SYNOPSIS: “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” a new mockumentary now rockin’ in theatres, sees the estranged members of metal legends Spinal Tap thrown together for one last gig. Times have changed, but have they?
CAST: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Fran Drescher, Questlove, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Kerry Godliman and Paul Shaffer. Directed by Rob Reiner.
REVIEW: “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” the legacy sequel to the forty-one-year-old classic mock rock doc, captures the spirit of the original, but does not turn the volume of laughs up to 11.
Following a fifteen-year break, the estranged members of heavy metal band Spinal Tap— David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer)—are forced to reunite for a one-off show in New Orleans.
Their acrimonious split sent them in different directions. Guitarist Tufnel has a shop called Nigel’s Cheese & Guitars, where he trades cheese for musical instruments. Singer/guitarist McKean writes scores for b-horror movies like the retirement home horror “Night of the Assisted Living Dead”, and bassist Smalls runs a glue museum called Stick to It.
Reluctantly reunited, they are once again under the scrutiny of documentarian Marty Di Bergi (Rob Reiner) who captures the backstage drama, ego trips and the search for a drummer.
The original film was groundbreaking, a masterful mock doc that set the template for everything from “Bob Roberts” and “Borat” to “The Office” and “A Mighty Wind.” The new film, however, feels like nostalgia. We’re used to the form, and while it’s nostalgic fun to spend time with silly-but-sweet rockers, our familiarity with the original blunts the impact of the new one.
There are some laugh out loud moments in “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” but the satire doesn’t land in quite the same way it did forty-one years ago. British comedian Chris Addison’s portrayal of the music hating concert promoter is bang on. He’s the embodiment of the ruthless music executive who, with a straight face, suggests it would secure the band’s legacy if, “during the gig at least one, but ideally no more than two of you were to die.” When he’s on screen the spoof is sharpened to a fine point.
It’s when the film gets awkwardly reflective with a mix of satire and emotion that it hits a flat note. As old wounds are opened and an air of mortality hangs over the band, the jokes become fewer and further between. A new song, “Rockin’ in the Urn,” is a reflection on aging, but it hits the expected tone, self-serious, over the top and metal as hell. That scene hits the right chord, managing laughs with the band’s reflections on refusing to stop rockin’ in the face of their own impermanence.
“Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” is a cover version of a fan favorite. Guest, McKean, Shearer and Reiner, who directs as well as appears as Marty Di Bergi, are game, but the looming specter of the original casts a long shadow over the proceedings.
Fifty-two years ago, during a hot, sticky New York summer, a music festival was filmed for posterity in front of a gigantic crowd. No, it’s not “Woodstock.”
That happened, but I’m talking about The Harlem Cultural Festival, a star-studded, six-week extravaganza featuring everyone from Stevie Wonder and the 5th Dimension to Mahalia Jackson and Nina Simone that drew tens of thousands of people to Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The concerts were filmed, but when no taker could be found for the footage, it sat, unseen for fifty years in the basement of a producer named Hal Tulchin.
Now rescued and wrestled into a two-hour documentary by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of the Roots, it brims with excitement, pain, hope and, of course, dynamic performances and great music.
Part concert documentary, it’s a must see if only for Nina Simone’s performance of “Backlash Blues.” It is just one of the dozens of musical numbers, all expertly curated by Questlove, but here there is no sense of nostalgia, just the pure power of performance.
Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples bring another emotional highlight, duetting on Martin Luther king Jr.’s favorite gospel song “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” The civil rights leader was assassinated the year before, and their singing brings out both the beauty and the ache inherent in the song and the circumstances.
Also deftly woven in are remembrances from people who were there, on stage and off. Marilyn McCoo wipes away a tear as she watches the footage of her band The Fifth Dimension. New York Times journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault helps set the scene politically and culturally while
Rev. Jesse Jackson recalls the story behind the electric performance pf “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.”
Far from simply using the music and the festival as a framework for the film, Questlove mixes in, with the expert hand of a DJ who understands rhythm and syncopation, archival news footage and contemporary interviews. This approach provides much needed historical context and makes the effect of the music even more impactful.
The Harlem Cultural Festival took place at a time when music was changing—you hear the influences of Latin Jazz and soul and gospel, all brewing together to create something new—and as the world changed. “Summer of Soul” is the rare music documentary that balances the historical with the musical with such grace and power.
Like life itself, “Soul,” the new Pixar film now streaming on Disney+, is a messy and chaotic affair; a big bang where the physical and metaphysical collide.
“Soul’s” afterlife adventures begin on an earthbound plane. Joe Gardener (Jamie Foxx) is a seventh-grade music teacher who gets the big break he’s always dreamt of when he aces an audition to play piano in the band of a legendary jazz saxophonist (Angela Bassett). “Music is all I think about,” he says. “From the moment I wake up in the morning. To the moment I fall asleep at night. I was born to play. It’s my reason for living.”
He leaves the club on cloud nine, not knowing that he would soon, literally, be on cloud nine. On his way home he falls in a manhole. Knocked out, his soul separated from his body, he enters The Great Before, a strange and serene place where his spectral being—imagine Casper the Friendly ghost with a fedora and glasses—is greeted by The Counselors. They run the joint, and assign Joe to mentor a rambunctious yet-to-be-born soul called 22 (Tina Fey). “I’ve had thousands of mentors who have failed,” 22 says, “and now hate me.” Joe’s job is to find the spark, the missing part of 22’s personality, that will complete her as a person. “You can’t crush a soul here,” 22 tells Joe. “That’s what life on earth is for.”
The next step is a big one. The odd couple dive into the astral plane, plummet toward earth where 22 winds up in Joe’s body as Joe takes the form of the therapy cat assigned to his comatose body by the hospital. Trapped in the wrong bodies, the pair set off to discover the meaning of life.
Like the jazz music that dots the score, “Soul” is free-form, inventive and sometimes just a little hard to understand. It’s an existential riff on a buddy comedy. Or maybe “Freaky Friday” as directed by Frank Capra. Either way, it has a lot on its mind although it never digs too deep. Ultimately the ethereal action boils down to a simple message of mindfulness, of being aware of the simple joy life offers.
Along the way you have an imaginatively animated movie, earnest in its storytelling, laden with interesting details and nice voice work from Foxx, Pixar’s first African-American lead and Fey, who gives 22 a sardonic but philosophical edge.
Despite typical cartoony touches, like a toffee-nosed accountant soul and some feline slapstick, “Soul” is a life-affirming, poignant look at what it means to be human.
Justin Bieber is a teen ream for many teen girls. He gets a decidedly more adult treatment in “Pop star: Never Stop Never Stopping,” the new parody from Andy Samberg, Kiva Schaffer and Norma Tacoma a.k.a. the Lonely Island. Rated 14A for coarse language, nudity and substance abuse it may be a nightmare for hard-core Bielbers.
Samberg stars as Conner4Real, a Bieber-esque performer and former singer for boy band Style Boyz (Schaffer and Tacoma, who also co-direct). Despite the title of his big hit, “I’m So Humble,” (“I’m number one on the humble list!”) he’s a pampered pop star with an entourage—including a turtle wrangler, a weed roller, a short guy who hangs around to make Connor look taller and a movie star girlfriend (Imogen Poots)—that makes Elvis’s Memphis Mafia look restrained. When we first meet him, he’s at the top of the pops but when his sophomore album—hilariously titled Connquest—stiffs he learns who his real friends are as he struggles to stay popular.
A loving, and sublimely silly look at concert films like “Katy Perry: Part of Me” and “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” “Popstar” features real-life musicians, Nas, Akon, 50 Cent, Seal, Pink, Snoop Dogg, Usher, Questlove, DJ Khaled as talking-heads as it skewers the more ridiculous aspects of its (mostly) fictional lead character. It’s a millennial “Spinal Tap” that takes aim at the excesses of pop life—clueless social commentary, absurd catchphrases, gratuitous nudity to cultural appropriation, it’s all here—but at its poppy heart its really about friendship and family.
The scenes of satire are often ripped from the TMZ’s headlines—there’s an incident at the Anne Frank House and a costume malfunction that derails Connor’s public reputation—which feel familiar while still drawing a laugh. Better than those are the sly comments on how fame works in the Age of Kardashian. “There is no such thing as selling out,” Connor coos. “These days if you don’t sell out people think nobody’s interested.” Much of the film is as deep as one of Bieber’s teen love laments, but occasionally it hits a little harder and the laughs get a little deeper. But make no mistake this is R-rated stuff that revels in its idiotically smart humour.
The targets in “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’s” crosshairs are obvious and, frankly, easy pickings, but the film’s combination of catchy-if-ridiculous songs, appealing performances and fast-paced parody make it a chart topper.
