Jersey Boys
Review by Joe Viglione
The Four Seasons story is an amazing
chunk of pop music culture, Top 40 success overshadowing such greats and chart
runs as experienced by Chubby Checker, Connie Francis and others who ruled the
Top 40 back at the time of its rock & roll inception. “Vacation” by
Connie Francis, though an immense pop moment, and the immortal “The Twist” do
not have as much recognition today – with this generation - that a “Sherry” or a “Rag Doll” or “Walk Like
A Man” enjoy – due, of course, to the Broadway and worldwide success of Jersey
Boys, a streak sure to continue with the release of this film.
The choice of one of my favorite
directors, Clint Eastwood, to be involved in the transformation of the stage
play to the silver screen may not have been the best choice. The same film textures he used in 2008’s
Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, are found in this period piece and work
well, but the liberties taken are to see the group’s emergence through a lens
that the general public was not privy to, and as with Oliver Stone’s The Doors,
alters the perception of the public to an institution that is the soundtrack to
many of our lives.
Jarring is the portrayed flamboyance
of record producer Bob Crewe – the name Liberace tossed into the mix so that
there’s nothing left to the imagination.
Yes, it was a different time, but the caricature of such an important figure for the audience to
laugh at, not with, is overdone.
While the iconic music mogul resides
in a nursing home in Maine after a fall, this projection is hardly politically
correct.
Eastwood’s cinematic adventures include
such Soprano’s-tinged fare as Play Misty For Me (made long before The Sopranos
ever existed,) Bloodwork, Absolute Power, the aforementioned Changeling
and many more in body of work that is sometimes as uneven as it is superb. The writers and Eastwood focus on the mob
aspect of the group’s history rather than Frankie Valli’s other notable moments
- the song “Grease” a good case in
point. The huge hit from a monster film, and a convergence of two top harmony
groups – the singer of the Four Seasons working with the Bee Gees, is totally
ignored for this motion picture as we leap-frog right to the 1990 Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame induction. Even the
latter-day success of this writer’s least-favorite 4 Seasons number, “December,
1963 (Oh, What a Night)” – played at the beginning and end of the movie – is
not even touched upon as part of the group’s history and success. In a biopic
it is too important to not be an integral part of the story. Here, it is
performed for audience appreciation.
Tony-winner John Lloyd Young who played Nelson Hirsch in 2009’s Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! – and who performed as Valli on the
stage version of Jersey Boys - is recruited for the film. He’s got the chops and does a good job, and
the movie itself got a great audience response at the June 17, 2014 screening
in Boston.
So it is what it is.
A very popular stage play gets the cinematic treatment and is very
entertaining. It isn’t as cheesy as The
Doors, which is a plus, Oliver Stone hurting himself and music history with
that display. But it also is not as riveting as Bloodwork or Absolute Power,
two films where Eastwood knocked it out of the park.
Is enough history preserved here to give Bob Crewe,
Bob Gaudio, Frankie Valli and the Four Season their due? Sure, the Royal Teens “Shorts
Shorts” is as important to the foundation as is the nod to musician/actor Joe
Pesci is to this vital episode of 1950s/1960s/1970s Americana
It’s good to note the Wikipedia
information that Pesci’s Oscar-winning performance as Tommy DeVito in
Goodfellas was a nod to the founding member of the Four Seasons. And there, moviegoer, you have the line that
is crossed where art takes a snapshot from real life.
In 1990, he
reunited with Scorsese and De Niro for Goodfellas, where he played mobster Tommy DeVito, based on
real-life mobster Thomas DeSimone. Pesci received
the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role, which he accepted with the shortest speech in
Oscar history, saying simply, "It's my privilege. Thank you," before
leaving the stage.[6][7] (Coincidentally, or perhaps as an homage, Tommy DeVito is also the actual name of Pesci's old acquaintance from
Belleville, NJ—the real-life Four Seasons band founder Tommy DeVito, noted below).
The film will entertain you, it was
put in the hands of a master craftsman, Clint Eastwood, and despite its flaws,
it gets enough of the story right .
Jersey Boys official trailer
Cinemark interviews 3 of the actors’
Eric, Mike and John Lloyd
http://jerseyboysblog.com/
New Ian Tull / Jethro Anderson CD
Ian Anderson's 3 part Homo Erraticus could easily be a
Jethro Tull album, the vibes, the instrumentation and musical
alliteration all displaying the "Tull" appeal.
The 22
page booklet on this release - from the high end KScope Music company -
contains the written-word wisdom and wit we expect - that we crave -
from Ian Anderson. He explains that it is as much an Ian Anderson disc
as a new release from Tull, something this writer did not read until I composed the above opening paragraph noting that.
The musicians provide Anderson exactly what he needs to express
himself. John O'Hara (keys including accordion) and bassist David
Goodier http://jethrotull.com/musicians/
are from the 2007-2011 Tull; guitarist Florian Ophale along with
drummer Scott Hammond and Ryan O'Donnell - performing on vocals, mime
and "general stage tomfoolery" - form as formidable a crew as John Evan,
Clive Bunker, Glen Cornick, Mick Abrahams and those others who came
before.
With words/lyrics all allegedly by Gerald Bostock - based on the writings of Ernest T. Parritt (c.1927)
- one can decide on their own if these aren't all the concoctions of
the playful Anderson. The jovial writing of Ian Tull are always
compelling, so we asked Jethro Anderson in a Visual Radio interview
about any thoughts of going on the lecture circuit; he said he would
"leave that to Tony Blair" - the essay in the booklet as inviting as
the music on the CD itself.
Wikipedia - Bostock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Bostock___________________________________
WHICH ONE IS PINK?
Pink
Floyd had fun with the notion of a businessman thinking Pink Floyd was a
person, an actual musician in the group, Lou Reed weeding out the
non-believers with his Metal Machine Music onslaught, and other major
artists playing practical jokes which become insider fun, is something
not foreign to Tull. Ian Anderson keeps his followers on their toes
with the invention of fictional characters and with a body of work as
extensive as Tull's / Anderson's it makes for good copy, and some
additional adventure along with the entertainment.
The story of lyricist Bostock finding the only surviving copy of
Teddy Parritt's book - "Homo Erraticus" (the St. Cleve Chronicles) http://www.stcleve.com/ puts
this Anderson work into perspective. Here Tull is paying attention to
the alleged unknown British colonel from "the very early 20th century" -
perhaps as the 20th century rock group gave new literary life to the
1701 inventor of the seed drill.
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Referring to the work as "Parritt's frazzled fantasies" and
endorsing his "songwriting partner" as a certified loon, lovely man and
evangelical - gives new meaning to the question "IS Shakespeare in his
character or is the character in Shakespeare?" Anderson/Mr. Tull
blllllurrrrrrsss the line of history with the amusing digression.
Though the fan base may desire a new-fangled "Cross Eyed Mary" or
"Hymn 43" - this excursion, including track four, the 7 minute 11 second
epic ""Puer Ferox Adventus" - is more styled toward Thick As A
Brick (which this collection is the 2nd sequel to) than Stand Up. The
flute, heavy organ and progressive sounds remain, it matters not who
provides the accompaniment for Jethro. Opening track "Doggerland"
reminds us of Star Trek: The Next Generation characters Data, Captain
Jean Luc Picard and Whorf singing "A British Tar" from HMS Pinafore at the opening of the film Insurrection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyyjCn1ML3k - performing the classics - no Portsmouth Sinfonia here.
As fond of the tongue-in-cheek music of I.A. as we are of his
literary scribblings, it is the songs of the maestro which drew us in,
and the performance of this Pied Piper that has kept us all intrigued by
the progression of sound he continues to issue.
Track 6, "The Turnpike Inn," has subtle nods to "Locomotive Breath"
and those elements make it the more commercial of these short stories.
The one minute and thirty three second "Per Errationes Ad Astra"
features Anderson's voice only and - had a similar vocal intervention
been placed in between tracks - had every other selection had these
meandering digressions leap-frogging over the music, Homo Erraticus
could have enjoyed the additional notoriety that :the LP David Bowie
narrates, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf , garnered, not that that is
really necessary for the worldwide Tull fanatics; it's just that it
would have been a nice, extra special touch. What NASA spacecraft have
to do with "loony" Colonel Parritt's essays is anybody's guess, but as
stated, the narration is a big plus inside the 3-part drama.
Of course, for those of you who did want a variety of spoken word tracks like " "Per Errationes Ad Astra" and
feel that you have the need to hear additional Ian Anderson-speak, you
can listen to this writer's conversation with him here:
Hear Ian Anderson on VISUAL RADIO with Joe Vig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_BhIymXgCQ
and read my review of Bowie's classic reading of Peter & The Wolf on this link:
David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
http://www.allmusic.com/album/david-bowie-narrates-prokofievs-peter-and-the-wolf-mw0001375571
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AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2
Review – The Amazing Spider Man II is Good Fun
Oh the film embargo! Wrote my review of Spidey 2 last night after the
film and at dinner in Boston at the Boston Beer Works ($7.00 off the
meal with my Boston Beerworks card! Must have accrued points or
something!.) BUT – seeing Andrew Garfield on the Tonight Show with Jimmy
Kimmel and watching the clip from the opening of the film it was most
revealing. The early part of the movie works better on the TV screen
than in the theater! The in-your-face exploding inevitable that is the
formula for these modern day comic books dominating another media, the
motion picture industry. Where we spent twelve cents on a new comic book
back in the day (those of us FROM the day) it took another generation
to get hip to the fact that those wonderful stories could bring in
twelve bucks per ticket. With Iron Man and the Avengers now in the
billionaires club with Batman it is “amazing” that two of Marvel’s
biggest names, Fantastic Four and Spiderman, have taken a back seat to
the “b” list.
Andrew Garfield is terrific (though Tobey Maguire was good casting as
well, these pictures are still at the mercy of the directors) yet I
still like the small screen – the trailer on YouTube or Garfield’s film
clip on the Tonight Show – to enjoy the nuances of the film making. The
big screen tended to distort some of the expected explosions and
spectacular use of color and light.
The small screen clips actually help you appreciate many of the
subtleties that swing right by, just like Garfield/Spidey on the
web. Jamie Foxx was better as President Sawyer in the Channing Tatum
flick, White House Down, and his “Max Dillon” is – dare I say it –
almost as bad as Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman in the awful
Superman III
BUT – Foxx redeems himself as – presto/change-o – Dillon turns into
“Electro” – dubbed “Sparkles” by Spidey. Electro is glowing neon-blue
which matches Spider Man’s dark red and blue perfectly, a director’s
dream come true as the electricity spurts all over the screen in a
galaxy of Fourth of July-type fireworks. Where director Richard Lester
(the Beatles A Hard Days Night, Help, the very good Superman II) dropped
the ball on Superman III (starting with the horrible script) Amazing
Spiderman I and II director Marc Webb can’t afford to make such a huge
faux pas (one that, in Superman’s case, wrecked the franchise for quite
some time.) Webb’s work with Green Day and 3 Doors Down, directing music
videos, means that these Spiderman adventures have to be spot on.
Now here’s the interesting thing. This re-boot starts off slow on the
big screen, the most fun is the majestic gliding Garfield or some
stand-in display in between collecting plutonium and arguing with Aunt
May. But Webb and Sony / Columbia Pictures and the scriptwriters make
the right turns and go down the proper avenues here. The “reboot” –
starting with the Flying Nun – Sally Field – as Aunt May (get the irony?
She flew in the 60s when Spidey was emerging as a superstar in the
comic magazines) is not the silver-haired sweet granny from Stan Lee and
Steve Ditko’s imagination. The reboot gives Sally Field a great
platform to fly again. But equally important is what they do with Oscorp
and Richard Parker, something never seen in the original comics –
though these concepts could have been concocted by Marvel in the 90s and
new millennium, I haven’t kept pace with the magazines which seem
geared to another generation. Oscorp seems like something out of
Marvel’s S.H.E.I.L.D. while the secrets Richard Parker held are very
cool when Peter Parker finds his daddy’s subway tokens.
As Captain America: The Winter Soldier utilized Robert Redford
(retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir in 2001′s SPY GAME) in a fun Spy vs. Spy
sort of way…take that Napolean Solo Man From U.N.C.L.E. Robert Vaughn
who didn’t fare as well in Superman III – the new “formula” is to give
the 20 something’s what they want with the incessant explosions while
the millions of hardcore comic book fans get new twists in this
succession of superhero films which will continue with X Men Days of
Future Past, Justice League of America, Avengers 2 and the 2015
Fantastic Four reboot…not to mention films that became comic books,
Godzilla and Star Wars, also about to be unleashed.
Amazing Spider Man 2 DOES stick to an original storyline, as the
Tobey Maguire flicks did, but it is a spoiler so suffice it to say that
both the purists and those looking for a different angle will be
satisfied. After the Timothy Burton Batman sequel started that franchise
on the wrong path – the Batman III and IV of that series in the same
dilemma as Superman III and IV – studios realized the value of these
characters beyond ticket sales. They generate a lot of revenue outside
of the theater, and they have to be treated with the respect the
original sagas earned. This is the new art of the new century, though
Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo may dispute it, they certainly would
also enjoy what is happening in this realm.
So, yes, Amazing Spider Man II is good fun. It isn’t Avatar, it isn’t
the Matrix, and until the current road map wears thin (when the
merchandising slows down along with ticket sales) you won’t see too much
innovation. However, the legendary names finding themselves jumping
onboard (Redford in Iron Man, Michael Caine in Batman) is kind of like
the Batman TV series having Hollywood icons jump into the fun and games.
That it took Hollywood so long to get it is an essay for another day.
It’s nice to see
Visual Radio guest Felicity Jones
as Felicia at Oscorp appearing in Spiderman II, and she’ll probably be
back for III as well. All in all, good acting after Jamie Foxx turns
into Electro, the rest of the cast is fine, and it’s worth a few spins
at the theater and will, no doubt, hold up well at home on DVD.
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film
Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written thousands of reviews and
biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse Media, Al
Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of other media
outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a seventeen year old
variety show on cable TV which has interviewed Jodie Foster,
director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore, John Cena,
comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians Mark
Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The
Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals,
political commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
