DVD Talk DVD Reviews https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/list/DVD Video DVD Talk DVD Review RSS Feed en-us Helvetica DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/31386 Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:58:54 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

A documentary about a typeface? Surely it must be some sort of a joke. Just the notion of it sounds as boring as watching a documentary about ... um, well ... typeface. But Gary Hustwit's Helvetica is deceptively seductive, a smart and quirky work that lifts the veneer of innocuity on the world's most ubiquitous lettering.

Helvetica, in fact, is the most impressive type of documentary. It introduces audiences to -- and immerses them in -- a decidedly eclectic subject about which they aren't likely to know much beforehand. And yet the film deftly reveals the hidden power of typeface as well as its artistic and propagandistic implications.

Designed at the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein, Switzerland, Helvetica (a quasi-invented term that means the "Swiss typeface") swept the globe shortly after its unveiling in 1957. Its cold simplicity conve...Read the entire review

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Wasted Orient: A Film About Joyside DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/30203 Sun, 02 Sep 2007 06:38:37 UTC Rent It

THE MOVIE:

If you think disaffected white teenagers in the U.S. and U.K. have the market cornered on punk rock, think again. At its purest, punk was a primal yawl emanating from lower-income neighborhoods where young people saw little hope of getting out of their predetermined molds. An uncaring government, an unfair economic market, and a general lack of opportunity for education, jobs, or even just something to do on a Friday night pushed dreamers into their garages where they banged out a couple of chords and prayed someone would hear. With China being several decades behind the rest of the world in terms of pop culture due to many of the exact same conditions I just described, it was only a matter of time before the country would have its own wannabe-Johnny ...Read the entire review

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Radio On DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/27231 Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:23:41 UTC Highly Recommended

THE MOVIE:

Christopher Petit's 1979 independent feature, Radio On, is a brittle portrait of the despair and ennui of 1970s Britain. Rather than indulge in chronicling any particular scene from the time or resort to the usual ripped-from-the-headlines tactics, Petit instead chooses to follow one man over the course of a few days as a portrayal of the feelings of hopelessness many were experiencing. With bleak black-and-white cinematography by Martin Schäfer, who regularly worked with Wim Wenders (one of the producers on the film), Radio On offers a Britain that is perpetually gray. Come, Armageddon, come.

Robert (David Beames) is an all-night DJ in a factory who spends his own boring nights trying to alleviate the tedium of workers on the graveya...Read the entire review

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We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/22112 Fri, 09 Jun 2006 02:56:16 UTC Highly Recommended

The Product:
It is perhaps the most difficult thing to do in all of documentary filmmaking – contextualizing a cult entity to establish an element of mainstream meaning or universality. Be it a heretofore unknown filmmaker, a more or less forgotten public figure, or a name band made irrelevant by the constant temporal migration of the music industry, anyone tackling this type of fact film runs the risk of reducing their subject to an inconsequential afterthought, or worse, alienating the audience they hoped to attract. Some entities just don't translate, no matter what position you take: outrageous laudatory (Half Japanese: The Band that Would Be King) or simple and superficial (Captain Beefheart: Under Review). In essence, the goal here is to get to the core conceit and why certain select fans respond to it. If you can do that, you create a true filmmaking miracle. It's time ...Read the entire review

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Steve Hanft Beck: Kill the Moonlight DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/20595 Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:35:07 UTC Rent It

"I'm a driver, I'm a winner, things are gonna change, I can feel it." This is the credo of Chance, and the film is his story- fish hatchery worker, toxic waste cleaner and wannabe race car driver. trying to fix up his Camaro in order to get to a place where he can compete for trophies and glory. Hanft looks to capture a West Coast slacker aura with twisted humor, lazy pacing and aspirations of hitting the big time.

Listed by Plexifilm as a 1994 lost underground classic by filmmaker/music video director Steven Hanft, a prolific music video director whose credits include Beck, Elliott Smith, Eels, The Cure, Primal Scream and Spoon. Our hero/antihero Chance lives a lazy, uneventful life; while his ultimate goal is something worth rooting for, his life in general along the way, well, isn't- we see Chance vainly trying to woo back his old girlfriend, who still treats him well enough but has obviously...Read the entire review

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Guided by Voices - The Electrifying Conclusion DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/19056 Fri, 02 Dec 2005 23:28:09 UTC Highly Recommended

The Product:
21 Years. Dozens of band members. Hundreds of gigs. Thousands of songs. Millions of grateful fans - and almost as many beers. With the release of 2005's Half Smiles of the Decomposed, guiding Guided by Voices guru Bob Pollard announced that it was all over. After over two decades of the creative club being "open", it was time to pull in the sonic shingle and put the band to bed. He would still continue on as a solo artist, but the notion of Guided by Voices, the GROUP, would merely be a wistful memory in the musical madman's memory. Tour dates were announced, with the final show taking place in Chicago on New Years Eve, 2004. Thanks to Plexifilms, we now have a permanent record of the last performance of one of the great unheralded musical acts of the rock era.

The Plot:
Read the entire review

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Spend an Evening With Saddle Creek DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/18749 Tue, 15 Nov 2005 23:55:14 UTC Recommended

From the opening moments of Spend an Evening with Saddle Creek, it's easy to see that the young musicians who represent the acclaimed record label aren't ashamed of where they grew up. All too often, breakout stars from anywhere except New York City, Atlanta or another popular spot are quick to sweep their small-town roots under the rug. Yet members of Saddle Creek---including acts such as Bright Eyes, Cursive, The Faint, Rilo Kiley, Son, Ambulance and nearly a dozen others----proudly wear their Nebraskan roots on their sleeves.

The label---then known as Lumberjack Records---was established in the early 1990s, formed by a young group of friends who loved music and simply wanted to get their songs published. Inspired by the do-it-yourself nature of independent record companies and the like, the young...Read the entire review

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Drive Well, Sleep Carefully - On the Road with Death Cab for Cutie DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16948 Thu, 28 Jul 2005 18:38:51 UTC Highly Recommended

Being part of a rock band doesn't automatically gain you access to the sex and drugs debauchery that's usually associated with such a career choice. Certainly the hard driving music is there, but the non-stop parties featuring fetching groupies and infinite blow just don't come instantly to everyone - if at all. Indeed, fame and fortune, notoriety and name recognition value have to be in place before the ladies and the 'ludes pony up. Without a hit, or a scandalously hedonistic reputation based on a dynamic lead singer and his death wish, you're just a musician, trying to make it into an industry determined to keep you out. Some never get there. Others are tossed instantly into the fray. And then there are groups that actually earn a key to the doorway to success/excess the old fashioned way - they formulate it on their own.

Death Cab for Cutie are such a self-made accomplishment. Without radio air...Read the entire review

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Low In Europe DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16223 Wed, 08 Jun 2005 07:08:26 UTC Rent It

Boy, do I hate some of the titles people come up with for music genres: from post-rock to shoegaze, there's ridiculous names for bands of all shapes and sizes. One of the chief offenders in this category is slowcore---a common term for music rooted in slower rhythms with a dark atmosphere----though I'm a big fan of Low, perhaps the genre's most relevant representative. Formed in Duluth, Minnesota in 1994, their brand of music is in a class all by itself: built around dramatic tension, it often favors quiet moments that rarely build to the volume of more traditional rock music. Two of the group's original founding members---the talented husband-and-wife team of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker---provide a terrific anchor of vocal harmony that complements their respective guitar and drum p...Read the entire review

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Made in Sheffield DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/16115 Wed, 01 Jun 2005 01:40:56 UTC Highly Recommended

When scholars talk about the 70s music revolution, their names hardly ever come up. Everyone references the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, pushing backward to encapsulate the New York Dolls and The Velvet Underground, and forward to take in the Clash and the Jam. But forgotten in the face of punk's do-it-yourself upheaval was the real sonic shift, a move away from guitars and raw power to cold and calculated electronics. These were bands that drew their inspiration not from the rebel rebels of the 50s, or the garage gangs of the 60s. No, these inspired artists found their muse in the mechanical mantras of Kraftwerk, and in the pure pop presence of disco's emerging dance beat.

So as London suffered through a post-jubilee filled with anarchy and aggression, Sheffield slowly but surely grew into a Mecca for the new and novel synthesizer experience. Out of a core group of friends and schoolmates came a no...Read the entire review

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Moog DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/15841 Sun, 15 May 2005 22:42:06 UTC Rent It

Moog is the latest music-themed documentary to come from Plexifilm, a company whose catalog also includes the They Might Be Giants doc Gigantic and Wilco's I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.Their latest effort is helmed by Hans Fjellestad (Frontier Life) and focuses its 16mm lens on Bob Moog, the inventor of the synthesizer. Moog doesn't unfold with narration over still photographs taken decades ago as Moog isn't just the subject; he's the driving force of the documentary. The majority of the discussion is driven by Moog himself, and aside from some of the live performances scattered throughou...Read the entire review

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Ilê Aiyê (The House of Life) - A Film by David Byrne DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/12216 Thu, 09 Sep 2004 01:46:53 UTC Rent It

David Byrne's Ilê Aiyê (1989) is certainly not your typical documentary, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This short film gives the world a look at the Brazilian religion of Candomble, which centers around a belief that humans are a part of nature (as opposed to most Western religions). In essence, the central meaning of Candomble is not passed on by word of mouth, but rather through singing and dancing. For most viewers only accustomed to Western beliefs, Ilê Aiyê might be a little strange at a quick glance. However, any lover of world cultures will find much of this documentary to be a visually fascinating experience.

In fact, that's one of the main differences between Ilê Aiyê and most other documentaries. While other films of the genre rely mostly on a ...Read the entire review

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Galaxie 500: Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste 1987 - 1991 DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/11406 Mon, 05 Jul 2004 05:14:58 UTC Rent It

Movie: Music is much like porn when it comes to individual tastes. Something either works for you or it doesn't in both genres and there's very little you can do to change that fact. Some people prefer the disco droning of Kylie Minogue, while others the powerful but simplistic works of Pat Benatar, and still others the perky and emotional crooning of Selena but others want something more sophisticated like the complexities of Everything But The Girl. Each of those singers/groups have something in common though; they all had voices that were pleasing on many levels. One group that ran counter to the slickly produced efforts of such groups has now released a defin...Read the entire review

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Ted Leo & The Pharmacists: Dirty Old Town DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/10070 Sun, 28 Mar 2004 23:21:39 UTC Recommended

The Movie

Dirty Old Town is a film about musical group Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, an energetic and creative rock group from the East Coast. Prior to forming The Pharmacists in 1999, frontman Ted Leo was part of several other music groups, including Chisel. Led by a seasoned veteran of songwriting and live performances, it was no surprise that this new group hit the ground running, having released four albums in just five years. With an aggressive sound similar to Elvis Costello and even The Clash, Ted Leo and his group have a great presence that lends itself well to live performance. The music is catchy, but gets even better on repeated listens...a very good indication of quality songwriting and talent. Although I must confess I'm relatively ...Read the entire review

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Decasia: The State of Decay DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/9757 Wed, 03 Mar 2004 01:05:31 UTC Recommended

Film is a visual medium. So it's interesting to note the number of times people mention "the acting" or "the dialogue" when discussing a movie. It's not that they are dismissing the optical element outright, since each of those aforementioned aspects must be seen to be appreciated. But when was the last time you heard someone call a filmmaker a true "visionary" and actually mean it? Oh sure, there are the artists who get a mention because they manage to find a way to have us experience something familiar in a fresh and provocative manner. And sometimes, an artist stumbles upon a style that makes them seem technically novel. But aside from actual auteurs with names like Hitchcock, Powell and Lynch, very few makers of movies offer style over and mixed within substance. It is a rare entity indeed that hopes to mess with the medium and still make the message clear. Avant-garde filmmaker Bill Morrison is on...Read the entire review

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Sun Ra - Space is the Place DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/8675 Sat, 13 Dec 2003 21:47:35 UTC Highly Recommended

THE STRAIGHT DOPE:
If you think that Ol Dirty Bastard or OutKast are on some unusual musical wavelengths, they've got nothing on Sun Ra. A jazz innovator for decades, Sun Ra created a sound that could easily have come from his home planet - Saturn. The legend around Sun Ra is bizarre and complex and it's one element in John Coney's insane 1974 film Space is the Place.

Conceived as a vehicle for Sun Ra and his music, the film blends 50's sci-fi, 70's blaxploitation and Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal in an intense, provocative mix. The story, if you can call it that, involves Sun Ra, an intergalactic messenger sent to Earth to spread a message of peace and love and to take disaffected and downtrodden black Americans to his astral utopia. He finds opposition, however, in The Overseer (played by the excellently sleazy Ray Johnson), a white suited devil who cruises around in...Read the entire review

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Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/8237 Sun, 09 Nov 2003 21:39:24 UTC Highly Recommended

When you look at a list of the most influential bands of the last twenty years it's easy to do a double take when you see They Might Be Giants on the list. How could a quirky duo who sings about everything from a night light to string theory have had a huge impact on music? Like most things in life, it's all about timing. They Might Be Giants, a band made up of two guys who both happen to be named John (John Linnell and John Flansburgh) have ridden the waves of the music industry with a strong 'Do it Yourself' credo and little care for the conventional rules of 'The Biz'.

Success came early on for They Might Be Giants as they quickly built a following in the small clubs in New York in the Eighties. It wasn't long until They Might Be Giants got national exposure in the pages of People magazine, who featured their first album even though it didn't have a label backing and was only available directly...Read the entire review

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Northwest DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/7064 Fri, 01 Aug 2003 00:36:17 UTC Rent It

The Movie

Northwest's creators, Coan Nichols and Rick Charnoskirepeatedly remind us that the northwest has some of the bestskate parks in the world, and after seeing them on this DVD, I'dhave to agree with them. And unlike their last gritty film Fruitof the Vine, Northwest attempts to concentrate more on themelancholy philosophy of skateboarding, rather than its richhistorical account.

Northwest is a very laid-back skate video. There's notmuch narration, there's not much energy, and there's not muchinformation to be learned. There are, however, lots of skatingaction in some of the best skate parks the great northwest has tooffer. We're taken to the legendary under bridge Burnside SkatePark in Portland, OR, the magnificent curvy setup on OrcasIsland, WA, the small quaint park in the podunk town of Donald,OR, a wicked out-of-the-way ...Read the entire review

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Benjamin Smoke DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/6940 Fri, 18 Jul 2003 03:57:06 UTC Skip It

THE FEATURE
Benjamin is a speed-freak, a musician, and a cross-dresser who claims that marijuana saved his life. And he reminds me of carl from Sling Blade, both in voice and appearance. Unfortunately, this doesn't add up to as entertaining a documentary as it sounds.

Benjamin Smoke was filmed over ten years and features interviews with Benjamin and a few members of his band, Smoke. Benjamin is definitely a performer, as he talks slow and deep, letting the world be his stage as he discusses drugs and music and HIV with the camera. There is a lot of texture here, and the film seems to truly capture the renegade's spirit. However, there isn't quite enough narrative to tie it all together into a powerful film.

To really feel for Benjamin, I needed to know more. Interviews and clips of performances are fine, but there needs to be a string that ties everything together. Whenever ...Read the entire review

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Style Wars DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/6933 Thu, 17 Jul 2003 04:50:31 UTC Recommended

THE FEATURE
For most people, graffiti is not art; it's a crime that stands out like a deep bruise, covering the city's beauty. And once a piece of graffiti appears on a wall or subway car, it seems to spread like a virus, with new blemishes appearing overnight. For a select few, however, graffiti is not only an art form, but a way of life, particularly for certain kids in New York during the 1970s and early 80s.

Style Wars documents this emerging hip hop subculture in the streets of New York during this time period. And although the documentary won't sway any nonbelievers into believing graffiti is art, it does shed light into the reasons behind the phenomenon.

The reasons are simply enough: Kids want their name's known. What better way to make this happen then spraying their names on subway cars? These cars travel all over the city, transporting millions of people every day. Over...Read the entire review

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Mysterious Object at Noon DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/6598 Tue, 10 Jun 2003 21:43:11 UTC Recommended

Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul was walking through the Chicago Museum of Art and came across an "Exquisite Corpse" sketch. Basically the Exquisite Corpse surrealist concept is a sentence, collage or drawing that is done by many people, with only the previous word/line being known to the person contributing. SO, it is basically like a campfire tale, where you sit in a circle and each person contributes a sentence, only the method of corpse makes the mystery more elusive and abstract since you only know a scant section of what came before. Weerasethakul and a skeleton crew took a camera to off the path areas in Thailand and began documenting one such story and the often poor working class people who contributed to it.

What the film amounts to is three integrated parts- one the fictional Exquisite Corpse narrative that the various villagers come up with, second footage of the villagers tellin...Read the entire review

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Hell House DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/6599 Tue, 10 Jun 2003 21:43:03 UTC Recommended

For many years now Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas has been staging it's annual Halloween Hell House, a haunted house of their Pentecostal vision of what will get you into Hell. Some of these things include suicide, abortion, being gay, dabbling in the occult, and they really came to national attention by making their school shooting scene resemble the Columbine massacre a mere six months after that tragedy. They also manage to implicate various other bits of society, like raves as being a wrong way of life- a girl attending a rave is given a date rape drug at one and then is gang raped which leads to her committing suicide, so while its the suicide that leads her to Hell, its the rave culture that steered her there. In the final room you are given two options to exit, you may leave and sit in a room with church members and accept Jesus or you can just leave period, tantamount to accepting the damn...Read the entire review

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Fruit of The Vine DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/6063 Sat, 12 Apr 2003 05:27:03 UTC Rent It

The Movie

Some skaters will do anything to ride a pool. That's the basicpremise of this interesting, yet often boring skate video, Fruitof the Vine. And although it does a very good job atuncovering the rarely understood subculture of pool riding, itultimately leaves you wishing for it to end earlier than it does.

In the early 1950's life was good. Husbands made a lot of money,and wives had their dream home with 2.3 children. It's because ofthis sudden surge in wealth and personal lifestyle that we beganseeing nearly every new home in the south western United Statesbeing built with a nice new in-ground concrete pool. Hey, whatbetter way to show off your social status than to invite everysingle acquaintance over for a weekend splash at casa de Stevie?Well, as the years went on, that overabundance of wealth began todwindle, and gradually the thousands of in-gro...Read the entire review

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I Am Trying To Break Your Heart DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/5858 Sun, 16 Mar 2003 21:44:35 UTC Recommended

I play Music.... I am a Musician.

And, I guess that is why I'm always interested in behind the scenes docs about musicians. I'll often find myself watching ones with artists I don't like- Aeorosmith or Elton John for instance- because I guess I'm semi in tune with the creative process so a behind the scenes look at an artist is almost always interesting. Wilco is a band I half-like. I really enjoy their downbeat, "heart on the sleeve" folky stuff, but I'm not into their more jangly upbeat rockin' numbers. In other words I prefer Nick Drake to The Replacements.

I am Trying to Break Your Heart is about the making of Wilco's last album, the critically lauded "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". Things start out innocuous enough, even lackadaze and happy as the band is recording in their own loft and discussing how they are exploring a new sonic and songwriting landscape and how great it is to have the fre...Read the entire review

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