It hasn’t been terribly uncommon since the late ’60s for musicians to get behind the camera, whether for a straight concert film, a tour documentary or some kind of silly narrative focused on themselves and their bands. Jerry Garcia co-directed The Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa co-directed 200 Motels, The Beatles collectively co-directed The Magical Mystery Tourand separately John, Paul and Ringo has each taken the helm on a film project, some more artsy (John and Yoko’s cinematic collaborations, like Up Your Legs Forever) or less self-focused (Ringo’s Marc Bolan doc, Born to Boogie) than others.
Now it’s a little more common for musicians to become directors of fictional films that aren’t so reflexive. Many don’t even have anything to do with music at all. And many are so awful that it’s safe to say the filmmaker should stick to music making. This week, IFC releases the directorial debut of Madonna (Filth and Wisdom), and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch has a new basketball documentary (Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot) hitting stores, so we’d like to celebrate by looking at some other musicians who turned filmmaker, for better or worse.
Complaints about the Oscars include the following: the people who choose them are too old and out of touch; they don’t adequately honor comedy; they don’t give enough recognition to science fiction and fantasy movies; they fail to recognize that often the best animated film should also be nominated for best picture. Well, except for that last issue, the Kids Choice Awards, which announced their 2008 nominees today, should be then be a favorable alternative. Obviously they are chosen by people who are young and hip. They continue to acknowledge the worth of both comedy — Eddie Murphy received his eight and ninth nominations this year — and science fiction/fantasy (note to the Academy: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s Endand Transformers are more than just special effects and other technical achievements!). If only Shrek the Third, which received four nominations, was in the race for best movie in addition to best animated movie then the Kids Choice Awards would definitely be the most perfect kudos fest ever.
Beginning on March 3, kids get to vote online for the winners. I know Karina will be stuffing the ballots for her favorite, Alvin and the Chipmunks, while I’ll be busily trying to get Ice Cube that win he deserved two years ago for Are We There Yet?(he’s nominated this year for the sequel, Are We Done Yet?). By the way, speaking of the best actor category, kids need to stop recognizing Johnny Depp so much. Don’t they realize he can’t be cool with them and with the old codgers in the Academy?
Do you ever wish that an actor would drop their own persona and just adopt the life/career plan of one of their fictional characters? That’s were I am right now with Tracy Morgan, who is SO good––and SO underrated––on 30 Rock, but who spends his time off from the show making films like First Sunday. There’s a clip from that slice of modern blaxploitation floating around; I like the way FilmDrunk sums it up:
The clip gives us a hilarious taste of what black church is like. It’s great, because I’ve often said that the differences between how white people do things and how black people do things too often goes unaddressed in comedy.
I totally understand that Morgan has a mortgage to pay and base audience that he wants to play to, but it just seems like the caricature of himself that he plays on TV is doing both with a little bit more style.
On 30 Rock, Morgan plays Tracy Jordan, a huge movie star known for films like Samurai I Am Awry and Honky Grandma Be Trippin’, in which he employs all manner of costuming and prosthetics in order to play multiple parts. Last season, Tracy took a DNA test which revealed that he was a distant descendant of Thomas Jefferson, and became inspired to make a Jefferson biopic, in which he would, of course, play every part. He took the idea to the president of NBC/Universal (which, on 30 Rock, is a subsidiary of the Sheinhardt Wig Corporation), who thought Tracy should make a movie version of The Jeffersons instead. Tracy then made the above trailer, in hopes that a visual aid would change the suit’s mind. It didn’t, but it’s hilarious.
Dennis Harvery reviews a documentary narrated by Sean Penn called War Made Easy, based on pundit Norman Solomon’s book of the same name, about how media institutions collude with governments to shape public opinion on war. “Escalation in ground-level harm has, per Solomon, been deliberately obscured from public knowledge. Instead, attention is refocused on dubious feel-good reconstruction stories and fodder from embedded journalists selected by military intelligence to fly and bond with troops on select missions. Fox News is predictably bashed here, but supposedly neutral CNN gets it even harder.” The film opens next week in San Francisco only.
Ice Cube and his producing partner Matt Alvarez are allegedly trying to produce a big screen adaptation of the graphic novel 10 at Dimension. Oddly, Variety says The Weinstein Company “declined comment.”
Sarah Polley’s directorial debut, Away From Her, received five nominations from the Director’s Guild of Canada yesterday — more than any other film.
Complaints about the Oscars include the following: the people who choose them are too old and out of touch; they don’t adequately honor comedy; they don’t give enough recognition to science fiction and fantasy movies; they fail to recognize that often the best animated film should also be nominated for best picture. Well, except for that last issue, the Kids Choice Awards, which announced their 2008 nominees today, should be then be a favorable alternative. Obviously they are chosen by people who are young and hip. They continue to acknowledge the worth of both comedy — Eddie Murphy received his eight and ninth nominations this year — and science fiction/fantasy (note to the Academy: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Transformers are more than just special effects and other technical achievements!). If only Shrek the Third, which received four nominations, was in the race for best movie in addition to best animated movie then the Kids Choice Awards would definitely be the most perfect kudos fest ever.
