There’s two dominant themes in David Leaf and John Scheinfeld’s superb documentary on the U.S. government’s targeting of John Lennon and Yoko Ono as potential insurrectionists during the late sixties and mid-seventies: Lennon as the original rock icon/activist, who enabled musicians and artists like Bob Geldof and Bono to involve themselves in global causes; and the terrifying parallels between Nixonian abuses of power…
Mike Myers was likely compelled to direct this film (with Beth Aala) because Shep Gordon is more than an artist manager: he’s the man who invented some of the attention-getting tactics which aided clients like Alice Cooper, Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Arnold, Emeril Lagasse, Mick Fleetwood, Teddy Pendergrass, and Anne Murray boost their careers…
A fascinating historical collage of rock star Alice Cooper, directors Sam Dunn, Reginald Harkema and Scot McFayden’s took the audio from extensive interviews and created vivid montages using stills, music, and archival concert video to trace Vincent Furnier’s ascension from an asthmatic teen living in Detroit to a pioneering rocker with a flair for macabre subjects and theatrics, including hanging, beheading…
Most North Americans are likely familiar with the 2005 American remake of Fever Pitch which substituted baseball for soccer, but the original British version of Nick Hornby’s autobiographical novel (adapted by the author) is a unique animal that doesn’t really make a huge effort to smoothen or tone down the sports fanaticism of Paul nor the whys of his improbably union with fellow teacher Sarah…
If Rita, Sue and Bob Too is a compact sampling of Alan Clarke’s talent, Britain surely lost a major filmmaker when he passed away in 1990 at the age of 54. With his roots in episodic and later kitchen sink TV at the BBC, Clarke is perhaps best known for grim dramas like Scum (1979) and Made in Britain (1982)…
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