Posts Tagged ‘review’

Varoom! Varoom! Review: Radical Wolfe

Posted: December 10, 2023 by John Ruberry in culture, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

For many Netflix subscribers, their focus is on the next week’s release of the second part of the final season of The Crown. While I have enjoyed the series, the first batch of Season Six of The Crown was a huge disappointment for me.

A more enjoyable use of your time–75 minutes to be precise–can be found by watching Radical Wolfe, a documentary about the legendary writer Tom Wolfe, a pioneer of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s who later, and seamlessly, made the transition into fiction, penning one of the greatest novels ever, The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Radical Wolfe, which had a brief theatrical run this autumn, is directed by Richard Dewey. It is filled with interviews of Wolfe; Jon Hamm narrates passages from Wolfe’s work. The documentary is based on an Esquire article by Michael Lewis.

Gay Talese, Tom Junod, Christopher Buckley, and Lewis are among the writers interviewed for Radical Wolfe.

Buckley’s father, conservative firebrand William F. Buckley, says here. “Tom Wolfe is probably the most skillful writer in America. I mean by that is that he can do more things with words than anyone else.”

“If you want to be a writer,” Wolfe, who died in 2018 said of himself, “you’ve got to be standing in the middle of the tracks to see how fast the train goes.”

“Nobody is writing like Tom Wolfe today,” Junod says in Radical Wolfe. “And no one has written like Tom Wolfe.”

Wolfe is someone America needs now. Oh, to have seen him running loose among the hypocrites at COP28.

The title of the film comes from Wolfe’s 1970 essay for New York magazine, Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny’s, when Wolfe, after co-opting an invitation to a fundraiser for bail money for some Black Panthers held at Leonard Bernstein’s Park Avenue home, skewered the liberal virtue signaling culture, even before that term existed.

Oh yeah, phrases. Phrases!!! Besides “radical chic,” Wolfe coined the terms “the right stuff,” the title of his of his rollicking yet informative bestseller about the early days of the space program, and “masters of the universe,” the group that Sherman McCoy, the lead character in The Bonfire of the Vanities, placed himself in. 

Not mentioned in the documentary while Wolfe didn’t create the now-common phrase “pushing the envelope,” which is used repeatedly in The Right Stuff, he popularized it.

Wolfe began his career as a who-what-where when-why–journalist in the northeast. After convincing Esquire in the early 1960s to let him write an article about the California custom car culture, Wolfe suffered writer’s block. Which was the best thing, career-wise, that ever happened to the author. Eventually the floodgates opened, Wolfe brought sound effects to print journalism, shown in the title of that piece, There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored (Thphhhhhh!) Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (Rahghhh!) Around the Bend (Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmm)…

The repeated use of ellipses (…) and multiple exclamation points (!!!) are a trademark of Wolfe’s early work.

As with the fetid film version of The Bonfire of the Vanities, Radical Wolfe tiptoes around race. Wolfe was a master storyteller and, strictly in the storytelling sense, race presents a crucial ingredient for any narrative–conflict. The Reverend Bacon character in Bonfires, an Al Sharpton knockoff, is a comic foil. Fareek “The Cannon” Fanon, an African American college football star in Wolfe’s 1998 novel, A Man in Full, comes across as a boor when he confuses lead character Charlie Coker’s old moniker as a 60-Minute Man, not as a football starter on both defense and offense, but as a man who could, let’s say, “do it” in bed for 60 minutes.

Black people can be boors in Wolfe’s world. As can white people. As can everyone. That’s the way it ought to be. Because that’s the way society is.

In Wolfe’s takedown of ugly glass-box and faceless architecture, From Bauhaus to Our House, he gives a rundown of the horrors of public housing, and joyously recalls the response when tin-eared bureaucrats in St. Louis–after decades of failing the residents of the city’s housing projects–finally did the unthinkable. They asked the tenants of the notorious Pruitt-Igoe homes, most of them Black, what they wanted done to the buildings. Their response? They chanted, “Blow it up.”

And the bureaucrats did just that. Why isn’t this poignant story in Radical Wolfe?

Wolfe was always coy about his political stance. “I belong to the party of the opposition,” he says in the documentary. But I suspect he was a slightly conservative, with a strong libertarian bent.

Despite the quibbles I mentioned, I loved Radical Wolfe. Oh, one more thing. To capture the Varoom!!! Varoom!!! uniqueness of Wolfe’s genius, a surreal mashup, along the lines of the one in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, would have been a welcome addition.

Last year, Netflix sent a message to its workers that not all of its programming–not these words of course–will kowtow to wokeism. Radical Wolfe is a big step in the right direction for the streaming service. Next year Netflix will stream a six-episode limited series based on Wolfe’s A Man in Full. It will star Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane.

Keep it up, Netflix.

But I have one more quibble. Radical Wolfe is rated TV-MA for–wait for it–language and smoking.

Really? TV-MA?

Yep.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Review: Season 3 of Ragnarok on Netflix

Posted: September 3, 2023 by John Ruberry in culture, entertainment, media
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By John Ruberry

Moving to a new town, particularly after a tragedy–the death of your father–is a painful experience. Which is what high school student Magne Seier (David Stakston) and his younger brother, Laurits (Jonas Strand Gravli), confront when they move to the small Norwegian town of Edda in the Netflix series Ragnarok. 

And Edda isn’t just any town. The largest employer there is Jutul Industries where their kindly but weak-willed mother, Turid (Henriette Steenstrup), finds a job. More on Jutul in a bit.

How does Magne cope? By becoming a reincarnation of the Norse god Thor. And if “jutul” sounds familiar, they are the enemies of the Norse gods. 

Over the first two seasons, Magne, for the most part reluctantly, puts together a new gathering of the gods, including assisted care home resident Wotan Wagner (Bjørn Sundquist) as the new Odin, another high schooler, Iman Reza (Danu Sunth), as the new Freyja, and Harry (Benjamin Helstad), a mechanic and a boxer, as the new Týr. 

While Wotan/Odin wears an eye patch–the mythological Odin was one-eyed–he doesn’t ride a an eight-legged horse. The contemporary Odin travels around Edda in a motorized scooter. But he does look into the future with rune stones. There is also a tip of the hat to the importance of dwarfs in Norse mythology. A minor character, Halvor Lange (Espen Sigurdsen), a doctor at Wotan’s nursing home, is a dwarf.

Magne of course has Thor’s hammer.

Laurits is the reincarnation of the devious trickster god, Loki, and it’s difficult to ascertain whose side he is on. As it is with his “child,” his onetime tapeworm, the Midgard Serpent, who Laurits calls “Little O.”

In the third and final season of Ragnarok, the gods expand their crew, adding Kiwi (Ruben Rosbach), as Heimdall, and Laurits’ love interest, Jens (Vebjørn Enger), as Baldr.

Ragnarök, according to the Norse mythology, is the end time of the world, when the jutul or jötunn, often sloppily translated into English–as it is for this show–as giants, battle each other. In the first season, we are introduced to the Jutul family, led by Vidar (Gísli Örn Garðarsson), his wife Ran (Gísli Örn Garðarsson) ,and their high school age children, Fjor (Herman Tømmeraas), and Saxa (Theresa Frostad Eggesbø). Vidar is the CEO of Jutul Industries, which is poisoning the fjord off of Edda, and Ran is the principal of Edda High School. All of this is quite awkward, to say the least, for Magne.

The following paragraph contains Season Two spoilers.

A battle between Magne and Vidar at the end of the first season in inconclusive, which is not that case with their second confrontation; Magne kills Vidar with and ancient axe. That is one of the few ways gods and jutuls can be slain. That leads to a power struggle between Saxa and Fjor for control of Jutul Industries. Ran withdraws into depression, and Laurits, who we learn is Vidar’s son, plays both sides of the conflict. 

As Season Three begins, Turid is planning her wedding, inevitable conflict is coming, and oh yeah, final exams and graduation at Edda High School loom. As for that battle, the two sides line up, as in a western movie, or more accurately, as with the final showdown in Akiro Kurosawa’s Yojimbo.

While I enjoyed the first two seasons, I see Season Three as a big letdown. The performances are still compelling, the cinematography still great, and an enjoyable presence who was largely absent in Season Two, the radio announcer (Jeppe Beck Laursen), briefly returns. Ragnarok’s unseen announcer is reminiscent of the one in the M*A*S*H television series. 

And I have to say it, the Laurits and Jens romance is very in-your-face one–as if the writers are yelling out, “Look, they’re gay! Gay! Gay! Gay!” Much more is left to our imaginations with Magne and his female love interests. The creepy romantic encounter at a party with Ran and two male students from her high school in the first season is mostly off-screen. Are the writers and directors trying to compensate for the decades of absence of gay characters in movies and in television series? Oh, one more failing: the CG to create the Midgard Serpent, is unconvincing.

As a whole, Ragnarok is still worth your time, particularly if you enjoy coming-of-age dramas and ancient mythology, but don’t expect so much in this final season.

As of this writing, it is the seventh-most popular offering on Netflix.

Ragnarok is rated TV-MA for violence, sexual situations, marijuana use, and underage drinking. It is available in Norwegian with English subtitles as well as dubbed English. Besides Norwegian, there are smatterings of Old Norse and English throughout Ragnarok.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The studio albums by The Band, ranked

Posted: August 13, 2023 by John Ruberry in culture, entertainment
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By John Ruberry

Last week one of music’s giants, Robbie Robertson, the lead guitarist and the principle songwriter for The Band, died at the age of 80.

In this post I’ll rank their studio albums.

Much like Fleetwood Mac, The Band, when you reach back to their beginnings in Toronto, is one of the few musical acts that, like a nation, have a historical narrative.

Arkansas rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins found success with his backup band, the Hawks, in Canada in the lat 1950s. But one by one, each Hawk, except for drummer Levon Helm, got homesick and returned to America. The first Canadian to join the Hawks was Robertson, who was quickly supplemented by bassist Rick Danko, pianist Richard Manuel, and organist Garth Hudson, but all of the members of the band were multi-instrumentalists, particularly Hudson. The Band had three vocalists, Helm, Danko, and Manuel. Often, particularly on their first two albums, they would interchange leads—and beautifully harmonize.

The Hawks split from Hawkins in 1963, and under different names, performed as a first-rate bar band until becoming Bob Dylan’s concert backing band. Helm left during that tour. 

After Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident in 1966, with the Hawks, he recorded new material that was released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes. Helm rejoined in 1967, after the newly-dubbed The Band was signed Capitol Records. 

After many ups and a few downs, The Band split after their final concert–with many guest performers–which was lovingly documented in the Martin Scorsese-directed movie, The Last Waltz. The soundtrack album is also an essential work of art.

In the 1980s, without Robertson, The Band reformed, went on tour, with the intention of returning to the recording studio. But Manuel committed suicide in 1986. The remaining Band members eventually recorded three albums in the 1990s, consisting mostly of covers, but the rump Band broke up for good after Danko’s death in 1999. Helm, who had been feuding with Robertson for years over songwriting credits and money in general, died in 2012. Hawkins passed away last year.

Hudson is the only surviving member of The Band.

And now let’s start the rundown of The Band’s albums. Yes, the ones with the original lineup.

Islands (1977): There are some great outtakes albums, The Who’s Odds and Sods and Elvis Costello’s Taking Liberties come to mind. Islands is like most of the others, where listeners can say to themselves, “I can see why these songs were left off of previous albums.” Because The Last Waltz soundtrack was promised to another label, Islands was compiled to satisfy The Band’s contractual obligation to Capitol Records.  It contains a curiosity, “Knockin’ Lost John,” the only Band song where Roberston sings lead. Next…

Cahoots (1971): Drugs had taken their toll on The Band by this time, and Robertson’s songs weren’t very good here. Cahoots starts off well enough, with “Life Is a Carnival,” but immediately sinks into them mud. Not even one of my favorites, Van Morrison, who co-wrote with Robertson “4% Pantomime,” which is about two drunk musicians in a bar complaining about life on the road, could save Cahoots. Listening to this album is about as enjoyable as sitting next to two drunk musicians in a bar as they…well, you get it. On the upside, the album artwork is gorgeous, and one of Morrison’s nicknames, the Belfast Cowboy, comes from “4% Pantomime.”

Moondog Matinee (1973): Two paragraphs ago Costello, who counts The Band as one of his major influences, received a compliment, now I’m evening the score. In 1995, Costello recorded an album of mostly obscure R&B covers, Kojak Variety. It’s a terrible record. Moondog Matinee, which also contains many lesser-known R&B tunes, is better than that. Predictably, it’s the better-known songs that The Band chose, including “I’m Ready,” “Mystery Train,” and “Promised Land,” which click. 

Yes, I do love The Band. Really, I do.

Now comes the good stuff.

Stage Fright (1970): While Cahoots understandably opens with its best song, on Stage Fright, the collection’s worst two songs, “Strawberry Wine” and “Sleeping” are the opening tracks. The first song was co-written by Helm with Robertson, and Manuel co-wrote the second one with Robbie. With the exception of one other tune, all of the rest of the songs were written solely by Robertson, including these Band standards, the title track, as well as “The Shape I’m In,” and “The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show.” More rock and R&B oriented than The Band’s first two albums, Stage Fright is also remembered for Todd Rundgren’s role as engineer.

Northern Lights-Southern Cross (1975): The Band, with their first studio album in four years, came back in a big way here. “Acadian Driftwood,” a musical cousin of sorts of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” recounts the ethnic cleansing of French speakers in the 1750s from Nova Scotia by the British. At the time, Robertson was married to a French-Canadian, tensions between Anglophone and Francophone Canada were at a peak then. Like the early days of The Band, Helm, Manuel, and Danko harmonize and swap lead verses. “Ophelia,” “Jupiter Hollow,” and “It Makes No Difference” are the other great tracks on this collection. Every song on Northern Lights-Southern Cross is a Robertson composition.

Music from Big Pink (1968): One of the best debut albums ever, and not just because of the great songs, such as “Chest Fever,” “The Weight,” and the Dylan-penned “I Shall Be Released.” No one knew it at the time, but Music from Big Pink was the first album of the Americana genre, or if you prefer, roots music. The album artwork featured a Dylan painting. “The Weight” is the ultimate Band song, Helm and Danko share lead vocals and Manuel adds perfect harmonies. Dylan cowrote, with Manuel and Danko respectively, “Tears of Rage” and “This Wheel’s on Fire.”

The Band (1969): Most bands with a great debut album effort suffer from a sophomore jinx. Not The Band, with their self-titled follow-up, also known as the Brown Album. There are no Dylan songs this time, but Robertson filled that vacuum with works that are now Americana classics, such as aforementioned “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” as well as “Rag Mama Rag,” and “Up on Cripple Creek.” Sometimes it’s hard to ascertain why The Band was so great and so unique. “Jawbone,” a Robertson and Manuel collaboration, offers a clue. It was written in a 6/4 time signature, a rarity in popular music.

And so was Robbie Robertson, a rarity. Rest in peace.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Review, Black Knight on Netflix

Posted: May 21, 2023 by John Ruberry in culture, entertainment, media
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By John Ruberry

A little over a week ago Black Knight, a six-episode dystopian series set in Korea, began streaming on Netflix. 

It’s 2071, decades earlier a comet struck Earth. The Korean peninsula is now a dunes-covered desert, only one percent of the population survived the disaster. Earth’s atmosphere is poisonous. Most of landmass of Earth is underwater,

The government is a corporatist dictatorship. The corporation is the Cheonmyeong Group, led by Chairman Ryu (Nam Kyung-eub), but run by his evil son, Ryu Seok (Song Seung-heon). The Republic of Korea–presumably North Korea and the Kim family didn’t survive the blast–is led by a president (Jin Kyung), but Ryu Seok is really in charge. He’s a Rahm Emanuel-style “Never let a crisis go to waste” type. 

That tiny population is divided into four groups, castes really, and the top group is the Core, which consists of the Cheonmyeong Group and the top tier of the government, and a couple of middle classes, General and Special. But the majority of the survivors are classified as refugees, who for the most part scrape out a miserable survival in the ruins of the former city of Seoul.

The Core of course enjoy a luxurious existence. 

All but the refugees have coveted QR codes tattooed on a hand that allows them entrance into restricted areas–and to purchase desperately needed supplies, especially oxygen.

Is there a way out from the misery for the refugees? Yes, the legit path is to become a deliveryman, a truck driver for the Cheonmyeong Group, transporting those vital supplies. Think of Mad Max in The Road Warrior driving a semitrailer as the wheeled army of Humongous follows him around the Wasteland, only for a post-apocalypse Korean Amazon. The greatest of these deliverymen is 5-8 (Kim Woo-bin). In the post-apocalyptic Korea, deliveryman eschew their birthnames in exchange for the numbered district they service. By the way, there are some female deliverymen.

The other way for the refugees to escape their bleak lives is the criminal path–becoming Hunters. Once again, think of the mobile gangs of the Mad Max franchise. These Black Nights fire back–and 5-8 even electrocutes a pair of them who make the mistake of climbing onto his truck. 

Yoon Sa-wol (Kang You-seok) is a mischievous refugee teen who idolizes 5-8–he even plays a 5-8 computer game–and he and dreams of becoming a deliveryman. Sa-wol is illegally living with two sisters, one of them is Major Jung Seol (Esom). The sisters, I believe, are classified as Special, one notch down from Core.

Sa-wol is an orphan–so yes, he’s yet another “chosen one,” along the lines of Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, and Frodo Baggins.

Predictably, the paths of 5-8, Seol, and Sa-wol cross. 5-8 has learned that he has much more to offer Korea than being a deliveryman, even one who is already a folk hero.

Black Knight is an enjoyable Netflix diversion. There is of course an abundance of action but also some subtle humor. For instance, 5-8, despite breathing poisoned air, still smokes cigarettes. 

More direct humor is offered by Sa-wol’s pals, with the unusual names of Dummy (Jung Eun-seong), Dumb-Dumb (Lee Sang-jin), and Useless (Lee Joo-seung), who live with a clever mechanic and inventor, Grandpa (Kim Eui-sung).

But if you are looking for a romantic storyline, look elsewhere. There are no love stories in Black Knight.

If you are a connoisseur of compelling cinematography and sharp CGI, then you’ll love Black Knight. 

And if you drive a delivery truck for UPS, a grocer, and especially Amazon, then let your imagination run wild and dream away as you watch, and presumably love, this series. 

Black Knight is rated TV-MA by Netflix for violence and smoking. It is available for viewing in Korean with subtitles, in English, and several other languages. I watched it in Korean.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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