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This is It: Going Out Before the Bang

Who over there keeps requesting songs from “The Wiz”? Seriously, for the last time, that costume was itchy and I’m not doing it.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Sitting in the screening room, nearly breathless with anticipation, I waited for the lights to drop, the camera to roll and the music of the legendary “King of Pop” to fill the room. With that singular focus in mind, this concert film-cum-documentary fit the bill like a shiny sequined glove. Yet when you look beyond the harmonies and continually catchy beats, This is It fails to really capture much more and didn’t deliver the true experience many people are likely to be hoping for in terms of Michael Jackson’s final words.

This is It chronicles the final rehearsals for Michael’s massive and seemingly impressive last tour. If the level of performance and showmanship hinted at throughout the film was any indication of what the actual full concert experience would have been like, Mr. Jackson would have certainly cemented his place (if there was still any real doubt) as one of the best entertainers of all time. From a 3D movie experience built into “Thriller” to the iconographic dance routines brought back once more in “Beat It”, “The Way You Make Me Feel” and other #1 hit songs, the concert was set to amaze audiences with flashes of the new with blasts from the past.

The main downside of the project is that the footage, according to the opening preface, was commissioned by Michael for his personal archives. This was never really meant for widescreen audiences and in that respect wasn’t shot that way. It is tossed together as a montage of Michael’s greatest hits with a few CGI cutaways showing what things would have looked like if he had made it to the opening night of the tour. What is lacking from this is a real sense of who Michael was. On screen he is detailed as a generous, but strict perfectionist and loved and respected by everyone on the project alongside him, yet there is really no sense of what this tour meant to him and what it was like to get back on the stage again after so many years in relative seclusion. Again, that is not the fault of the director as much as it is a integral problem with why the footage was even shot in the first place.

There is a certain nagging voice in the mass consciousness wondering what the actual reason was for putting the movie together in the first place. Was this to give Michael’s fans one last look into what the King’s final bow would have looked like? Was this an attempt by the tour promoter to recoup some of the millions spent in preparation for this incredibly expensive spectacle? Was it pressure from Joe Jackson, Michael’s father, in an effort to keep himself viable in an industry he is largely shut out of? It’s hard to dig through the statements and actions on all sides and figure out the truth because they are all saying something different, but either way, the film itself proved two things: First, Michael was a consummate performer who at the amazing age of fifty could still move and sing and was prepared to deliver one hell of a final tour, and second, we will never truly know who he was underneath the shine and sparkles.

The End of the Page Recommendation: If you are one of the millions who enjoyed his music, this is entertaining just to hear those songs one more time from the man himself. Yet if you are looking for a deeper look beyond the legend and into the real person, this remains unfulfilling and nothing more than a concert film.

The Rocker: Comedy Rhythms with Heart

There it is, the first Papa Gino’s I ever ate at. Your first spaghetti basket will change your life.

This summer we have seen everything in the realm of comedy from forty-year-old children and weed fueled action heroes to bumbling super spies and blackfaced primadonnas. It has truly been the summer of high concept, but the audiences are just about ripe for something solid, something familiar and something just under the radar. Who knew it would come in the form of Dwight from The Office?

The Rocker follows the dream which never quite came true for our main character, Fish. He was the drummer in a band, but in order to rocket their career to unheard of levels, they had to drop him. Drop they did, and Fish dwindles into obscurity and ambivalence towards life itself. Twenty years later the universe smiles on him once more and he gets the chance to play drums in his nephew’s band. Through a series of pop culture twists and turns the band ends up becoming an overnight sensation and Fish runs wild through the fields of his waking dreams, while learning the lessons of what it really takes to be the member of a band, not a one man show. Of course, he is not the only one learning lessons, but he’s the main dude on the poster, you know how it goes.

Getting myself comfy in the cushioned theater chair, I was fully expecting a slapstick style, overgrown childhood movie with Rainn Wilson taking charge of the blundering and buffoonery, but what flickered on the screen in front of me was much more than prop jokes and prat falls. The Rocker sneaks by the chuckles and laughter and weasels into your heart with a subtly touching story and some really soft moments. Rainn does get hit by numerous objects and suffers more than his share of bodily harm, but he also never wavers from believing his dream is right and true, not some childhood fantasy. The more subtle comedic moments are left to Josh Gad, who plays his socially awkward nephew/keyboard player. Josh delivers more than a few times and his style felt oddly akin to Dan Fogler ala Balls of Fury, a kind of straight line delivery for a ludicrous line on the page. Rounding out the bandmates are Emma Stone and Teddy Geiger. Emma personifies the “i-hate-everyone-but-the-people-in-this-band” chick, while Teddy has no problem with his sensitive, soulful lead singer persona. For those who don’t already know, this is a touch into the area of typecasting since Teddy Geiger already has a wildly popular album called Underage Thinking and he lent his pop music talents to almost all the original music in the movie. Since they were able to write songs from the characters perspective and not just layer in current pop tracks, The Rocker tips gently into the genre of musical, because the songs actually investigate the emotional state of the characters and move the story along. Also, while Teddy is selling movie tickets and soundtracks, Emma Stone is doing what few actors, especially at the young age of twenty, get to do; open two movies in the same week! The Rocker beat it to the punch, but The House Bunny opens this coming Friday and Emma co-stars in that alongside and Anna Faris and Rumor Willis. It’s a one-two punch for the young ingenue who last charmed people as the girl of Seth’s dreams in Superbad.

Lending a hand to the laugh level were a number of cameos and side characters. Jason Sudeikis from SNL drops by to play the slimiest of record label agents in recent movie history. There are moments you want to punch him, but then you wonder what might get on your hands and if it would wash off later. Christina Applegate plays Teddy Geiger’s mom and tries to balance out the adult-to-child ratio in the mix. She does a decent job and has some truly biting lines (rebutting being called a MILF by replying with calling the man a PILS, you’ll have to see it to get the definition, but I think my best friend will be using it for the rest of her life). Demetri Martin also shows up as the epitome of pretentious, film school drop out, ultra hipster music video directors and it gave me a medium level of anxiety just imagining being on a set with a character like that.

This was honestly the last movie I had any inkling would stir any feelings beyond a bubbling chuckle in my belly, but there is a sweetness to the story and an honesty to the message. It all boils down to follow your dreams, no matter the cost. If that message is spoken faithfully, no matter what story you wrap it in, there will be some people in that audience walking out a little lighter in their step, just itching to get home and pull out their old hobbies, guitars, etc. Don’t get me wrong, this is no Rocky, I doubt many people will suddenly become rock stars after seeing this, but they might just get a tiny bit of inspiration from the best place possible; somewhere unexpected.

Recommendation: I was completely surprised by it, but I’m a sucker for a sweet story. Some good comedic moments, but they are outweighed and outnumbered by the more heartfelt ones. If you’re looking for down-and-out comedy, this might no be crude enough for you. Yet, if you want something simple, with a nice rhythm, this could be the right beat for your Saturday afternoon.

p.s. Christina Applegate also holds one of the best honors ever, being mentioned in the P.M. Dawn song, Set Adrift on Memory Bliss. Let’s be honest, where can you possibly go from there?

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Passenger: Music for the dark and humorous heart.

Someone told us playing in this tunnel would be “avant-garde”. What a bastard.

Every now and again you are pointed towards something which will shift your day, your mood, maybe your whole life, in a whole new direction. It would be a little presumptuous of me to say this band from Brighton in the UK will do all those things, but I feel safe saying they will at least catch you smiling without knowing it, maybe even reminiscing about another feeling lost so long ago. Either way, there’ll be an affect.

Passenger is a five piece band led by Mike Rosenberg and they slide into the pop/rock scene with a slightly different take on things. The melodies are sweet and the sound is earnest, but if you were to read the lyrics all on their own, you might think something wicked this way comes. The most notable track for the switch hit off their upcoming album, Wicked Man’s Rest, is “Walk You Home”, a upbeat diddy beginning in the world of puppy love and office crushes and ending deep in the shadows and high in the trees of stalkers and obsession. It actually took me a couple listens before I stopped bopping my head to the music and heard the lyric, “I’m the boy with restraining orders”. Can’t say that line pops up a lot in the love songs I usually listen to. Moving forward to a more straight forward track about loneliness and separation, there is “Table for One”, a beautiful ballad which paints not only a simple visual picture, but also an audio landscape to sweep the listener up into its arms. Then, just so we don’t leave out the other side of love affairs, the angry and angst ridden one, there’s “Do What You Like”, a song about letting yourself be played time and time again in the endless hope of winning in the end.

Each of the tracks mentioned above, plus all the others featured on their MySpace page and Official site, have a wonderful sense of purpose, a truth and honesty about feelings and emotions which we often don’t talk about openly. Adding an important extra touch is the humor and levity covering the songs and keeping them from becoming too heavy or melodramatic. Passenger achieves emo-pop power without the black nail polish, eyeliner and social morays.

For those people living in the LA area, Passenger is playing on 8/11 at the Hotel Cafe in downtown Hollywood. It’s a great venue, which I’ve been lucky enough to see them play at once before, and I can think of few better ways to spend a Monday night. Start your work week off right with some happy/sad/clever/infectious live music!

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