Category: Film Review

27 Gone too Soon // Film Review

27 Gone too Soon // Film Review

Music mogul, Simon Napier-Bell, has managed an impressive list of bands in his time as a music manager. Wham!, The Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Japan, and in more recent times, Sinead O’Connor. He co-wrote the lyrics of Dusty Springfield’s ‘You Don’t have To Say You Love Me and he has also written a number of books about his time in the music industry.

He’s been there and done it.

Napier-Bell has returned to the film industry, where he started his career. Following his documentaries ‘Sinatra: To Be Frank’ and the brilliant ’50 Years Legal’, he now delves into the music world’s infamous 27 club with ’27 Gone Too Soon’.

Brian Jones (Rolling Stones), Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendricks and Jim Morrison all died at the age of 27 between 1969 and 1970. The myth and legend of the 27 club was reignited with Kurt Cobain died and then later, Amy Winehouse.

Through archive footage and contributions from Paul Gambaccini, Lesley Ann Jones, Olly from Years and Years, Gary Numan, Tom Robinson as well as a host of record company guys of the time, Napier-Bell looks at the reasons behind the demise of the artists in question.

While tales from the past tell us that all these artists had a dependency on substances of one sort or another, Napier-Bell asks why they had this dependency. Vulnerable people, who had a childhood trauma so the became introverted and therefore developed their talents.

What’s interesting to note is that during the film, it was mentioned that if the 27 Club was changed to the 26-30 Club, it would have 20 members.

At 90 minutes long, ’27 Gone Too Soon’ is a good evening’s viewing. I was lucky enough to see its premier in London and the time flew by. There is a lot of information that music lovers will already know contained within this film. What really struck a chord with this viewer, was the human element: the reaction to the death of Amy Winehouse. It’s obvious that some of the contributors knew her and broadcaster, Lesley Ann Jones, was tearful when speaking about Ms Winehouse.

The premier was followed by a Q&A which continued questioning all the artists’ vulnerabilities and the role of the music manager and record company in looking out for their artists.

Yes, these artists were flawed. Yes, they were vulnerable. Yes, ‘someone’ should have done more. But by God they were talented and this film does more than remind of us that.

27 Gone Too Soon is now available to buy on DVD

Thanks to Terry at Cannonball PR for the tickets to the Premier.

April 10, 2018
Movie Review // Get On Up – The James Brown Story

Directed by Tate Taylor, Get On Up tells the non linear story of James Brown’s life. Throughout the film we are thrown to different times in James Brown’s life, from the height of his fame to the moment his mother left his family.

We all know James Brown’s funky music but Get On Up shows us parts of his life that many simply won’t have known about. From his poor background, his father abandoning him, his drug problem which seem to have to have attributed to self insecurities and perhaps depression but definitely anger. His control freak attributes cause his band to leave him. Sidenote: At one point, Brown gets extremely angry to learn that he has lost top billing to The Rolling Stones and it is mentioned in the film that they will never go anywhere. 50 years later, The Stones are still going and Mick Jagger is a producer of his film.

Chad Boseman plays Brown with Dan Aykyord playing Ben Bart, his manager, who at one point, on good ole music business fashion, straps a suitcase of money to a security man’s wrist to get it out of the venue. Who needs banks eh?

On several occasions throughout the film, this reviewer wondered if they screenplay has one eye on heading to the stage. A number of times the character of Brown removes himself from the environment he’s in, addressing the camera, or audience, directly. Something that says this has one eye on theatreland.

If you aren’t familiar with Brown or his music, this is a good introduction to his life and his music and but if you’re a hard core music fan, you’re going to want to hear a lot more about Brown’s music. This film tries to combine the two and while we do find out about his personal struggles, it needs a lot more his Brown’s music to keep the music aficionado. Good but not quite there yet.

Thanks to Damaris for the inviting me to a lovely screening event at NBC Universal in London. Damaris provide resources to community groups about films to help promote discussion about some of the themes in films. They work with all types of groups, Youth groups, Church groups, Rotary Clubs all across the UK.

To get your free resources on ‘Get On Up’ for your community group go to http://www.damaris.org/media/getonup.

You can find out more about setting up a Film Club here

November 18, 2014
Dead Man Down: Film Review

Dead Man Down is Niels Arden Oplev‘s first shot at directing a Hollywood movie. He’s best known for his work in the original ‘The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo’. It’s not surprising then, when Noomi Rapace, who played Lisbeth Salander in the trilogy turns up as the female lead here. In Dead Man Down, she plays Beatrice, a scarred car crash survivor, who lives in the apartment block opposite Victor (Colin Farrell).

Victor is part of a gang, a modern day mob and along with Darcy (Dominic Cooper) goes investigating into who or why a gang member ended up in the boss’ Alphonse’s freezer. Beatrice sees something she shouldn’t have through Victor’s window and it all kicks off.

From the trailers released for this film, you get the impression that it’s a more high speed ‘Blow em up’ movie, but there was a lot more depth to it than that. It’s a spiraling maze of planning, plotting and revenge which brings out the best in Colin Farrell’s acting skills as he reveals the depth of his character, Victor. This isn’t Die Hard, even if Noomi Rapace’s character ‘Beatrice’, is at times, a tad too much of whinging damsel in distress.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable two hours which keeps the viewer engaged, decent story, well shot and a great car chase. Standout was Colin Farrell, it’s a long way from Ballykissangel, but he really deserves to be getting the roles Brad Pitt and George Clooney just saunter into, immense talent.

May 2, 2013
Sound City: Film Review

Dave Grohl has been a hero to many music fans for over twenty years, drummer in Nirvana, sometime member of Queens of the Stone Age and rock god in Foo Fighters, he now has turned his hand to film directing. In this case, it’s the documentary, ‘Sound City’, which follows the life on the infamous Sound City studios in Los Angeles and more importantly the Neve sound desk which helped capture some of music’s iconic sounds. It also shows Grohl to have great vision in the film making process.

The story of Sound City is told through staff and musicians who recorded there, including Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and Rick Springfield to name a few. It also charts the struggle many studios encountered, not only Sound City, as the switch to digital recording took hold. Putting it nicely, Sound City looked like a shithole but the energy and chemistry in the place lead to the birth of musical gems there.

When Sound City closed, Dave Grohl bought the Neve console and took it to his studio. He then got some of the musicians who had previously recorded through the board to come to his studio and put something new down, including a hero of Grohl’s, Sir Paul McCartney.

Here’s the nerdy bit.. as a music lover and an all out audiophile, I loved this documentary. I loved the historical element, recognizing many of the albums that were recorded at Sound City. As someone who has been lucky enough to record on 2inch analogue tape, knowing the recording process and hearing what Dave Grohl said about getting the chemistry back into the music, I adored it. Neve consoles are world famous, they have a fantastic reputation and rightly so. This console was the centre of Sound City. When it was installed, business boomed, but as with many things in the digital age, recording onto tape was no longer financially viable.

The documentary isn’t just about analogue vs digital. Yes, it broaches the subject of the authenticity of digital editing and musical manipulation. Later in the film it cleverly shows how Trent Reznor uses digital music manipulation as a tool rather than a crutch. What ‘Sound City’ captures beautifully are the ‘had to be there moments’. Through good vibes in a studio space, chemistry within a band and with a producer, whether in the original ‘Sound City’ or later in Grohl’s studio when the ‘Sound City Players’ record. It brings us back to why we originally fell in love with music.

This is an interesting and informative documentary and for me has reignited my love of recording. Now I want to go to Dave Grohl’s house and play with his toys.

Sound City is available to stream on volta.ie and is running exclusively in the Light House Cinema in Smithfield from March 15th.

Watch the trailer:

The Album: Sound City Players : Real to Reel is out now, listen to ‘ You Can’t Fix this’ with vocals from Stevie Nicks.

Listen on Soundcloud

March 13, 2013