My TIFF lineup...

Listed below are the films I've lined up for this year's 35th Toronto International Film Festival. Due to a brain cramp, I missed the original cutoff date to get my movie picks in, which lead to a mad scramble and having to opt for some films that were a little lower profile (thereby increasing the likelihood I'd be able to get a ticket). That might not be such a bad thing, though, as the "bigger" movies aren't always the best, and some real gems can turn up amongst the "smaller" films.

The High Cost Of Living (Wednesday, September 15th)

Small Town Murder Songs (Friday, September 17th)

Womb (Saturday, September 18th)

Trigger (Saturday, September 18th)

Super (Saturday, September 18th)

Julia's Eyes (Saturday, September 18th)

The Expendables [movie review]

* Released theatrically in August

The Expendables is a clumsily executed disappointment, done in by terrible writing, lacklustre performances, and sub-par directing. The fault for most of the film's inadequacies must fall at the feet of Sylvester Stallone, who stars, co-wrote, and directed this 80's action film throwback. The Expendables has the distinct whiff of Stallone trying to launch another franchise after the moderate success in recent years of his reanimated Rocky and Rambo franchises. Unfortunately, age has finally caught up to Stallone (he's now 64), making any further kicks at the can with either of those two characters unlikely, as the actor himself has even finally admitted.

The interesting cast was enough to raise expectations for this to be a summer popcorn movie romp, with the inclusion of Jason Statham, Jet Li, mixed martial artist Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, and former NFL'er Terry Crews as members of an elite commando squad-for-hire known as The Expendables. Mickey Rourke has a limited role as a former member of the team and the cast is rounded out by wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Eric Roberts, and includes cameos from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. I guess Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal were busy.

Stallone plays Barney Ross, leader of The Expendables, and Statham plays his right-hand man, Lee Christmas. The pair get the bulk of the screen time and do a decent enough job with the rudimentary script they're working from. Both receive more than a few gratuitous scenes, particularly Stallone, who doesn't miss an opportunity to show off his still impressive physique, notably during a scene where he gets to doff his top for some tattoo work. Statham gets the spotlight in another scene derived from a contrived plot point that is so transparently written into the movie as an excuse to allow Statham to kick some ass on a basketball court that it's laughable.

The barely-there plot revolves around a risky mission proposed to The Expendables to eliminate a tyrannical dictator on a fictional South American island. The job offer occurs during the movie's most buzzed-about scene, involving Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Willis...call it a Planet Hollywood summit. The scene, which lasts less than three minutes, totally falls flat, though, with the jokey exchanges between the trio failing to hit their comedic marks, and Arnold is in and out in a mere 90 seconds. Willis, as a C.I.A. operative, lays on the heavy so thick that his supposedly imposing character comes across as an unintentionally funny caricature, which makes him fit right in on this movie. A reconnaissance trip to the island by Ross and Christmas leads to a decision not to take the job, but Ross finds himself sympathizing with Sandra, a woman he meets there. She just happens to be the estranged daughter of General Garza, the aforementioned dictator. After returning to the States, Ross is unable to shake Sandra from his mind, leading to a return trip with his team to save her that sets up the main plot point of the movie. The premise that Ross would risk his life by returning for a woman he had only known for a couple of hours, even out of a nagging moral obligation, is patently ridiculous and a shaky foundation on which to base a story around. There isn't even a romantic angle thrown in as motivation for Ross, as the dynamic between Barney and Sandra appears very chaste, thank God. At least Stallone and the two other screenwriters had that much restraint, by not foisting a romantic subplot between two people with an age difference of approximately four decades upon the viewer.

None of the secondary characters bring much to their thin roles, which includes being saddled with lines as bad as "friends don't let friends die alone" and "it's good to hang pirates". Rourke, as the zen tattoo artist, is given what Stallone (the director) envisioned as the film's meatiest dramatic scene. We know this because it's shot with an artsy blue tint and Rourke is lensed in extreme close-up, ruminating on one of his past war experiences in Bosnia, attempting to convey the heavy psychological toll that combat takes on a man's soul. The hoped-for dramatic weight of the scene falls with a heavy thud. Other forgettable performances are turned in by Roberts (playing the kind of snaky weasel role he can do in his sleep), a wooden Austin, David Zayas from TV's Dexter as Garza (overacting and with a bad accent), and Lundgren, whose stunningly bad work here reminds us why he hasn't been in a high profile movie since 1995's Johnny Mnemonic.

Searching for some positives to take away from the film, I'll at least acknowledge that, for the most part (aside from that one scene), the participants don't seem to be taking themselves too seriously. Then again, it'd be almost impossible to have approached this project with that mindset, given the atrocious dialog that was handed to the actors and the movie's over-the-top violence (victims have their bodies literally blown in half, are beheaded, and have knives twisted in their necks). Also, it was somewhat refreshing to watch a modern day action movie that had seemingly little special effects work in it. And finally, there is one clever scene nestled among the witlessness surrounding it, involving the dropping and igniting (with extreme prejudice!) of jet fuel on some baddies. Otherwise, The Expendables makes the recent theatrical reboot of The A-Team look like high art.

Rating: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

Hole - Nobody's Daughter [music review]

* Released in April

Hole's Nobody's Daughter is the epitome of mediocrity, which is a label that frontwoman Courtney Love would surely turn her reconstructed nose up at. She's always had a "love me or hate me" attitude when it comes to herself and her work, if you've ever read an interview she's given. It's her first album since the spectacular failure of 2004's solo release America's Sweetheart, which came in the wake of Hole's 2002 disbanding, and she remains the only remaining member from the group's last lineup (former bassist Melissa Auf der Maur and founding guitarist Eric Erlandson were not asked to participate with this project). Love is clearly ringing what little she can from the Hole name, which can't be much in 2010. The band's last release (the well-received Celebrity Skin) came out in 1998, a virtual eternity in the music business.

Nobody's Daughter had its fair share of problems over the course of its inception in 2005 and eventual release: record company squabbles, demos that were leaked online, and creative impasses between Love and some of her collaborators, including Billy Corgan (who contributed some early guitar work and co-wrote some songs), producer/songwriter Linda Perry, and producer Michael Beinhorn. All three exited the project at some point, but part of their work turns up in some capacity on the final album.

The album echoes elements of Celebrity Skin's glossy production, accentuated as it is with heaps of acoustic guitars that fill out the recording's sound, but this time around there's more of a one-dimensional impression left by all the percussive and folksy six string accompaniment. Eight of the ten tracks go this route, rendering the material with a stale sameness, and that's not even counting the eleventh "bonus track" titled "Never Go Hungry", which has Love doing her best Dylan as she sings, backed only by a lone acoustic. Normally, I actually love when artists throw lots of acoustic guitars into the mix, especially combined with heavier electrics...just not on nearly every song on the album. The title track throws in an unnecessary fake-out ending that also highlights one of the other problems with the material: even though the album clocks in at just 47 minutes (and that's including the bonus track) it feels much longer. "How Dirty Girls Get Clean" goes on for a good 90 seconds longer than it should, sapping a lively tune of its punky energy. "Pacific Coast Highway", which would appear to be a companion piece both in sound and California subject matter to Skin's "Malibu", also suffers from a lack of editing.

While the music may innocuously blend together, Love brings a harder kick with her piss and vinegar vocals. Her lived-in voice serves her well in delivering lines with an attitude that most women in their mid 40's couldn't pull off, although the expiry date may be fast approaching. Whether she's aiming ample amounts of vitriol at herself or others, it's still fun to hear Love do what she does best, as the album's strongest song, "Skinny Little Bitch", demonstrates. The track gets more mileage than it should out of a basic three guitar chord progression and there's an inspired increase in tempo at the end of the song. "Samantha" is the album's second best track, incorporating a clever lyrical and vocal twist on its "People like you fuck people like me/in order to avoid agony" refrain.         

Forget the 90's - the last decade alone has seen Love entrenched as regular TMZ and PerezHilton fodder, making headlines for all the wrong reasons. There was the court-appointed rehab, the alleged theft of husband Kurt Cobain's remains, clashes with the people handling his estate, rambling and non-sensical posts on her social networking sites, a lawsuit over unpaid credit card balances, and losing custody of her daughter. And those are just the more prominent ones. Despite her flakiness, I was still pulling for Courtney with this one, but alas, it was not to be. With a collection of music that includes not a single song that could be deemed "great", nor one that could be dismissed as "complete rubbish", Nobody's Daughter feels like the musical equivalent of someone just, well, treading water. And that is not a quality the enigmatic Love wears well.

Highlights: "Skinny Little Bitch", "Samantha", "Pacific Coast Highway"

Lowlights: "Loser Dust", "Honey", "For Once In Your Life", "Letter To God"

Rating: C

Chloe [movie review]

* Limited theatrical release in March; now on DVD

Chloe is Canadian director Atom Egoyan's latest film and his most commercial effort yet. It also marks his first feature that he didn't also write - Erin Cressida Wilson contributed the screenplay, which is based on the 2003 French film Nathalie.... This remake is also the movie that Liam Neeson was shooting at the time of the skiing accident and subsequent death of his wife, actress Natasha Richardson. Those events necessitated a rearrangement of the film's script and shooting schedule, with Neeson amazingly returning to work shortly after his wife's funeral for a couple of days of filming to wrap up the movie's work on his character.

Julianne Moore, Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried star, with Moore adding another standout performance to her resume (we'll overlook that terrible Bah-ston accent she brought to her appearances on 30 Rock last season). Moore plays Catherine, one half of an upper class couple, with a successful gynecology practice and an unhappy home life (her son hates her and her marriage to Neeson's David character has grown stale). Amid suspicions that David is cheating on her, Catherine hires an escort named Chloe (played by Seyfried) to test his faithfulness. The investigation into her husband's possible infidelity leads to a seismic shift within Catherine's own hollow, insecure inner being. Along with a complex, nuanced performance from Moore, the youthful Seyfried also does an excellent job in holding her own with two heavyweight actors, playing her character with a low-key, almost effortless sexual appeal that is shrouded in compelling mystery.

Egoyan might not have written the screenplay, but Chloe very much feels like it's been cut from his literary cloth. The examinations into human psychology, laced with sexual intrigue, echo much of Egoyan's past work (Exotica, in particular, comes to mind). To research the world of upscale sex workers, Egoyan hung out at a New York City hotel bar, where he soon found himself paying for the time of various escorts as he interviewed them about their work. The film was shot in Toronto, with the city playing itself for a change (Yorkville is featured prominently, as well as the Allen Gardens botanical garden).

From time to time on MediaboyMusings I like to make mention of a film/TV show/album's critical ratings on sites like RottenTomatoes or Metacritic, just to get the pulse on how something was received by the general public and media. A perusal of feedback on Chloe practically stunned me, with it only getting a 52% favourable rating on RottenTomatoes and an even less charitable rating on Metacritic. That, combined with the film's anemic box office returns in a limited theatrical release, will lead many to dismiss this as a failure and skip it, which is their loss. Most critical rebukes point to the film's admittedly disappointing final act, which does its damndest to cancel out the excellent first 75% of the movie and drag it down to a "trashy art film" level. It doesn't quite succeed though, as the beautifully shot, superbly acted bulk of the film cannot be disregarded.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Under Great White Northern Lights [movie review]

* Limited theatrical release in February; now on DVD

I wasn't a fan of The White Stripes prior to viewing their documentary film, Under Great White Northern Lights...and I'm still not. I find Jack White's singing voice incredibly whiny and grating, drummer Meg White plays at a sub-intermediate level, and their music, which incorporates a wide spectrum of elements drawn from punk, blues, country, and rock, is a little too ragged for my tastes (although "Seven Nation Army" ain't half bad). Toss in their calculated red, white, and black colour scheme, as well as the self-imposed mystique stemming from details like the duo's supposed brother-sister relationship (they're actually former husband and wife) and it's simply a package that just isn't for me.

So why watch a movie about them, you ask? Especially one that includes plenty of live performance footage? Well, I thought it might be an opportunity to give their music another chance, plus the concept behind the 2007 summer tour that the film documents was intriguing, in that the band wanted to play in every province and territory in Canada. Music video director and documentarian Emmett Malloy was enlisted to shoot the experience and he captures some nice footage, although the rationale behind alternating usage of either black and white or colour film appears to be completely arbitrary, which can be a little frustrating for the viewer.

Scheduled tour dates were accompanied by last minute, word-of-mouth performances at locations that were so bizarre that they soon became the talk of the tour. Those locations included a YMCA day camp, a pool hall, an in-service transit bus (Jack and Meg lead the riders on a version of "The Wheels On The Bus"), a fishing vessel, a classroom, a grocery store, a flour mill, and a bowling alley (where we see Jack bowling whilst in the middle of a song). As strange as those appearances were, the oddest had to be their (in)famous "one note show" in St. John's, Newfoundland. The film opens with shots of anxious fans on the street trying to figure out exactly where the band is supposed to be making their surprise appearance, before cutting to a gathered crowd of hundreds in an unnamed outdoor setting. Jack and Meg exit a van, walk to the stage, and then play a single note each before exiting to applause and the crowd chanting "one more note!". Is it a display of marketing genius or utter hubris? Perhaps both, as another chapter in The White Stripes book of enigmatic behaviour is written.

To fulfill the goal of the tour means having to play in some very remote areas, which is evidenced by the band's trip to Iqaluit, which has a population of 6,000 and is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. While there, the pair visit a local seniors home and awkwardly interact with the Inuit elders, who clearly don't have a clue who The White Stripes are. They take in some of the local culture (including a sampling of raw caribou meat) and Jack performs an old blues song for the small gathering.

Interviews with the pair do a little to lift the veil of mystery that hangs over The White Stripes, but not much. Jack, energetic and outgoing, expectedly does most of the talking, with Meg contributing sparingly and usually with the help of subtitles, since she's so soft-spoken. Jack addresses the issue of whether or not he lets Meg talk during interviews and attributes her lack of verbosity to her introverted personality, which seems completely logical given the painfully shy persona she projects on screen. The last scene of the movie only conjures up more questions about the mysterious and fragile Meg, as she breaks down into tears while seated beside Jack at a piano as he plays the band's "White Moon". The extremely odd moment is never explained, with the credits rolling at the song's conclusion. It's likely no coincidence that shortly after the Canadian tour ended the band cancelled the rest of their world tour, citing Meg's acute anxiety problems.

Some interesting revelations about Jack's creative process are offered up in explanations of how he likes to make things difficult for himself onstage, such as keeping his extra guitar picks at the back of the stage (and not taped to his guitar or the microphone stand like most musicians), not using a setlist, using older guitars that are temperamental when it comes to staying in tune, and placing his organ in a certain stage spot that makes it a challenge to get to when he needs to access it. His rationale for the unusual methods is that he believes too much of a comfort level while performing stifles an artist's creativity and the show's energy. If that's the case, one could almost wonder if working with Meg's rudimentary drumming skills is an extension of that philosophy.

Diehard and even just casual fans of The White Stripes will find plenty of compelling viewing and listening in Under Great White Northern Lights. Non-fans? Not so much. The novel idea of the Canadian tour and its accompanying eccentricities simply isn't enough for them to invest 93 minutes towards.

Rating: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

Minor league baseball manager Wally Backman LOSES it...

Former major leaguer Wally Backman, known mostly for his eight year tenure with the New York Mets, is now managing in the minor leagues and was miked during the 2007 season for the minor league baseball reality show Playing For Peanuts. Watch and listen to him have a meltdown after one of his players gets ejected from a game. Earl Weaver would have been proud.

Skip to exactly a minute into the clip, which is where the good stuff starts.

Stone Temple Pilots - Stone Temple Pilots [music review]

* Released in May

Stone Temple Pilots were critically reviled when Core, their debut album, came out in 1992. Dismissed as a diluted derivative of the first wave of grunge, they eventually managed to carve out a highly respectable career (if still not always highly respected by critics) that saw them expand their sound and attain significant success, as evidenced by their 40+ million albums sold worldwide, and seven number one singles on Billboard's rock charts. However, everything came to a crashing halt in 2003 when tensions between singer Scott Weiland and the rest of the band reached their limit, leading to a five year "respite" between the two camps (and apparently not a break-up, as had been widely believed), as guitarist Dean DeLeo recounted in this 2008 interview. Weiland went on to release his second solo album and, of course, fronted Velvet Revolver before also wearing out his welcome with that band. The rest of STP (DeLeo, his bassist brother, Robert, and drummer Eric Kretz) formed Army Of Anyone with Filter vocalist Richard Patrick, releasing an album in 2006 that was followed by a supporting tour. The underwhelming output from these non-STP projects provided yet further examples of "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" musical axiom that usually rears its ugly head when band members go their separate ways. 2008 saw the band regroup and undertake a successful tour that lead to this, their self-titled sixth studio album.

One could have expected an unspectacular, workmanlike effort from the group, engineered to just get some new product out there and provide an excuse to mount another lucrative tour. Let's face it, most musical artists these days don't make a lot of money from album sales and the musical landscape has shifted dramatically since 2001 when the band's last studio effort, Shangri-La Dee Da (which holds up better than I remembered upon a recent relisten), came out. Stone Temple Pilots debuted at #2 on the Billboard album chart in May, with the top spot being claimed by the third (!) soundtrack from television's Glee, which has somehow managed to overtake the Twilight movies as today's most annoying and overexposed pop culture phenomenon. A #2 debut may seem like nothing to scoff at, but STP sold a surprisingly modest 62,000 copies in its first week, despite plenty of advance hype and another #1 single at rock radio. Consumer apathy might be in play for this album, but creative apathy from STP is most certainly not.

Straight out of the chute with the instantly infectious "Between The Lines", the band delivers a resounding statement that they have plenty more to add to their already impressive body of work. The clever lyrical wordplay ("You always were my favourite drug/Even when we used to take drugs") is balanced with some typically Weiland-ish gibberish ("You rock the magic plane with no abbreviation"), and it's set to possibly the strongest music the band has ever written, with an ace rock star swagger vocal performance. Weiland's cock-of-the-walk attitude throughout the album really serves as a glaring reminder of how lacking that quality is in most of today's rock singers, and how unconvincing those few that do attempt to convey it are. The singer's lyrics this time around appear to be a little less introspective than on previous albums, possibly a result of his apparently sober lifestyle these days. Dean DeLeo brings his A-game to the track, both with his rhythm guitar work and a scorching solo that brings to mind his frontman's previous lead guitarist, Slash. "Take A Load Off" is textbook STP, showcasing the unique playing style of Robert DeLeo, whose bass playing frequently steers the melodies and direction of the band's songs more than most other rock bass players. "Hickory Dichotomy" also shows it off, as DeLeo's walking bass lines nicely counterpoint his brother's meaty guitar parts (including a great slide solo). Weiland channels David Bowie and Lou Reed through his spoken vocal delivery for the track's verses, one of many homages to the 70's on the album. "Huckleberry Crumble" also has a platform shoe'd footprint stuck clearly in that decade. The track might even be labelled "shameful" for how much it rips off 70's era Aerosmith...if it wasn't so good.

"Cinnamon", "First Kiss On Mars", and "Maver" find the band at their poppy best, territory they staked out earlier in their career with the likes of "Interstate Love Song" and "Sour Girl". These songs also contain the ear candy of subtly layered guitar and vocal backing tracks that highlight the fine songcraft and production at work here. STP is the band's first album not produced by Brendan O'Brien, as the DeLeo brothers take the helm this time. The album was recorded over a ten month period at the personal studios of Weiland, Robert DeLeo, and Kretz during breaks in the band's touring schedule. Producer Don Was was additionally brought in to coordinate the separate recording sessions and work specifically with the tracking of Weiland's vocals.

Rounding out the rest of the album are a rock solid group of songs like "Hazy Daze", "Bagman", "Fast As I Can", and "Peacoat". The latter track is redeemed from "skippable" status mostly by Dean DeLeo's guitar work, which infuses the song with enough interesting different guitar sounds and weird sounding chords (especially the main riff) to hold the listener's attention. The only one of the album's 12 tracks lacking any notable attributes is the electric piano-driven "Dare If You Dare", which borrows a little too heavily from Mott The Hoople's "All The Young Dudes".

STP is the band's strongest album since 1994's Purple and, arguably, their strongest yet. There's a relaxed and focussed quality to it that can't be matched by their previous five studio efforts. The haters probably won't be converted and there isn't anything ground-breaking here, just a re-energized band putting their own unique grunge-pop spin on their musical influences.

Highlights: "Between The Lines", "Maver", "Cinnamon", "Huckleberry Crumble"

Lowlights: "Dare If You Dare"

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Pink's amazing high-flying performance...

Pink's music never impressed me until I checked out her Funhouse album from 2008 and was won over (although her earlier material still hasn't grown on me). One thing I have always respected about her are her live performances, where she tends to push boundaries and come up with interesting ways to showcase her music, like the memorable spectacle she put on playing "So What" at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards (unavailable on YouTube) and a beautiful, acrobatic performance of "Glitter In The Air" at the Grammy Awards earlier this year (check it out here).

She manages to keep topping herself, as evidenced by the clip below of "So What" from her set at last month's Isle Of Wight Festival. Even if you think her music sucks, you still have to give it up to her for being a damn good entertainer...and singing in key while spinning around 60 feet above the audience on moving wires. For the last 15 or so years now, one of the big spectacles at a KISS show has been Paul Stanley travelling on a wire just above the audience's heads to a smaller stage at the back of the arena. This just makes him look like a total pussy in comparison.

The Runaways [movie review]

* Released theatrically in March; available on DVD July 20th

The story of 70's all-female rock band The Runaways travels through much of the same territory as any other group whose rise and fall has been documented on, say, any episode of Behind The Music - wild-eyed ambition and hard work by a cast of misfit underdogs brings some level of success and attention, only to be inevitably undone by drugs, booze, egos, mismanagement, and jealousies. What makes The Runaways' story unique is that "all-female" angle, or, more accurately, all-girl (the ages of the members were 15 and 16 when the band started). Such a concept was unheard of in 1975 when the band was formed by shadowy record business impresario Kim Fowley.

The Runaways is the cinematic retelling of their story and marks the directorial debut of Floria Sigismondi, the photographer and music video director from Hamilton, Ontario who might be best known for lensing the visually disturbing video for Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People". Sigismondi also wrote the screenplay, which includes small doses of fiction, based on the book Neon Angel by Runaways vocalist Cherie Currie. The director's quirky and dark visual style is significantly muted for the film and the storyline only gets by for so long on the all-girl and jailbait novelty that hampered the band's credibility, before crashing into a biopic wasteland of clichés and familiar band-imploding scenarios. The Runaways cred also wasn't helped by their inexperience as songwriters, which is reflected in their sub-par discography. This shortcoming was made up for with copious amounts of a most unladylike balls-out attitude.

Kristen Stewart (playing guitarist/vocalist Joan Jett) and an almost-all-grown-up Dakota Fanning (as Currie) are the focal point of the film and give good performances, managing not to embarrass themselves as they contribute their own vocals in the music scenes, with Stewart passably looking like she can handle a guitar. She also nails Jett's look and mannerisms, injecting the character with the right amount of slouched, brooding attitude. The real Jett, by the way, was involved in the film as an executive producer. The rest of the band members are played by Scout Taylor-Compton (as lead guitarist Lita Ford), Stella Maeve (as drummer Sandy West), and Alia Shawkat from TV's Arrested Development (as "Robin", a bass player who is a lame fictional composite of the numerous bassists who played with the band during their four year run). Only Currie is given much screen time in terms of character development, which makes sense considering the source material, but her character still frustratingly ends up feeling not fully formed.

Michael Shannon, whose memorable portrayal of a bluntly honest paranoid schizophrenic in Revolutionary Road garnered him an Oscar nomination, turns in great work here as well, playing Fowley. The physical similarity between the two is striking and Shannon clearly relishes the opportunity to chew some scenery as he inhabits Fowley's colourful persona. Fowley's managing tactics consist of a blend of calculated opportunism, bullying, and exploitation, and Shannon brings the character to life in all of its sleazy glory.

Interestingly, the inclusion of the inexplicably popular Twilight franchise's Stewart and Fanning didn't bring out the massive audience of Twi-hards to The Runaways during its theatrical run: it only made $3.5 million. Perhaps the teenage girl demographic were uninterested because it was set in the 70's, or perhaps they just didn't care about the story of a band who never managed to rise above cult status that also acted as a springboard to solo careers for Jett and Ford.

If a more definitive recap of The Runaways' history is what you seek then hunt down the 2004 documentary Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways. It was directed by Victory Tischler-Blue, who went by the name of Vicki Blue during her short stint as one of those aforementioned bassists in the band. Edgeplay dishes a lot more dirt and includes the participation of all the band's principal figures except for, quite conspicuously, Jett. The emotional scars inflicted by Fowley in such a short amount of time together still run deep, as told with raw, genuine bitterness by some of the band members. Currie recounts how her father would have "pulled out a gun and blown (Fowley's) brains out" if he knew the sordid world his daughter had gotten mixed up in, and finishes her thought with "I still hope one day someone does, because I think if anyone deserves it that man does". The saddest portion in the film comes from interviews with West, the band's only drummer, who never got over the breakup of the band and is still clearly sore over it, even 25 years later. West never attained any success in her post-Runaways music projects and ended up working construction and other odd jobs, including getting mixed up in the drug trade and spending time in jail. She died of lung cancer a couple of years after Edgeplay was released.

Rating: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

U2 360° At The Rose Bowl [Blu-Ray review]

* Released June 3rd

Timed to coincide with the resumption earlier this month of the second North American leg of their juggernaut U2 360° Tour, U2 360° At The Rose Bowl will have to act as a temporary satisfier for those of us on this continent who are left holding tickets for their postponed shows (until next year) after lead singer Bono's recent unexpected back surgery. Loathe as I am to trot out a cliched "but it's the next best thing to being there" line, this new DVD/Blu-Ray release does do a standout job in capturing the Irish band's ambitious live production, which is more a credit to U2's brilliant show than any superlative directing, editing, or fancy camera shots.

The concert, performed on October 25th of last year, was broadcast live on YouTube, the first time the site has streamed a full-length live performance. The show had over 10 million views in just its first week, which included myself. I had seen the band live and close-up just five weeks earlier (read my review here), but still found new things to appreciate, and I was particularly impressed with YouTube's audio and especially the video quality. Cut to seven months later and I found myself wondering how significantly the YouTube version would differ from the new DVD/Blu-Ray version. Some shots and stage dialogue I recognized, but for the most part it felt like I was watching a completely new show. While I've got a pretty solid video and audio setup with my iMac, the added "oomph" from experiencing the show again with the sharp Blu-Ray picture and a good set of speakers is substantial.

Director Tom Krueger, who worked as a cinematographer on the band's stunning (and overlooked) U2 3D film, does have a lot to work with here, considering there were 27 HD cameras used for this shoot and, well, it's only the biggest rock touring production ever. High marks to Krueger for almost completely excluding pointless close-up shots of audience members, which rarely add anything to a live video. Remarkably, I only counted three such shots. For the most part, the enormity of the production translates comfortably, especially during "City Of Blinding Lights". Some well-timed aerial shots from cranes and helicopters provide impressive visuals of the band playing to their biggest crowd on the tour and their biggest U.S. crowd ever, at 96,000 (also a Rose Bowl record...the band broke numerous attendance records due to the unique setup of the stage, which, even with it's massive size, still allowed them to increase a venue's capacity by an average of 20%). The jarring quick edits that have marred some recent U2 home video releases are thankfully not overdone this time around.

The Pasadena, California show finds the band on the second-last date of their 2009 tour, and they are clearly a well-oiled machine at this point. The setlist, clocking in at a little over two hours, is a nice balance of strong new material, U2 staples, and underplayed gems (such as "In A Little While" and "Ultraviolet", with the latter marking one of the high points of the show). Curiously, the show's opening track, "Breathe", is omitted from the main program and included as an extra.

Once again, U2 pushes the envelope as far as electrifying stage productions, an especially gutsy move given the relatively poor reception (commercially and critically) that their last huge live presentation, 1997-98's PopMart Tour, received. The stage, which was conceived to be so big that it almost becomes part of the stadium, provides clean, open sightlines and successfully facilitates the band's performance, rather than overwhelming it. During some numbers, the massive structure (and its amazing, shapeshifting video screen) are actually used quite sparingly and the show far from suffers. As a matter of fact, some of the most memorable and genuine moments of the concert occur during scaled down acoustic versions of "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" and "Stay", as well as another great sequence where the entire band eschews the stage's expanse and gathers tightly around the drum riser during "Where The Streets Have No Name".

This is the band's first Blu-Ray release and is being sold in a number of formats, most notably the super deluxe boxset (only $160 at Amazon.ca!).

Blu-Ray extras: overall, the extra/bonus content is quite underwhelming, to be honest. There's an insightful documentary titled Squaring The Circle about the creative process behind the show, but other than that and the inclusion of some of the official music videos from their last album that didn't get much airplay, there's little here that's noteworthy. Most of the tour clips here have already appeared at U2.com and are shot in relatively unimpressive looking standard definition...and are boring as hell (or perhaps you care to waste numerous minutes of your life on footage like watching a street artist in Milano who breaks into U2 songs and preaches his love for the band). The BD Live feature, which allows you to access additional content through your Blu-Ray player's online connection, shows some promise, but still needs some refinement. The video quality of the clips available (only six so far, although clearly more will be added when the tour resumes) isn't great, and neither is the content yet, with the selections limited to mindless 1-2 minute heavily edited clips, such as the one that will only interest the members of the Glasgow audience shown on screen singing along to "With Or Without You".

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆