No Direction Home

I thought I'd have to write this review from memory since I just sent my copy back to Blockbuster, but nooo, I'm now watching it on PBS at 4am. For those of you without insomnia but with TiVo, this is a good way to go unless you're a Dylan freak. There's no commentary track on the DVD anyway.

I've posted about Dylan before and the mystic way he has of expressing himself, both musically and verbally. This becomes more evident as he ages... he sages. I feel like he's channeling Martin Luther King saying, "I've been to the mountaintop and I care about telling people about pain and how much better we could be doing." But then Bob's eyes go on to add, "and you can call me a genius or idolize me but you'd be a lot better off just absorbing my simple message".

Although I've always appreciated Dylan as a brilliant poet, and seen him both with and without the Dead in concert, great concerts... he's never been one of my favorite singers (and they even went into how bad he sounded relative to predecessors) and folk music is, ok, I'll just say it, too fucking white for me.

One of the best parts of the DVD is Mavis Staples saying, "What do you mean, 'call me a man', what do you know about it?" but she goes on to say, and I go on to learn through this film, what artistic expression is about. He was building on a traditional artform that was essentially, white boy blues. I mean when this music originated in Europe, times weren't so great. A lot of white people have been downtrodden too.

So, even though I'd rather suck on chalk than listen to some of this old crap, Dylan, I can listen to. Why? He modernized it. He played an important role in extending the life of this very old, outdated music. He created bridges between that and the Beat and Socialist movements, which were also in full force in NY at that post-war time and then blended all that with an awareness of what was going on down south with the civil rights movement. Let's face it, folk music was first on the scene there.

Don't forget that so much folk music was never recorded. I mean, that's pretty much the point. This is the music of the people, a way that poor people, without other modes of communication, can discuss and spread the issues of the day to raise people's awareness... to empower them. Folk music has truly been an important way of spreading the word, like Gospel, and Bob Dylan has played a huge role in that regard.

His contribution to the way music approached the anti-war movement can't be overestimated. Like Lennon, he smiles behind those eyes and takes little credit. He's a medium, the words just come to him. Words can be very powerful. And in the hands of Bob Dylan, who found the perfect format for his, they can truly change the world. Although I faulted Rolling Stone for picking the eponymous Like a Rolling Stone as the best song of all time, it certainly deserves a prominent place, as do a number of his other songs.

Crash

Crash got a great buzz when it was released in theaters, just a few months ago. It seems like the release periods are getting shorter and shorter as producers try to capitalize more on their primary promotion. With attention spans shrinking from massive inundation, we can't remember the film's promotion by the time the DVD comes out and they have to duplicate efforts... unless they bring out the DVDs quicker. Since DVD sales outpace box office by some 300%.... you do the math. The commentary track, by the understated, perceptive Don Cheadle, and Paul Haggis who wrote, directed and produced, adds to the DVD, though not as much as I expected.

Also looks like the film is trying to find an Oscar niche. Cheadle had great success propelling Hotel Rwanda this way last year and I have no doubt he'll do equally well with this socially provocative gem. By bringing out both the film and DVD during slow periods, it gets viewed, and its wonderful, challenging content gets digested. The hope is that, as with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, people will still remember all the way to voting time next winter.

In this case, I think they will. I certainly hope Don Cheadle will be recognized again because he continually comes out with such thoughtful yet entertaining films. This one plays the race card even more blatantly than Hotel Rwanda. Set in post-OJ LA, it meanders through the lives of many Angelinos who, sometimes literally, crash into each other. The LA assemblage of multiple intersecting stories concept has been done before in (all-white) movies like LA Story and LA Confidential, but this is both modern day and ultra real.... maybe too real.

It's filled with confusing cuts, too many unbelievable coincidences and lots of zoom outs into the sky. Oddly enough, none of that bothers me as much as it usually does, mostly because almost every part is played by name actor. Crash is filled with lots of insights, like how rap music can even be offensive to young black gangbangers if their lines are written by older white men to take umbrage at how condescending and demeaning rap is to blacks when you compare their their lightning fast hobitchnigga drivel with the statements of people like Huey Newton & Eldridge Cleaver.

Every character in this large and talented cast of characters is racist. Some shrink in fear out of racism, some are attracted to those outside their race, there are misunderstandings due to racism and murders due to racism. Growth and getting over ones' prejudices are shown here too. It's a cagey film, you can't ever predict who's gonna do what out of their feelings about race. And maybe that's what makes it so true to life.

Monster in Law

The only thing notable about Monster in Law, which just came out on DVD, is that it features Jane Fonda's first performance on film in fifteen years. She, and Jennifer Lopez, don't pull any punches, literally, on film, and the result is hysterical. It's sort of a younger/older female vibe, pass the torch stuff, or whatever. I remember the atmosphere on another classic in this genre, Terms of Endearment, was pretty bad because Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger sort of took their characters a bit too much to heart, off screen, and the fur flew.

But, apparently, Jane is the real deal. At the first meeting with Jennifer, and the director, Jane kicked off her shoes and sat on the floor... obviously to cut the intimidation factor. The woman is a living legend, from her in your face Hanoi Jane, to China Syndrome, Coming Home, Barefoot in the Park to Golden Pond, two Oscars, Hayden, Turner, aerobics queen... open about all her foibles and weaknesses. She's lived quite a life. For a woman in her seventies, she looks fabulous. There is a dignity but a real flexibility of mind and emotion that seems to characterize all actors, even as they age. So many people get rigid but artists seem to keep expanding.

You hear so many actresses complain about what happens to them as they go past forty. Even la creme de la creme find themselves lacking for juicy roles. I look around at my own peers. The women my age when I was in my twenties were idealistic and vibrant, in my thirties they had careers and/or young babies... meaningful, somewhat exciting, at least interesting. Now my peers talk about their kids, their friends, their husbands... like the moons of the world. People don't write stories about moons, except Forrest Gump, who revolved around some interesting orbits. Writers write about stars.

Jane Fonda is a star of the highest magnitude and is very much worth watching in this film. She had been offered many good scripts during her retirement, but turned them down. As a result, she comes back, not as some washed up has been, given some second chance, but with confidence that exudes on screen and it's uplifting to watch a woman in this position.