Master Index of Archived Threads


Across the Universe

* Mr. Moonlight

0 votes

** You Like Me Too Much

0 votes

*** I Want To Be Your Man

0 votes

**** I Me Mine

2 votes

***** This Boy

0 votes

****** She Loves You

0 votes

******* Happiness Is a Warm Gun

4 votes

******** Ticket To Ride

0 votes

********* Hey Jude

0 votes

sharpie Oct 22 2007 08:11 AM

Saw this on Friday night. Surprisingly good. Some of the scenes were real knockouts. Movie was weakest when they veered off the story of the main group of characters and focused on "guest stars" (Bono) or, at it's worst, Eddie Izzard doing a horrible "Being For the Benefit Of Mr. Kite." The "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sequence on a football field was stunning and, other than Izzard, the cast sang the songs well.

Edgy MD Nov 04 2007 09:44 PM

Not good. Really ambitious, and I wanted to like it, but a plot that is retrofitted onto songs that aren't contextually connected, at least in a literal sense, just challenges my credulity. Nice performance by the guy who played Jude. Makeup and costume did what they could to make him look like a young Paul McCartney, but he seemed to get more Lennon songs to sing, and his dichotomous Lennon --- the annoying smartass Maxwell --- got more Paul material. Psychedelic film-making just bores me, and it gives them an out for not constucting a coherent plot. I actually thought Bono was fine --- agree on Izzard --- but going from one acid guru to another is just an excuse to get another psychedelic song in there, while they neither took the effort portray these guys as visionaries or exploiters on the same level that the anti-war radical leaders or the record company execs were. They really challenged themselves musically, expanding on the songs' arrangements, changing the tempos (and therefore moods for some) but mostly leaving the vocal readings the same, in that they have the actors respect old Beatle improvosational vocal flourishes as sacrosanct parts of the composition. ("Hey Jude" includes the actor screaming, "Ju Jude and Judey Judey Judey Judey! Ow! Wow") They also tried hard to never change or drop lyrics to suit the plot --- Izzard's scene, again, is an exception --- or even change gender pronouns. "With a Little Help from My Friends" morphs about 60% of the way through from a variant on the 2/4 Beatles arrangement to a version of the 3/4 Joe Cocker reading. Cocker himself appears and sings the hell out of "Come Together." All the beautiful design work and technical execution is something that they should be proud of, but it all meant nothing to me (in fact, the color intensity had both Mr. and Ms. Edgy leaving with headaches) because it was in the service of a plot that felt insincere and incoherent. After all the exposition is seemingly in place, we get a non-sequiter flash out of nowhere to the Detroit riots, where a little boy is taking cover and singing a beautiful version of "Let It Be." Who is this boy that's breaking our heart? Turns out the scene is just to introduce an Ike Turner/Jimi Hendrix-cross character whose relationship to the boy is never made clear, who joins the other characters and never mentions the boy or the riot that launched him into the plot. Prick. Not him, the writer. I went to see it because of Roger Ebert's rave (his favorite movie is A Hard Day's Night), but have read mostly negative online reviews since then. One review wondered at the material and the budget and quoted William Hurt's line in A History of Violence: "How do you fuck that up?" Then I realized it was previously fucked up over a generation ago with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. At day's end, we just have here an artier and less linear version of Forrest Gump a manipulative and mythmaking arc through a tumultuous time in US cultural history, that impossibly manages to brush all the touchstone moments of the era, while getting you over the speedbumps with an expensive licensed catalog of music, worth every penny to the director because it's all been fieldtested to produce the exact effect in the audience she wants. Ugh. I don't mind the revisiting of the catalog --- some fine readings there --- but just do it as a review next time; don't insult me and suggest you've got something to say through these songs about the meaning of the Vietnam War and the generation that fought it.

Frayed Knot Mar 30 2008 08:07 AM

I'm much closer to Sharpie's review of this one than that Edgy guy did (glad that schmuck's no longer around). If fact, while thinking about what to write (and not having read either of the reviews prior to seeing it), I found myself seeing many of the issues almost totally opposite from the way EDC did; from the view that I DID see the plot as telling a reasonably coherant story and even extending to my planned use of citing 'Forrest Gump' (only more favorably) as a device for a trip through the age(s). Agree with both that the pyschedelic scenes were the weakest part. I had to check the credits before I was sure that 'Sadie' wasn't being played by Joan Osbourne.

smg58 Mar 30 2008 09:21 AM

Better than I thought it would be, but I wasn't expecting much. A few less songs would have made a better movie, as some of the songs just seemed really forced. But it had the makings of a workable story, and I didn't cringe for the full two hours.

AG/DC Mar 30 2008 11:28 AM

Starting from the beginning, shouldn't London be the center of a universe constructed out of Beatles music, rather than New York? Especially since it was really New York in name only?

sharpie Mar 31 2008 08:44 AM

Much of it was filmed in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Vic Sage Mar 31 2008 10:33 AM

None of the Beatles was from London... they were from Liverpool. And those are very different places. And John Lennon lived out his life and death in NYC, not London. In fact, there is nothing inherently, London-ish about the Beatles, other than they're both English. But the story of the Beatles is not about England. Its about leaving England. First, for Germany, then for the U.S. And musically, from the mersey beat to sitar psychodelia to a more mature sensibility. They were about constant transitions to something new, until they stopped. The movie is about the 60's in America, not the UK. The fab 4 came here, changing our music and culture (not single-handedly, but still), so Taymor naturally constructs a story about a Liverpudlian coming to NYC and becoming involved in our youth culture, witnessing the violence and radicalization of the times, and not only commenting on it but becoming involved in it. Jude's deportation problems in the story parallel Lennon's, too. And Jude's rejection of violence, acting instead out of love, is totally consistent with the songs sung to tell the story. So, Edgy, i completely disagree with you on this. Not to say this is a great or flawless movie... i don't think it is. Psychodelia is best digested in very small doses (so to speak), and this movie is a half-hour too long because of it. And it adds almost nothing except imagery that has become excrutiatingly cliched. And some of the performances and interpretations of the songs leave something to be desired. In fact, I have little interest in hearing the soundtrack of this movie. But on the whole, I felt that the love story at its heart is a genuine one, and it uses the songs to trace the development of their story, as well as parallel the times in which they lived, even tracking the lives of the Beatles themselve (including the final concert on the roof, which evokes the LET IT BE concert footage). I don't see the "shoehorning" problem... i see a narrative that rises organically from the songs.

AG/DC Mar 31 2008 10:46 AM

Vic Sage wrote: None of the Beatles was from London... they were from Liverpool. So I've heard. Vic Sage wrote: And those are very different places. I think we all know this. No need to patronize me. Vic Sage wrote: And John Lennon lived out his life and death in NYC, not London. After the Beatles. Vic Sage wrote: In fact, there is nothing inherently, London-ish about the Beatles, other than they're both English. Completely untrue. They lived and recorded in London through the height of the cultural revolution era. Their contributions to the international cuture were launched from London and London's music and fashion scene. Abbey Road Studios, Apple Corps, and Apple Botique were in London. Vic Sage wrote: So, Edgy, i completely disagree with you on this. Yeah, I get it. But I don't thiink "But the story of the Beatles is not about England. Its about leaving England." really holds up.

AG/DC Mar 31 2008 11:01 AM

That Let It Be reference is to a concert on a rooftop in London.