Author: Seb Palmer

I’ve watched this very well produced series several times now, and thoroughly enjoyed every viewing.

The production and acting are superb, and the story itself is very compelling. Naturally one wonders about the relationship of the media, which is fundamentally entertainment, as much as anything else, to the truth of the events it depicts.

The central focus, although it’s a very well done multi-strand series, is on John O’Neill (played by Jeff Daniels), and his quest to get the FBI to share its intel on Al Quaeda with the CIA. His place in this story is made all the more poignant and telling because, ultimately, well… I won’t say here, as I don’t want to spoil this for viewers coming to it fresh. But, as the title conveys…

Synopsis wise, I’ll recycle the Erik Pedersen Deadline Hollywood quote that the Wiki entry on the series uses:

‘It follows members of the I-49 Squad in New York and Alec Station in Washington D.C, the counter-terrorism divisions of the FBI and CIA, respectively, as they travel the world fighting for ownership of information while seemingly working toward the same goal – trying to prevent an imminent attack on U.S. soil.’

Many superb actors give excellent performances on their many respective roles. Worthy of note is Tahir Rahim, who plays Ali Soufan, a Lebanese born American and Muslim, who works for O’Neil (also familiar to BBC viewers from The Serpent).

There is also a whole ensemble of other ‘middle eastern’ characters, from the charismatic Yemeni General played by Ali Suliman to the many Al Quaeda ‘operatives’. And these latter range from a war scarred kid to Mohammad Atta, hijacker pilot of American Airlines 11, that crashed in the North Tower, played terrifically by Tunisian actor (and former footballer!) Dhafer L’Abidine.

The series is based on a 2006 book of the same name by Lawrence Wright. The ten episode series wound up being given the biggest budget and the most editorial freedom by Hulu, who weren’t initially the film-maker’s first choice.

The relation between on screen entertainment and truth is, like reality, messily complex. But one feels that the people making this have striven for the best and closest they can come. And they do a good job.

One very notable aspect is how they treat the Al Qaeda characters. They are not cardboard cut-out evil villains, but humans, whose motivations we can start to better understand when they’re presented as real people.

And conversely – and this might or might not have been so intentional – the open minded viewer sees clearly the flawed and parochial positions adopted by many of the US players.

Personally I really love this series, and think it’s surprisingly good, for an age and culture in which dumbed down nonsense is all too often the preferred route taken by TV ‘entertainment’. This seeks to understand and inform, and does a pretty damn good job.

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NYTimes review: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/arts/television/looming-tower-review-hulu.html

Wow! Happened on this doc’ on BBC2 totally accidentally. This was quite a revelation to me, in parts. I didn’t realise, for example, that Fleetwood Mac had lived out the hippie dream, taking up residence in a communal country house, getting stoned and making music.

So, while it’s available – I don’t know how long this link will work for – here it is: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008k8q.

And what a band Fleetwood Mac have been: the Peter Green blues explosion era, the Bob Welch period, and then the ‘classic’ quintet with the arrival of Buckingham/Nicks.

A while back I got a whole bunch of their albums, concentrating on the earlier years up to and including Rumours. Seeing this makes me realise I need to go back and listen to them a lot more.

As with so many music history tales, I found the most interesting stuff was the early to mid years. The whole thing got less exciting and interesting as the years piled up. This is a bit sad for me, as I’m now 50!

As The Floyd had it: I missed the starting gun, I didn’t know when to run! Hey ho…

The whole core thread, around Christine, was interesting, and she comes across as a very nice person. And talented. But strangely it’s the story of the group as a whole I find most compelling, even when, as here, related through the prism of one particular member.

In some ways this is an amazing five star film. In others, it’s a bit below par. The visual aesthetics are pretty sublime. The style of acting, whist admittedly funny, is so mannered as to oscillate between charming and annoying.

The ensemble cast, headed up by Ralph Fiennes, is incredible. But, as with the hyper mannered m.o. of the entire film, this is both a strength and a weakness.

The plot, convoluted and bizarre – Byzantine seems an apt term – really is, the McGuffin of McGuffins. And once again that speaks to the schizoid tendencies of this film. It’s simultaneously brilliant and rather pointless or meaningless.

Can a film be nothing more than an assemblage or collage of pretty or amusing tableaux? That’s essentially what this is. In a way, this makes it a perfect expression – and a frightening, almost damning condemnation- of our times.

As art it’s stunningly beautiful. And as a kind of love letter to art itself, and even a whole melange of certain types of art, architecture, even culture, it’s terrific.

But despite its frothy weightless beauty there’s a cold vacuity in there as well, as regards the lost or vanished but perhaps always imaginary world it conjures up. As a kind of orgy of aestheticism it becomes detached from any form or reality.

Wow! What a great film. Set in the early ‘70s, and chronicling the childhood of a fatherless boy*, who finds solace and inspiration under the wing of his bar owner uncle.

I love the early ‘70s aesthetics of this film, and just the whole visual vibe of small town America of that era, at least as portrayed here. The particularly American style of individual suburban wooden homes, all slightly different, really appeals. The era is also cherry-picked somewhat for great music, funky duds, nice wheels, and those really quite beautiful American homes.

And this is no stupid action adventure sci-fi superhero bollocks either, just plain ol’ humdrum ‘real life’. Based on a memoir of the same name, it’s not so humdrum, truth be told, as JR gets into Yale – his mother’s dream – and his family and friends, despite a mostly absent father, are quite a colourful bunch.

There’s a lot of heart and humanity in this film. And many moments I loved, such as when uncle Charley opens his cupboard to reveal a sizeable stash of books. This is his auto-didact’s library, and he exhorts the young JR to read them all! That, to me, is kind of heart/brain porn, if you know what I mean.

Right now I can’t be doing with any more of a synopsis, or unravelling it all. I just really dig it. The acting is great; very engaging. The production is fantastic, Clooney does his job really well.

Daniel Ranieri and Tye Sheridan as JR the child and JR the young man are terrific, as is Ben Affleck, as the kindly self-educated uncle Charley. Indeed, the whole cast acquit themselves admirably. A real heartwarming feel good movie. Thanks, GC!

*Absent rather than nonexistent!

Part the second, or a few further thoughts.

Ok, so I said I wouldn’t try and unravel this. But I guess Ah cain’t he’p maself’!

So, one or two further thoughts… The first is that this is, despite several female characters, the strongest of whom – both as a person and in terms of the film’s focus – is JR’s mom, a film about a boy becoming a man. Or put another way, boyhood and manhood/masculinity/maleness, or whatever one might call it.

It’s also mostly about how a boy relates to his elders – there’s a great if very brief scene that underscores that, early in the film (when JR passes a room full of dancing kids, only to watch uncle Charley at rest, before wandering off alone) – only really becoming more focussed on his peers once he gets to Yale. And even then they are now ‘young men’, and mostly looking forward, not backwards.

As much as it’s main focus is on the male condition, there is more than just a nod to the ladies’ experiences. But whilst it’s all quite sensitively handled, there is, like Charley’s homespun code of manhood, imparted to JR at the bar, a rather old-fashioned vision of male/female relations at the core of the story. And, like the fags and booze, in today’s times this can look almost as ‘quaint’ as the seventies visual aesthetics.

But for ageing men like Clooney, and me, all of this can be somewhat more deeply bittersweet that the surface appearances might convey. And this aspect of the film is amplified by JR’s affairs with Sidney. Unlike the unrequited loves of my youth, whose potent effects on my development have, for better or worse, shaped my entire life, JR’s advances are requited, albeit not quite to his satisfaction.

This thread of the plot prevents the whole thing from becoming too cloyingly ‘feel good’, as JR has to contend with not only an absent father, but thwarted young love.

One final observation on the more critical ‘unweaving the rainbow’ side would be this: when the ornery Grandpa Maguire (played terrifically by Christopher ’Doc’ Lloyd) scrubs up and takes JR to the ‘father’s breakfast’ at school, there’s a scene where he charms JR’s teacher by revealing his own well developed (if otherwise rarely deployed) critical intellect.

It’s my own experience and observation that such a scenario – whilst within the realms of possibility – reeks of a certain self-indulgent fantasy. In all probability the person on the receiving end of such ‘insights’ (whether these are right or wrong or chime with my own perceptions/beliefs, etc) has to work hard to conceal – poorly, usually – their disinterest. Such poils of wisdom more normally elicit responses ranging from boredom to hostility.

Gramps has worn out his welcome on such things back at his home. But JR’s teacher is, it appears, smitten. He has scrubbed up well, and he can be quite charming. But the old fart back home side of his portrayal looks, to me, and rather sadly, the more realistic face of such a character.

So, in the end I couldn’t resist a bit of analysis. And I didn’t even really touch on the whole bit about Yale and JR’s buddies there, or the barflies at Dicken’s, or the NY Times journo’ bits. There’s plenty of narrative meat, albeit somehow both rich and lean, to this ‘flick’.

For me, in these days of sci-fi and superheroes, and crime capers and rom-com chick-flicks, this is a rare and welcome kind of film, that speaks very directly to me. I mean, the music, for example; almost (but not quite!) every track used throughout the film is stuff I love. And ending with Steely Dan’s ‘Do It Again’? Ah, sheer bliss…

Isn’t it funny how things pan out in life?

Many moons ago, we – dad and my sister and I (and Claire) – travelled to Canada, my grandfather’s home nation, and stayed with my dad’s brother, Nick, and his family.

Whilst we were there, we visited Toronto, and my sister and I bought a bunch of music at Sam Sam’s. I believe my sister bought this album, on vinyl, all those years ago.

I’ve always quite liked the few Hall and Oates tracks I knew, even if only vaguely. She’s Gone, Rich Girl, and maybe one or two others. I’d never paid them much mind, though, to be honest.

And now, donkey’s years later, I decide to buy this on CD, only to discover I absolutely love it! In the last few days I’ve been listening to it repeatedly. And it remains fresh and invigorating and beautiful on every spin.

There is not one duff track on it. And there are quite a few that are pretty doggone sublime. She’s Gone is the obvious diamond, but the title track is wonderfully evocative. And the three that lead up to She’s Gone are all top notch.

It a kicks off with the very winning When The Morning Comes, slipping into the very tender Had I known You Better Then. Track three, Las Vegas Turnaround, is the second most familiar, and a real corker.

As I say there’s nothing here but excellence. I’m Just A Kid is fab, and Lady Rain also. Laughing Boy finds Daryl Hall alone at the piano, save for the superb Arif Marden arrangements and the flugelhorn of Marvin Stamm.

And the disc ends with the rather epic Everytime I Look At You, which morphs from funky soul, to epic ballad rock, and finally gets a bit country! What a stunning album.

Well, modern pop music, eh!? Anyone who knows me will know I’m not usually a fan.

I was quite worried that this new album from Mars and Paak would just be derivative, a pastiche as much as an homage. And in some respects it might be argued that it is.

But I think it’s also clear that these two cats do really and genuinely love the music of yesteryear that this whole Silk Sonic bouillabaisse is marinaded in.

In our now long-term postmodern magpie culture – mind, the new has always leaned on or borrowed from predecessors – collaging the old to make the new is, um… nothing new. I guess it’s how that’s done that might make some kind of difference.

On An Evening With Silk Sonic, to use the full title, it’s done with loving care and even, perhaps, reverence. Having Bootsy Collins on board as ‘narrator’ is a clear gesture of respect to the ‘old guard’.

It’s interesting to contrast how, in different expressions of reverence and respect, hip hoppers would sample and name check their influences, Vulfpeck actually work with the old guy’s – they’ve collaborated with Bernard Purdie, James Gadson, David T Walker, and so on – and Silk Sonic reference them by assimilating, very adroitly and convincingly, the styles, sounds, and feel of that whole era

One reason this gets just four stars from me, however, is to do with lyrics, and the whole lifestyle vibes that emanate from this cocktail of sounds. The sounds themselves I love. This is an expertly curated feast of vintage soul, funk and r’n’b, but benefitting from up to the minute production values.

Whereas many of the late ‘60s, ‘70s and even early ‘80s artists in the genres this mines were much more progressive and message conscious, with Mars and Paak it’s that same ol’ Gucci/Vegas* limos and champagne fantasy world, with sex, sounds and beaucoup self-love thrown in.

But I’m not going to dwell on the vapidly shallow ‘bitch got ass’ type ideas that float like big fat booty-blimps all around this project. Instead I prefer to see it as a love letter to a now bygone era, and a quite artful and sincere attempt to bring those old sounds and production values back into the mainstream of our own times. On that count this is a five star record.

Paak’s drumming is fantastic. The sound of his kit is super crisp and dry, and either he’s robotically metronomic, or else some studio trickery is helping enhance his ‘pocket’. Whatever, as they say nowadays; I don’t actually really care. The end product, rhythmically, is pretty phenomenal. Hats off lads! (1)

Intriguingly, it sounds as if Mars gives Paak the primary vocal role; I may be wrong, but Anderson appears to take the lion’s share of lead vocal duties, as well as supplying all the drums. Mars trades some verses, and is more prominent in the lushly harmonised and often strikingly high choruses.

The music is very warm, organic and old-school sounding, with just a few wee touches of more obviously modern tech. And it’s all ’real music’, played by real musician folk, as opposed to programmed robotry. I approve!

It’s a very short album, by normal album standards. Clocking in at just over 30 minutes! And the key note is, I would say, joie de vivre. In interviews the duo have acknowledged that they deliberately didn’t address issues such as the pandemic and BLM related news, as they wanted to make a record that brought people together.

Well, for my money, they’ve succeeded. This is a terrific feel god album. If it had been a bit more lyrically mature, less Vegas, I’d have happily given it five stars. Musically it’s very satisfying. Not stunningly original, of course, as indebted as it is to classic old school soul n’ funk and suchlike. But it’s lovingly crafted. And sounds fine!

* If you visit their website, and look at where they’re playing live, it’s just Vegas, capital of the tawdriest most commercial blingy aspects of the American Dream.

NOTES:

1) Paak drums, superbly, on all but one track. And that one exception is track five, Smokin’ Out The Window, on which Homer Steinweiss, of Dap Kings fame, takes care of trap duties.

Holy Guacamole!!! Every now and again something pops up on my YT feed that blows the cap right off my noggin. This is one such…

The Tears For Fears original of Everybody Wants To Rule The World is superb. It’s an epic song. Scary Pockets take it and turn it into a terrific funky soul jam.

Jack Conte and Ryan Lerman are – I think? – at the core of the Scary Pockets revolving door cast. Here they’re joined by (?) Salomon on bass, Louis Cato on traps, and Cory Henry on keys. And boy oh boy oh boy do they cook up a righteous bouillabaisse of groove and soul!

The energy, the joy, is palpable, oozing from the music, and dripping out of the screen like a tsunami of warm golden honey.