theater, I just want my horror with gore and age appropriate nudity please! But enough of that as simply typing this is creeping me out a bit.

I was however worried about the fact that Moretz is such an attractive person; so much so that I thought it might negatively affect the story. I thought it would be more like that awfully awesome movie She’s All That, where it just seemed so ridiculous to me that no one would think Rachel Leigh Cook was cute or dateable simply because she wore glasses.  I mean, high school dudes try and dry hump trees when those hormones finally kick in, let alone someone that looks like Cook! Well Moretz is able to properly display the sense of isolation and social awkwardness of Carrie on screen, so this makes the fact that everyone treats her like a freak a bit more believable than if they had simply cast someone who was only pretty to play this role (see every horror movie ever made).

The movie opens up as all horror movies should; with a shot of an old house that has loud screaming coming out of it, followed by a blood covered bed. In this scene you see the actual birth of Carrie and you get a full sense of just how crazy her mother is. Ms. White is played by Julianne Moore and it seems like she was born for this role. She is wonderful in everything she does and the fact that she’s a natural redhead can’t help but be a plus because everyone knows that redheads are crazy!!! You could tell that she thoroughly enjoyed playing the religiously misguided and overbearing mother of Carrie who punishes herself on a regular basis for her sins. Did I still want to have sex with her? Well yeah, but I can see how having her as a mother would lead to a complete lack of social skills for her unfortunate offspring.

Speaking of, after Carrie has an unbelievably embarrassing incident at school, which of course gets posted online for the entire world to see, her gym teacher and the principal decide to discipline those that were involved. This in turn leads to the evil Chris and her boyfriend to go out and try seek revenge for the punishment that was handed down, and if you have seen the original then you know that the results are both deadly and horrific!

What makes this movie work is the excellent casting job by the director. It’s refreshing to see a horror movie that has good actors in it. There were a couple of moments at the end that could have come off as cheesy or laughable but because Moretz was so in tune with the character and the built up rage and frustration that eventually bubbles up, you catch yourself cheering for her while at the same time finding yet another reason to be afraid of a 15 year old girl. They found a way to add their own elements to the story without losing the overall tone of the original. The subtle plot changes they made actually enhanced the story and added to the elements of compassion, creepiness, and yes even the gore that was a part of this film.

 In spite of the highly questionable final shot of the movie, I absolutely loved it and will give it a rating of FRESH! But I just want to put up this caution flag for the director Peirce; if you look at Brian De Palma and the  movies he made after Carrie, he had some classics in Scarface, Carlito’s Way, and the Untouchables. But the second he teamed up with Nic Cage in Snake Eyes he immediately went down hill and became Brian D’s in My Palma! As fresh as the Cage is, stay far far away! Please!!! 

Captain Phillips

I thought the older you got, the less energy you had. This is why you see people like Denzel or Connery shamelessly using body doubles in their action scenes or you see Max von Sydow choosing to play a mute in Extremely Loud; I mean why even bother learning lines anymore? But with Sir Thomas Hanks it seems like he realizes that his time on this Earth is coming to an end, so he feels the need to talk as much as he possibly can before he goes. Every movie he releases now is a minimum of 130 minutes; just look at Extremely Loud, the terrible Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and Cloud Atlas. I know Charlie Wilson’s War wasn’t all that long but man it sure feels like an eternity when you have to watch Julia Roberts walking around looking ugly for an hour and a half. Well Captain Phillips is no different and it features more Hanks than you can handle. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Hanks; he was one of my heroes in the 80’s. But too much exposure is clearly a bad thing and this is why I can’t eat Wendy’s anymore. Damn them and their 99 cents menu!

The plot is fairly simple. Richard Phillips (Hanks) is the captain of a cargo ship that is carrying food and water supplies off of the coast of Africa. The second he boards the ship you can tell that he is a captain that demands a lot from his crew and is a stickler for the rules. Once they leave the port however, they realize that at some point in their journey they will have to sail through unprotected waters off of the coast of Somalia, and this area has been known to have a high number of pirate hijackings lately. So he takes his crew through the training exercises they have in place to combat any possible pirate attack. Meanwhile, forced back onto the water by the local drug lord to find more loot is this small village which includes Muse and his crew. You can tell that they are motivated to find as big of a bounty as they can so that their families are safe back home. The paths of Phillips and Muse eventually collide and it leads to an intense, frightening, and thrilling ride as Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass brings his action background into play here.

Thankfully he ditches the stupid shaky cam for the most part but he is somehow able to make a small boat chasing an ocean liner seem somewhat exciting. With each click that Muse and his crew gains on Hanks, you see the fear and tension mount within Hank’s crew and you also notice the desperate determination of Muse. Muse is played by a relative unknown in Barkhad Abdi. His performance is pretty chilling in the fact that it seems way too natural for him. He calls Hanks “Irish” due to his nationality and the entire time he keeps trying to reassure him that everything will be alright once they receive the money. But you can tell that this is less and less likely as the situation drags on and you get a better sense of how comfortable Muse is growing into the skin of a hijacker.

The best part of the movie is the actual hijacking itself and the events that immediately follow. However the second things escalate and it’s just Muse and his crew with Hanks on the lifeboat, the movie slows down considerably and you find yourself looking at your watch more often than you should. They can only threaten to kill Hanks so many times before it turns into Puff Daddy threatening to shut down the studio on his rap group in his awful yet awesome reality show, Making the Band. I swear, he said “I’m shuttin down the studio” 50 times in one season, just ask Dave Chapelle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf0hjLJZFng

So if you know anything about me, the fact that the bad guy’s name is Muse (pronounced moo-say) makes me hate the movie off general principle alone. But it’s not like it’s a bad movie, it’ s just that it’s too long and you can clearly tell that some of the story was embellished. I can’t really fault him though, I mean if I were telling the story I’d claim that I fought them off in between sex sessions with Kim Kardashian. “Uh Muse and crew, y’all hold up for a second, I have some business to attend to!”

The final scene alone should warrant a Golden Globe nomination for Hanks but overall I have to rank this movie as kind of WEAK!

Gravity

 I have an uber hipster friend who comes off sounding like a douchebag more often than he thinks he does but every now and then he says some unintentionally awesome things like “At first I wasn’t going to see Gravity because I was like…Fuck Space! But then I heard Alfonso Cuaron was directing and I said to myself, ok I might see it”. Just to give you an idea, I had a 30 minute discussion with this guy once and I swear he basically quoted all of the LCD Soundsystem song I’m Losing My Edge, except he wasn’t being ironic. “What if Radiohead went back to guitars? I mean, who’s really using guitars these days?” Ugh...just shoot me. Anyway,what he fails to realize is that the movie industry has had a fairly solid run on space movies lately; you can look at Sam Rockwell’s Moon or even the last few Star Treks for a few examples. I personally think that Cuaron’s Children of Men was one of the best sci-fi films that has been made in the past 20 or so years. It’s a movie that’s so dark and depressing but it’s filmed in such a spectacular way that you can’t help but be glued to the screen.

Well thankfully Cuaron tries to outdo himself with his latest 4 ½ year effort in Gravity. He opens the film by showing you stats that prove just how impossible it is to sustain life in space; and then immediately follows that up with a continuous 17 minute shot of Sandra Bullock and George Clooney fighting for their lives after their space ship and equipment are destroyed by debris. You catch a small glimpse of how intense this scene is in the movie’s 2 minute trailer but it doesn’t nearly do it justice as you are witnessing every astronaut’s (or those who even dream of being in space)worst nightmare as Bullock drifts further and further away.

The studio tried to make him incorporate flashback scenes to give you a background story for each character but he decided to stick with a bare bones presentation of each one’s history. As Bullock and Clooney work on a structure that was her invention, you learn all you need to know about one each of them. Clooney is the jokester who likes to party and is bitter over the fact that his wife left him while he was on a previous space mission, so now his whole mission in life is to set the record for the longest spacewalk ever. Bullock however, is essentially running from her life on Earth as she lost her child to a freak accident one day and is basically going through the motions until her own life comes to an end.

Now I will say that you to begin to worry as to where the movie is headed after this scene. Are we in for another 90 minutes of her floating around space? Did Cuaron essentially blow his load and his budget with that opening shot and all we are left with is boring conversation?

***mini spoiler alert*** Skip down to the final line for my rating of the movie

 Well I’m happy to say that this movie takes the typical turn that most of Cuaron’s movies do, where the main character unexpectedly finds a new reason to live and does everything possible to better their lives or the current situation around them. Bullock is essentially reborn the second she enters a foreign space craft as she continues to fight for her survival. She immediately gets knocked out and in a sense falls into the fetal position in a scene that is an ode to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (remember the creepy baby at the end?). And just like 2001, this movie is a visual masterpiece. The average length of each shot is 46 seconds (which is nearly unheard of) and so much time and detail is put into to each scene that you are left gasping with each cable or rod that Bullock is so desperately trying to hold into for dear life. Even though most of the 3D revolves around the CGI, there is no need to pay the extra $3.50 to see this movie as it is visually stunning enough as it is.

***major spoiler alert***

There’s all sorts of arguments as to whether or not Bullocks safe landing on Earth and subsequent rise from the water, to her crawling, and eventually standing straight up is a metaphor for Evolution; but really it’s irrelevant as that final scene is so exhilarating that you can’t help but walk out of the theater inspired and ready to handle whatever life throws at you…for at least 12 hours anyway.

I rate this movie as TIGHT and I’m still in awe of what I just witnessed. The score is absolutely perfect for this movie and thankfully no space zombie shows up at the end like in Sunshine...or does it?

Austin City Limits review

Where else can you have a 20 minute introductory talk with a cute girl while waiting for your favorite band to come on stage in a park that’s about a 10 minute bike ride from your house; only to come to the realization later on in the night that you’ve actually dated this same girl about 5 years earlier? This is just one of the many good and terrible stories that came out of this past weekend’s Austin City Limits music festival. Was I on drugs, you ask? No, but just when I had decided that maybe slamming Jim Beam at a show by myself wasn’t the best idea; some girl said that she couldn’t wait to hear Muse play Time is Running Out off of their first album (incorrect)and then asked who Bonnie Riot was? They were showing a video of Bonnie Raitt right before the show.  It was at this point I decided that hard liquor was actually a necessity for my sanity! But anyway, here is a list of the best, the worst, and the unnecessary moments from each day of a wonderful weekend.

FRIDAY

The Best : This was tough as there were a number of great moments from this day, but the top belongs to The Artic Monkeys and their powerful set. It didn’t matter that Alex Turner looked like a porn star from the 70’s with his gold shirt, slicked back hair, and gyrating hips. He and his mates demanded your attention the second you heard the opening riff of Do I Wanna Know, which is from their new album AM. It feels as though this album finally encapsulates all the characteristics of the band with its confidence, sexiness, and charisma. And that certainly came across on stage as they took their time in between songs; the band knew that they owned us the minute they walked on stage and started ripping through their hits. They of course played I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor, Fluorescent Adolescent, Brainstorm, and rocked it out with the closer R U Mine. The entire crowd felt the energy of the band and danced the entire way through.

The Worst : This moment belongs to ACL and their lack of preparation. Earlier in the day, the sound went out midway through Fidlar’s set, but thankfully they were able to get it figured it out and fixed rather quickly. Well you would hope that they wouldn’t allow this to happen during one of their headliners sets but wouldn’t you know it, it happened twice during Muse’s performance. Right when they were about to break out into the heaviest part of their opening song, the entire stage blew up and there was no sound, no video, and no light show! It was embarrassing for the band, their fans, and the festival as they had to call the band off of the stage as they were unaware of the fact that everything was down. Ok, so mistakes happen and after about 20 minutes they finally figured things out, but for it to happen again at a similar moment during their encore is just ridiculous. Due to the sound ordinance, they could only let them play for so long over the ten o’clock cut off, so we missed out on quite a bit of their original setlist. And this is really a downer as Muse finally remembered that they had some fans that were with them from the beginning and they played old favorites like Plug in Baby, Stockholm Syndrome, and Hysteria. Oh well, once again ACL proves that it is the nation’s 4^th best music festival.

The Unnecessary : For a while I thought this moment clearly belonged to the kid that said to me “Excuse me mister” as he and his friend ran past me. Mister??? Do I really look like an old man to these kids? It’s not like I was one of these lames who brings a lawn chair to a festival. I quickly got over this as I noticed that every white male that was at ACL was wearing a bandanna around their head. What is with this trend? Is it the new headband? Did they watch one too many Tupac videos growing up? Keep in mind that he had his tied together in the front. I was about to openly clown these people but then it came to my attention that my buddy happened to be wearing one as well.  Ugh, oh well on to day 2.

SATURDAY

The Best : This one is tough as Joy Formidable put on as rocking of a set as anyone that day. And it looked like they clearly enjoy playing with one another as they were smiling and joking with each other during extended riffs. It felt like we were holding them up from grabbing a Boddington’s at Happy Hour the second 5 o’clock hit. But the night clearly belonged to Kendrick Lamar. I’ve never heard any artist at ACL have their name chanted by the entire crowd while they were still on stage. He is at the top of his game and you could tell that we were all craving some hip hop as literally 80% of the festival was there for his set.   I don’t think he’s ever seen that many white people holding up cell phones in his life. Made for a really cool scene.

The Worst : This belongs to ACL for only giving us a one token punk band (Fidlar), one true electronic artist (Kaskade) and one true hip hop act (Kendrick). I know they want to keep the old people (because they have money) coming but old people will die sooner than later. Please don’t let this become a K-Lite festival where they have a Luby’s food trailer and a Tag Your Teeth booth.

The Unnecessary : This goes to both the Verve Pipe and to me! What’s with the Verve Pipe being creepy and singing songs to kids? I know they have to pay the bills somehow but why not just do what the Toadies do? Just tour the same album over and over again. I know so many people that would show up just to hear the Freshman. This is my fault for not gathering a posse and demanding that they at least play that song. We could kick those little kids out of the way or lure them away by playing FUN. songs.

SUNDAY

The Best : Atoms for Peace stole the show this weekend. I love everything Radiohead does but I didn’t quite know what to expect from Thom’s side project as I wasn’t that blown away by the AMOK album. Well, you should know that the album sounds incredible live! I don’t know if it’s the fact that Flea is jumping around like a madman while still being able to play complex bass rhythms, the fact that so many instruments went into recreating the sound live, or the fact that the band plays so well together. But as I finally got out of my own experience for a quick second, I could see that everyone around me was dancing and in utter disbelief as to what they were actually witnessing. Thom didn’t disappoint either as he brought his usual energy and beautiful voice. And he even treated his loyal fans to a rendition of the song he did with DJ Shadow, Rabbit in Your Headlights; a song I thought I would never hear live! He also threw in a Radiohead B side.

The Worst : This would normally belong to people wearing ear plugs to an outside show but the fact that Phoenix was on a smaller stage takes the cake. I personally didn’t care as I wanted to see Tame Impala anyway but I was clearly in the minority. When I finally made it over to the stage Phoenix was playing on, I was so far back that I could barely see the screen playing the actual show. So needless to say the sound wasn’t that great either. I know that Lionel Richie was playing after them but given where this band is now, you should never be at a point to where you’re two football lengths away from seeing them.  Give their fans a bigger stage so they can actually enjoy the experience.

The Unnecessary :  Once again this moment belongs to me. I was quite fortunate to have a mom that forced me to listen to Lionel Richie records (yes actual records) when I was a kid; so naturally I raced on over to Lionel’s stage just in time to hear a few Commodores hits, Hello, and All Night Long. I really expected there to be only like 20 people there but was pleasantly surprised to see thousands upon thousands! I was so excited that I started jumping around like an idiot with my hoodie over my head and in the process scaring every white person that saw me! I thought we might be in for another Trayvon situation! Too soon? Oh well at least the weather was nice.

Hope to see you out there this weekend! 

Rush

The last truly memorable Ron Howard flick came in the form of Willow, which says a lot about him and his skill behind the camera. Don’t get me wrong, he makes entertaining films but unless there’s a midget, old people who become aliens, or a sexy mermaid involved, chances are you’ll forget 95% of the movie within 3 months. Whenever he tries to make a suspenseful action movie I usually end up shouting like Mel Gibson towards the end of it “Give me back my money!!!” I HAD to get a Gibson joke in there even if it was terrible; and yes, if I was a part of the awful Ransom, I too would end up shouting racial slurs while drunk and high on coke. Now to Howard’s credit, I did actually like his Frost/Nixon movie mainly because of the writing, and thankfully he teamed up with the same writer for his latest film Rush.

Since I am from a small town in Texas, I don’t know much about Formula 1 racing. “Whatcha mean der aint no top to that car?” They only care about football and NASCAR in the country. But the story of the rivalry that existed between James Hunt and Niki Lauda is truly fascinating and it’s what makes this film stand out from the other racing movies you’ve seen in the past. Peter Morgan (writer) did a wonderful job of taking you inside the rivalry that existed between tv host David Frost and President Richard Nixon. You saw in detail what all went into initiating it and how they formed a mutual respect for one another throughout it. Well he uses a similar formula (no pun intended) in this film.

James Hunt was the blond pretty boy that partied hard and had a ton of friends, meanwhile Niki Lauda was the always serious and calculating bore that no one wanted to be around. Thankfully Howard tells the story through the eyes of Lauda, so there isn’t truly a bad guy to root against in the movie. Initially it starts out that way when you are introduced to both characters and you see Hunt with his hot new nurse girlfriend (Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer, who gets naked within the first 3 minutes) and Lauda, who is just roaming around by himself. Both of them are on the lower circuit at this point and are simply trying to get noticed so they can move up to the big leagues so to speak. Their first race against one another in this circuit is intense as you can see that they are both clearly head and shoulders above their competition, but for the most part are even with one another when it comes to skill set. It ends with one of their cars getting spun out and an loud argument on the track after the race. This would be one of many to come.

Howard takes you through the beginning of their careers and shows the different paths that each one took to get to the top circuit while also showing you how they kept an eye on one another’s progress. You see the difference in their personalities and how that affected some of the major decisions they made in life and ultimately how it affected their careers, livelihoods, and how their peers and the media viewed them. Now to this point, it sounds like a boring documentary but it is anything but. Howard actually does a decent job filming the races in an entertaining fashion and for the entirety of the film he drives home the point that this was truly a dangerous sport. Formula 1 was very lax in their handling of the safety conditions for the drivers and really didn’t seem to care that at least one driver died during each race. You are honestly scared for the drivers as they make each turn while racing though rainy conditions and avoiding bystanders on the side of the road who are just trying to catch a glimpse of the race. And it isn't until after one critical accident that the tables finally turn for you the viewer in regards to Lauda and how you view him. You can’t help but root for the determined little runt as you see just how deep this rivalry goes. But again, it’s as if Hunt is a bad guy either, he is just as determined as Lauda is to win and in the process nearly destroys his life as well.

Howard kind of takes it light on showing just how much a party boy Hunt actually was. He apparently did coke, boozed, and banged everything in sight for his entire adult life. He touches on it here and there with some one liners and the occasional brief montage but I get the feeling that if Wally Balls from Entourage had directed this, he would’ve done it justice!

I did end up liking this film and will give it a solid rating of FRESH! But I will say that if you check in with me three months from now, I’m pretty sure that the only thing I’ll remember is Game of Thrones girl’s rack.