My Amazon DVD Reviews: Hollywoodland

HollyWoodBland,
3 Out Of 5 Stars


Two conflicting movies fight for dominance in the interesting if seriously flawed "Hollywoodland." One of them stars Ben Affleck as Geroge Reeves, a struggling actor who catches his one lucky break by becoming the star of the early TV Series, "Superman." Reeves is charming, funny, clever and witty, but not much of an actor. He has an angel in the form of Toni Mannix (an excellent Diane Lane), who picks Reeves to be her personal boytoy, sets him up with a home, jobs, all that her rich husband, MGM Studio VP Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins, channelling his inner Ed Asner). Eddie has his own toys, but he has a dark lining. Then there's the gold-digging Leona, who Reeves has an affair with, much to the consternation of Toni. But then, maybe Toni talked George out of marrying Leona. Or maybe George was just sick of Leona and called off a wedding to be with Toni. We never know, because a depressed Reeves committed suicide in 1959.

Or did he? This is the issue that "Hollywoodland" grapples with. Any one of these people orbiting Reeves had ample motive to kill him, and his death was clouded in controversy at the time. In this half of the movie, director Allen Coulter (his first movie after critically acclaimed TV episodes of The Sopranos and Rome for HBO) creates an interesting scenario of Old Hollywood, power, and dirty relationships. Not only that, he recreates the 50's in spectacular style, with a particular heads up for all the classic cars you'll see. Affleck is also at his best as the doomed actor, playong all the sides of Reeves in what was an Oscar worthy job.

However, there's a second part to this, and that is the Film Noir attached to it. This part stars Adrian Brody, doing a great job as hack detective Louis Simo. Simo gets hired when Reeves' mother raises suspicions that her son would not have killed himself. So Simo goes digging where others are too scared to, and Simo can't afford not to. Brody is engaging as Simo, although I kept thinking of Micheal Imperioli doing Chrissy on The Sopranos, to the point where I began thinking Brody was forced to watch the series to get the part down. And since Simo's story is trying to uncover the truth behind Reeves', it seems that we are forced to watch as the two stories, told as separate timelines (and in Reeves' case, as flashbacks) play out.

That's where the schism takes place. Simo's life is coming undone, and "Hollywoodland" keeps trying to force-fit Reeves' career slide with Simo's domestic problems. Reeves' life is so interesting that the continual forced jamming of Simo's becomes unsettling; the film works best when Simo is trying to pry up the boards of the all too pristine Hollywood system. There are so many subplots and spinouts from that main course, the movie ultimately falters. It's way better than "The Black Dahlia" or "Zodiac," but it's nowhere near the likes of "LA Confidential." Or even a couple episodes of The Sopranos, for that matter.

Jobs, Steve Jobs

I just heard that Apple founder and frontman Steve Jobs has passed away. I felt a lump in my throat come and go as the news was broadcast, as Apple has been involved with so many of my years in my life. When I first started working in publishing, the main room was a set of Macs, all rigged up with Pagemaker, along with a slightly more powerful Mac for the graphics. Every week, for three years, we turned out a Radio/Broadcast musical tipsheet on that room full of Apple computers.

When I decided to start my own magazines, I bought an Apple PowerPC. I remember not buying the new One Gigabyte version, thinking "who needs a gigabyte?" That computer lasted me from 1996 until just a few years ago. All the Rubber Rebel and Vulcan America magazines were composed on Apples. And the revolution of scanning...wow. No more huge darkrooms with cameras the size of refrigerators. It meant that I could take the pictures for my own magazines, without having to depend totally on studios and models. All the stories I wrote for my first two books (and much of Skin Tight) were written on an Apple.

So much of my creative life has been devised on machines that Steve Jobs helped invent and, more importantly, design. A recent Newsweek article profiled him, describing him alternately as brilliant and driven, but difficult and autocratically demanding. The chatter on TV behind me as I type is how Jobs The Visionary democratized the computing world. All I know is that he made a huge impact on mine.

My Amazon Reviews: Amos Lee "Mission Bell"

Amos Lee finds his voice
5 Out of 5 Stars

Amos Lee's "Last Days at The Lodge" had me a bit worried. His first album to leave me unsatisfied, it was over-produced by Don Was. Was seemed to be trying to squeeze Amos into some sort of super-slick and commercialized pop-blues, much like Was did for Bonnie Raitt's blockbuster "Nick Of Time." But Lee was never as polished as Raitt, not should he be. On "Mission Bell," Lee's ultimate breaktrhough and first Top Ten album, reclaims the title of young buck singer-songwriter and moves him into such company as Ray LaMontagne and Iron & Wine's Sam Beam.

Intimate and easy but without the cream, "Mission Bell" bristles with staw folk and burning blues. Producer Joey Burns of Calexico (who has also collaborated with Beam) gives the guitar room to roam the prairie. He then pulls in some superb guests to sing, like Lucinda Williams and Willie Nelson, while Lee holds his own with both. In fact, this may be the most natural Lee has sounded on album in his short career. Lee is pulling deep from his soul background, making a gospel wail like "Jesus" or Grateful Dead sound-alike "Cup Of Sorrow" ring with honest feeling. That is not to sat he's been faking it before, but sure sounds more grown up than even the excellent "Supply and Demand" could have.

This is Lee's move into classic turf. With "Mission Bell," he is now at the forefront of new American Singer Songwriters, and this is one of my favorite albums of 2011.