Tag Archives: music

04.20.26
by

Michael

A musical biopic about a monumental pop star is a whole lot of spectacle that spends too much time with the familiar beats and too little time allowing us to feel the impact of his journey and his discography. Every character feels one-note or like a simple vessel to move plot points forward, even Michael himself. Jaafar Jackson commits himself to Michael’s amazing stage presence and dance moves, but the movie doesn’t allow us to feel much for Michael as a person outside of his circumstances and talent. Colman Domingo is excellent as Michael’s emotionally cold, controlling, and abusive father Joseph, but the film spends way too many repetitive scenes trying to show us that Michael desparately needs to break free from Joseph and pave his own way forward.

Any other theme this movie attempts to go for feels painfully underdeveloped, whether his rise to fame, health issues, activism, or the trails he blazed for black representation in mainstream arts. The things that are special to this musician are touched on briefly, while the movie instead insists on hitting all the familiar beats we’ve seen in countless music biopics. The real star here is the sound design, which dials everything up to an 11 during the concert and performance scenes and make us feel immersed in them. That unfortunately only encompasses about eight minutes of Michael‘s 127-minute runtime, which feels incomplete and like the team in the editing room had an hour they should’ve cut and far more story that could’ve already been told.

Though Michael Jackson’s songs moved the Earth and changed the course of the world, the movie doesn’t reach deep enough into the magic of his music and the work that was put around it. The film seems interested in making the case that he is indeed the greatest popstar of all time but clueless as to how to convince us, even those of us who already believe it, instead presenting us with a few of those extraordinary moments from the King of Pop’s life, while the drama offers frustrating lack of nuance that becomes more and more tedious. This missed opportunity of a film that tries a whole lot of everything with not much of it sticking at all. We should’ve been soaring with the hits and left better understanding the human being behind the legend, instead we feel like we’re interacting with caricatures, and then one of the greatest songs of all time starts playing every now and then.

04.18.24
by

Back to Black

Back to Black chronicles the life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

It may feel like a step up from recent music biopics like Elvis and I Wanna Dance with Somebody, and may be on par with something like Respect and not quite at the glory of Rocketman. Marisa Abela is great as Winehouse, bringing the young music-loving girl to the screen in the start and the mess of an unstable addict she becomes later in life. But what’s most unbelievable is Abela’s singing which completely captures the one-of-a-kind grandeur of Amy’s voice. There are times when Abela completely disappears and you simply feel the singer alive in front of you. Eddie Marsan gives one of his most memorable performances to date as Amy’s father, while Lesley Manville also brings a lot to the movie as her grandmother. When Jack O’Connell comes in, however, as Amy’s love interest and eventual husband, the film falls into messy melodrama that sinks the runtime and falls into the same traps that many of these biopics suffer from when channeling the artist’s pain and troubles. Winehouse’s journey through love and addiction is filled with cliches, but is empathetic enough for us to forgive her shortcomings. The film also does a great job of incorporating her songs into the film, and best of all, it manages to have its audience actually interact with the subject as a tangible person, rather than just a larger-than-life legend. The more minimalistic approach to the musical biopic gives Back to Black a strong start, but you’ll also have a few too many instances of deja vu, though we’ve certainly seen it done worse. It’s watchable enough for non-fans of the late singer, but for some, it might not stand out among similar films with similar beats that have come out far too recently.

07.13.19
by

Yesterday

Jack Malik is a struggling singer-songwriter in a tiny English seaside town whose dreams of fame are rapidly fading, until a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, after which Jack wakes up to discover that nobody except him can remember The Beatles. Soon Jack makes a life-altering decision that sends him to fame as he starts taking credit for the band’s forgotten songs.

Yesterday is a movie with a fantastically original premise, compared to the same recycled formulas in a lot of genres. Though it does sometimes get stuck in mediocre rom-com tropes, like a cheesy romance in the second act that doesn’t know where it’s going until the very end, this movie takes advantage of its genius idea and makes for a fun, humorous, and interesting two hours. Himesh Patel is not only fun and charming but also sings really well and was well-cast — he hasn’t been in much before but may soon make a name for himself after his starring role here — and also entertaining are Lily James as his best friend, and Ed Sheeran as himself — the singer who helps Jack skyrocket to stardom. However, one character I found to be annoying was his manager played by Kate McKinnon, whose comedic turns I usually enjoy on Saturday Night Live, but here her character was simply irritating and unlikable. It’s no surprise the music is so enjoyable — they chose the best band to make this movie about, and as a huge Beatles fan myself, it’s great to hear them all through the film, and luckily they cast a great actor who can sing as well. There’s also plenty of humorous moments I didn’t expect and the jokes almost always land. Like I said, the second half does lose a little bit of steam but once you see where it all ends up, you get to take in some of the themes the movie is going for. There’s also another sweet theme about how the most iconic of pop culture is what touches people’s hearts and should be kept alive. As one character says, “A world without the Beatles is a world infinitely worse.” So I have to applaud director Danny Boyle and writer Richard Curits for creating one of the most original films of the year that sometimes doesn’t avoid genre tropes but the fresh plotline makes for some truly great moments, and there’s also plenty of excellent musical moments as well. When everything that’s out has to do with killer toys, superheroes, and animated animals, why not try something new for a change and support this one-of-a-kind film I bet you won’t regret seeing in theaters.

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