CD review: Audra Mae and the Almighty Sound
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Audra Mae and the Almighty Sound “Audra Mae and the Almighty Sound” (OneSideDummy Records)
Oklahoma-born and bred singer-songwriter Audra Mae’s new backing band earns its grand name by making an almighty difference in her sound with their new self-titled album.
With her 2010 debut album “The Happiest Lamb,” Mae stuck mostly with earthy, acoustic and lovely if often mournful storytelling in her self-described “gypsy cowgirl soul” vein. But with the Almighty Sound at her back, the Los Angeles-based musician has electrified her sound, both literally and figuratively.
From the opening track, the Putnam City High School graduate makes a clear statement that she is embracing her destiny as a modern-day blues-rocker. With the rollicking anthem “The Real Thing,” the sultry-voiced songstress declares “baby I’m coming/better ready yourself/be looking for me ‘cause I’m the real thing,” and she has enough vocal power and feisty attitude to make listeners unquestioningly believe it.
By the second and third tracks, the loping bad girl’s ode “My Friend the Devil” with its dusty Tex-Mex vibe and the toe-tapping tease “Little Red Wagon” with its barroom piano, the Almighty Sound — stand-up bassist Joe Ginsberg, guitarist Jarrad Kritzstein, pianist Frank Pedano and drummer Kiel Feher — has proven its musical chops to any doubters.
Country singer-songwriter and co-producer Deana Carter (“Did I Shave My Legs for This”) penned the sexy rock scorcher “Smokin’ the Boys” with the front woman, and Mae and her cohorts go country with the hopeful two-step “Annie Get Your Gun.” But the Oklahoma native, who co-wrote all 11 tracks, also asserts herself as an able jazz chanteuse on the toasty-warm ballad “Old Italian Love Songs.”
Mae closes her sophomore effort with “Two Melodies,” the kind of pretty, wistful story-song that characterized her debut album. But this time, she leads into the acoustic closer with the foot-stomping, sing-along fun of “Jebediah Moonshine’s Friday Night Shack Party,” an almighty 3 ½ minutes of musical romping that will have fans celebrating the continuing evolution of Audra Mae and her Almighty Sound.
— BAM
CD review: Cady Groves “This Little Girl” EP
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Pop
Cady Groves “This Little Girl” EP (RCA Records)
Oklahoma-bred Cady Groves is putting the pop music world on notice: She has too much attitude to be messed with and an abundance of talent that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Groves, 22, who grew up in Marlow, Cache and Yukon before relocating to Los Angeles, makes her major-label debut with “This Little Girl,” a four-song EP meant to preview a planned full-length album due out later this year.
The singer-songwriter initially built a loyal fan base showcasing her music on MySpace. Those efforts led her to self-release two EPs, 2009’s “A Month Of Sundays” and 2010’s “The Life Of A Pirate,” which in turn helped her land a record deal with RCA.
She may look young and pretty, but the new EP’s title track reinforces the reputation she has built on her popular Twitter feed as a fierce, say-anything woman. Groves not only co-wrote the revenge epic with Tom Meredith and Sean Douglas, she absolutely makes you believe she is capable of cold-bloodedly gunning down any cheater stupid enough to cross her. Swedish producer Kristian Lundin matches the murderous lyrics with an irresistibly catchy groove that merges driving rock drums and pulsing pop synthesizers.
Groves penned the dance-worthy anthem “We’re the Sh!t,” a defiant, girl-power fist-pumper, with Lundin and fellow Swede Carl Falk.
With “Ugly,” she channels Taylor Swift’s gift for skewering a manipulative pretty boy but sets it to a frantic pop-rock beat. Again, Groves co-wrote the track with Lundin as well as former ‘N Sync vocalist Joshua “JC” Chasez.
The EP closes with Groves’ rendition of Adele’s Grammy-winning heartbreaker “Someone Like You.” Her vocals may not have the depth and maturity of the British songstress, but the impressive cover gives Groves the chance to show off her range and interpretative skills.
Clocking in at just 12 minutes, Groves’ EP leaves an impression and listeners wanting more.
— BAM
Blu-ray review: “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1″
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1”
Director Bill Condon conjures the dream wedding and honeymoon fans were hoping for but fails to deliver the nightmarish birth described in the book with “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1.”
Taking a cue from the Harry Potter franchise, Condon and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg divided the 750-page final book in Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling paranormal romance saga into two movies that were filmed at the same time.
Although the first of the two-movie finale occasionally feels a bit padded, for the most part, the story is packed with enough milestones, characters and clashes to justify the split. Plus, the saga’s fourth novel provides a dramatic natural breaking point, giving “Part 1” a thrilling ending sure to have “Twi-hard” fans impatiently counting the days to the Nov. 16 theatrical debut of “Part 2.”
The first film opens — and lingers for nearly half an hour — on one of the saga’s most anticipated moments: Human heroine Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) marries her courtly vampire fiance Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) in an extravagant ceremony.
Impetuous werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), Bella’s best friend and spurned suitor, shows up at the reception and nearly starts a supernatural melee when he learns that Bella and Edward plan to delay her vampire transformation so the bride can have a typical wedding night. Considering Edward’s predatory instincts and extraordinary strength, Jacob fears Bella might not survive her honeymoon as a human.
Bella not only lives through their long-awaited consummation, she and Edward inadvertently make a half-human, half-vampire baby that it is both super-strong and fast-growing. While Edward is desperate to save his bride from the potentially deadly pregnancy, Bella is equally determined to safeguard her unborn child.
The conflict not only creates rifts in the tight-knit Cullen clan, it also causes division in the werewolf pack: While alpha male Sam Uley (Tahlequah-born Chaske Spencer) believes Bella’s baby is an intolerable threat and declares war on the Cullens, Jacob decides to protect his friend, no matter the cost.
The “Breaking Dawn — Part 1” Blu-ray comes with a six-part, 90-minute making-of documentary that can be played alone or picture-in-picture with the film on enabled Blu-ray players. Other bonus materials include a behind-the-scenes featurette about Jacob, a Bella and Edward wedding video and Condon’s audio commentary. The “jump to …” feature allows fans to skip to their favorite parts of the film, which should be handy for diehard Team Edward or Team Jacob devotees.
Unfortunately, the Blu-ray doesn’t include any sneak peeks at “Breaking Dawn — Part 2.”
— BAM
Concert review: Chris Young charms at Oklahoma City’s Diamond Ballroom
Chris Young plays March 12 at Oklahoma City Arena. (Archive photo by Nathan Poppe, For The Oklahoman)
From passionate balladeer to down-home party animal, Chris Young let fans hear his varied “Voices” Friday night at the Diamond Ballroom, where he played a solo show during a break from touring with country A-lister and Tishomingo resident Miranda Lambert.
Stalwartly weathering bitter cold outside and oppressive heat inside, hundreds of fans in cowboy hats, boots and embellished jeans whooped wildly as the up-and-coming country star took the stage nearly 40 minutes after opening act The Lost Trailers exited with their new comeback anthem “Underdog” and a reprise of their raucous “Holler Back.”
Young made the wait worthwhile, launching his set with the playful party song “Save Water, Drink Beer,” which had people toasting with their cups and bottles and shouting out the chorus even before he got the crowd organized into a friendly sing-along contest.
“I can already tell this is gonna be one of those deals that I have to roll my sleeves up,” the rising star said, cuffing the sleeves of his dark gray plaid shirt and flashing his killer smile.
But Young charmed his audience — particularly the female fans — with relative ease whether offering up a countrified version of Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” or making romance with “Gettin’ You Home (The Black Dress Song),” his first No. 1 hit.
With five chart-toppers to his name, the singer-songwriter’s hourlong set featured plenty of chances for the crowd to sing along. Young spiked his honey-rich baritone with ardor for “The Man I Want to Be,” “Tomorrow” and “You,” and the smash ballads got several couples slow-dancing around the ballroom. The Murfreesboro, Tenn., native banked the fires of passion to a good-humored warmth for “Voices,” his tribute to familial advice.
But the 2006 “Nashville Star” winner – who will compete for single and male vocalist of the year at the April 1 Academy of Country Music Awards – really showcased his impish sense of humor and polished showmanship with the album cuts and covers in his set. For instance, the handsome singer suavely vowed to alter the lyrics of “Lost” to suit women of every eye color.
“I love my blue-eyed ladies, but I love my green-eyed ladies and my brown-eyed ladies, too,” he said, prompting squeals and sighs from his female fans.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band shout-out in the country love song set up a rock-solid rendition of “Fishin’ in the Dark.”
“Ladies, I don’t care if you came here with your man or if you came here looking for one, this song’s for you,” he quipped as he launched into “I Can Take It from There.”
He then paused midway through the twangy seduction to emphasize his admiration for Conway Twitty and lead the crowd in singing a snippet of “I’d Love to Lay You Down.”
“Not only did he possibly have the best perm/mullet combination in country music … he had a (expletive) of hits, so I know you know Conway Twitty,” Young said.
Fulfilling a request he received backstage, he also paid homage to military servicemen and women and their families with the moving story-song “The Dashboard,” although the fervent performance was unfortunately marred by feedback.
Occasionally pausing to wipe his sweaty face with a towel and comment on the overheated venue, Young got his croon on and showed off his lung power with the road song “Neon,” the title track of his 2011 album. He and his talented band got boots stomping with fun-loving fan favorites “Twenty-One Candles,” “Small Town Big Time” and “Who’s Gonna Take Me Home.”
For an encore, Young and his cohorts sent the crowd home with an energy jolt, courtesy an expended and amped up cover of the ZZ Top classic “Sharp Dressed Man.”
Even dressed in jeans and sweat-stained plaid, the rising star still pulled it off.
— BAM
Blu-ray review: “The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall”
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash spectacle gets an appropriately lavish 25th anniversary celebration with “The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall.”
Widely considered the most successful entertainment project in history, the silver anniversary production was staged in grand fashion in October and beamed to movie theaters worldwide. Even fans who have seen “The Phantom” performed live and in person will be impressed at the royal treatment the musical receives in the special staging, augmented by rich high-definition Blu-ray picture and crisp Dolby Digital sound.
Featuring a cast and orchestra of more than 200, the commemorative performance was inspired by the original 1986 staging by Hal Prince and Gillian Lynne on London’s West End. Lynne returned to oversee the musical staging and choreography, which was cannily adapted for the famed London concert hall.
The international cast features the perfectly picked Sierra Boggess as lovely young soprano Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious masked magician and musical genius known as “The Phantom of the Opera.” Ramin Karimloo gives a commanding star turn as the terrifying but sympathetic Phantom, while the supporting cast — particularly Hadley Fraser as Christine’s fiancé Raoul, Wendy Ferguson as the Paris Opera’s proud prima donna Carlotta and Liz Roberston as stern choreographer Madame Giry — contribute uniformly stellar performances.
The Blu-ray features a grand finale with special appearances by Lloyd Webber and the original London company, including Michael Crawford, who first played the role of the Phantom on the West End and Broadway. In addition, the finale includes performances by Sarah Brightman, who originated the role of Christine, and former Phantoms Peter Joback, John Owen-Jones, Anthony Warlow and Colm Wilkinson as well as Karimloo.
Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes featurette and a trailer for Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom” follow-up, “Love Never Dies.” A fully staged pre-recorded Australian performance of the sequel will be screened in several Oklahoma movie theaters at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 and March 7. For more information, go to Ö www.fathomevents.com.
— BAM
Blu-ray review: “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas”
No holiday custom goes unbesmirched, no ethnic or religious stereotype is left untapped, no boundary of good taste is untested in “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas,” the third installment in the uproarious if uneven stoner comedy series.
The series’ screenwriters, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, deserve credit for letting their characters grow up — well, sort of — which means they have more on their mind than finding the nearest burger joint where they can alleviate the munchies.
To start, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are no longer the close pals they were in their younger days. Always the more responsible of the pair, Harold has married and is trying to have a baby with the sweet and sexy Maria (Paula Garcés), plus he has moved into a fancy house in the suburbs and taken a Wall Street job. Sure, he has to dodge egg-throwing Occupy protestors when he leaves work, but his life is otherwise quiet, stable and complete with a new best pal, his fussy neighbor Todd (Tom Lennon).
Since his girlfriend Vanessa (Danneel Harris) dumped him, Kumar, meanwhile, has failed the drug test for a hospital job, befriended his much-younger horndog neighbor Adrian (Amir Blumenfeld) and is whiling his life away smoking pot in the crappy apartment he once shared with Harold. When a package addressed to Harold arrives, Kumar ventures out to the suburbs to deliver it and inadvertently torches the prized Christmas tree Harold’s frightening father-in-law (Danny Trejo) raised from a sapling.
Along with their new buddies Adrian and Todd and Todd’s toddler Ava, who will soon consume a holiday buffet of illicit drugs, Harold and Kumar go on a surrealistic quest to find a new Christmas tree, encountering a psychotic Ukrainian gangster (Elias Koteas), a popular seasonal toy called the Wafflebot, and of course, the always-debauched and hilarious Neil Patrick Harris. In the movie’s, um, high point, they even become clay animated.
The doped-up duo’s yuletide adventure doesn’t have the giddy freshness of their initial outing, 2004’s “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” but it boasts more inspired and consistent laughs than 2008’s “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.”
Bonus features: The theatrical cut and the six-minute-longer “Extra Dope Edition,” deleted scenes, comedic vignettes featuring Tom Lennon and a behind-the-scenes featurette about the claymation sequence.
— BAM
CD review: Dierks Bentley “Home”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Dierks Bentley “Home” (Capitol Nashville)
After earning widespread critical acclaim with his 2010 progressive bluegrass album “Up on the Ridge,” Dierks Bentley returns to commercial country with “Home,” a solid collection of party songs, ballads and anthems anchored by the well-crafted title track.
The Arizona native wrote “Home,” his latest top 10 hit, with Dan Wilson and his album’s co-producer Brett Beavers in the days after the 2011 Tucson shooting spree that killed six people and injured 13, including former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The trio avoids both jingoistic chest-pounding and soppy sentimentality, creating a rare patriotic ode that promotes unity, expresses loyalty and still acknowledges the flaws in the “place that we all call home.”
Due out Tuesday, the album already boasts a No. 1 hit with the rollicking “Am I the Only One,” which Bentley penned with Jim Beavers, who co-wrote his previous party smash “Sideways,” and Jon Randall.
The funny warning “Diamonds Make Babies,” the swaggering come-on “Gonna Die Young” and the zippy toe-tapper “5-1-5-0” all show off Bentley’s fun-loving good nature. He drowns his worries about for sale signs on Main Street and low-yield farm fields with the bluesy country-rocker “Tip It on Back.”
The singer-songwriter makes romance with the seductive “Breathe You In” and walks the fine line between love and obsession with “In My Head.” He and Little Big Town singer Karen Fairchild beautifully blend their voices on the slow-dance ballad “When You Gonna Come Around.”
Bentley reunites with celebrated bluegrass musicians Sam Bush and Tim O’Brien on the album highlight “Heart of a Lonely Girl,” and his daughter Evie, 3, appears as a guest vocalist on the closer “Thinking of You,” his touching love letter to his wife and two girls.
— BAM
Movie review: “The Grey”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. 1 1/2 of 4 stars.
Movie review: ‘The Grey’
Director/co-writer Joe Carnahan’s attempts to mix pulp and philosophy just make a muddled mess of his grim survival thriller.
Director/co-writer Joe Carnahan’s attempts to mix pulp and philosophy just make a muddled mess of “The Grey”
For the grim survival thriller, “The A-Team” helmer reunites with late-career action star Liam Neeson, one of the few actors I can think of who can believably play a deeply depressed sharp-shooter who spouts poetry one moment and punches a wolf in the face the next.
Carnahan also gets stalwart performances from his supporting cast of where-have-I-seen-that-guy-before character actors, who with Neeson braved hip-deep snow, cutting winds and subzero temperatures to give the film its striking authenticity.
But the filmmaker either has no idea what kind of movie he really wants to make or doesn’t have the wherewithal to pick a tone and stick with it. “The Grey” plays too bleak and talky to qualify as a guilty-pleasure action-horror flick, but it relies too much on stock characters, laughably fake computer-generated wolves and gruesome nature-as-slasher-villain death scenes to be taken seriously as a meaningful existential drama.
Neeson plays Ottway, a reticent marksman hired to shoot the wolves that prowl too close to the remote Alaskan oil refinery where he is an outcast among the rest of the workers: ex-cons, fugitives and others he deems not fit for the rest of mankind. Devastated by the loss of his wife (Anne Openshaw), whom he remembers in many hazy flashbacks, Ottway teeters on the brink of suicide, but changes his mind when he hears the plaintive howl of a wolf.
Instead, he heads to Anchorage with a group of fellow roughnecks, but the small, rickety plane crashes violently on the way. The brutal crash — one of the movie’s most visceral action sequences — leaves just Ottway and a half-dozen others alive and stranded in the unforgiving wilderness.
For someone who had come so close to losing the will to live, Ottway soon proves he will fight fiercely to survive and emerges as the de facto leader of the ragtag group.
The survivors include the standard action characters, including the kind family man Talget (Dermot Mulroney, almost unrecognizable in thick glasses and a thicker beard), the sensitive introvert Hendrick (Dallas Roberts), the quiet, gentle giant Burke (Nonso Anozie) and the antagonistic ex-con Diaz (Frank Grillo), who challenges Ottway’s leadership until they come to an understanding. Each of the actors, especially Grillo and Neeson, get some meaty scenes in which they contemplate the harshness of nature, question the meaning of life or die spectacularly.
While the tundra poses many dangers, including a dearth of food, water and shelter from the frigid cold, one of nature’s perils soon emerges as the deadliest: a huge pack of marauding wolves that begins picking off the crash survivors one by one.
Unfortunately, the wolves have been augmented with CGI so cut-rate it makes the digitally crafted werewolves in the “Twilight” movies look like documentary footage by comparison.
But the canines’ shoddy appearance isn’t nearly as ridiculous or offensive as their use as a cheap plot device. Even forgetting for the moment that wolves have rarely been to known to attack humans, particularly a group of reasonably able-bodied men, because, hey, it’s just a movie, the pack in “The Grey” are an uncommonly strange lot.
Carnahan’s wolves have an interesting habit of surprise attacking just as the plot begins to lag. Then then snap threateningly at the heels of the men, almost catch them in their slathering maws and then retreat to yowl until Ottway and Co. have the chance to build a bonfire, muster their strength or deal with some other more pressing hazard. Convenient.
Filmed on location in British Columbia, Canada, Masanobu Takayanagi’s cinematography effectively sets the scene, making you practically shiver with the biting cold. But “The Grey” just doesn’t have a story worth getting lost in.
— BAM
CD review: Tim McGraw “Emotional Traffic”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Country
Tim McGraw “Emotional Traffic” (Curb Records)
After two years of waiting and a long-in-coming legal drama, fans of Tim McGraw finally have the chance to get caught in the country music superstar’s “Emotional Traffic,” his final album for Curb Records, the independent label he started his career with back in the early 1990s.
Released Tuesday, “Emotional Traffic” doesn’t live up to McGraw’s declaration of “my best album ever” boldly stickered on the CD case. Nor does it give any credence to Curbs’ lawsuit claim that the album didn’t have enough potential singles to warrant release. To this listener’s ear, the truth exists somewhere in the midst of those two extremes, and “Emotional Traffic” sounds like quintessential McGraw. In fact, current climbing single “Better Than I Used to Be” bears a bit too strong a sonic resemblance to his 2004 smash “Live Like You Were Dying.”
Despite Curbs’ contention that the album was recorded too early and would seem dated when it was dropped, “Emotional Traffic” is packed with the huge arena-filling country-rockers, sentimental crossover-ready country-pop ballads and intriguing boundary-pushing experiments that McGraw has long favored. In fact, thanks to Tim Tebow, the earnest religious anthem “Touchdown Jesus” has a whole new relevance, and McGraw, an avid sports fan, digs deep to send the metaphor soaring into the end zone.
The Louisiana native opens the album with the tour de force heartbreaker “Halo” that like the best of his hits matches cutting lyrics with equally aggressive electric and lap-steel guitars. But the momentum dribbles away by the second track, the insipid soft-rock love song “Right Back at Ya.”
From that junction, “Emotional Traffic” veers a bit erratically between hits and misses. More than a year after it topped the charts, it’s still great fun to sing along with the danceable “Felt Good on My Lips,” and McGraw and his superstar wife Faith Hill show off their easy chemistry and vocal harmony with their lively cover of Dee Ervin’s R&B classic “One Part, Two Part.”
“Only Human,” the country singer’s anticipated duet with R&B star Ne-Yo, doesn’t have much going for it apart from the interesting contrast in their voices, with the lyrics more or less taking the well-worn path of countless other empowerment anthems like it. McGraw turns down a similar road with “I Will Not Fall Down,” which he co-wrote with Martina McBride and the Warren Brothers; it is the only track to bear his songwriting credit.
With “Emotional Traffic” finally out of its jam, it will be more interesting to see what musical route McGraw sets now that he is finally free to pull away from Curb.
— BAM
Movie review: “Shame”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. 3 1/2 of 4 stars.
Movie review: ‘Shame’
Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan again prove they are two of the brightest young stars working in the movie business in the decidedly dark drama, an NC-17-rated story of a spiraling sex addict.
Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan again prove they are two of the brightest young stars working in the movie business in the decidedly dark drama “Shame.”
If there was any justice in Hollywood — no guarantees there — Fassbender (“X-Men: First Class”) would win every major acting award this season for his daring lead turn in British director/co-writer Steve McQueen’s (no relation to the action star) unforgettable and unflinching look at sexual addiction.
Fassbender strips himself bare in every sense to play about Brandon Sullivan, who on the surface seems to be living the pop-culture version of every man’s American dream: He is successful in his high-class white-collar job (we never learn exactly what he does for a living, but we soon know all too well what he does with his life), he looks killer in an expensive, fashionable suit, and he lives in an expansive if spare New York apartment. Most importantly, he has a different pretty woman in his bed every night, and often he and the lady of the evening don’t even make it to a bed before he gets some action.
But Brandon isn’t happy. In fact, he is miserable and self-loathing and utterly alone. He is a sex addict whose well-ordered life has become devoted solely to feeding his compulsions. If he isn’t picking up a woman in a bar — his smooth ease at getting the girl constantly upstages his sleazy married boss’ (James Badge Dale) cloyingly flirty style — he’s hiring prostitutes or trolling Internet pornography. And Brandon’s facade is beginning to crack at the seams: His work computer has become riddled with porn-related viruses, and he’s started slipping into the men’s room at the office to abuse himself.
Brandon’s systematic spiral is disrupted when his equally damaged sister, Sissy (Mulligan, “Drive”), pays him a surprise visit. Since she currently has no other place to live, it seems she will be in residence for awhile.
Sissy is as uninhibited and desperately needy as Brandon is closed-off and taciturn. The siblings clearly have an unhealthy relationship, although the movie doesn’t get into the specifics of it. Sissy at one point tells her brother, “We’re not bad people. We just come from a bad place,” never revealing what circumstances shaped them. Judging from the results, they must have been pretty bad.
While Sissy delves into an ill-advised fling with Brandon’s serial-cheater boss, Brandon desperately tries to embark on a normal romantic relationship with a fetching co-worker (Nicole Beharie, also excellent).
While much of the attention given to the film has focused on its NC-17 rating, which it earns, “Shame” isn’t at all a sexy film. It is a graphic, visceral depiction of sexual addiction, which too often is treated like a punch line.
“Shame” reunites McQueen, who co-wrote the script with Abi Morgan (“The Iron Lady”), and Fassbender, who played an Irishman on a hunger strike in the auteur’s fact-based 2008 debut “Hunger.” As Brandon, Fassbender exudes a palpable sense of despair and danger.
But Mulligan’s slow, sorrowful crooning of “New York, New York” lingers as one of the most memorable cinematic moments of 2011.
Although the movie made my top 10 list for the year just past, “Shame” is one of those films I will probably never watch again. For those who are able to handle the explicit content, “Shame” is certainly worth seeing even if it’s hard to watch.
— BAM
