All posts by Josef Rodriguez

Hey, I'm Joey and I'm a (usually) film and pop culture blogger, but I'll write about pretty much anything.
MOVIES

In Case You Missed It: Teenage Paparazzo

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When many of us think of celebrities, we think of the glamorous lifestyle, the notoriety, and all the cool stuff we could do. Fame, noted by most celebrities, has its ups and downs. But of all the good and bad things, the most annoying of all of them might be the paparazzi. Known as the vermin of the entertainment industry, paparazzi are everywhere, but their job is to seem as if they’re nowhere to be seen. But as much as we hate them, it seems as if we know less about them than the celebrities they’re chasing.

Adrian Grenier, the star of HBO’s Entourage in which he plays a movie star, is beginning to have the line between reality and fiction blurred due to his fame in real life. He’s adjusting to the lifestyle of Vincent Chase both on and off the screen, except in real life he’s not playing a character. He’s Adrian Grenier. One day, while coming out of a club, amidst the mob of paps around him, he sees a young boy snapping his picture. He approaches the child; to only find out that he’s a thirteen-year-old paparazzo named Austin Visschedyk, a smooth and fast-talking kid from Los Angeles. This street-smart adolescent had recently gained interest in the life of a paparazzo when he met Adrian. This boy fascinated Grenier and before he knew it, he was making a film about him.


Camera crew in hand, Grenier and Visschedyk began taking the Hollywood streets by storm; Austin for his pictures, Adrian for an answer. Teenage Paparazzo offers not only a look into the life of a celebrity, but the people who put these celebrities on the cover of every gossip magazine known to man. The film, which was directed by Grenier, shows the human side of the paparazzi, insisting on talking to them one-on-one rather than dehumanizing them and writing them off as scum like everybody else in Hollywood has. Austin was only the beginning for Grenier. The life of a pap is unlike anything else; the adrenaline, the constant motion, the 24/7 workweek, and most of all, the money. Austin was making anywhere from $500-$1000 for a good shot of a hot celebrity, more if it met certain requirements.

I don’t want to spoil too much of the things that go on in Teenage Paparazzo, because that’s half the fun, finding out what’s going to happen next. Weaving in interviews with various celebrities as well as Austin’s story, the film really does give the viewer a neutral view of the lifestyle of both the paps and their victims. The relationship between certain paps and certain celebrities isn’t as strained as many think, which I find to be very interesting. With that being said, most of them are and it can get very, very, annoying. The price of fame is a price to pay, and Grenier is sure to convey this to the viewer. He explains what its like to walk out of your home and not three steps later start being flashed by camera lights at every angle.

If Teenage Paparazzo succeeds at something, it’s the truth that rings throughout the entire film. We’ve seen these people on TV, we see them in movies, on the news, on the internet, but do we know them? No, of course not. We think we do, but we don’t. It seems that a lot of people have yet to recognize that, though.

5/5 Bears

MOVIES

In Case you Missed It: Melancholia

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Early this year, Pastor Harold Camping, a former radio host for a Christian family radio station, claimed that Jesus would return to Earth on May 21st of this year, take all the righteous persons, and leave the rest to rot for the next five months until the universe’s destruction on October 21st. Obviously, this didn’t happen. Camping resigned from his position on the station, and refused to give interviews regarding his false predictions. He earned millions of dollars in donations, and when his theories were proven false, he simply said, “We’re not at the end. Why would we return it?” My question to him is, “Why do you even need this money if the world is going to end?” Enough about my resentment of Christian fundamentalists, though, back to the article.

My point is, the end of the world is a scary thing. People tend to worry a bit when it’s announced that all that they know and love will soon be destroyed, including themselves. Others just come to terms with theories like this and act as if nothing is wrong. These two viewpoints are the focus of director Lars Von Trier’s new film, Melancholia. Focusing on two sisters named Justine and Claire (Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, respectively), one getting married, the other trying to hold everything together. We then learn that a recently discovered planet named Melancholia is going to do a fly-by to Earth, but it will not hit it, as Claire’s husband, John (Kiefer Sutherland), assures her, as well as the audience. We know better though, we know exactly what’s going to happen.

That’s one of the many things wrong with Melancholia. We know all of Trier’s tricks (clever, huh?) before they actually happen. We’ve seen them before, and seeing as Melancholia is strangely similar in many ways to Trier’s previous effort, Antichrist, they do not surprise us.

Melancholia’s opening sequence, a super slo-mo overture set to the theme of Tristan & Isolde, is among the most pretentious, unnecessary scenes in cinematic history. Lasting for almost 8 minutes, it reveals the entire film, as well as serving no purpose other than to look interesting. Using slow motion to capture the, well, melancholic feeling of the entire film worked in Antichrist, but it definitely doesn’t work here. In fact, it detracts from the mood that the film sets for the remainder of its duration.

Opening on Justine’s wedding to Michael (Alexander Skarsgard), her very understanding and helpful fiancé, the film begins to gain momentum in all the eccentric characters presented to us. The wedding sequence itself lasts for about an hour, and opens up the doors to a lot of great opportunities for an interesting second half. Being part one of a two-part film, though, it abandons everything that ever was in its first half, including Michael, who Justine leaves after the wedding is over, and sticks her in Claire’s house for the rest of the movie. The second half is a mind-numbing exercise in pretentiousness, obvious symbolism, and absolutely no direction rather than the inevitable ending of Earth. The drastic contrast between Part 1 to the almost completely standstill Part 2 of Melancholia make the film almost unwatchable at a certain point.

The film’s storyline is fascinating, as are its characters, the situations, the dialogue, and especially the directing, but its refusal to tell a story and some inspired symbolism that is pounded into submission, makes Melancholia too melancholic for its own good.

Von Trier has been under fire recently for claiming that he sympathizes with Hitler at a recent Cannes Film Festival press conference. The blogosphere has named him a Nazi-sympathizer and a fascist. Now, I’m not one to sympathize with Nazis, but in Trier’s defense, his comments weren’t so radical as everyone seems to think they are. He seems to be an intelligent man, and anyone educated on Hitler would know that he was harshly abused as a child by many of his peers, as well as his family. Now, again, I don’t want to take the same path as Trier, say I sympathize with Hitler, and subsequently be known as a Nazi, but there’s two sides to every story, and a lot of times we don’t want to hear the other side. That’s all I have to say about that little shenanigan.

As far as the film itself, I’d go so far as to say it’s crap. I respect Von Trier as a filmmaker very much, and I was one of the few defenders of Antichrist, but he’s really outdone his own narcissism with Melancholia. If he keeps making films like this, being called a Nazi is going to be the least of his problems.

1.5/5 Bears

POP CULTURE

Grizzly Album Review: “Mylo Xyloto” by Coldplay

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2011 has been a pretty good year for follow-up albums. Jay-Z and Kanye West dropped Watch The Throne to both critical and commercial success, as did Radiohead with their new LP King of Limbs. Now, later in the year, Coldplay is back with their follow-up to Viva La Vida. I’m not sure what the title means, but f*** it. It’s called Mylo Xyloto. Literally nobody knows what it means, not even the band knows. They said that naming this album was akin to “naming a child”, and that they thought it sounded cool. More power to them.

Alternate Cover…. Whammy.

All meaningless titles aside, Mylo Xyloto is a revelation in that this really is Coldplay’s best album. In fact, since the release of their 2005 dud X&Y, they’ve been doing nothing but rising to the top once again. Viva La Vida marked the beginning of their “edgy” rock band stage, and now Mylo Xyloto cements their status as one of the 2000s greatest bands.

A few years back, Coldplay was named as the number one band to make you fall asleep. Now they’re topping the “Party Hits” charts on Pandora and Music Choice. How did this transformation occur, you might ask? Well, it all started in 2008 when Coldplay discovered upbeat rock/pop hits. Now, you might be saying, “Wait a second there, Clocks is an upbeat rock/pop song!” My response? I call bullshit. You all know that there’s been one night in your life when you’ve fallen asleep to that song. Go ahead, admit, I’ll give you a second.

After a 43 second interlude entitled “Mylo Xyloto” the album begins with the track, “Hurts Like Heaven”. Instantly we’re propelled into radio friendly hits that remind us why we even started listening to Coldplay in the first place, another thing that Mylo Xyloto is frighteningly good at, putting the listener in a good mood. No matter what’s bothering you, Mylo Xyloto is guaranteed to make things feel at least a little better. As great as the fast songs on, Mylo Xyloto takes time to stop and smell the roses on tracks like “U.F.O” and “Up in Flames” only to once again shoot us back into the glorious joy dancing we were just doing.

If Mylo Xyloto does anything right, it’s a nice escape from a dark world. But it also takes a band that most critics thought were done being catchy, and makes them even catchier than ever before. Old fans will not be invited, and new fans are welcomed with open arms.

Best Track: Paradise

4/5 Bears

MOVIES

In Case You Missed It: Bombay Beach

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My film teacher once told me that when you film ordinary things like a morning commute or a trip to the store, it can really come off as pure art if done correctly. This is something I’ve debated for a long time, mostly with myself in my many hours alone. Can something as bland or normal as a car ride truly transcend into beauty simply by the addition of a lens? It seems illogical at first, in my opinion. What’s the difference between staring at a broken bottle, and then staring a photo of a broken bottle?

Bombay Beach explores many things, all quite successfully I might add. Following the lives of three separate people, a rambunctious child, being given copious amounts of behavioral drugs, named Benny, an aspiring NFL player nicknamed CeeJay, and a young-at-heart cigarette bootlegger nicknamed Red. The three, as different as they may be (Benny is a young child, CeeJay is a black teenager, and Red is a senior citizen), have very similar situations in life, and in a in a lot of ways, too. Twice CPS, due to neglect and unfit living conditions, has taken Benny away from his parents. CeeJay is in love with a girl that’s in a mentally abusive relationship with another boy, and Red is approaching senility, requiring medical care after having a mini-stroke.

The genius in Bombay Beach resides in the intriguing characters, expert directing, and an extremely bizarre genre. Bombay Beach may be the first film that I can label as a DocuDrama Musical. Directed by music video director, Alma Har’el, the film contains some well-choreographed dances, as well as some scenes that are basically music videos for Beirut and Bob Dylan, who composed most of the soundtrack. Now, you might be thinking, “This is a lot to do in a mere 80 minutes. Three plots, dance sequences, and music videos?!” Well, yes, it does seem like a lot, but somehow the filmmakers, and especially the editors, constructed a beautifully shot documentary that plays as if it were a scripted feature film.

The characters are neither protagonists nor antagonists. They’re people. They curse and drink and smoke just like almost everyone else does. I don’t think the director intended for the audience to think that these families were bad people, but a part of me also thinks that they weren’t necessarily intended to be what we define as “good” people either. They just are who they are, and we get to be the fly on the wall in their lives.

The plots are somewhat loose, and don’t necessarily make the film what it is, but they’re there, even if they’re extremely scarce. The images as I’ve mentioned are gorgeous, while others are very disturbing, including a brief shot of the rotting corpse of an abandoned dog. All of these components combined make Bombay Beach a must watch for any film-lover. Not only is it the most inventive documentary of the year, it’s also the most thought provoking. These families that live in the poorest town in Southern California have stories and lives and issues to deal with, too. We tend to forget about people like this. We write them off as white trash and low lives, but there’s always more to the story than we give credit. Bombay Beach isn’t a perfect film, but then again, neither are the people in it, which is what makes it so relatable, and at the same time so new.

4/5 Bears

 

Movie News & Opinions

The RZA and Sacha Baron Cohen Join the Cast of Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’

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Quentin Tarantino’s newest project, Django Unchained, which is set to release on Christmas Day 2012, has gone through some cast changes (most notably Kevin Costner to Kurt Russell which I’m extremely thankful for), as well as some unexpected casting (Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, and James Remar are also names seen in the cast list, but the newest additions are by far the most surprising.

Former Wu-Tang member Robert Diggs, better known as RZA, has been cast as Thaddeus, a role that hasn’t had much news released about it. As well as that, Sacha Baron Cohen has been cast as Scotty, a role that also hasn’t had much disclosure. In fact, the entire film itself has thus far been kept under wraps relatively well, considering you haven’t read the PDF version of the script floating around the internet.

Be as skeptical as you want, but The RZA can act. Surprisingly well, I might add. Besides doing some of the soundtrack for the Kill Bill films, RZA’s face has been popping up in numerous projects like Coffee and Cigarettes, Funny People, American Gangster, Repo Men, Due Date, The Next Three Days, and most recently, A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas. He’s known for being a scene-stealer, and there’s a good chance he’ll fulfill that duty in Django.

As far as Sacha Baron Cohen, we all know and love him from films like Borat, Bruno, Talladega Nights, the Madagascar movies, and Sweeney Todd. He’ll soon be starring in a new film called The Dictator (not to be confused as a remake of the 1940 Charlie Chaplin film, The Great Dictator), which will be directed by Borat/Bruno director, Larry Charles. Cohen will also be portraying Freddie Mercury in an upcoming and unnamed Queen biopic.

 

 

 

As for participating in Django, Cohen is a special kind of actor. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if he’s in a movie, the role was most likely written for him, so seeing him in a Tarantino film leads me to think that his role will be not only extremely interesting, but hovering around genius. I trust both Cohen and Tarantino when it comes to successfully making great films, so there’s no reason that a collaboration between the two won’t be explosive.

Tarantino is known for his offbeat but almost always-successful casting, and with stars of this caliber, there’s no doubt in my mind that Django Unchained will be one of the best films of 2012.

 

POP CULTURE

Grizzly Album Review: “Take Care” by Drake

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The radio sucks. Plain and simple. Most of the music that is on the radio is either overplayed, twenty years old, or very, very bad. That’s why in 2010 Drake was mainstream hip-hop’s saving grace. He brought back a smoothness that no one thought was even allowed on the radio anymore. His album, which was both a critical and commercial success, spawned several hits that received an endless amount of airplay. Drake was the best new rapper of 2010.

Now it’s 2011 and it’s time to see if his sophomore album will live up to the hype. Take Care, which was announced a few months back, has been able to generate a lot of buzz. In an era of constant pirating and hateful rambling in the internet community, this was a refreshing change of pace. Everything looked fine and dandy until the album was inevitably leaked a week before its initial release (which is how I heard it). Drake found out about the incident rather quickly, and in some ways I feel like her inadvertently advertised the fact that it was in fact leaked. Regardless, he was very understanding and mature about it, simply saying via Twitter, “Listen, enjoy it, buy it if you like it…and take care until next time.” The way that he so humbly addresses something so seriously is astounding in an industry of show-offs and prima donnas.

As for the album itself, in comparison to 2010’s Thank Me Later, Take Care takes a much more downbeat and almost R&B approach to rap, crafting hits that R. Kelly might have been pumping out in ’91. Much like its cover, Take Care is a sad album among many things, speaking to the inner hormonal child in all of us. Some of the problems that Drake speaks about come off as juvenile, but his clever wordplay and seductive voice hide the fact that it’s so damn whiny.

Lyrically, the album rambles on and seems to have literally no direction whatsoever, which is a shame considering how well crafted Thank Me Later was. Take Care is really just a well-crafted mixtape more than anything, the instrumentals sounding amateurish, and Drake himself sounding like he’s about to kill himself. At 18 tracks, Take Care seems like more of a chore than an experience. By the end of the first half I began to fall asleep, despite doing a lot of other things at the same time. I was hoping that some divine miracle may occur, and the second half would be the album I was expecting. But, alas, this was not the case. It turned out to be simply a larger compilation of more tales of submission and heartache.

Another thing I want to bring up is Drake’s borderline obsession with Nicki Minaj. He’s obviously crazy for her, and it’s starting to become a little childish. On the album’s second single, Make Me Proud, Drake basically raps more about how much he loves Nicki and how proud of her he is. After hearing an inspired performance of it on SNL, I simply just had to skip the track because I was sick of it after only hearing it once.

Take Care is an example of an artist who, in my opinion, doesn’t know where to go from here. As talented as Drake may be, the repetitive nature of his ways may at some point be the reason for his downfall as opposed to the reason for his rise to the top. There is some obvious attempts at creating a new sound, and they fail. Miserably. Maybe I’m just an asswipe and I’m completely missing the point of it, but at this point, I’m tired of listening to pseudo-intellectual radio rap that attempts to make me think, I just want to hear something worth listening to twice. Take Care will be released on November 15th.

Best Track: Lord Knows

Grade: 1.5/5 Bears