A Band Called Death
Film Review by Kam Williams
Reverential Rockumentary Amounts to a Very Good Movie about a Very Bad Band
After hearing some heavy metal in the early Seventies, Dannis, Bobby and David Hackney decided to make a big change in the type of music they were performing. Up until then, the African-American siblings from Detroit had been playing a blend of R&B and rock as the Rock Fire Funk Express.
Then, the guys came up with a new name, Death, and a new sound perhaps best described as an atonal precursor of punk, although the genre hadn’t yet come into existence as of yet. They signed a record deal with a prominent local promoter (not Motown), but the album was deep-sixed before it ever got pressed into vinyl. No surprise to this listener, judging by the demos.
Searching for a viable alternative career path in music, the trio eventually moved to Vermont where they did get to release a couple of gospel albums as The 4th Movement. But when that dream of superstardom failed to materialize, David moved back home, while Dannis and Bobby remade themselves as a reggae group, Lambsbread, with Bobbie Duncan replacing their brother on guitar.
Lambsbread failed to capture the fans’ imagination, too. In 2000, chain-smoker David passed away of lung cancer, and that might’ve been the end of the story, given that Hackneys had barely registered a bleep on Rock & Roll’s radar.
However, Death is now belatedly being put on the map with the help of such rock icons as Henry Rollins, Alice Cooper, Kid Rock, Questlove along with actor Elijah Wood. Are you a big fan of punk? Neither am I. Nor was I during my formative years when the atonal genre came of age.
Listen, the personal anecdotes in A Band Called Death are extremely entertaining, and often touching, especially when Dannis and Bobby express their irrepressible fondness for their dearly departed sibling. I suppose music is in the ear of the behearer, but as for the suggestion that this average garage band were somehow visionaries ahead of their time, I just don’t think so.
Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 98 minutes
Distributor: Drafthouse Films
To see a trailer for A Band Called Death, visit:
How to Make Money Selling Drugs
Film Review by Kam Williams
Tongue-in-Cheek Documentary Offers Tips on Dope Dealing
“Are you unemployed or stuck in a dead-end job? Don’t worry, we have an answer!” That is the dubious proposition made by How to Make Money Selling Drugs, a tongue-in-cheek (I pray) documentary about the art of dope dealing. The film arrives accompanied by proven provenance, as it features appearances by celebs with street cred like 50 Cent, Eminem, Rick Ross and Russell Simmons.
This fairly thorough training guide focuses on marijuana and cocaine, although its advice undoubtedly could be applied to heroin, ecstasy and numerous other narcotics as well. However, we learn that pot is probably the easiest way to get started, given that it’s a weed that all you need is water, lamps and electricity to grow. In fact, it is now the most profitable farm product in the U.S., easily outstripping tobacco, cotton and even corn as the country’s top cash crop.
According to one former kingpin, the possibility of jail time is actually worth the risk, provided you’re Caucasian, since 90% of the million Americans arrested annually for drugs are black or Latino. So, this illicit profession isn’t highly recommended for minorities, since the authorities not only target their communities, but employ tactics like profile stops which make apprehension all the more likely.
As hip-hop mogul Simmons explains it, “If you’re a blonde fashion model, you’re not going to jail. But if you’re a black kid from the ‘hood, you’ll go away for twenty years.” He is a big advocate of an overhaul of the laws implemented as part of the War on Drugs which has really been waged in the ghetto while lily-white suburbia has benefitted from a pass, by and large.
If you do decide to traffic in narcotics, and land behind bars, the picture has a chapter on “How to Beat an Arrest.” But, permit me in closing to urge any viewers of How to Make Money Selling Drugs to resist the temptation to attempt anything illegal you see here and to watch the flick strictly for entertainment purposes.
A step-by-step instruction video I fear might inadvertently influence some impressionable young minds to try an ill-advised line of work that will only land them in a lot of trouble.
Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 94 minutes
Distributor: TriBeCa Film
To see a trailer for How to Make Money Selling Drugs, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxRVhgbVN9o
World War Z
Film Review by Kam Williams
Harrowing Horror Flick Pits Pitt vs. Zombies in Dire Planetary Scenario
After a career spent risking his life on location in international hotspots like Bosnia and Liberia, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) recently resigned from a dangerous post at the United Nations to devote himself to his family. As the story unfolds, we find him assuring his wife (Mireille Enos) and young daughters (Sterling Jerins and Abigail Hargrove) that he quit his job to spend more quality time with them as a stay-at-home husband and father.
Meanwhile, that same morning on TV, network news anchors are busily downplaying rumors of a rapidly-spreading rabies outbreak overseas. Eventually, all hell starts to breaks loose in the U.S., too, where the president perishes and the vice president goes missing.
By the time the Emergency Broadcast System finally takes over the airwaves, the escalating zombie scourge can no longer be covered-up or contained. And the pandemic which started in Taiwan has already overrun a dozen countries and counting.
Given the utterly desperate state of affairs, Gerry has no choice but to answer the call when he is begged by U.N. Deputy Secretary General Thierry Umutoni (Fana Mokoena) to come out of retirement. He agrees to join a crack team of researchers whose mission is to find Patient Zero and develop a vaccine.
But first, he secures berths for his family aboard a quarantined Navy ship sitting safely in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Our intrepid protagonist then boards a plane headed for parts unknown, and what ensues is a harrowing, high body-count adventure making “Pitt”-stops in South Korea, Jerusalem and Wales.
At each exotic port of call, Gerry and company encounter wave after wave of voracious zombies, which in accordance with age-old cinematic lore, can only be destroyed by burning or headshots. Of course, they ultimately figure out how to turn the tide, though the resolution conveniently leaves a loophole setting up the sequel in a planned trilogy.
Directed by Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball), World War Z is a bona fide summer blockbuster any way you slice it. From hordes of man-eating creatures, to mob scenes of panicked citizens, to tension-maximizing editing, to captivating special f/x, to breathtaking panoramas of the collapse of civilization, to a buff matinee idol as the hero, the film features all the fixin’s to assure any audience its money’s worth of viewing pleasure and excitement.
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG-13 for disturbing images and pervasive horror violence
Running time: 115 minutes
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
To see a trailer for World War Z, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md6Dvxdr0AQ
This Is the End
Film Review by Kam Williams
Celebrities Play Themselves in Zany Apocalyptic Comedy
When Jay Baruchel was picked up at L.A. airport by his close friend and fellow Canadian Seth Rogen, he was disappointed to learn that, instead of unwinding, the plan was to attend a housewarming party at James Franco’s mansion where a lot of A-list celebrities would be in attendance. For, despite having achieved his own measure of success, low-key Jay still lives in Montreal, in part to avoid the trappings of such shallow Tinseltown gatherings.
Upon their arrival, Jay awkwardly exchanges pleasantries with the host and Jonah Hill, both of whom he secretly suspects hate him. Furthermore, he’s overwhelmed to find himself surrounded by so many famous faces he’s never seen in person before, icons like including Kevin Hart, Channing Tatum, Jason Segel, Emma Watson and Mindy Kaling, to name a few.
Jay also feels uncomfortable about the booze, drugs and bawdy behavior typified by Michael Cera’s playfully slapping Rihanna on the rump only to get smacked in the face by the pop diva. Then there’s Craig Robinson who sits down at the piano to sing a tune called “Take Your Panties Off,” while sporting a T-shirt emblazoned with the same phrase.
However, all of the above is irreversibly rendered irrelevant when an earthquake registering 9.7 on the Richter scale rocks the city and rips a giant fissure right in front of Franco’s place. The guests scatter in all directions as a widening sinkhole starts to swallow some of the revelers at the same time that blue beams of light lift others heavenward.
Meanwhile, James, Jay, Seth, Emily, Craig and Jonah beat a hasty retreat and barricade themselves inside to await rescue. Eventually it dawns on them that the cavalry might never be coming, since what’s unfolding all across Los Angeles looks more like Judgment Day than the fallout from a momentary shift in tectonic plates.
Thus unfolds This Is the End, a zany apocalyptic comedy marking the directorial debut of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the writing team previously responsible for Superbad and Pineapple Express. This novel adventure proves to be every bit as side-splitting as their earlier offerings, with much of the inspired humor coming courtesy of actors willing to be the butt of the joke despite playing themselves.
Armageddon never looked like so much fun!
Excellent (4 stars)
R for crude humor, coarse sexuality, graphic nudity, drug use, violence and pervasive profanity
Running time: 107 minutes
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
To see a trailer for This Is the End, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYlQOutbjZA
Twenty Feet from Stardom
Film Review by Kam Williams
Do the names Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Darlene Love, Claudia Lennear, Tata Vega or Lynn Mabry ring a bell? Probably not, yet you are undoubtedly very familiar with their stellar work as backup singers for a variety of musical icons.
For example, it’s Merry’s powerful voice which adds a memorable touch of soul to the Rolling Stones’ classic “Gimme Shelter” in the brief interlude where she makes the most of the opportunity to belt out the bizarre lyrics “Rape! Murder! It’s just a shot away!” The same can be said of Darlene who not only handled backup duties on hundreds of hits by everyone from Elvis Presley to The Beach Boys to Tom Jones to Sonny & Cher, but even anonymously ghost recorded the lead vocals on such Sixties anthems as “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “He’s a Rebel” and “It’s in His Kiss,” without getting credit or decent compensation.
Sadly, despite their amazing talents, folks pursuing this profession generally have precious little to show financially for their considerable contributions to the annals of rock, soul and other genres. For most of the backups are black and female with gospel backgrounds, and have stories to share about being underpaid, underappreciated and/or outright exploited. In fact, Darlene confesses to having to clean houses as a maid between gigs in order to survive at a low point in her career.
Most backup singers are frustrated artists who spend years helping others shine while waiting for that big break that might never come that could catapult them into the limelight. Finally, thanks to Twenty Feet from Stardom, these neglected sisters are finally getting their props, if not the fortune and mega fame that has eluded them for so long.
Directed by Morgan Neville, this very entertaining and illuminating documentary includes testimonials by the likes of Sting, Springsteen, Bette Midler, Sheryl Crow and other greats freely paying tribute. A reverential retrospective representing the first tip of the cap to backups I can remember since Lou Reed warbled “And the colored girls go!” on the gritty ditty “Walk on the Wild Side.”
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG-13 for profanity and sexuality
Running time: 91 minutes
Distributor: Radius-TWC
To see a trailer for Twenty Feet from Stardom, visit