Time hasn't tamed "Something Wild." Jonathan Demme's red-hot-mama road movie returns on Blu-ray and DVD, all dolled up by the Criterion Collection. Unlike most hipster movies of the 1980s, "Something Wild" still hits on all of its cylinders: sex, violence and screwball madness. Very little feels dated, really: Credit Demme's … [Read more...]
‘The Last Waltz’: Playing with the Band
Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz" -- the "Raging Bull" of concert movies -- opens with a knockout punch: Members of the Band, exhausted after six hours of nonstop performing, power into their final song, "Don't Do It." Although the performance was recorded live nearly 30 years ago, the Blu-ray audio startles with its punch and immediacy. Bass … [Read more...]
Warner Music artists dance back to YouTube
Warner Music videos are headed back to YouTube, but it's going to cost Google. Executives at the third-biggest music company said they would receive "a vast majority" of any ad revenues generated by videos from Warner artists. That includes Coldplay, Madonna, Green Day and a zillion catalog artists such as the Monkees, Joni Mitchell and the … [Read more...]
‘Monterey Pop’ on Criterion Blu-ray
Monterey the rock festival still stands in the shadows of the unruly and iconic Woodstock, but "Monterey Pop" the film has no rival as a time capsule of late-'60s rock. D.A. Pennebaker's documentary was smarter, hipper and more musical than other rock films of the era. Yes, that includes the endlessly celebrated "Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & … [Read more...]
‘No Direction Home: Bob Dylan’
"Don't look back," the baseball sage Satchel Paige advised. "Something might be gaining on you." For Bob Dylan in the 1960s, the hellhounds in the rearview were the crush of celebrity and the weight of ridiculous expectations. Martin Scorsese's "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" starts off in Ken Burns territory, using a rich and exquisite mix of … [Read more...]
