In 1999, Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts founded the Women on Waves organization, who are dedicated to providing abortion services to women in countries where abortions are illegal. The latest statistics from the World Health Organization estimate that 21.6 million women worldwide experience unsafe abortions every year, with 47,000 of those women dying from the procedure. Vessel is the result of first-time director Diana Whitten spending seven years documenting Gomperts' noble and dangerous crusade.
Following her time spent as a doctor aboard one of Greenpeace's vessels, where she was troubled by the lack of adequate birth control healthcare for women internationally, Gomperts cleverly devised a method to skirt the abortion laws of various countries. Using vessels outfitted with shipping containers converted into medical clinics, Women on Waves sails into different ports (the film shows us stops in Poland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco), picks up the women in need of help, and travels far enough offshore into international waters where the only abortion laws applicable are those of the country the ship is registered in (in this case it's the Netherlands, where abortion is legal). Once they're in legally safe territory, the organization doesn't perform surgical abortions, but facilitates pharmaceutical abortions that involve patients self-administering a pill that causes an early miscarriage, as well as providing counselling. Vessel also explores the expansion of Women on Waves into a global network via the launch of Women on Web, who also provide reproductive health information and support.
Despite efficient use of animated sequences delivering sobering statistics and the implementation of even more sobering calls and emails from distressed women in need of help, Gomperts' inspiring passion for her cause, as well as a charged subject matter that leads to some tense scenes involving the activist and her crew facing packs of aggressive media, police and military blockades, and angry demonstrators in the ports they visit, Vessel frustratingly fails to leave the impact it aspires to. The film doesn't really go down any unexpected paths and lacks the impartiality and weight of a superior documentary on the abortion issue I took in at Hot Docs in 2010, 12th & Delaware (read my review here). Rating:C+
Released theatrically in February George Clooney's fifth directorial effort, The Monuments Men, squanders both its rich concept (loosely based on the 2010 book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves And The Greatest Treasure Hunt In History by Robert Edsel) and a fine ensemble cast comprised of Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, and Hugh Bonneville. The men play the real-life MFAA (Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives) unit made up of arts-loving civilians tasked near the end of World War II with recovering artworks stolen by the Nazis and returning them to their rightful owners. Adding a sense of urgency to the multinational group's mission is Hitler's plan to destroy the art pieces should the Nazis be defeated, in addition to the Russian military's intent to keep all the art they find as compensation for the casualties they've incurred.
The script, written by Clooney and his co-producer Grant Heslov, presents an intriguing central question for the viewer's consideration: are the lives of men worth sacrificing in order to save history's greatest artistic works? Unfortunately, the lofty ideal isn't partnered with a substantial enough execution of almost all of The Monuments Men's other components (one of the exceptions being the film's impressive visuals and period detail). The chemistry between the cast members never seems to fully click, largely because the characters all feel so disappointingly underwritten. Blanchett's Claire Simone character, a crucial ally in the Men's mission, has the foundation to be an interesting figure, but never seems to become fully realized, even for a secondary character (a misguided seduction story between her and Damon's James Granger character doesn't help, either). Attempts at goofy humour repeatedly fall flat, as evidenced during one of the film's surprisingly few lively scenes involving Goodman's and Dujardin's characters, a scene where Granger has to extricate himself from a land mine he's stepped on, the mangled French spoken by Granger, and the unfunny exchanges between the at-odds characters played by Balaban and a predictably deadpan Murray. Many of the moments where the film adopts a more solemn tone (this is war, after all) tend to come up short, too, such as one where Murray's character receives a musical gift from home (the scene felt tainted by its manipulativeness) and another where Clooney's character has a conversation with a captured Nazi senior officer (the scene curiously doesn't pack the dramatic oomph it aspires to). It's surprising that a true story as unlikely as this one took so long to make it to the big screen. Regrettably, Clooney's plodding tribute to the brave individuals who were inspired by such a noble cause never finds its footing and comes up well short in doing their remarkable exploits cinematic justice. Rating:C
Released in November Stryper proved that there was still gas in their creative tank in 2009 with the first-rate Murder By Pride album (I reviewed it here), which was followed up by two types of releases that are seemingly a late-in-their-career requirement for every 80s hard rock band: the covers album (2011's The Covering, an album head and shoulders above any covers collection I'd ever heard from a band, although it was saddled with embarrassingly amateurish cover artwork) and an album of the act's classic songs that've been re-recorded (early 2013's Second Coming, reconfirming the artistic pointlessness of a group reproducing faithful versions of earlier songs that will always take a distant backseat to the originals. This one was done for the same business reason that most of these kinds of albums are done, though - because the band wasn't making any money from sales of their back catalog due to a bad record deal). No More Hell To Pay marks the first time Stryper's original lineup of lead vocalist/guitarist Michael Sweet, guitarist Oz Fox, drummer Robert Sweet, and bassist Tim Gaines have put out a collection of new music since 1990's Against The Law album.[Any future references to "Sweet" in this review will be referring to Michael, the band's leader, main songwriter, and No More Hell To Pay's producer]. Rather than mellowing with age, Stryper seem to get heavier. They've always been heavy, mind you...their handful of late 80s pop-metal radio and video hits has always tended to obscure that fact, however. There's certainly nothing poppy about album opener "Revelation", with its ominous riffage and bleak Book of Revelation-referencing lyrics warning that "Sin is counted and the fee is tolled" and "Blood will run and turn the waters red". It's followed by the title track, which drops down the tempo from its predecessor, while losing none of the beefy presence of Robert Sweet's percussion and Gaines' bass, nor the six-string crunch and signature dual lead guitar harmonies of Fox and Sweet. As Sweet discusses in this recent interview, Stryper's newest album draws inspiration in its title, heaviness, and eye-catching album artwork from the band's best-known release, 1986's To Hell With The Devil. The foursome ratchets up the heavy level yet again with the rapid-fire delivery of "Saved By Love" (where Sweet's ridiculously broad vocal range hits intense levels that sound downright violent during parts of the choruses), "Legacy" (where the singer conversely shows one of his rare vocal limitations by unconvincingly pulling off the snarled lyrics during the verses), the fiery "Te Amo" (meaning "I love you" in Spanish), and album closer "Renewed", a track that reflects the strong influence of Judas Priest on the Christian outfit. The fitting "Jesus Is Just Alright", originally recorded by The Art Reynolds Singers in 1965 and later popularized by The Doobie Brothers, further demonstrates Stryper's knack for adding their own engaging spin on classic rock favourites. "The One" is No More Hell To Pay's lone subdued number, a solid guitar power ballad that inventively recycles the falsetto vocal melody from the song "Blue Bleeds Through" off Sweet's 2000 solo album, Truth. "Sticks & Stones", "Water Into Wine", and "Sympathy" adhere more to Stryper's melodic hard rock side, with the latter track dipping back into the sound of the band's Sunset Strip early days on the guitar, bass, and drum parts during the intro and verses, before smoothly transitioning into a memorable chorus that feels much more contemporary. Sterling musicianship, great production, and just one weak track amongst its 12 songs ("Marching Into Battle") add up to No More Hell To Pay being the best hard rock or metal album I heard in 2013, maintaining the high standard reestablished on Murder By Pride. It arguably stands as Stryper's strongest album yet, an inspiring feat for a band that celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. Sweet's 2014 looks to be very busy - in conjunction with a Stryper tour, he's also releasing both a new solo album and autobiography in May.
U2, in typically unsubtle fashion, debuted "Invisible" during Sunday's Super Bowl game with a flashy one minute teaser commercial for the track that directed fans to iTunes to download the song for free for the next 24 hours. Every download during that period resulted in $1 being donated by Bank of America to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is affiliated with (RED), U2 singer Bono's charity. Over $3 million was raised, surpassing Bank of America's original commitment of up to $2 million, with a million downloads coming in the first hour alone after the commercial aired. As much as I was initially quite uncomfortable with my favourite band aligning themselves with a company from an industry as crooked as the U.S. banking industry, the highly worthwhile end result of the pair's venture helps ease that discomfort. A little. "Invisible" is not a radical departure for the band: there's the familiar electronic elements (a keyboard refrain, electronic drums, and a strobing percussive beat not dissimilar to the one from "Beautiful Day"), The Edge's power chords and chiming guitars, and a fine vocal performance conveying Bono's defiant and uplifting lyrics (inspired by the band's early days as they struggled to find their identity and stand out in the musical crowd). As fairly "safe" as the song may be for the quartet, it's still damn good and inspires strong optimism for the rest of their highly anticipated new album, which is being finished up and is slated for a late spring/early summer release. It's certainly far better than the song they released late last year for the film Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, "Ordinary Love". Unorthodoxly, "Invisible" is not the album's first official single, just a sneak preview of things to come (and was chosen because "it's the first one we finished", Bono jokingly told USA Today in a recent interview). In another interview with the BBC following the release of "Invisible", he also revealed that the band wanted to return to smaller venues for their next tour and interestingly questioned the accessibility of "Invisible", as well as U2's relevance today. That the biggest band on the planet doesn't appear to be feeling complacent and sounds hungry to prove that the disappointing critical and commercial reception of their last release, 2009's first-rate No Line On The Horizon, was not the beginning of U2's downward spiral also bodes well for the upcoming album. All I know is that seeing the group in full-on performance mode once again in the commercial, complete with Bono doing a cocksure strut on stage that surely must add fuel to the fire for his many haters (and makes us fans love him even more), has me mightily jacked up for U2 in 2014. Rating:A (February 12th edit: I replaced the one minute "Invisible" clip/commercial with the full official video that was released yesterday)
Related Mediaboy Musings posts: my September 2009 review of U2's Toronto show on their 360 Tour, June 2010 review of U2's 360° At The Rose Bowl Blu-ray, July 2011 review of U2's Toronto show on their 360 Tour, and October 2011 review of the band's From The Sky Down documentary
Released January 14th Advance notice of High Hopes, Bruce Springsteen's 18th studio album, being an "odds and ends" collection of songs reined in my expectations for it. Really, how many of these kinds of "stopgap" albums made up of covers, unreleased material, and reworked versions of previously released songs from any artist ever stand out as memorable? Very few. That being said, the late November announcement of the album still managed to get me a little giddy, as us hardcore Springsteen fans continue to enjoy one of the most prolific periods of the man's 40 year career. High Hopes, which bizarrely was accidentally put on saleby Amazon on December 28th two-and-a-half weeks before its official release date (and then widely circulated on file sharing networks), is Springsteen's sixth studio album to come out since 2005's Devils &Dust. The cover songs: Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who has made numerous live guest appearances with Springsteen since 2008 and was temporarily filling in for E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt during Springsteen's 2013 Australian tour, suggested the rockabilly-style number for their live set that would become the album's title track and lead single (note: although a more stripped-down version of the song was first released by Springsteen in 1996 on his obscure Blood Brothers EP, I'm still categorizing it as a cover). Here, the full force of the E Street Band (expanded to a whopping 19 members now, including Morello) adds significantly more layers to the track with the contributions of Morello's trademark unconventional guitar style, backup singers, and horns that inject needed life into a mediocre bit of songwriting, which was originally recorded by L.A. band The Havelinas. Appearing on three-quarters of High Hopes' 12 tracks, Morello's surprisingly heavy presence on the album reflects the substantial inspiration that Springsteen has gotten from the guitarist in recent years. A satisfying cover of Australian punk act The Saints' "Just Like Fire Would" is the most obvious song on High Hopes that adheres closest to the "classic Springsteen" sound, with Max Weinberg's powerful drumming, walls of guitars, plenty of keyboards, and counter-harmony vocals from Van Zandt. "Dream Baby Dream", originally recorded by 70s punk band Suicide, closes the album on a lyrically optimistic note, but the song's repetitive structure doesn't make it a terribly memorable addition to Springsteen's catalog. The reworked songs: Like "Land Of Hope And Dreams", which also debuted on Springsteen's turn-of-the-millenium reunion tour and took many years to finally make it onto a studio album (2012's Wrecking Ball), the sombre "American Skin (41 Shots)" stands as one of Springsteen's finest works. Written about the 1999 killing of an unarmed immigrant named Amadou Diallo by the NYPD, the song took on new relevance and was returned to Springsteen's live set following the February 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida. This updated version, while still excellent and bolstered by a soulful Morello solo, for me doesn't quite retain the power of the lengthy live version featuring solo vocal contributions from some of the E Street Band members that was first released on 2001's Live In New York City album/DVD. The title track from 1995's folky The Ghost Of Tom Joad album (one of the few decent songs from perhaps my least favourite Springsteen release) faithfully recreates the live jam-heavy full-band version that Morello has frequently guested on, as well as covered on Rage Against The Machine's Renegades album. It's on this tenth track where Morello seems to have overstayed his welcome, however, with a solo vocal turn on one of the verses (his voice is decidedly bland) and excessive guitar wankery. It's a real uphill climb past the record scratching sounds he pulls out of his guitar at the six-and-a-half minute mark of the arduously seven-and-a-half minute song. The previously unreleased songs: The seven songs unheard by all but the most diehard Springsteen disciples via bootlegs present a rather mixed bag. Most notable are the songs from the early 2000s written for TheRising album: the profanity-laced "Harry's Place" effectively sets the scene of a grungy crime world ruled by the titular character and is anchored by an E Street Band groove, along with the welcome, yet bittersweet sounds of the late Clarence Clemons' saxophone; the subdued "Down In The Hole" feels like a close relative of Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" and also keeps the spirit of another deceased E Streeter alive with the inclusion of a solo from organist Danny Federici, who died in 2008; Federici's organ sings again on the beautiful "The Wall", High Hopes' best track that was written by Springsteen after visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Somewhere in the middle in terms of quality rests "Frankie Fell In Love", and pulling up the rear are filler tracks "Hunter Of Invisible Game", the grating "Heaven's Wall" (featuring mumbled Springsteen vocals and more Morello guitar excess), and the forgettable "This Is Your Sword". There are some gems to be found amongst the disparate material that makes up the middling High Hopes and that's better than nothing for a lot of us Springsteen fans. After all, this is an artist who had a stretch between 1987 and 2002 where he only released five studio albums, so we'll take just about whatever we can get out of The Boss now during the home stretch of his career. Rating:C+ Related Mediaboy Musings posts: my August 2012 review of Springsteen's Toronto stop on his Wrecking Ball Tour, March 2012 review of Springsteen's Wrecking Ball album, June 2011 tribute to Clarence Clemons, and November 2010 review of Springsteen's London Calling: Live In Hyde Park Blu-ray
All 15 episodes from season four released in May on Netflix The resurrection of Arrested Development for a fourth season easily ranks as the most disappointing television viewing experience this reviewer has ever had. The fast-paced and edgy comedy, which I had considered the funniest TV show I'd ever seen next to Seinfeld, premiered on Fox in 2003 and received huge critical acclaim, but garnered anemic ratings and was cancelled after three seasons. Fox's mismanagement of the show didn't help matters - they infamously burned off the final four episodes of it opposite the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics. A loyal post-cancellation following cultivated by DVD sales and streaming services gave show creator Mitchell Hurwitz the traction to bring back all of the original cast members for 15 new episodes, which were released simultaneously in May on Netflix. Sadly, season four falls astonishingly short of the admittedly ridiculously high bar that was established during Arrested Development's initial run. Freed up from network TV constraints, Hurwitz and his writers take the unconventional approach of structuring each episode around one principal character, with each episode running longer than the traditional 22 minute format at anywhere from 28 to 37 minutes (commercial free, of course). I'm the first to bemoan the dumbing down of TV these days, but the ambitious and unorthodox story structure utilized here, while an intriguing idea, simply fails to work. And those extended running times just make the whole thing not work for that much longer. Arrested Development's previous biggest strength was the interplay and chemistry between its outstanding large ensemble cast (which is second-to-none in TV comedy history, in my opinion) and although everyone may be back, that crucial element is drastically cut back during season four. Main characters Michael Bluth (played by Jason Bateman), his son George Michael (played by Michael Cera), his mother Lucille (played by Jessica Walter), his father George Sr. (played by Jeffrey Tambor), his brothers Buster (played by Tony Hale) and Gob (played by Will Arnett), his sister Lindsay (played by Portia de Rossi), Lindsay's husband Tobias (played by David Cross), and their daughter Maeby (played by Alia Shawkat) don't get nearly enough interaction with each other. Long stretches pass with distracting absences from some of the main actors, with the storylines relying far too much instead on contributions from lame new characters like Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen as a younger George Sr. and Lucille, comedian Maria Bamford as an addict, Isla Fisher as the object of Michael's affection, and Chris Diamantopoulos as a character with a facial recognition disorder. There's also an overreliance on a number of returning supporting players, including characters played by Liza Minnelli, Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller, James Lipton, Carl Weathers, and Henry Winkler. Ron Howard, one of the show's executive producers and its narrator, is also overused in appearances playing himself as a producer on a film about the Bluth family, one of the many storylines that never achieve liftoff. Other main plots involving a shady land deal orchestrated by George Sr., the marital strife between Lucille and George Sr., the mounting of a Fantastic Four musical, and an app designed by George Michael are even more labyrinthian and complex than the elaborate storylines used during seasons 1-3, but it all just feels far too convoluted and doesn't deliver a satisfying payoff when the plotlines eventually intersect and provide some much-needed clarity.
Fresh off a repeat marathon viewing of all 53 episodes from Arrested Development's brilliant first three seasons on DVD prior to watching season four, it was probably inevitable that a letdown with the revived show was to follow. Even with lowered expectations, though, I was completely unprepared for just how much of its mojo the show would lose. At one point during season four, I was conscious that I had laughed maybe twice over the entirety of three episodes, and I'd be hard-pressed to find a single episode from seasons 1-3 that didn't have me laughing at least a half dozen times. By the midway point of the latest season, as it became clearer and clearer that the comedy was not going to right itself from its protracted stumble, I resigned myself to the fact that the show's sterling legacy had been tainted. I continued watching right through the 15th episode, but more out of sheer fanboy obligation than anything else. Frankly, I couldn't wait for the last car in this trainwreck to finally come to a merciful stop. Rating:D
Released theatrically in September The
last time Metallica ventured into feature film territory, it was with 2003's
brilliant Some Kind Of Monster, which documented the near-implosion of metal's
biggest act amidst the chaos of personality clashes between band members and
the substance abuse problems of lead singer James Hetfield. This time around,
chaos remains very much a dominant theme in Metallica Through The Never,
the band's new IMAX 3-D feature directed by Nimród Antal that had its
world premiere last month at the Toronto International Film Festival. Metallica Through
The Never's first week of release saw it play exclusively on every IMAX screen
in North America before expanding wider to regular theatres, which had
never been done before. Metallica has a lengthy track record of taking
creative risks, with some turning out very good (their 1999 live collaboration
with the San Francisco Symphony documented on the S & M album/DVD)
and others not so much (2011's jawdroppingly crap Lulu album with Lou
Reed; read my scathing review of it here).
Metallica Through The Never isn't a Lulu-sized gamble, but it is one
nonetheless, given the poor commercial track record of theatrical releases from
rock acts over the decades and the film's ambitious structure of combining
Metallica playing live with a fictional narrative. Drummer Lars
Ulrich stated
earlier this year that the project took some inspiration from Led
Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same film and that immediately raised my
eyebrow. I love Zeppelin and all, but that movie and its bizarre fantasy
sequences woven around an unremarkable live performance from the group was
nothing more than a pretentious bore, as far as I'm concerned. Sure enough, the
flimsy narrative element of Metallica Through The Never ends up dragging
the film down, resulting in an uneven cinematic experience that is only
redeemed by Metallica's live portions. The weak plot, conceived by Antal
and the band (rounded out by lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist
Rob Trujillo) draws partially from Metallica's lyrics and revolves around
a roadie named Trip (played by Dane DeHaan from Chronicle and the next two
Amazing Spider-Man movies) who is sent off on a mission during a Metallica
concert to retrieve a truck that has run out of gas. Inside that truck is
a mysterious bag that somehow is of great importance to the group. Perhaps, as
in KISS' classic KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park 70s TV movie, that
bag holds a box containing the talismans that give the band members their
special powers? Well, probably not, but maybe that'd explain Hetfield's
superhuman rhythm guitar skills. What is definite is that the idea is
ripped off from Pulp Fiction's mysterious briefcase. Trip's largely-narrative-free
mission takes him through numerous surreal scenarios set in a
mostly-deserted post-apocalyptic downtown Vancouver occupied by
anarchists, riot police, zombies, and masked horsemen. Not much of it
works, frankly. The only time the coupling between the band playing and the
story unfolding really feels right is during a riot scene interwoven with a performance
of "Cyanide". Hell, even Ulrich himself admits here that "I've
spent three years working on this movie and I don't have any idea what it
means." If the guy who helped write the script is admitting that then the
rest of us are pretty much screwed, too, no? What does work, and quite well, are Metallica's
live performances, shot specifically for the film with 24 cameras over five
nights in Vancouver and Edmonton a couple of summers ago. Their huge stage
occupies most of the arena floor area and employs specially rigged effects and props
that reference classic Metallica iconography. Ulrich fittingly refers to the
elaborate and versatile setup as the "Swiss Army knife of stages", as
white crosses pop up from beneath the stage, an electric chair with real bolts
of electricity shooting from Tesla coils descends from the lighting rig, a
collapsible statue of Lady Justice is assembled by stagehands as the band plays
around them, and the hanging coffins from the most recent World Magnetic Tour
display creepy visuals of people trapped inside them. The stage floor, which is
covered by video screen panels, is innovative, but not quite used to optimum
effect, other than the impressive visuals of flowing blood that "wash
over" the stage during opening song "Creeping Death". I really
wasn't blown away by how the 3-D was used in conjunction with the staging or
the rest of the content in the movie, especially considering the pre-release
hype about how much effort had been made to maximize the film's 3-D
effects. The band runs through a mostly-greatest hits
setlist that includes live staples "For Whom The Bell Tolls",
"Fuel", "One", "Master Of Puppets", "Enter
Sandman", "Wherever I May Roam", and "Nothing Else
Matters", while relatively less obvious songs like "Ride The
Lightning", "...And Justice For All", "Hit The
Lights", and an unexpected and first-rate version of the obscure
instrumental "Orion" over the end credits with the band seated and
playing in an empty arena also make an appearance. That old school
Metallica fan who thinks they've sucked since 1991's Black Album came
out would undoubtedly disagree, but to this longtime fan's ears the band has
never played better than they're playing at this point of their career and
Metallica Through The Never does a superb job of capturing that. And praise
be to Antal and editor Joe Hutshing for giving Metallica fans a filmed concert
production that doesn't overload the viewer with rapid-fire video editing,
unlike their other recent slew of home video releases. So while the narrative component is disjointed
and a slightly annoying interruption between scenes of Metallica doing what
they do best, as well as those live portions not being quite as immersive as
the experience I had watching U2's spectacular U23D live film, Metallica
Through The Never is still a must-see for fans. Between the big screen
presentation, phenomenal sound mix, and a properly loud volume level, it's
unquestionably the next best thing to attending an actual Metallica show. Rating:B Related Mediaboy Musings posts: December 2009 review
of Metallica's Francais Pour Une Nuit DVD, March 2012 review
of their Beyond Magnetic EP, and my review
from March of the band's Quebec Magnetic Blu-ray
In 1999, Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts founded the Women on Waves organization, who are dedicated to providing abortion services to women in countries where abortions are illegal. The latest statistics from the World Health Organization estimate that 21.6 million women worldwide experience unsafe abortions every year, with 47,000 of those women dying from the procedure. Vessel is the result of first-time director Diana Whitten spending seven years documenting Gomperts' noble and dangerous crusade.
