I Am an Anarchist: On Antichrist

I Am an Anarchist

In sorting
through
some old
emails re-
cently, I came across a message to Mom about Von Trier's latest provocation.

After dragging my feet for a few weeks, I finally caught
Antichrist this weekend, just so I could be part of the
conversation. Not recommended as a film. It reminds
me of several that are far better, but it certainly gives
you something to talk about..should you wish to do so.

I'm amazed that my friend [redacted] would describe it
as "feminist." That's hardly the case. Charlotte Gains-
bourg, best actress winner at Cannes, plays a one-time
feminist scholar who goes nuts after the death of her son.
Willem Dafoe plays her paternalistic therapist husband.

Gainsbourg's study of feminism, particularly gynocide, doesn't
make the film "pro-woman." Sad when people fall for that trap,
though that doesn't automatically make it misogynist either. If
anything, the gig feels more misanthropic than anything else.


The best part of the film.

Atmospherically shot by the gifted Anthony Dod Mantle (Julien
-Donkey-Boy, Brothers of the Head), it's basically A-list exploita-
tion-style horror that makes Misery, Evil Dead, and the other films
from which it borrows look even better than they already are--and
without the Danish director's pesky pretensions towards "art."

Von Trier also directed Breaking the Waves and Dancer in the
Dark. His concerns remain the same, but to diminishing results
(though The Boss of It All is actually pretty funny). More signifi-
cantly, though, he mounted a version of Medea in 1988. Clearly,
women have been frightening the hell out of him for awhile now!

Endnote: Revised from original text. Image from Owl Pellets.

The Same Love That Made Me Laugh: +'Justments

Bill Withers,
+'Justments, Reel
Music/Sony Music
Entertainment

"I've gotta take a ton
of lies to get an oun-
ce of truth from you."
-- Bill Withers, "You"

Though Bill Withers released +'Justments at the height of his '70s fame, it didn't meet with the same success as records like Just as I Am, which is ironic as
it captures Bill at his best--earthy vocals, laid-back grooves, Fla-
menco guitar filigrees--just slightly less poptastic than usual.

The more I listen, the more it sounds like a lost classic, rather
than a flawed recording that got lost in the shuffle. If there are
no clear hit singles, his unheralded songwriting is in fine form.

Though his career would continue to wax and wane in the ensuing
decades, culminating with the release earlier this year of acclaim-
ed documentary Still Bill (now available on DVD), +'Justments
suggests some reasons why he dropped out of the music business.

In opener "You," for instance, he takes on hypocrisy, drug use,
and other social ills, aligning him closer to Curtis Mayfield and
Marvin Gaye than listeners of 1974 might have been expecting.



Here's a sampling: "You've got the nerve to call me narrow-
minded, just because I'm not loose and indiscreet," "People
sometimes get blinded by people standing on their own two
feet," and "You're like a man lovin' Jesus who says he can't
stand the Jew." (In "Green Grass," he also castigates "People
taking tranquilizers by the pound"). The message: take care
of your own damn problems, and get off Bill's back, y'all.

But that's just the first song, and as great as it is, it doesn't
represent the rest of the record, which isn't as dark, at least
not until closer "Railroad Man," which recounts a freight-train
fatality...with a surprising degree of sweetness and funk, i.e.
"He was a good-time railroad man" (musically, it comes on like
a Southern-fried cross between "Superfly" and "Troglodyte").

Most of the other tracks, like
the string-laden "Heartbreak
Road" and "Make a Smile for
Me," hark back to classic love
songs like "Ain't No Sunshine,"
i.e. "I believe that love's a good
teacher" and "Chase the clouds
away with your smile." There's
nothing downbeat about those sentiments. (I also dig the way the cascading piano introduction
to "Stories" anticipates, of all things, "I Don't Like Mondays.")

If anything, Bill gets overly-sentimental on "Liza," in which he
begins by stating, "Probably one of the nicest affections in the
world is the affection that's there between a worldly ol' uncle and
a very innocent young niece." Then he croons, "I know what it's
like to need a shoulder, so lay your head on mine." In other words,
it's a family-oriented number in the vein of "Grandma's Hands."

Throughout, his voice is the warm and welcoming instrument
that continues to draw people to his catalog, despite the scarci-
ty of new material. Bill Withers will never go out of style.

Endnote: Click here for Just as I Am/Still Bill and here for Soul
Power (featuring Withers). Images from Dante Ross and SXSW.

Spiral and Unfurl: New Music from the Purrs, Will Knox, Pernice Brothers, and Richard Walters

The

Purrs,
Tear-
ing
Down
Pais-
ley
Gar-
den,
Big
Damn
Deal
Music

Their sixth release, Tearing Down Paisley Garden,
represents another solid effort from this Seattle quartet. De-
spite the title, it sounds more like the Purrs are cultivating
the same sonic plot they first laid down in 2006 (think Rain
Parade and the Church). Back then, I noted that they pro-
duce "a nice strong dose of psych-pop" with "languid num-
bers" that "spiral and unfurl into the air like smoke."

Four years later, their formula remains much the same. There's
nothing wrong with that; if you liked it then, you'll like it now.

And maybe it's partly because the Rolling Stones are all over the
place again, what with the reissue of Exile on Main Street, but Jima
sounds more like Mick Jagger than ever before, something I mis-
sed in the past, helping to set this EP apart from previous output.

Also, they do such a good job at blending these songs together
and putting their own stamp on them that I didn't recognize "Only
Dreaming" (Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry) and "I Move Around" (Lee
Hazlewood) as covers, though I wasn't familiar with either track.

Click here for Amused, Confused, & More Bad News.

Will Knox, The Matador & the Acrobat, self-released [6/15/10]

Born and raised in London, Will Knox lives in New York, but
plies a particularly British brand of folk-pop, adding boisterous
violin, stately bass, and sprightly banjo to his acoustic melodies
while singing with a pronounced accent. It's ironic, since lyrics
like "The Manhattan morning has come to life" clearly reflect
his current surroundings. A fine Anglo-American hybrid.

Click here for "Buckled Knees."

Pernice Brothers, Goodby, Killer, Ashmont Records [6/15/10]

The last time I listened to a Joe Pernice project all the way
through, the Boston-based author-musician was heading the
Scud Mountain Boys. Since then, he formed the Pernice
Brothers, released 13 albums, appeared on The Gilmore
Girls, and issued a well received 33-1/3 entry on Meat Is
Murder (his brother, Bob, has been a frequent collaborator).

Through the varied assemblages, his soft-spoken voice re-
mains a constant, vaguely reminiscent of American Music
Club's Mark Eitzel and the Jayhawks' Mark Olson. Like those
gents, he sings without a twang, but weaves country and folk
touches throughout his literate concoctions. Near as I can tell,
Goodbye, Killer rocks harder than before, with hand claps,
nods to famous novelists, and occasional bursts of feedback.

Click here for "Jacqueline Susann."

Richard Walters, The Animal, Kartel [7/6/10]

The cable-laden cover of The Animal indicates something loud-
er and stranger than what this Oxford-born singer/songwriter de-
livers. Instead of electronica or techno, Richard Walters plays
a plaintive brand of acoustic pop with daubs of cello and piano. It
all seems vaguely familiar, yet without bringing any specific acts
to mind. When he sings "There's a hole in your head" and "Don't
hide my medicine" he could be referring to a recent diagnosis of
epilepsy. Or something else entirely. Now situated in Paris, Wal-
ters' lyrical ambiguity allows for a variety of interpretations.

Click here for "Brittle Bones."

Endnote: For more information about Will Knox, please
click here or here; for the Pernice Brothers, here or here;
for the Purrs, here or here; and for Richard Walters,
here or here. Lovely Purrs image from the finest kiss.

Movie of the Month, Part 19: Alice - A Look into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I recently reviewed the following documentary for Video
Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.

ALICE: A LOOK INTO ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND [***1/2]
(Gerry Malir, UK, 2009, 90 minutes)

Without Alice Pleasance Hargreaves (1852-1934), aka Alice Lidell, the classic novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland wouldn't exist. 

This British documentary explores the relationship between the author and his muse, which came about through Lewis Carroll's employment with Oxford's Christ Church College, where Alice's father, Henry Lidell, served as dean. When the mathematics lecturer, born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, met Alice in 1855, she was only three years old, too young to befriend, so he initially socialized more with her three older siblings.

Other members of the extended Lidell clan would become Wonderland characters, such as the governess-inspired Queen of Hearts--the documentary posits Carroll himself as the White Rabbit. He also took inspiration from the works of William Blake and William Wordsworth, who shared his belief in the innate wisdom of children; while the 1865 book sprang from a tale he spun to entertain the young Lidells. Drawings, photographs, and clips bring his resulting story to life.

While at Oxford, Carroll took up photography in addition to writing, displaying a talent for both; he even provided the manuscript's pen and ink illustrations. Young girls became his favorite subject, though the documentary doesn't claim any impropriety on his part. Director Malir does note, however, that the diary pages detailing this four-year period no longer exists, since relatives removed them. Lidell herself later wrote, "Being photographed was a joy to us, not a penance."

Sadly, Carroll broke with the Lidells prior to the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for reasons that remain unclear, though the narrative offers a convincing theory. With an extensive quantity of literary and historical detail, Alice takes aim more at the academic viewer than the casual fan, but never gets too dry, and includes the 1903 and 1915 silver-screen adaptations. Highly recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 18: Beeswax

Endnote: Slightly revised from the original text. Click here for
my review of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Image from
Poets.net: Alice Pleasance Liddell with her sisters (circa 1859).

June 2010 Reviews

These are

the reviews
and other
pieces I'm
working on
this month.


Amazon DVDs: Hawthorne - Season One [three-disc set] (with Jada Pinkett Smith), Cemetery Junction (with Ricky Gervais and Ralph Fiennes), and My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? (click here for my Seattle Film Blog review).

Amazon Theatrical: Get Low (with Robert
Duvall and Bill Murray) and The Kids Are All
Right (with Annette Bening and Julianne Moore).

Still playing (or yet to open): Alice in Wonderland, The Concert, Countdown to Zero, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Ghost Writer, Mother and Child, Nowhere Boy, Oceans, and Please Give.

Seattle Film Blog: Countdown to Zero and The Tillman Story,
Hipsters, and Daddy Longlegs (Benny & Josh Safdie).

Still playing: Mid-August Lunch.

Video Librarian: The Beetle, Bluebeard, Diary of a Wimpy
Kid, Jeff Healey and the Jazz Wizards - Beautiful Noise, How
Sweet It Was - The Sights and Sounds of Gospel's Golden
Age [CD/DVD set], The Official Inaugural Celebration
[two-disc set], Preacher's Kid, Pulling John, Suburbia, 

and Casino Jack and the United States of Money.

Endnote: Image from Rotten Tomatoes.

Standing out from the Crowd: Janelle Monáe, Etc.

Janelle Monáe, The ArchAndroid, Bad Boy/Wondaland

"Critics are loathe to admit it, but every once in a while we come across an album of such thuddingly obvious quality that writing a straight-up review seems boring."
--Seth Colter Walls, Newsweek

There's so much to say about this voraciously talented St. Louis-to-Atlanta transplant that it's hard to know where to start. Like Patti Smith, she recalls more male musicians than female, but never sounds like a man in drag (and nor does Smith).

Granted, her power suit and pompadour suggest androgyny, so
this shouldn't come as a completely surprise, but I'm still amaz-
ed she can take on so many different styles, from funk to fusion,
with so much grace. The ArchAndroid isn't retro or even ret-
ro-futurist—Metropolis-inspired cover art aside—but she does
cover similar territory to Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind and Fire,
and P-Funk (see Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome).

Monáe brings more contemporary artists to mind, too, but with-
out imitating or offering homages to anyone in particular. I'm
thinking specifically of genre-benders like Prince, PM Dawn,
Gnarls Barkley, and Outkast, whose Big Boi duets on "Tight-
rope" (I've also come across references to James Brown, but
this seems to have more to do with her nimble dancing).

Before I'd even heard a lick of her music, I was struck by her style,
but skeptical of her art, because I'd heard she was working on a
concept album—it revolves around a droid doppelgänger in 27-
19—a risky proposition for any artist, especially for a debut disc.

Then I heard the swaggering "Tightrope" (via the video in which
she and Big Boi "tip" all over a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-
style facility) and caught her at this year's Pop Conference, where
she participated in a round table with Nile Rodgers and Joe Hen-
ry (Vogue also profiled the petite musician in their "body" issue).

My admiration for her eloquence, upbeat attitude, flexible voice,
and gravity-defying moves grew. As did my curiosity. Finally her
record hit the streets in May, and for once only the dreaded pas-
sive tense will do: the wait was worth it. The hype was justified.

The ArchAndroid is one of those rare records I can listen to
anytime, and it always sounds just right. And so I have. Weeks
of listening only confirm what I thought the first time around:
it's the best album of the year: rich and full in the headphones
with beats made for dancing and lyrics made for dreaming,
like "Take me back to Wondaland." It's an instant classic.

Falling Still, May All Magic Guide
and Change You, Peace, Man [7/13/10]

"Most times, we all just look at each other,
and no one really says anything at all."
--Brett Hamilton (bass, vocals)

This LA-by-way-of-Akron trio recognizes a number of inspira-
tions inside the cover of their CD, including Big Sur, Ziggy Star-
dust, Newcastle Brown Ale, Stella Artois, Trader Joe's, and Las
Vegas. For my money, the list offers more interest than their
debut, which rocks with nods to grunge and alt-country, but
needs that something extra to stand out from the crowd.

Joey Maltese, Night of the Muse,

Diamond Sutra Records [7/20/10]

As a singer, former Toyz front man Joey Maltese strains to
keep up with the Mick Ronson-inspired playing that powers his
third solo effort. Consequently, guitar trumps voice, which does-
n't mean that Night of the Muse would work better as an in-
strumental recording, just that the New York musician's
wavery, yet determined pipes won't be to all tastes.

Sparkydog & Friends, People of the World, self-released

As a taster for their upcoming album, singer/songwriters R.
Azriel and Graham conjure up '80s modern rock through two
tracks that bathe jangly guitar in layers of atmospheric key-
boards, suggesting a cross between the Chills and R.E.M.

Click here for "Radiowaves."

Endnote: For more information about Falling Still, please click here; for Joey Maltese, here; for Janelle Monáe, here; and for Sparkydog & Friends, here or here. Image from Buzznet.

Movie of the Month, Part 18: Beeswax

 I recently reviewed the follow- ing film for Video Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing. 

BEESWAX [***1/2] 

(Andrew Bujalski, 2010, USA, 100 minutes) 

Andrew Bujalski continues his winning streak of insightful independent features with Beeswax. Sisters Tilly and Maggie Hatcher play twins Jeannie and Lauren, who live in Austin, site of Bujalski's first film, Funny Ha Ha. Jeannie, who uses a wheelchair, runs a vintage clothing shop and fears that her business partner, Amanda (Anne Dodge), may cost her the store. 

Amanda, whose father drafted their contract, is often out of town, spends little time in Storyville, and even hires employees without consulting her. Jeannie's fear permeates every scene, even when more mundane things, a Bujalski specialty, seem to be happening.

   

By contrast, Lauren isn't irresponsible or aimless, but she lacks Jeannie's focus and ambition. Between jobs and newly single (Goliath director David Zellner plays her ex-boyfriend), she considers taking a teaching position in Kenya. Bujalski presents their relationship with sensitivity, but steers clear of sentimentality. 

Similarly, he doesn’t play Jeannie's disability for laughter or tears; it's just a part of her life. She doesn't feel sorry for herself and nor do her companions treat her like anything less than an equal, from her mother to her on-and-off-again law student boyfriend Merrill (Woodpecker actor and filmmaker Alex Karpovsky), but the way they all try to help out with her career conundrum could end up doing more harm than good--hence the title allusion to "mind your own beeswax."

In a quiet and understated way, Andrew Bujalski's matter-of-fact detailing of her everyday life feels almost feels revolutionary. 

Supplements include a "tribute to extras" featurette with directorial commentary, actor Kevin Corrigan's affectionate liner notes (he doesn't appear in the film), and D.J. Taitelbaum's alternate score, a minimalist electronic affair (the filmmaker otherwise eschews a conventional soundtrack). Highly recommended. 

Click here for a review of Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation and

here for Movie of the Month, Part 17: The Missing Person

Slightly revised from the original text. Image from SXSW.com.