The Couch Potato Report - April 18th, 2009
This week The Couch Potato Report peels a Genie Award winning film, two Academy Award winning films, and offers doubt.
I have two very serious films to begin with this week, both of them are about the Holocaust and both of them are very different.
The Oscar winning film THE READER in a moment, but first the Canadian made, Genie Award winning film FUGITIVE PIECES.
FUGITIVE PIECES is based on the book of the same name by Toronto's Anne Michaels that was first published in 1996.
The film begins in 1942 in Poland as a young boy named Jakob witnesses the slaughter of his family by Nazi soldiers.
Jakob escapes into the nearby woods where a sympathetic Greek archeologist finds him buried under some leaves and smuggles him out of Poland to Greece.
Eventually the pair move to Toronto.
FUGITIVE PIECES is a movie about the Holocaust, and so it has some very powerful scenes, but it is also a film about people, relationships, and how you have to give love to get love.
Its a good movie!
FUGITIVE PIECES was nominated in six categories at this year's Genie Awards - which are given out each year to recognize the best of Canadian cinema - and it won the Award for Best Cinematography.
It is a smart and interesting movie, and I easily recommend it.
I also recommend this week's other Holocaust film, even though I didn't like THE READER as much as FUGITIVE PIECES, but even so...THE READER is also a smart, intelligent film with some spectacular performances, mainly the one from Kate Winslet in the role that finally won her an Oscar for Best Picture after four previous nominations.
THE READER is primarily about Michael Berg. We meet him in 1995 Berlin where he has become a German lawyer, and as a teenager in the late 1950s who meets and has an affair with an older woman.
She likes it when he reads to her.
Kate Winslet plays Hanna Schmitz, who disappears from the boys life one day only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in World War II.
As a Law student studying the trials Michael realizes - long after the audience does if you are paying attention - that Hanna is keeping a secret that she believes is worse than her Nazi past.
It is a secret that could set her free.
While her performance is great, and the rest of the cast - which also includes Ralph Finnes - is also above average, I still don't think that Kate Winslet gave her best ever performance in THE READER...but the Academy did, and backstage at this years Oscars she was absolutely beaming after receiving her Award.
Up next this week is a film that received five nominations this year, but left with no Oscars...writer/director John Patrick Shanley's film DOUBT, based on his play of the same name.
DOUBT is set in 1964 and Meryl Streep stars as a nun who confronts a priest after suspecting him of abusing a student.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Brendan Flynn.
The Father denies the charges, and a young naive nun - played by Amy Adams - isn't sure what to believe.
DOUBT takes on themes of religion, morality, and it is a well-written, incredibly acted film.
I highly recommend this film too...of that I have no doubt.
Of this next film, I have plenty of doubt...I am not even 100% sure how to say the name of the film...and I didn't even see the title or an explanation of it in the film.
I had to go online and do more than a few searches to find out that Vinyan is a spirit world for souls unable to rest because of untimely deaths.
Anyway...this next film is spelled v-i-n-y-a-n and I am pronouncing it VINYAN.
VINYAN features a rich couple whose young son disappeared during the infamous Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.
One night at a party, the mother is convinced that she sees her boy on a video shot in Burma, and so they set off on a journey that will take them couple deep into the harsh jungles.
The locations and sets in VINYAN are all unique to look at, and for a time there is enough happening in the film to keep you interested at the start and ending...but the slow and horribly boring middle part of it ultimately makes this film unworthy of your time.
VINYAN isn't a complete waste of time...but of all the films this week, it comes the closest.
So lets move on to this week's BLU-RAY BEACON...a film that won the Academy Award in 2003 for Best Original song...8 MILE.
8 MILE is the 2002 film starring rapper Eminem.
He gives a great performance as a man struggling with every aspect of his life, who is hoping to take what might be his final opportunity at being someone, but his life and the people around him are casing him problems and filling his head with doubts.
8 MILE's debut on High Definition looks and sounds great, but unfortunately this is the same edition that came out on DVD a few years back, with absolutely no new bonus features.
That said, the film is still as good as it has always been, so if you are a fan of underdog stories or Eminem himself...this one is for you!
The great films 8 MILE, DOUBT and THE READER are all available on Blu-ray and DVD.
The not great film VINYAN and the very good Canadian film FUGITIVE PIECES are both available only on DVD.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
The movie TORONTO STORIES features several stories about different lives over the course of 48 hours in Toronto.
Also next week, the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA prequel CAPRICA, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, SEASON ONE of the television show RHODA, Mickey Rourke's Oscar nominated peformance in THE WRESTLER, and Ron Howard's FROST/NIXON.
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next time on The Couch!
Yes Team With Asia For Super-Prog Summer Tour
The proggiest tour of all time, Yes with special guests Asia, is hitting the road this summer. For prog fans the enormous implications of this tour are quite clear. For others, imagine Wings opening up for the Beatles or the Justice League taking up music and hitting the road. It’s that big. Steve Howe, who plays guitar in both groups, will be doing double duty during the show. Also onstage will be members of King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, the Buggles, two others members of Yes, the son of former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman and the lead singer of a Yes cover band.
As ludicrous as all this sounds, think back to the winter of 1983. Asia’s debut single “The Heat of The Moment” had been all over the radio for a year, and Yes had just reformed and released “Owner Of A Lonely Heart.” Meanwhile, Genesis and Rush had been scoring massive hits with songs about 1/3 the length of their 1970s work. Prog had gone pop and the American public couldn’t have loved it more. Needless to say, the bands not led by Phil Collins soon found it impossible to land songs on the radio and the whole thing fizzled. The intensely loyal prog audience (particularly in the case of Rush) has allowed these bands to tour ever since — but to the best of my knowledge a supergroup has never opened up for the group it spawned from. It’s practically a prog paradox. Tour dates below:
June 26 - Indio, CA @ Fantasy Springs Casino
June 27 - Las Vegas, NV @ Thomas & Mack Center
June 30 - Snoqualmie, WA @ Snoqualmie Casino
July 2 - San Francisco, CA @ Warfield
July 3 - Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery
July 7 - Los Angeles @ Gibson Amphitheatre at City Walk
July 8 - San Diego @ Humphrey’s
July 9 - Phoenix @ Dodge
July 12 - Denver @ Paramount Theatre
July 14 - Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
July 15 - Ft. Worth, TX @ Bass Music Center
July 16 - Muskegee, OK @ Civic Center
July 18 - Walker, MN @ Moondance Jam
July 20 - Detroit @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
July 21 - Pittsburgh @ Chevrolet Amphitheatre
July 22 - Glen Allen, VA @ Insbrook Pavilion
July 23 - National Harbour, MD @ Sunset Concerts
July 25 - Cohassett, MA @ South Shore Music Circus
July 26 - Jackson, NJ @ Great Adventure Amphitheatre
July 28 - Philadelphia @ Tower Theatre
July 29 - Montclair, NJ @ Wellmont Theatre
July 31 - Westbury, NY @ Theatre at Westbury
Aug. 1 - Jamestown, NY @ Savings Bank Arena
Aug. 2 - Bethlehem, PA @ Muskfest
Record Store Day celebrates indie retailers
PORTLAND, Maine – Despite the success of online retailers, explosion of Internet downloads and high-profile closings of Virgin Megastores and Tower Records stores, bricks-and-mortar record stores aren't all spinning toward oblivion.
Although hundreds of independent music retailers have gone out of business in recent years, about 2,000 are still around, and many are thriving.
The survivors will celebrate Saturday, as acts such as Erykah Badu and Franz Ferdinand gather to pay homage to the hometown record store.
Record Store Day was the idea of Chris Brown, a long-haired, goateed music guru from Bull Moose, a chain of 10 record stores in Maine and New Hampshire.
"I wanted to have a fun kind of party event at Bull Moose where we could thank our customers and just have a fun time," he said. "I realized that it would be a much better party if we got the other stores involved, just make it a national thing."
Now in its second year, Record Store Day is being celebrated at more than 1,000 independent record stores in the U.S. and in 17 countries.
Artists like Disturbed and Ani DiFranco — both appearing at Bull Moose — are paying tribute with in-store appearances. Others like Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, The Smiths, Modest Mouse and the Decemberists are offering special-edition vinyl releases.
For retailers, it's very different from the days when kids rushed to the store to thumb through the 45-rpm records. These days, more compact discs are sold despite a resurgence in vinyl. Record stores also have branched out into video games, movies and other merchandise.
Some like the Waterloo in Austin, Texas, Twist and Shout in Denver, and Amoeba in San Francisco are cultural hubs in their communities.
"Music is clearly the centerpiece. It's at the emotional heart of these businesses, but economically they've diversified," said Jim Donio, president of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, which is sponsoring Record Store Day.
It hasn't been an easy road for the mom-and-pop stores.
About 1,000 indie music retailers have gone out of business since 2003, said Joel Oberstein, president of Almighty Institute of Music Retail, a market research firm based in Studio City, Calif.
But 2,000 independent record stores have survived, and the store closings have leveled off over the past year, Oberstein said.
Indies cling to a small market share. All told, there are 10,000 online retailers, mass merchandisers, national chains and other retailers, in addition to the hometown record stores. Donio estimated that independent stores account for less than 10 percent of overall music sales in the U.S.
Looking to thank customers and promote local stores, Brown tossed out his idea for Record Store Day in 2007 at a conference of indie music retailers in Baltimore.
A year later, heavy-metal band Metallica officially kicked off the first Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco.
Brown is vice president of Bull Moose, a seemingly incongruous corporate title that is nevertheless typical of indie stores that have adapted to marketplace changes. In fact, Bull Moose is coming off a record year and strong first quarter despite the recession, he said.
Its stores feature a variety of compact discs from jazz to metal to rap to world music, but also DVDs and Blu-ray discs, video games and video game systems, vinyl albums, T-shirts, baseball caps and more. There are also used DVDs, CDs and vinyl.
Julian Butler of Standish, who was shopping this week at Bull Moose's Portland store, said he used to download his music and movies — illegally and free of charge — before getting a cease-and-desist letter from his Internet service provider.
These days, he said he prefers the sound of compact discs to the compressed MP3 files, and he likes the social interaction he gets in the store.
"Mostly the sound quality is a lot better on CD and you're supporting the actual makers of the music," Butler said of his decision to give up illegal downloads. "Plus you get to come here and meet some people instead of sitting in front of your computer."