Film in Elsewhere

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MR MOJO RISIN', THE STORY OF LA WOMAN a doco by MARTIN R SMITH (Shock DVD)

31 Jan 2012  |  3 min read

Door singer frontman Jim Morrison might not have always been the great poet he imagined himself, but he certainly knew his way around a self-mythologising acronym. Hence "Mr Mojo Risin'", the name he came up for himself around the time of what would be the Doors final flourish in the studio, LA Woman of 1971. The remaining Doors -- guitarist Robby Krieger, keyboard player Ray... > Read more

LA Woman (alternate take)

THE UNDERWATER MELON MAN, a film by FANE FLAWS (Yellow Eye DVD)

25 Jan 2012  |  1 min read

This film (with tie-in CD and book) by artist/musician Fane Flaws has long been something of a cult favourite with kids and a guilty pleasure for adults. Flaws, whose most visible work was the opening animation for Radio with Pictures in the late Eighties, created The Underwater Melon Man and Other Unreasonable Rhymes in '97 and called on some of New Zealand and Australia's finest musicians... > Read more

Neville the Enchanted Rug

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM: SONGS FROM THE SMALL MACHINE (Eagle Vision DVD/CD)

19 Jan 2012  |  1 min read

Aside from Stevie Nicks whose fan base is loyal and huge (but whose last album In Your Dreams was patchy to the point of being often awful), few people these days would care much for what former members of Fleetwood Mac might be up to. But with Lindsey Buckingham you would always make an exception and tune in. He helmed some of Mac's most interesting material (notably pushing them from... > Read more

Go Your Own Way

PUNK REVOLUTION NYC, a doco by TOM O'DELL (Chrome Dreams DVD)

16 Jan 2012  |  4 min read

Because so many who were there at the time are fading or have passed on (just one remaining Ramone from that classic album cover), this deeply detailed double DVD/three and a half hour doco on the New York punk scene (starting from the Velvet Underground) is an important document for those coming late, or only recently, to the story. What especially elevates this is the calibre of those... > Read more

Satisfaction

THE LOVE WE MAKE, a doco by ALBERT MAYSLES and BRADLEY KAPLIN (Shock DVD)

9 Jan 2012  |  2 min read

Whether you like Paul McCartney's music or not, this doco helmed by Albert Maysles (of the famous Maysles Brothers who did the Stones Gimme Shelter among dozens of other tracking-camera docos) takes you into the discomforts of enormous fame of the kind that makes other famous people nervous in his company. Among the passing parade of celebs and handshakers are Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton... > Read more

Freedom (live in NYC)

FOOTROT FLATS, 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION, by MURRAY BALL (Roadshow DVD)

6 Jan 2012  |  2 min read  |  2

As I write, there is a steady drizzle and high wind so you can guess the season. Yes, it's the "summer" of 2011/2012 in New Zealand where, ironically, every part of the country aside from the bit closest to Antarctica has been suffering constant rain and wind. Wasn't like this in the old days. In fact, not much was . . . as the digital remaster of this sentimental Kiwi favourite... > Read more

THE ROLLING STONES; SOME GIRLS, LIVE IN TEXAS '78 a concert film by LYNN LENAU CALMES

5 Dec 2011  |  3 min read

Although the Rolling Stones' disastrous free concert at Altamont in San Francisco in late '69 is considered the final nail in the coffin of the hippie-era Sixties, it is less acknowledged that it was also the start of something. If the years preceding Altamont (and the Manson murders) had been about peace, love and benign drugs like marijuana and the consciousness-raising effects of LSD,... > Read more

GEORGE HARRISON; LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD a doco by MARTIN SCORSESE (Roadshow DVD)

22 Nov 2011  |  5 min read

Five years ago, longtime Abbey Road studios engineer Geoff Emerick – who was there for the first and last Beatles' recording sessions and only missed a few weeks in between – wrote an interesting, slightly jaded but perhaps uncomfortably true memoir, Here, There and Everywhere. Aside from undermining the conventional wisdom that producer George Martin was a pivotal... > Read more

The Light That Has Lighted The World (demo)

RUSSIAN SNARK, a film by STEPHEN SINCLAIR (VM DVD)

14 Nov 2011  |  1 min read

Although it would perhaps be possible to write the plot outline of this modest but quietly impressive feature on a very small piece of paper, the protagonists here and a few of the marginal characters bring such insightful portrayals that it keeps attention for all its 80 minutes. First time feature director and writer Sinclair -- who co-wrote Ladies Night, worked with Peter Jackson and has... > Read more

METROPOLIS; RECONSTRUCTED AND RESTORED, a film by FRITZ LANG (Madman DVD)

11 Oct 2011  |  4 min read

Because it was, and remains, such an extraordinary film on every level -- visually, philosophically, technically -- most people can remember their first encounter with Fritz Lang's 1927 masterpiece Metroplis. Unfortunately, I suppose, many today encounter it in a Film Studies 101 course where it is shown in a lecture theatre in the context of analysis or as part of a homework... > Read more

COMANCHE MOON, written by LARRY McMURTRY (Madman DVD)

27 Sep 2011  |  1 min read

Although his star as one of the great historical novelists of lives played out on the American frontiers (the West, that world between the lawless old and increasingly modernity) has been eclipsed by the darker works of Cormac McCarthy (The Road, No Country for Old Men, All the Pretty Horses), the great Larry McMurtry has written some remarkable novels -- and is an essayist well worth reading.... > Read more

ROGER CORMAN PRESENTS SHARKTOPUS, directed by DECLAN O'BRIEN (Anchor Bay DVD)

19 Sep 2011  |  1 min read

Some years ago in this interview the master of B-grade flicks Roger Corman admitted that these days he often just thought up the title and let other directors flesh out the actual film. Hence Dinocroc. And of course, Dinocroc 2. Which also explains this amusingly low budget affair ("Half-shark. Half-octopus. All killer") in which our titular hybrid monster -- invented by... > Read more

HARRY SINCLAIR INTERVIEWED (2011): Expat filmmaker talks about his life

12 Sep 2011  |  11 min read

Harry Sinclair who has lived in the States for the past 10 years – the last four in LA, years prior to that in New York – is still well known in New Zealand. His reputation rests on two significant poles: As one half of the music/performance duo The Front Lawn with Don McGlashan, and for his pop-up television series Topless Women Talk About Their Lives, 41 short episodes which... > Read more

HAIL BOP! A PORTRAIT OF JOHN ADAMS, a doco by TONY PALMER (Voiceprint DVD)

15 Aug 2011  |  2 min read

Early in this insightful 100 minute portrait of the American composer John Adams by Tony Palmer, Adams cites Milton Babbitt's article Who Cares If You Listen? and being struck by the cavalier attitude of many composers who knew they had no audience and had created a mindset which "basically said 'Screw you'." "I remember Babbitt saying he would no sooner expect the average... > Read more

Now It is Night

BOB DYLAN; 1990-2006: THE NEVER ENDING NARRATIVE (Chrome Dreams DVD)

8 Aug 2011  |  3 min read  |  1

Although Bob Dylan closed his shapeless and directionless Eighties with the acclaimed Oh Mercy album produced by Daniel Lanois, no one would really have considered him ripe for a career reinvention. And Under the Red Sky of the following year -- a cast which included Slash, Bruce Hornsby, George Harrison and numerous others on material as unworthy as Wiggle Wiggle and Handy Dandy -- seemed... > Read more

The Levee's Gonna Break

RUTHIE FOSTER: LIVE AT ANTONE'S (Fuse DVD)

2 Aug 2011  |  <1 min read

Many who witnessed the sad and rather shameful "performance" by BB King in Auckland's Civic this year (see review here) have walked away embarrassed for King  . . . but thrilled by his opening act, the great Ruthie Foster. Her joyous, powerful and good humoured (but also deeply sensitive) set of gospel, soul, blues and Motown-styled pop was invigorating and her promise to come... > Read more

Up Above My Head

KATE BUSH; A LIFE OF SURPRISES (Chrome Dreams DVD)

1 Aug 2011  |  2 min read  |  1

When the frequently reclusive Kate Bush reappeared recently with her album Director's Cut -- on which she returned to 11 of her earlier songs to revise them -- there was the inevitable flurry of interest in her again. (Typically she did few interviews, possibly even only the one in Mojo.) However the album was underwhelming and received only polite reviews. But you'd be unwise to... > Read more

Rubberband Girl

CHANTS R&B: Christchurch's rare rock, rumble and bang captured on film

27 Jul 2011  |  7 min read  |  1

Chants R&B out of Christchurch in the Sixties were a rare New Zealand band, on so many levels. Rare in that they played exciting, noisy, feedback-infused rhythm and blues rock at a time when most other New Zealand bands were following the Beatles into bright pop.Rare that they recorded a live album.Rare that they were so often photographed.Rare also  that they were filmed.And most... > Read more

I'm Your Witchdoctor (1966)

HOWL, a film by ROB EPSTEIN and JEFFREY FRIEDMAN

18 Jul 2011  |  2 min read

The three parallel, intercutting narratives here in this story of Allen Gisnberg's famous, half-hour poem Howl and the subsequent obscenity trial can be off-outting at first, and in truth don't serve the film or poet especially well. But for those new to the subject its slightly racy, post-modern attitude is bound to have considerable appeal. Generations have grown up with the first lines... > Read more

Footnote to Howl (reading from 1956)

BRIAN ENO: THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (2011) (Sexy Intellectual/Triton DVD)

28 Jun 2011  |  1 min read

Despite the title here being appropriated from David Bowie, this does seem a fair description of Brian Eno, the self-described "non-musician" who made his name in Roxy Music as the flamboyant synth-twiddler who brought an avant-garde sensibility to a band which might have otherwise simply sounded retro and poopy. Eno's sonic textures only appeared on the first two Roxy Music... > Read more