Category: Music

I Used To Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story

Rated: PGI Used To Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story

Directed by: Jessica Leski

Produced by: Jessica Leski, Rita Walsh

Featuring: Elif Cam, Sadia, Dara Donelly, Susan Bower.

Designed as a glimpse into a teenage girl’s sparkly, heart-studded, secret diary, this engaging documentary opens with black and white footage of girls who have flocked en masse for the smallest glimpse of The Beatles during their 1964 world tour. Like some curious kind of behaviour that David Attenborough might explain in a nature program, this knot of screaming, crying, hair-tearing, swooning girls is a phenomenon that had begun to sweep the globe, leaving many a parent and those not caught up in the frenzy utterly bemused.

But. Who are these girls and what has become of them?

In this cross-continental exploration, these questions are addressed through the lives of four very different women, from Susan Bower an Australian television producer, one of the original fangirls captured in the archival footage of the Beatles tour, to Elif Cam, a schoolgirl living in Long Island, New York whose obsession with One Direction has paralleled the five years it has taken the filmmakers to produce their own labour of love.

According to Elif, when One Direction perform ‘It’s like they’re singing to me, “You’re beautiful”.’ And, what young girl could resist a really cute boy looking deeply into her eyes and whispering her all of her heart’s desires, even before she is really aware she has them? While, Dara the more technically-minded Australian brand strategist couldn’t resist the allure of, ‘Five guys in the rain dancing in slow motion’.

Analysing her own longstanding and unshakeable attachment, Dara sets out a chart on an office-grade whiteboard to examine ‘Boyband Basics’.  There’s: ‘The mysterious one, the cute one, the sensible dad/older brother, the sexy one—shirt off—and the forgotten one.’ And, there are definitely, ‘No girlfriends, no brothers and no beards.’

In some quarters, boybands are seen as manufactured, manipulative and relatively unskilled. Given that only one boy in the band might even be able to play the guitar, it can be social suicide for the girls to reveal their secret passion. But, that is precisely the allure. It’s about the perfect boy. And, in a boyband, there’s a boy to match the dreams of every girl.

For Elif, the girl on a video that went viral when she cried uncontrollably at the thought of seeing One Direction, ‘They’re not even like human beings. Nobody can be that perfect’. And, it seems that for all of the girls, the most perfect thing about the perfect boy is that he is unattainable.

At a time in their lives when girls are starting to feel the first flutterings of interest in boys, when their emotions are wayward with wild crushes galore, and at a time when real boys ‘are jerks’, boybands offer unconditional love. They sing of love and tantalise with hints of sex, but it is never overt. They are the boys who will never break your heart.

A Star Is Born

Rated: MA Star Is Born

Directed by: Bradley Cooper

Screenplay by: Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper and Will Fetters

Based on the 1954 Screenplay by: Moss Bart and the 1976 Screenplay by John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion and Frank Peirson

Based on a Story by: William Wellman and Robert Carson

Produced by: Bill Gerber, p. g. a., Jon Peters, Bradley Cooper, p. g. a., Todd Phillips, Lynette Howell Taylor, p. g. a.

Starring: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Rafi Gavron, Anthony Ramos, Dave Cahppelle.

A Star Is Born is one of those country love stories because with real love comes the real tragedy of watching a star rise despite people telling her she’s ugly and the mega-star musician suffering addiction and tinnitus while losing the sense of who he is.

Add music, good music, and you’ve got more just a love story.

I didn’t go into the film expecting to like the music so much.  I’m a ‘No pop no style, I strictly roots’, kinda gal.

But all the singing was recorded live and most of the songs original and written for the film – no miming, just the real voice so you can feel it coming through the screen.

And with the opening scene of Jack (Bradley Cooper) singing “Black Eyes” with band, ‘Luckas Nelson & Promise of the Real’ I was hooked.

Sure, Jack was blitzed, but he could still sing a good tune.

Cut to Ally (Lady Gaga), a waitress, heeled boots under a toilet stall, pacing, breaking up with a ridiculous boyfriend – ‘fucking men!’ to her getting ready for a gig singing in a drag bar where you bring your own boobs – with pasted fine-line eyebrows, lying back on a bar, her voice slipping over the French as she sings “La Vie En Rose” (Louiguy and Edith Piaf) – there’s goosebumps when their eyes meet – they’re soul mates.

The music is used to compliment the story because it’s all about seeing these two together on screen: first time director Bradley Cooper with first time feature film actress Stefani, AKA Lady Gaga.

What a combination: Cooper as Jack with that soulful look off-setting the sometimes-awkward Lady Gaga as Ally, only to be used for added authenticity because we’re all a bit awkward sometimes. And yet, really, she’s not.  Ally just is.

It’s amazing how much I feel like I know this character now.  And how I’m relating to this superstar so well – she’s funny, genuine and wow, can she sing.

But it’s the two of them together that really makes the film.  I don’t think Ally would have been as believable without Cooper as Jack.  And Lady Gaga’s voice lifts the film above the usual country love song.

I was so thankful this wasn’t a musical or music video.

A Star Is Born is a well-balanced film with the authentic music matching the love story so when the music got poppy, the story got sad, to go full circle back to the earthy music again to compliment the end of the story.

Even when there could have been a cheesy moment between older brother Bobby (Sam Elliot) and younger brother Jack, all the feeling was captured in a look from Bobby while backing the car away – everything shown in that one look.

There’s drama here, and it’s a tear-jerker (damn it! I hate getting teary in the cinema), as we’re shown the life-behind-the-curtain of the talented songwriter finding her voice in the musician who sees her as clearly as she sees him.

Hearts Beat Loud

Rated: PGHearts Beat Loud

Directed by: Brett Haley

Co-Written by: Brett Haley, Marc Basch

Produced by: Houston King, Sam Bisbee, Sam Slater

Original Songs/Music: Keegan Dewitt

Starring: Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Ted Danson, Toni Collette, Sasha Lane, Blyth Danner.

 

Hearts Beat Loud is one of those films that can really go either way – a father and daughter who write songs and play together in a band?!  Cheesy!

But when I saw Nick Offerman was starring, I knew I was in for a treat.

Featuring the original songs and music by Keegan Dewitt, there’s an indie flavour as one-time musician and record shop owner Frank plays melody on guitar while his daughter, Sam sings and plays keyboard.

When they record a song and Frank uploads the track to Spotify, suddenly becoming a band for real is now a possibility when their song is selected to be part of the ‘New Indie Mix’, reaching thousands of listeners – a success at a time when Frank’s future at the record store looks bleak while Sam’s about to leave to study Pre-Med at college.

Director Brett Haley wanted to make a musical where the songs are grounded in real-life situations, so it’s not narrative made of song but rather the music being a mode of communication.

Rather than an awful saccharine musical, the soundtrack makes the film work because the music is gold.  As Frank (Nick Offerman) says of Sam’s (Kiersey Clemons) song and hook for the film, Hearts Beat Loud, ‘it just has to have a feeling – this has feeling’.

Sure, OK, it does get a bit cheesy near the end with enthusiasm as ‘We’re Not A Band’ plays their first ever performance… But I was already pretty emotional by that stage with Frank’s store, Red Hook Records about to close and seeing him struggle with a resistive teen daughter on his own and an ailing mother Marianne (Blyth Danner) and the acceptance of what will never be…

And there’s some gems here like Frank telling Sam, ‘When life hands you conundrums you turn them into art.’

It’s all very life-affirming and inventive and creative and sweet.

We see the relationship between father and daughter and their community of friends from bar-owner, Dave (Ted Danson), landlady Leslie (Toni Collette) and Sam’s girlfriend Rose (Sasha Lane) all part of the growing process of father and daughter as they look to their next stage in life while remaining close.

It’s an accepting, bitter-sweet story that had me, I admit, crying happy tears because it’s hard to move on and grow and change.  But it’s also healthy and good.

Director and co-writer Brett Haley states, ‘Given the level of anxiety in the world right now, it was very important to make a film that makes people feel good, and that reminds people of the simple goodness in the world and in ordinary life.’

Midnight Oil 1984

Rated: MMidnight Oil 1984

Writer, Director:  Ray Argall

Producers:  Rachel Argall, Ray Argall

Starring :  Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie, Andrew James, Martin Rotsey, and Peter Gifford.

 

In 1984 as Australia faced the turmoil and uncertainty of political conflicts, systemic poverty, mega powers flexing their nuclear muscle, and the home-grown unwashable stain of a nation’s refusal to acknowledge the legacy of racism towards its indigenous culture – Midnight Oil embarked on a national tour of their album Red Sails in the Sunset and unified a nationwide voice of protest with their music.

Ray Argall’s documentary, Midnight Oil 1984 gives candid unseen angles and film footage of Midnight Oil at the height of galvanising social change through their music that hit the top of Australian and International music charts. Argall’s lens muscles into the action of sardine packed audiences – the audiences packed because of entrepreneurial self-promotion – in sweaty pub venues with no air conditioning and walls and ceilings dripping with honey thick sweat.

Argyll’s lens dips into the wide mouthed stares of audiences, witnessing social change at the windmill circling arms of a 6’4 gyrating maniac lead singer, as he unifies them together in songs of protest.

I too stood like a stunned possum in headlights the first time I saw Peter Garrett live in the 80’s with Midnight Oil, at New Zealand’s, Sweetwater’s Music Festival – where they played alongside UB40, Psychedelic Furs, Toots and the Maytals and others – I too gaped, at what I thought was a gyrating maniac.

He looked like someone had rented his body for the weekend, an alien perhaps or a rogue angel on a vacay down under in New Zealand, an alien or angel, who in their haste to jump in the body, had lost the manual and now had no clue how to steer the 6’4 convulsing kinetic frame that was Midnight Oil’s charismatic and out-of-this-world, lead singer, Peter Garrett.

Director Ray Argall’s, Midnight Oil 1984, delivers up a powerful moving snapshot, of a time when one of Australia’s greatest rock bands, collided with Australian politics and delivered the voice of the common people to a world stage.

Intimate backstage scenes permissible through Argyll’s lens reveal a very unrock and roll off stage lifestyle – hot tea beverages are sipped between sets, yogic stretching by Garrett on the floor of a minimalist and functional dressing room – not a band rider in site; kilometer-upon-kilometer-long jogging tracks for Drummer Rob Hirst, as he gets body ready for his marathon on stage drumming performances. His drum kit nailed to the floor at every performance.

The band’s reputation was built on intense live performances, where they leapt on to stage and tore the places apart with their energy and the political rage of their lyrics.

Newspaper archives and recent band member interviews offer welcome backstory and give insights to the meteoric and controversial ascension of Peter Garrett into the political arena.

The legacy of Midnight Oil with their fight songs, social conscience and their unique stage presence chiseled the landscape of Australian rock history and changed a nation with what they bought to the stage.

Enigmatic and indefinable, for me Garrett vibrates with the stage presence of a rogue angel, and once seen he changes you for having looked and stared. Fellow band member, Drummer Rob Hirst, and Garrett’s friend of 45-years agrees, that whatever it is that Garrett does on stage, it cannot be called dancing, but whatever it is, it works.

Gurrumul

Rated: PGGurrumul

Written and Directed by: Paul Damien Williams

Produced by: Shannon Swan

Co-producers: Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, Mark T Grose, Michael Hohnen

Score by: Michael Hohnen, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, Erkki Veltheim

Indigenous Liaisons: Susan Dhangal Gurruwiwi, Johnathon Yunupingu, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu

Interviewees: Susan Dhangal Gurruwiwi, Michael Hohnen, Mark T Grose, Daisy Yunupingu (dec), Djuŋa Djuŋa Yunupingu, Terry Nyambi Yunupingu (dec), Erkki Veltheim, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.

On the 25th of July 2017, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu passed away, aged 46.

In Yolngu lore the name, image and voice of the recently departed is retired from all public use.  A very rare exception has been made by Gumatj and Gälpu clan leaders for this film.

Three days before his death, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu approved this film. It remains unchanged since this time.

All I could feel watching the life of Gurrumul was thankfulness.  To have a door opened into his world was an experience full of wonder; like a light was shone on a culture unseen or misunderstood.

Gurrumul is more than a documentary about music or a musician – the film gives insight into the Yolugu culture.

Growing up in the Galiwin’ku community on Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land, Gurrumul became the highest selling Indigenous artist in history.  Gurrumul is a documentary about his rise to fame and how the meek was able to travel and reach out with his music to touch people around the world.

Gurrumul was born blind.  Living in a community filled with music and ceremony, Gurrumul embraced singing and the guitar (beautifully played even though held up-side-down), because it made him happy.

His family felt bad for him because they thought he could never travel far from home.  But never underestimate.

With the help of Michael Hohnen and Mark Grose and their record label, Skinnyfish Music, Gurrumul became a household name.  But it was more than the music that held Michael and Gurrumul together, they became close friends – they became brothers.

It was hard going for Skinnyfish Music, dealing with an artist who refused to speak, where English was his fourth language.  It wasn’t about the fame or the money – it was about keeping the stories of his life alive.  There had to be something to resonate, to have meaning, otherwise – what’s the point?

It’s so refreshing to see someone who values the land, the animals in it; family and keeping the knowledge of the world and why we’re in it, alive.

Gurrumul’s aunty speaks about death, about life – where does it start?  Where does it end?

Watching Michael try to explain to the media in interviews what the saltwater crocodile means to Gurrumul – that it isn’t an animal to represent his people – that he is the saltwater crocodile, was amusing and fascinating.

It’s such a gentle unfolding I didn’t realise how strong the rising of emotion in response to the purity of his voice, the calling in the telling of his story in song.  Even in a different language I could still feel the meaning.  I’m getting teary writing about it.  Not from sadness but the exposure to such honesty of feeling.

There’s a brilliance in showing Gurrumul within a world so different to his own: being away from family, not speaking about himself – always Michael speaking on his behalf – because the Indigenous don’t speak about ‘l’, it’s always, ‘we’.  So, to leave on his own to go solo was a huge step.  But his to take; his life to share.

To have the opportunity to experience the world of Gurrumul, to be allowed into his community; into the life of such a private man from such a secluded community was to have my eyes opened (including that saltwater croc second eyelid!).

And the warmth of Michael and the team who put the documentary together have shared of piece of themselves for others to also see and enjoy.

A truly rewarding experience.

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