DVD review: “Where the Wild Things Are … and 5 More Stories by Maurice Sendak”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“Where the Wild Things Are … and 5 More Stories by Maurice Sendak”
In conjunction with last week’s long-awaited release of Spike Jonze’s big-screen adaptation of “Where the Wild Things Are,” Scholastic Storybook Treasures has repackaged and re-released the company’s faithful animated versions of six Maurice Sendak stories.
The short films follow the acclaimed author-illustrator’s picture books practically line by line. Parents and children can watch the tales unfold in read-along mode or view them without the words.
Though the story is brief and familiar, Sendak’s Caldecott Medal-winning “Where the Wild Things Are” loses none of its thrall in cartoon form. Composer Peter Schickele (AKA P.D.Q. Bach) not only provides the fittingly creepy and lovely score, he also narrates the yarn.
Schickele also gives music and voice to Sendak’s 1970 book “In the Night Kitchen,” an even weirder tale about a dreaming lad who is nearly cooked into a cake by three bakers who look like Oliver Hardy. Again, the cartoon precisely follows the book, which remains controversial because of the boy’s nudity.
The other four stories make up Sendak’s “Nutshell Library” and teach overt lessons. Legendary singer/songwriter/pianist Carole King performs the tales: the morality fable “Pierre,” the alphabet book “Alligators All Around,” counting exercise “One Was Johnny” and “Chicken Soup with Rice,” a charming accounting of the months and seasons.
For children too young for Jonze’s dark film, the Scholastic DVD offers a satisfactory way for them to watch Sendak’s visions come to life.
DVD features: Spanish and French versions of “Where the Wild Things Are,” brief Sendak interview and stickers.
— BAM
CD review: Brandon Jenkins, “Brothers of the Dirt”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Brandon Jenkins “Brothers of the Dirt” (Red Dirt Music Company)
Austin, Texas-based singer/songwriter/guitarist Brandon Jenkins orchestrates a tuneful communion of top red dirt/Texas music talents with his new album “Brothers of the Dirt.”
Cody Canada, Randy Rogers and Stoney LaRue are among the musical brethren who partner with Jenkins on the record. Not only did he write or co-write all 12 tracks, from vivid character-driven stories to politically charged anthems, Jenkins shows a knack for matching the right collaborator with the right song.
But he opens with a solo effort, the scathing “Blood for Oil,” which excoriates politicians on both side of the aisle for exploiting the poor for the benefit of the rich.
Born and raised in Tulsa, Jenkins injects his brand of red dirt with a hefty dose of the blues. Jenkins and Canada, frontman for Cross Canadian Ragweed, croon a beautifully bluesy 9/11 tribute with “Out of Babylon,” one of the record’s best tracks.
Rogers and LaRue both contribute to the solemn “Innocent Man,” based on John Grisham’s true-crime novel about the late Ron Williamson of Ada, who was wrongfully convicted of murder.
LaRue also helps tell the tale of a homeless woman in “Streets of North Hollywood,” the sad story punctuated with Jared Tyler’s scorching lap steel guitar. Since no red dirt album would be complete without a road song, Jenkins and LaRue groove on the “White Van Blues.”
Jenkins channels old-school country with the mournful ballad “Hearts Don’t Break Even,” and then tries out an old-world sound on the gentle love song “We Could Go to Paris.”
— BAM
Concert review: “Star Wars: In Concert” brings The Force to the Ford Center
From the familiar opening fanfare to the thunderous “Imperial March,” “Star Wars: In Concert” packed in enough memorable, goosebump-inducing moments to fill a Super Star Destroyer.
An odd but entertaining mix of orchestral performance, laser light show and motion picture montage, the concert Wednesday night thrilled fans of George Lucas’ iconic films and proved just how hollow and unremarkable those movies would be without John Williams’ indelible scores.
The show brought an estimated 8,000 followers of the space saga to the Ford Center, leaving a surprising number of empty seats in the arena. The multigenerational crowd ranged from middle-aged concert-goers dressed for a night at the symphony to children and young adults disguised as Darth Vader, Princess Leia or Stormtroopers.
Fans who got there early were able to tour a special exhibit featuring pages of Williams’ hand-written sheet music, conceptual renderings and full costumes for Chewbacca, C-3PO, Darth Vader and more.
The multimedia event was clearly aimed at true-blue fans of the sci-fi saga, offering a new way to enjoy the resonant tale of good and evil, Jedi and droids, light sabers and Death Stars.
The show opened in grand fashion, with a white sheet still concealing the massive stage as the lights dimmed suddenly and the orchestra launched into the “Twentieth Century Fox Fanfare.” The shadowy players were revealed when the curtain dramatically dropped away and the symphony stormed into the magnificent “Star Wars Theme.”
Scenes and characters from all six films — “Episode I — The Phantom Menace” (1999), “Episode II — Attack of the Clones” (2002), “Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” (2005), “Episode IV — A New Hope” (1977), “Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “Episode VI — Return of the Jedi” (1983) — intermingled on the three-story-tall LED screen.
Darth Vader’s well-known rasp of breath preceded James Earl Jones’ pre-recorded introduction of the show’s narrator, Anthony Daniels, who played prim protocol droid C-3PO in all six movies.
Decked out in a dashing black suit rather than his robotic alter ego’s golden armor, the British actor proved a warm and welcoming host and engaging storyteller.
The spectacle, which ran two hours with a 20-minute intermission, paid tribute to the beloved characters and told the heroic tale in roughly chronological order. The performance was divided into segments with titles like “Dark Forces Conspire,” “A Hero Rises” and “A Bond Unbroken,” and Daniels suavely set the stage for each one.
But he also showed off a sharp sense of humor: Before the orchestra played the drolly atmospheric “The Desert/The Robot Auction,” he effusively praised C-3PO’s sensitivity, intelligence and engineering until conductor Mark Watters silenced him with a pointed look and an eye roll. And the actor introduced “The Asteroid Field” by flashing his golden vest, slipping into 3PO’s high-pitched voice and declaring “The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1.”
“Of course, some people never want you to tell them odds,” he quipped, quoting from “Empire Strikes Back.”
While light saber clashes, space battles and galactic romances from the films played out in high-definition, the orchestra stayed in sync with the onscreen action and did justice to the bold percussion, striking horns and scintillating strings of Williams’ scores.
Watters, along with many in the audience, couldn’t help bopping along as the musicians blasted out the jazzy “Cantina Band,” the signature song of the Mos Eisley Spaceport house band. While movie clips and conceptual art of the cantina’s bizarre alien clientele filled the screen, the playful music transported young and old alike back to the first time they visited the saga’s “wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
The instrumentalists then wrung raw emotion from the solemn ode “The Death of Yoda,” while the choir’s voices soared with eerie splendor on “Duel of the Fates.”
The music was effectively augmented with a variety of visual effects. The second half of the show opened with a dazzling array of green lasers. Plumes of flame burst up from the stage as “Battle of the Heroes” took the fight between former allies Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi to the volcanic planet of Mustafar. Columns of steam accompanied the villain’s mechanical breathing on “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)”
When the crowd heralded the end of the show with a standing ovation and raucous cheers, the orchestra, in Daniels’ words, returned the audience to the Dark Side, performing the dramatic march one more time.
The concert occasionally used too much film dialogue, and sometimes the words were drowned out by the loud music. Sound effects such as swooping light sabers and tromping Stormtroopers could have added more excitement to the sci-fi adventure.
But “Star Wars: In Concert” emerged as strong in The Force, presenting a story that has already been related in six films, an animated series and countless toys in a wonderfully fresh way.
-BAM
Movie review: “The Boys Are Back”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. 3 of 4 stars
A father and his two sons cope with two devastating family events — death and divorce — in the absorbing and authentic drama “The Boys Are Back.”
Even if it weren’t billed as inspired by a true story, Oscar-nominated director Scott Hicks’ (“Shine,” “Hearts in Atlantis”) film would still ring with emotional truth. Screenwriter Allan Cubitt cannily adapts Simon Carr’s memoir and avoids most of the pitfalls of such tearjerkers.
Clive Owen stars as Joe Warr, a British sportswriter who lives in Australia but travels often for work. When his wife Katy (Laura Fraser) dies of cancer, Joe finds himself the single dad of their rambunctious 6-year-old son Artie (bright newcomer Nicholas McAnulty), who doesn’t quite comprehend his mother’s death.
Joe, who has always taken an affectionate but distant approach to parenting, suddenly has to shoulder all the responsibilities of raising a boy he realizes he doesn’t know as well as a dad should.
As Joe and Artie come to grips with their grief, the family’s dynamics shift again when Harry (George MacKay), Joe’s teenage son from his first marriage, comes for an extended visit. Since Joe has always visited Harry in England, his two sons have never even met.
In his struggles to adapt to single fatherhood, Joe develops a revolutionary parenting approach: “Just say yes.” If the boys want to ride their bikes in the house, get dressed outside or do cannonballs in a hotel bathtub, he’s fine with that. And if Artie wants to sit on the hood of their SUV while Dad drives down the beach, Joe is happy to oblige in one of film’s indelible moments.
While Joe’s loose style brings a sort of Peter Pan joy, it also means pizza boxes and crusty plates pile up since neither he nor his sons feel compelled to take on any household duties.
Joe gets both assistance and criticism from his disapproving mother-in-law Barbara (Julia Blake) and sympathetic Laura (Emma Booth), the single mom of one of Artie’s classmates.
Having risen to fame with macho roles in “The Bourne Identity,” “Sin City” and “Shoot ‘Em Up,” Owen gives one his best performances here, his usual toughness contrasting effectively with his flaws and grief. MacKay and McAnulty put in wonderfully natural performances. And Hicks casts Australia’s grassy hills, sparkling seaside and golden light in a key role, giving the film added beauty and resonance.
“The Boys Are Back” occasionally edges too close to maudlin and sappy territory, but it never crosses those borders.
— BAM
DVD review: “Monsters vs. Aliens”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“Monsters vs. Aliens Ginormous Double DVD Pack”
The spring blockbuster “Monsters vs. Aliens” truly is a rare creature: a family-friendly animated film that should appeal to children as well as cinephiles.
The good-natured escapade packs in plenty of agreeably silly gags for the youngsters while paying clever homage to 1950s monster movies like “The Fly,” “The Blob” and the Godzilla films.
Susan Murphy (voice of Reese Witherspoon) is a perky if unambitious California girl living her dream: to marry local TV weatherman Derek (Paul Rudd), a dim but driven talking head with hopes of network stardom. But the wedding is literally crashed when a strange meteor smashes into Susan and turns her into a towering giant a la “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.”
The military immediately captures her, dubs her Ginormica and imprisons her in a secret facility under the oversight of loud-mouthed Gen. W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland). Susan reluctantly bonds with her fellow prisoners: insectile mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie in full British accent), brainless gelatinous blob B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), the half-ape/half-fish Missing Link (Will Arnett) and immense monster amalgamation Insectosaurus, who speaks in shrieks.
When the megalomaniacal alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) targets Earth, the government gives the monsters a chance to win their freedom by defeating the encroacher.
While the film offers playful entertainment, the special features focus on the 3-D technology used to make the movie — as it was seen in theaters. For people watching it on DVD, the 3-D option isn’t available, no matter how great it sounds in the featurettes.
The Ginormous DVD Pack includes a second disc with the 3-D short film “B.O.B.’s Big Break,” but the new adventure is in the old headache-inducing red-green 3-D, not the advanced version now used in cinemas. The short actually is more fun to watch with the standard 2-D option, which also includes a comical karaoke music party feature.
Other DVD features: Commentary, deleted scenes and sneak peeks of other DreamWorks projects.
— BAM
CD review: Luke Bryan, “Doin’ My Thing”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Luke Bryan “Doin’ My Thing” (Capitol Nashville)
Luke Bryan effectively alternates fun-loving tributes to country living with earnest brokenhearted ballads on his genial sophomore album “Doin’ My Thing.”
The singer-songwriter, who grew up working his family’s peanut farm in Leesburg, Ga., proudly pays homage to his rural roots with the cheeky opener “Rain Is a Good Thing” and invites listeners to find refuge in the country with “Welcome to the Farm.” A brawny guitar adds a bluesy vibe to “Drinkin’ Beer and Wastin’ Bullets,” about making the best of an unsuccessful deer hunt.
Bryan, who co-wrote eight of the 11 tracks, keeps the album’s tone as light as a farmland breeze with the title track and the inspirational anthem “Chugging Along.”
He shows his series side on a trio of heartfelt ballads, including lead-off single “Do I,” which he co-wrote with Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley of country trio Lady Antebellum. The third member of the band, Hillary Scott, provides background vocals on the song. He also croons effectively about lost love on “Someone Else Calling You Baby” and “Every Time I See You.”
In “What Country Is,” Bryan convincingly defines country as sweet iced tea, peach ice cream and cane pole fishing and firmly proclaims “it ain’t a rebel flag you bought at the mall.” But in the album’s biggest misstep, he delivers an unnecessary cover of OneRepublic’s whiny pop hit “Apologize,” an overplayed song that all too recently played on a loop at every mall in America.
— BAM
CD review: Toby Keith, “American Ride”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Toby Keith “American Ride” (Show Dog Nashville)
Prolific country superstar Toby Keith confidently and capably cruises through romantic ballads, funny party songs and brash social commentary on his new album “American Ride.”
The Norman resident already has topped the country charts with the buzz-generating title track, a frank and foot-stomping critique of American culture, from lawsuits and plastic surgery to terrorism and YouTube. While Joe West and Dave Pahanish penned “American Ride,” Keith wrote or co-wrote the remaining 11 tracks.
The Oklahoma native keeps the toe-tapping tempo and showcases his sharp sense of humor with “If I Had One” and “Every Dog Has Its Day.” He augments his favored steel guitars and fiddles with blues-rock flourishes on the party song “Loaded” and the motivational “If You’re Tryin’ You Ain’t.”
He pays humorous and sympathetic tribute to the troops with “Ballad to Balad,” inspired by his latest United Service Organization Tour of Iraq, and exudes affectionate desire on the good-natured two-stepper “You Can’t Read My Mind.”
Those who are willing to look beyond Keith’s bold, often controversial persona know he excels as a balladeer, and his new album rides highest in its softer moments. He convincingly tells the tale of a ne’er-do-well seeing the error of his ways in the affecting “Woke up on My Own,” then delivers unabashed romance with “Tender as I Want to Be.”
But the album’s highlight is “Cryin’ for Me (Wayman’s Song),” Keith’s moving and musically fitting tribute to his friend Wayman Tisdale, the basketball-star-turned-jazz-bassist who died in May after a long cancer battle.
— BAM
CD review: Miranda Lambert, “Revolution”
A version of this review appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Miranda Lambert “Revolution” (Sony)
Oklahoma firebrand Miranda Lambert continues to rebel against the cookie-cutter anthems and syrupy ballads all too often featured on country radio with her third album, “Revolution.”
“Revolution” successfully orbits around the complexities of the Tishomingo resident’s persona: She’s an avid huntress and passionate animal welfare advocate, a declared Christian and acknowledged rabble-rouser, a Southern belle best known for her tuneful revenge fantasies “Gunpowder & Lead” and “Kerosene.”
Lambert wrote or co-wrote 12 of the 15 tracks on “Revolution,” and her songwriting reveals a new level of maturity and an improved knack for crafting material for her voice.
The Texas-bred singer-songwriter conveys a range of genuine emotion, from vulnerability and bitter sadness on the brokenhearted ballad “Dead Flowers” to wistful longing on the old-fashioned country tune “Airstream Song.” She exudes calm loathing on her current single, “White Liar,” in which she buttonholes a deceitful lover and then reveals he isn’t the only dishonest one.
Instead of throwing punches and starting a barfight, she engages in a little peacekeeping and gets in a verbal jab in the funny “Only Prettier,” one of my favorites on the record.
Fans of Lambert’s previous albums — her 2005 debut “Kerosene” and 2007’s acclaimed “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” — shouldn’t worry: She still does angry exceedingly well. She seethes with woman-scorned rage on “Sin for Sin,” which she penned with her boyfriend and neighbor, fellow country star Blake Shelton. And when Lambert howls about shooting her radio on “Maintain the Pain,” that’s Shelton shouting against the driving ‘80s rock-inspired guitars.
The couple worked with Ashley Monroe on “Me and Your Cigarettes,” a deceptively catchy song about an unhealthily addictive affair. They also collaborate with Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood on “Love Song,” a substantive, mature ballad about real love rather than fairytale romance.
“Revolution” only wobbles with Lambert’s cover of Fred Eaglesmith’s fretful “Time to Get a Gun,” which seems inauthentic considering her gun-toting reputation.
— BAM
DVD review: “Rudo y Cursi”
A version of this review appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“Rudo y Cursi”
Imagine “Cinderella Man” devoid of the powerhouse punches, “Caddyshack” without the golf clubs swinging as hard as the jokes and “Field of Dreams” minus the elegant old-fashioned baseball moments.
With “Rudo y Cursi,” writer-director Carlos Cuaron tries to make a soccer dramedy with no on-field action until late in the second half. This oddball artistic choice, along with his overdependence on tired sports movie formulas and predictable rags-to-riches themes, makes the Mexican film a losing game, despite its compelling characters and promising performances.
“Rudo y Cursi” marks the feature film debut for Cuaron, brother of fellow filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron (“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”), who produces along with Guillermo del Toro (“Hellboy”). All these Oscar nominees could and should do better than this lackluster tale of soccer and sibling rivalry.
Set in a tiny tropical Mexican town, the Spanish-language film follows feuding half-brothers Beto (Diego Luna), a strident supervisor at the local plantain plantation, and Tato (Gael García Bernal), a plantain picker with deluded dreams of becoming a music star.
When a talent scout called Baton (Guillermo Francella) spots them playing soccer, he says both have big-league talent, but he will only help one at a time turn pro. Skillful forward Tato sails a penalty kick past Beto’s usually impenetrable goalkeeping and heads off to Mexico City.
That’s the only soccer scene until about the final 20 minutes of the film, but we hear that Tato quickly becomes a star, earning the nickname Cursi (or Corny) because of his flamboyant victory dances. Beto nurses his bitterness until Baton finds him a team, then Beto becomes known as Rudo (or Tough) because of his hard-nosed style.
Both get sidetracked by the usual sudden-fame vices — Tato gets caught up with the wrong woman in a party lifestyle, while Beto’s gambling habit spins out of control — leading up to a dramatic championship game with the brothers on opposite teams.
Cuaron deserves props for the thrilling conclusion, which avoids the obvious, all-too-neat endings, but “Rudo y Cursi” isn’t much of a ballgame until the final moments.
DVD features: Making-of featurette, deleted scenes, music videos and commentary.
— BAM
CD review: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, “Speed of Life”
A version of this review appears in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “Speed of Life” (Sugar Hill Records)
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band marks more than four decades of making music with “Speed of Life,” the group’s first studio album in five years.
The venerable band — which currently includes singer/guitarist Jeff Hanna, singer/percussionist Jimmie Fadden, singer/keyboardist Bob Carpenter and banjo player John McEuen — proves it still has musical chops and eclectic style to spare on the new record.
The album opens with the folksy-blues of “Tulsa Sounds Like Trouble to Me,” about a rambler who always finds romantic complications in the Oklahoma hills. The quartet stays in the old-timey vein with “Tryin’ to Try,” about a beleaguered would-be suitor, and “Earthquake,” a top-tapper that showcases McEuen’s banjo.
But the band also crafts music that is undeniably modern with tracks like “Brand New Heartache” and “The Resurrection,” though these songs bear little resemblance to anything currently heard on country radio.
The group’s delicate country-rock sensibilities, which have been so influential on group’s like the Eagles, are emphasized on the title track and the ballad “Amazing Love.” The cautionary tale “Somethin’ Dangerous” and instrumental “Lost in the Pines” tap into a spooky vibe. And the band gets playful on covers of Canned Heat’s “Going up the Country” and Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle.”
McEuen will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Lions Park, 201 W Daws in Norman. The free show will be the final in the 2009 Summer Breeze Concert series, produced by the Performing Arts Studio. For more information, go to www.thepas.org.
- BAM
