The Pop Culture Addict’s Blog

I first heard about C.S.A.: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA when I read about it in Entertainment Weekly last fall: Rebel Rousing Spotlight on Kevin Willmott — EW talks with the ”Confederate States of America” director about his new film by Paul Katz. I appreciate how Kevin Willmott isn’t in your face or self-righteous about it. He’s just like, I was watching Ken Burns’ Civil War and he said something about the South’s plan to expand into Mexico and South America if they had won. Then the idea went on from there. The filmmaker just wanted to make this film and would like it if people saw it. The premise is that you’re watching a documentary about how the South won the Civil War. And my review is basically the title of this entry: “Better than Crash.” I suppose it’s relevant to note that I didn’t like Crash aside from the performances of Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser and Matt Dillon. This is not to belittle Paul Haggis’ experience of getting carjacked in LA and needing to write about it. But as I’ve gone on and on about, Chappelle’s Show said the same things in a more succinct, way more entertaining and better way. But I think C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America works as a feature-length movie. It is 85 minutes long so it’s not even that much time out of your life. I don’t want to give any “spoilers” but let me say that I was most affected by the coda. It was akin to those people who said, “I liked Good Night and Good Luck but that actor who played Sen. McCarthy was way over the top and unbelievable.” You get the idea.

Awhile back, I went to see The Wooster Group’s interpretation of Eugene O’Neill’s play The Emperor Jones. It is on-stage again at St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO, where The Wooster Group has taken to performing. It’s a good space and very near some yummy treats. I would recommend visiting the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, for homemade ice cream, and Jacques Torres for the best chocolate in NYC – even the simple-sounding PB&J chocolate is delish. Plus, if you don’t mind walking a bit, the lovely esplanade is just a hop, skip and a jump away. My one caveat about this area (DUMBO or uh…I think it is District Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) would be that while the pizza at Grimaldi’s is good, I don’t think it’s neccessarily worth waiting 45 minutes for it. But I digress. I was recently reading a review in the NYT of the current Wooster Group production and thought it was worth mentioning in the context of Crash and CSA.

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The Music of KT TunstallI love going to stuff cold or almost cold. The expectations are almost non-existent and liking something is such a pure delight. Here are a few things I was impressed by recently:

Last fall, a fellow PCA told me to check out KT Tunstall. She said, you’ll like her music. So I did (i.e., I went to Amazon and listened to a bunch of 10-second clips) and I could see why my bud liked her and I thought she had a good voice, but I didn’t feel compelled to run out and get her cd. Then in February, I saw KT Tunstall on Conan or Letterman or something and was like, something about her is so familiar. Then I made the connection with my friend’s recommendation last year. So the two of us decided to go to KT Tunstall’s live show at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, 3/2/06. Wow, her show was fantastic. I was totally won over by her talent, her joy, her comraderie and sound with her band, who looked like the Strokes. Really, my opinion of her is so different from when I first heard her. When I watched her on tv, I thought, huh, interesting but not, why don’t I have her album yet? Anyway, I’m glad I decided to go to her show even though I didn’t really know any of her songs.

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Run, don’t walk, towards Running Scared

Next, I know as a movie fan, I should’ve seen The Cooler by now, but I haven’t. But I started to hear things about the writer/director’s new movie Running Scared and decided to put it on my to-see list. The first review I read was in EW where it received a D+. Then I heard Armond White loved it. That always makes me prick up my ears. Quentin Tarantino also loved it and Armond White made a point of saying, even though we both loved it, don’t listen to QT because unlike his movies, this movie has a moral compass.

Excerpt from Armond White’s NY Press review below:

Throughout Running Scared, Kramer demonstrates such a high, knowing level of film craft that when the movie seems to jump off the reel and burns (as in Bergman’s Persona) or the music score emulates a Sergio Leone twang, even the least sophisticated viewer will sense that the plot has been hiked up into purposeful surreality. The film’s surging, impassioned aestheticism obliterates that idiotic ’90s notion of movies as thrill rides. Instead, Kramer’s storytelling evokes emotions you can practically touch.

This movie is not for kids even though it revolves around the actions and motivation of two kids. That’s my obligatory disclaimer before I state that this movie was highly entertaining. I was totally sucked into the non-stop action and overwroughtness of it. I think I might’ve been wringing my hands at the end. Sure, it had its flaws and holes but I hardly cared although one major flaw is the center of the story (when you see it, you’ll know what I mean). In short, the movie is Fresh meets Pulp Fiction. Paul Walker and Cameron Bright really stood out. I didn’t know Paul Walker had it in him. As for Cameron Bright, I just saw Thank You For Smoking and the kid did an admirable job in that too.

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Elves no more, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving spar in Hedda Gabler

Not having read Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler or even more famous work A Doll’s House, I was worried about seeing any work by Ibsen on stage. But it was pretty accessible and Cate Blanchett was impressively commanding playing the eponymous role. And Hugo Weaving was great though because I see more movies than plays, I was thinking about Agent Smith. I’m sure this is something Ibsen never thought would happen. Anyway, such is the modern-day theater-goer’s experience, right?

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Apparently I’m not always accurate in my recall of facts. For example, I glanced at a headline that said something about Macbeth and Meryl Streep at Central Park’s Shakespeare in the Park this summer. Then I told my brother I thought Meryl Streep was going to be in Macbeth. And naturally he said, who’s playing Macbeth? And I said, maybe Mel Gibson? But I was serious. I thought maybe I had read that Mel Gibson was in fact involved. But no, I was confusing the memory of his movie version of Hamlet with the possibility of him doing more Shakespeare. So apologies to Liev Schreiber.

Here are the facts from the Public Theater site:

Shakespeare in the Park:
Macbeth

June 13 – July 9, 2006

Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Moisés Kaufman

Liev Schreiber, Macbeth

In Macbeth, victorious war general Macbeth returns from battle full of ambition and is hailed by three prophetic witches. The taste for power overwhelms his wife and he and they murder the King to secure their position. Macbeth is Shakespeare’s savage thriller that looks at the difference between a leader and a tyrant.

Shakespeare in the Park:
Mother Courage

WORLD PREMIERE

August 8 – September 3, 2006

By Bertolt Brecht
Translation by Tony Kushner
Original music by Jeanine Tesori
Directed by George C. Wolfe

Meryl Streep, Mother Courage

In Brecht’s seminal work we follow Mother Courage over a period of 12 years as one by one her children Kattrin, Eilif and Swiss Cheese are taken away by a vicious war. As Mother Courage seeks to profit from the war that is killing her children, she questions the roles of honesty, virtue and family in the face of a bitter struggle for survival.

Pick up your free Shakeapeare in the Park tickets on the day of the performance beginning at 1pm at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park or from 1 to 3pm at The Public Theater Box Office, 425 Lafayette Street

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Now that that’s clear, let me revel in Dave Chappelle’s Block Party some more.

Let me re-post what I wrote 3/6/06 in the pop forum:

It was so amazing. I can’t wait to see it again. Dave was hilarious and endearingly earnest. Such a natural. And he’s such a true-blue music-lover. His love and respect for the artists and their songs is so genuine. I used to think that Jill Scott and John Legend were kinda bland but they were so cool in the movie.

Everyone was good – Kanye West, who must’ve gotten his Grammy performance idea with the marching band theme from his Block Party experience, Mos Def, multi-tasking like crazy, Dead Prez, who I didn’t really know before seeing the movie but found charismatic, Erykah Badu with her hair and good attitude, Common, everyone. I was actually kinda excited to see Big Daddy Kane.

Of course I was thinking of the parallels between Lauryn Hill who became undone on tv at the height of her success and our Dave Chappelle. It was very touching to see The Fugees reunited. Dave said it was Lauryn Hill’s idea when Columbia was giving them a hard time about clearing her solo songs for the concert.

Dave’s thank you’s at the very end of the movie were extremely bittersweet. He was thanking Neal Brennan and the whole Comedy Central crew. I guess it is unnatural to have that much attention focused on you and that much money thrown at you and that much pressure to produce expected of you.

Anyway, I’m so excited to have finally seen Block Party. I think I need to see it in the theater again before it comes out on dvd.

Just to add a few more thoughts: Michel Gondry’s idea of having a “house band” was perfect. The way the film weaved in rehearsal, performance, standup, spontaneous Dave interactions and such was artful and highly entertaining. Apparently, the movie didn’t fare so well at the box office. Even my fellow PCA’s, though fans of Dave Chappelle and the music are hesitating. Go see it!

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Normally I’d make an effort to do some sort of Oscars 2006 wrap-up, but I don’t have much to say aside from the fact that Jon Stewart was witty, funny and spoke my mind for sure. But the rest of it was pretty ho-hum.

EDIT: In reading EW’s review of the show, it reminded me of a couple of cool things. I appreciated Ben Stiller’s act in his green suit in presenting the award for best special effects. It was so goofy. Also, I liked Steve Carrell’s powdered, fake-eyelashed overly made-up face and Will Ferrell’s poorly-bronzed face in presenting best make up. I also was blocking out some inexplicable stuff like the “interpretive dance” in the Crash song presentation. The one for the Three 3 Mafia song was terrible too but that whole thing is just so like-able, I’ll overlook it. That oddity, i.e., their performance and subsequent enthusiasm in winning, injected some life into the show. Just the other day, I asked a friend what his ringtone was and he was like, Three 6 Mafia. And I was like, you mean, the Academy-Award-winning Three 6 Mafia?

And while I don’t usually say much about fashion, I have to say how cool it was to see gowns with pockets in them! I am a fan of pockets. I always have stuff I need to keep on my person. Anyway, the pictures featured in EW were Sandra Bullock wearing Angel Sanchez, Amy Adams in Carolina Herrerra and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Bottega Veneta.

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I just remembered something I wanted to mention. I recently saw a play starring Chris “Welcome to the O.C., bitch!” Carmack. He played “Mr. Sloane” in the Scott Ellis-directed Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr. Sloane at NYC’s Roundabout Theatre, also starring Alec Baldwin, Jan Maxwell and Richard Easton. Joe Orton was a wunderkind, murdered by his lover (as depicted in that movie Prick Up Your Ears) when he was in his early 30s (1933-67). The production I saw of Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Orton’s first play, was fast-paced and fun. It was actually kind of campy, especially with Alec Baldwin sporting an English accent, along with rest of the American cast. Anyway, I was very aware that I was watching Marissa Cooper’s ex, Luke. But that’s probably because I watch way too much tv. He did a decent job depicting the amoral eye candy stirring up trouble in this one particular family.

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And last but not least, Liz Gately, creator of the addictive MTV’s Laguna Beach, you know what you’re doing. I reluctantly watched the first ep of her new MTV reality show 8th and Ocean thinking, what am I looking for here, and immediately was selecting “Record entire series” on my dvr. Brilliant casting. I can’t wait to see more of the identical twin sisters. In case you don’t know, it is a reality show about young aspiring models in South Beach, Miami, Florida. I foresee lots of high drama and catchy music cues (like Soulkid #1’s More Bounce in California, highlighted in Laguna Beach) ahead.

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