Day: January 9, 2014

LFM Reviews Amy Winehouse – The Day She Came to Dingle @ The 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Tragically, Amy Winehouse passed away only two and a half short years ago. Could she already be due for a critical reassessment? A case could be made based on the stripped down and surprisingly soulful set recorded live for the Irish music television series, Other Voices. Indeed, the intimate setting suited her sensibilities, judging from Maurice Linnane’s Amy Winehouse—the Day She Came to Dingle, which screens during the 2014 New York Jewish Film Festival.

Produced in a small Anglican church in the remote Irish coastal city of Dingle, Other Voices has become an unlikely launching pad for many top UK performers. Saint James is a small space, with a maximum capacity of eighty. There is no avoiding the audience, but the right performer can feed off their energy. Winehouse seemed to get that. In 2006, when still in the process of breaking through internationally, she performed a set of what are now her greatest hits, with only guitarist Robin Banerjee and bassist Dale Davis backing her.

In between the six full numbers, Day cuts to excerpts from the no gossip-all music interview John Kelly conducted with Winehouse that might surprise many people. When asked about her influences, Winehouse primarily discusses jazz artists, such as Thelonius Monk and Sarah Vaughan (who is also seen in a vintage performance of “I Got It Bad,” as a pleasant bonus). She is also clearly knowledgeable about the UK jazz scene, singling out Soweto Kinch as a current favorite, so give her credit for that too. Evidently she started in jazz and even still played private duo gigs with a piano accompanist as late as 2006.

From "Amy Winehouse - The Day She Came to Dingle."

When watching Day, one gets the sense Winehouse might have been happier playing smaller, upscale jazz clubs than arenas and massive festivals like Glastonbury. While her Dingle repertoire is arguably more closely akin to 1960’s soul and girl groups, “Love is a Losing Game” has a bit of jazz rhythm to it, making it one of the highlights of the set. However, the stark arrangement of “Back to Black” is a defining standout and rather spooky sounding in retrospect.

At one point, Winehouse helpfully reminds viewers of her Russian Jewish heritage, thereby explaining why Day is a selection of this year’s NYJFF. It is a bit of a curve ball, but receptive viewers might find the manageable one hour program boosts their appreciation of Winehouse. After all, nobody from Dingle has a critical word to say about her, including Saint James’ Rev. Mairt Hanley and the old fellow who picked her up at the airport.

An entirely positive addition to her recorded legacy, Amy Winehouse—the Day She Came to Dingle is recommended for Winehouse fans and those who follow British pop music in general. While it is surely destined to be released on some format here in America, it has its New York premiere this coming Tuesday (1/14) and Wednesday (1/15), screening with the short film First Lesson in Love at the Walter Reade Theater.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 9th, 2014 at 9:02pm.

Lovecraftian Fear and Loathing: LFM Reviews Banshee Chapter

By Joe Bendel. This film probably could not have been made while Hunter S. Thompson was alive. As a gun nut with a taste for experimental drugs and paranoid politics, anti-hero Thomas Blackburn is conspicuously modeled on the gonzo journalist. Thompson might have issued a shotgun rebuttal – or he might have been amused by it all. In fact, Blackburn is by far the best thing going for Blair Erickson’s murky conspiracy horror movie, Banshee Chapter, which opens this Friday in select cities.

For the sake of his gonzo-ish book, James Hirsch plans to sample an industrial form of MDMA used in the CIA’s ill-conceived MK-ULTRA mind control experiments. It is all for the sake of journalism, mind you. Long story short: bad trip. After Hirsch mysteriously disappears, leaving behind only some expository video tapes, his former ambiguous college friend Anne Roland sets out to track him down.

The synthesized drug was supplied to Hirsch by “Friends in Colorado,” which is a transparent alias for Blackburn. When Roland tracks down the anti-social novelist, he tricks her into partaking some of his associate’s freshest batch. That also leads to a bad trip—of supernatural dimensions. In fact, Banshee is actually based on H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “From Beyond,” which we can glean because Blackburn helpfully takes time out to tell the tale to Roland.

From "Banshee Chapter."

Veteran character actor Ted Levine (recognizable from Silence of the Lambs and about a jillion others films and shows) is frankly kind of awesome as Blackburn. Listening to him snarl and snark is a blast. As an added bonus, Katia Winter’s Roland is a reasonably intelligent and forceful genre protagonist. Unfortunately, it takes forever to get the two together.

Overly determined to establish Banshee’s inspired-by-real-events bonafides, Erickson shows us clip after clip of archival press conferences and congressional hearings, as well as his found footage dramatizations of MK-ULTRA experiments gone wrong. As a result, the first third of the film has the feel of a cheesy old Syfy Channel special.

Of course, once the narrative finally starts it makes no sense whatsoever. Somehow the CIA “Numbers Stations” are bafflingly involved in the cosmic skullduggery, but the logic is sketchy. About all that’s missing are Area 51 and the Grassy Knoll. Clearly, Erickson has more talent for dialogue than plot development. Levine chews on some great lines, but when Banshee ends, viewers will be wondering what that was all about. Genre fans will probably get a kick out of Blackburn on Netflix, but there’s not enough there there to justify theatrical ticket prices. For diehard Lovecraftian conspiracy junkies, it opens tomorrow (1/10) in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema (and has already released on VOD).

LFM GRADE: C+

Posted on January 9th, 2014 at 8:58pm.