TV / Film News

Blu-Ray Review: "Fantastic Mr. Fox"

Source: Pop Dose
April 8, 2010

I know this is absolute heresy for a guy in my line of work, but Ive never been a big fan of Wes Andersons filmmaking. There's a difference between developing real, honest characters with believable flaws and simply loading up the screen with quirk for quirks sake, and I think Anderson too often falls back on the latter. Hes the kind of guy who cant just have someone enter the room they have to enter wearing a vintage tracksuit, sporting ...

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Doors Documentary Won't Light Your Fire

Source: All About Jazz
April 5, 2010

Tom DiCillo's “When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors" means to answer the more loony flights of fancy taken by Oliver Stone in his 1991 Doors biopic, but, in the process, creates a formal exercise in redundancy, offering no new insights into the much mythologized rock band. The documentary does boast unseen archival footage of Doors band members Jim Morrison, Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek and John Densmore rehearsing, performing, hanging out backstage and, in the case of singer Morrison, ...

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Is Dr. Teeth a Jazz Muppet?

Source: Lubricity
April 5, 2010

OK, its been too long since Ive posted anything at the blog again but rather than shut things down entirely (as I did in September) I am trying a slightly different strategy for combating the chain of events (too busy to read other jazz blogs, focus my writing energy elsewhere, too tired to write at the blog, get further out of the loop ) that keep me from posting.

Every so often, I will attempt to re-present interesting facets of ...

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Apps for iPad from Some TV Networks, Not All

Source: Michael Ricci
April 5, 2010

Television networks are taking sharply different approaches to the iPad. One network, ABC, has readied a fully functional app for the eagerly awaited Apple tablet. Another, NBC, has ditched its plans to stream full television episodes onto the device. From MSNBC.com to People.com, buyers of the iPad will be able to watch plenty of ad-supported video despite Apple's decision to ban Flash, the dominant software for online video viewing, from the device. Many Web sites have raced to convert their ...

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Christian Scott TV Interview

Source: On Target Media Group
April 3, 2010

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Music Biopics Struggle to Make It to the Big Screen

Source: All About Jazz
April 2, 2010

From “The Buddy Holly Story" to “Bird" and from “Walk the Line" to the current “Runaways," the lure of biopics about famous music figures is undeniable.

The performers and their stories come loaded with a built-in awareness factor, anticipation among fans provides ready-made promotional fodder and such pics have proven to be Oscar bait for both stars and filmmakers. But for every “Runaways" or “La Vie en Rose" that makes it to the bigscreen -- some reaping box office success, ...

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Irish Film Festival Features the Bass Player: A Song for Dad, on March 27

Source: MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts
March 27, 2010

The 11th annual Irish Film Festival Boston is presenting The Bass Player: A Song For Dad by Irish filmmaker Niall McKay, at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, Somerville, MA. on Saturday, March 27, at 2:30 p.m.In this eloquent, witty homage to his father, McKay wrestles with his family's unsettling past to overcome his fear of commitment. As he helps his elderly father Jim, a jazz bass player, return home to Ireland, a parallel journey unfolds into an admiration ...

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'The T.A.M.I. Show': A Pop Music Time Capsule

Source: Michael Ricci
March 23, 2010

The 1964 concert never turned into the annual fundraiser it was envisioned as, but it did bring together the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys and James Brown, and now it's on DVD.

“The T.A.M.I. Show," the fabled film document of an equally legendary 1964 concert in Santa Monica with the Rolling Stones, James Brown, the Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Chuck Berry and a half-dozen other acts, has a back story that reads like the inspiration for ...

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