I'd Love to Turn You On At the Movies #137 - The Missouri Breaks (1976, dir. Arthur Penn)

Think about the extraordinary turn Marlon Brando’s career was taking in the 1970’s.  After stalling a bit in the late 60’s he came roaring back in 1972 - jowly, greying at the temple and more potent than ever in The Godfather and Last Tango In Paris. Two braver explorations of middle age could not be imagined, then… silence, until 1976 when he returned – greyer still, jowlier yet, but no less intense and seeming to have tapped into some sort of cosmic awareness that made him a real-life cross between con-man, genius, artist, shaman and fool. It was also impossible to take your eyes off of him in what could be considered his last great role of substance in The Missouri Breaks (I love Apocalypse Now, but it is hard to call what Brando did in it as “substantive.” Memorable yes, substantive maybe less so.).  Director Arthur Penn created a stylish western in the classic mode, which is elevated to something truly memorable by Marlon Brando’s inexplicable performance. From the moment he appears on screen as Robert E. Lee Clayton he is magnetic - both compelling and terrifying at the same time. He is a regulator (a legal assassin) who has been brought from Wyoming to Montana to help rancher David Braxton (John McLiam) and his attractive daughter Jane (Kathleen Lloyd) deal with a band of horse rustlers (Jack Nicholson, Harry Dean Stanton, Randy Quaid and more) who have been causing trouble. Brando enters the action as an exotic swashbuckler; fringed leather jacket, long hair and an Irish accent. He immediately shows himself as a man not to be trifled with, appraising Nicholson as the thief and beginning to exact punishment on the gang. His speed and deadly accuracy prove his reputation as an uncontrollable, but ultimately successful executioner.

With the central conflict established, Penn goes about turning the movie into a philosophical treatise on the difference between being a thief and a killer, and if either of those is morally worse than being a bad person on the right side of the law. David Braxton, it turns out, is a world-class creep who deserves whatever he gets, while Nicholson seems to be a more three-dimensional man than his designation as horse rustler might indicate. He yearns for the honest life - or at least the love of a woman who has lived the honest life - available in the person of Braxton’s daughter. Brando’s character Clayton appears more and more like a scorched earth psychopath, hell-bent on destroying his prey as violently as possible, letting no one - including those who hired him - stand in the way. His inhumanity grows with each scene as Nicholson becomes an increasingly sympathetic protagonist. As Clayton’s killings take on greater cruelty with each victim, Clayton’s personality takes on more complexity. He begins shifting accents from Irish to Southern, to female (complete with unforgettable drag costume) and back to Irish. His performance is always on the edge of hallucinatory, the cutting edge of menace and hilarity. In spite of it being one of his least famous movies, I believe The Missouri Breaks contains one of Brando’s most beguiling performances. By the end of the movie, he is a truly frightening presence - unpredictable, deadly and unstoppable - beyond the control of laws or bullets. The shocking twist at the end remains a great cinematic trick, never failing to surprise.

In the 34 years that have passed since I last saw this movie, I had forgotten almost everything about it. So the panoramic cinematography, realistic take on the Old West setting, excellent music and funny dialogue were all a welcome re-acquaintance. It is Marlon Brando’s terrifying depiction which I had not forgotten, and it was, in fact, even more potent than I remembered. He has had one of the most terminally appraised careers in the history of film, yet his depiction of Robert E. Lee Clayton does much to justify his genius reputation.

-         Paul Epstein

Deadheads Unite!

ListenUp will be hosting their annual Music Matters event on April 5^th and 6^th at their 685 So. Pearl location (right across from our old location). This is always a very cool event, where consumers can be exposed to the best new products for their home systems and hear from some of the best names in current audiophile thought. This year is extra special for Deadheads however, as famed Boulder-based audio Engineer David Glasser will be a special guest. Glasser has worked on countless Grateful Dead projects including the landmark Europe ’72 box set and, more recently, the epic Thirty Trips Around The Sun box set. He is a true authority on The Grateful Dead’s recordings and their efforts to bring them to the public. Around the time of The Complete Europe ’72 box I interviewed Dave about working on Grateful Dead projects. In honor of ListenUp’s upcoming event, we present it here again. Click here (http://www.listenup.com/music-matters-seminar-april-5-6/) to learn more about Music Matters and enjoy the interview (excerpted below, you can read the full interview HERE).

- Paul Epstein

The big archival news in the Grateful Dead world is the unprecedented Europe ’72 - The Complete Recordings box set. Containing all 22 shows of this greatest of all Dead tours, there’s not a dud show in the bunch; in fact there are very few dud songs. The band never played tighter or more inspired than on this tour. They also never toured behind such an abundance of great new material. They were playing many the songs from Weir’s then-new Ace album, Garcia’s first solo album plus about a dozen new Grateful Dead songs (“Ramble On Rose,” He’s Gone,” “Tennessee Jed,” Mr. Charlie,” Chinatown Shuffle,” etc.) and fresh covers (“Sing Me Back Home,” “You Win Again,”) and when combining them with some of their longer, jammier songs from the past (“Dark Star,” “The Other One,” “Truckin’,” “Lovelight”) they offered up an exciting marathon show every night of the tour. To add to the special nature of the tour was the fact that they were playing many beautiful, historic concert venues on a continent that was new to the band members and rich with historic and cultural significance to their hippie sensibilities. They were also dragging around a recording truck to every venue to insure their ability to pay for the whole trip. Remarkably, the recordings are outstanding, even by modern standards. There is a full, rich warmth to the sound that just reflects the warmth on stage. The huge, deluxe “steamer trunk” box set is sold out, but there is a superb new compilation called, appropriately enough,Europe ’72 Volume 2 that is out now on Rhino Records. It is packed with great moments from the tour including memorable takes on “Playin’ In The Band,” a huge Pigpen-led “Good Lovin’,” a great early version of “Sugaree” and a “Dark Star” that goes to outer space and back in 30 minutes. It is a wonderful keepsake, and we have it on sale for only $10.99. It’s the cheapest way you’re going to get into this tour. 

Because I was so blown away by the sound of these recordings, I thought it would be cool if we could ask Boulder resident David Glasser of Air Show Mastering some questions about the process of mastering this gigantic project. A Grammy Award winner, Glasser is one of the hidden gems of the Colorado music scene. Air Show has worked on countless albums you’ve heard of and continues to be one of the premier mastering facilities in the country. The Grateful Dead are legendary for their attention to detail when it comes to the sound and packaging of their releases, so their choice of Glasser is no accident. Glasser, as usual, was generous with his time and thoughtful in his answers.

Questions for David Glasser at Airshow Mastering regarding the Mastering of The Grateful Dead’s entire Europe ’72 tour.

Briefly explain the process of mastering.

• Mastering is simply the step - the last in the creative studio process - where the final adjustments and tweaks are made. It's akin to what a colorist does in the film world - making sure that the sound matches the vision of the producer and artist, and presenting the mixes in the best possible light. Usually that involves adjusting the song levels and overall level of the disc and using tools like EQ and compression to shape the sound (does it need to be brighter? punchier? less muddy? etc).

How is mastering an archival recording different than mastering a new, technically modern recording?

• Often archival recordings already exist in an aesthetic context that listeners are familiar with. This was certainly the case with the Europe 72 project. The 1972 LP is an iconic album - both the songs, and the sound. There are also several other official releases of E72 material, plus audience and soundboard tapes that have circulated for decades. So before starting I gathered together the original Europe 72,Steppin' Out, and Rockin' the Rhein, plus the first show that was mixed for this project. To my horror and dismay, they all sounded quite different! Jeffrey Norman and I discussed this at length and we agreed that the approach to this release was a "live-r," less "polished" presentation. We wanted to showcase the Dead as they sounded onstage at these shows. 

What is unique about mastering The Grateful Dead as opposed to other bands?

• Probably the fact that often they don't function as a typical rhythm section + soloists and singers like much popular music does. At any time, any one of the players could be driving the music, and it's constantly shifting. Phil's bass is another lead instrument along with the two guitarists. As a result, the music is often more dynamic. More like a jazz band - think Bitches Brew by Miles Davis. The goal is to mix and master so you can "see" into the music.

Describe your history with the recordings of The Grateful Dead. What was your first job mastering their recordings?

• My first Grateful Dead project was mastering the DVD release of The Grateful Dead Movie. Jeffrey Norman was looking for a place to master his surround mixes; "Dr." Don Pearson introduced us after visiting the studio with acoustician Sam Berkow. The Grateful Dead Movie was a huge project. I think there were 12 hours of music when you added up the stereo mix, the bonus material and the two surround versions. It took us two long weeks. After that Jeffrey returned with the Truckin' Up To Buffalo and the Rockin' The Cradle DVDs. There have been several others, for which I am forever grateful, pun intended. I've been listening to the Dead, and attending shows, since 1970.

Describe the process of working with The Grateful Dead organization. Who do you work with? How exacting are they? Does the record label (Rhino) get involved on your end at all?

• Working with the Grateful Dead's production team is an absolute pleasure. I wish all of my clients were this easy to work with. My contacts are Producer/Archivist David Lemieux and engineer Jeffrey Norman. Everyone has very high and exacting standards, but nobody is breathing down each other’s throat. The communication is very open. I think everyone really respects the creative process and everyone's contribution. Rhino is definitely involved in the tail end of my mastering work, as that's where we send the final masters.

Were there specific challenges involved with a project this large? 

• The challenges were chiefly organizational - how to keep track of so much material and insure quality and constancy from beginning to end.  We modified our in-house database for more efficient searching within the E72 project, and we designed a workflow that covered every aspect of our involvement with the project: from receiving Jeffrey's mixes, to naming files, to cross checking show-to-show, to sending references for approval, and creating the final masters for Rhino.

Did each show have a unique personality to you?

• Absolutely! The shows in the great concert halls like the Concertgebouw and Paris' Olympia Theater have a very open warm sound and I think the players were hearing the nice acoustics and hearing each other very well; it's reflected in the playing. The halls definitely influenced the playing. The Bickershaw show, which was an outdoor festival, sounds much different - the musicians are reacting to the cold weather and perhaps playing more deliberately. But the results are great - the “Dark Star/Other One” sequence was a standout, and is included in the Europe ‘72 Volume 2 release.

How about the individual personalities of the musicians in the band? 

• It's cool how the band can transform itself from song to song. When Pigpen steps out front, his blues and R & B attitude can change the whole vibe. And Bobby's country songs really inspire Garcia's Don Rich-style picking.

Did you gain a greater appreciation for, or did you have any revelations about the individual talents in the band?

• One of the cool things about listening to multiple versions of the same songs is that the personalities do come across. You can hear that Garcia is constantly exploring ways to express a solo, and his solos during this era are really well constructed, and they usually have a well-formed arc to them. As I worked on each show, I always referenced other versions of several songs to make sure the sound was consistent (or appropriately consistent). It's clear that the Dead were very well rehearsed, and the performances and even some of the solos of the first set type of songs were often identical over several nights. As the tour progressed, you can hear them refining arrangements. Bob Weir's playing is especially impressive. I think many people think his distinctive leads were played by Garcia - I know I used to!

Did you learn anything about what makes the Grateful Dead unique in the world of Rock from this project?

• I think we've all long appreciated that the Grateful Dead cut a wide swath through the landscape of American music. It sounds utterly natural to hear them go from a Marty Robbins cowboy song to a Bobby Blue Bland rave-up, to a jam Coltrane would admire, to a gorgeous Merle Haggard ballad, and end on Chuck Berry. What other band can do this?

Do you think the fact that the band was playing in small, largely opera-worthy venues on that tour made a difference in the way the band played and the way the recordings ultimately came out?

• I was fortunate to have seen the Dead in December 1971 in a concert hall setting, and in March 1972 in a mid-size theater (on my birthday!). I've always thought those kind of halls were the perfect size for this kind of music - large enough to get the energy flowing, and small enough for the band to play off the vibe of the hall and the crowd. I think that the Europe 72 recordings are a confirmation of this (though the larger gigs like Bickershaw really kick-ass).

Can you point to a couple of musical highlights of the tour? Where would you send a novice? Where would you send a hard-core fan?

• I think that David Lemieux did a great job in choosing the songs for the Europe ‘72 Volume 2 set. That and the original Europe ‘72 are a good starting point. Outside of those, I especially like “Dark Star” from the second Copenhagen show; “Two Souls in Communion” from Amsterdam, anything from the two Paris shows, and the first and last Lyceum shows. The Beat Club TV broadcast is also pretty cool, and the Aarhus concert, in a tiny 300 seat room has a nice intimate feel that you don't often hear.


-Paul Epstein

I'd Love to Turn You On #150 - Drive-By Truckers – The Dirty South

This is the best entry point to the Drive-By Truckers’ world. For this album they’ve got three-count-‘em-three songwriters working at a peak, the band is operating at a high level throughout, and some of their most indelible tunes are here. It’s also not perfect – as none of their albums are – so it’s not gonna set up unreasonable expectations of a batch of masterpieces for the unwary listener. This isn’t to say that they don’t have great albums (they have four by my count and three or four more a notch below those) or that you wouldn’t do almost as well jumping in with the album before this, Decoration Day, or being introduced to them via the (great) concept double album Southern Rock Opera, it’s just that, well, this one just feels right – less commitment than the double album and simply better overall than Decoration Day. But they’ve been around since the 90s, they’re headlining Red Rocks this summer for the first time, and starting with this record they haven’t failed to crack Billboard’s Top 200 album chart with any of their releases, so maybe you don’t need an intro and just need a reminder.

Or maybe you do need an intro – chart success or no, they’ve never had a song that hit the top 40, the only Grammy they’ve been associated with was as the backing band for Booker T’s album Potato Hole, and they’ve never had a gold record, which means only a select group of fans are buying their records. So take these 70 minutes of prime DBT and drink it in. It’s an album rife with working class stories of hard living below and around the poverty line, of lowlifes, crime and corruption, of some of the great purveyors of the very Americana that influences the Truckers themselves, and of “Goddamn Lonely Love.” Maybe start with the best thing on the album – lead guy Patterson Hood’s “Puttin’ People on the Moon,” about a Reagan-era family man struggling to get by while the local NASA affiliate spends who knows how much on pie in the sky ideas of putting people into space. This couplet has never failed to get a cheer from the audience in the ten years I’ve been seeing them perform live: “and all them politicians/they’re all lyin’ sacks of shit” and that’s followed shortly by “and the preacher on the TV says it ain’t too late for me/but I bet he drives a Cadillac and I’m broke with hungry mouths to feed.” But he’s not just being clever – the song’s angry, rife with cancer, no money for health care, “double digit unemployment” and more, so when Hood lets out a scratchy falsetto at the song’s climax, it’s a genuinely anguished moment. From there, proceed either to Mike Cooley’s lighter “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac,” about Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, or on to his intense, grim “Cottonseed” about a hired killer who specializes in making people disappear when the men who influence the law need them to disappear. It’s the centerpiece of the record both literally (falls in the middle of a trilogy of songs elucidating the other side of the true story that was turned into the movie Walking Tall) and mood-wise. Then maybe it’s time for Isbell’s rousing “We Ain’t Never Gonna Change,” an anthemic cry of Southern pride without any of the bullshit that can come with the territory, and a rival to “Sweet Home Alabama” in the rocking, melodic sing-along department. But then check out what Isbell is best known for – his slow, melancholy numbers, like “Danko/Manuel” about two casualties of The Band, or the closer “Goddamn Lonely Love” which is about exactly what it says and showcases Isbell’s aching vocals – a league away from Cooley’s drawl and Hood’s gruff story-songs. But find your way back to Hood too, his sad, goddamn lonely (and ultimately class-bound, like most of the album) “Lookout Mountain,” and his touching “The Sands of Iwo Jima” which pokes holes in the myth just like his pair of Walking Tall songs do. And then you might quickly note that I’ve mentioned every song except three – Cooley’s terrific, father-son opening salvo, “Where the Devil Won’t Stay” (which the liner notes say is “based on a poem by Ed Cooley,” Mike’s uncle), his other father-son tune “Daddy’s Cup” and another of Patterson Hood’s bits of true local color, “Tornadoes.”

But in telling you about all the songwriting smarts on display, I’m failing the band. I haven’t said how then-new bassist Shonna Tucker is already in perfect sync with drummer Brad Morgan, who takes his cue from Charlie Watts in that other rock band by simply, unflashily supporting and driving the band at all times. I’m not telling how the three songwriters’ guitars speak louder than their voices here and are the best that the Hood-Cooley-Isbell lineup ever laid down on albums. And I’m not telling how the flow of the album from Cooley’s lead cut to Isbell’s sad, slow closer is a trip worth taking in order, rather than the sampling suggested above.

The Drive-By Truckers have soldiered on after this record through personnel shifts and personal crises. Their last studio album, English Oceans, is one of their best, a surprising rebound from a pair whose quality many fans questioned. They’ve got a new one in the can slated for a fall 2016 release. Jason Isbell will also be headlining at Red Rocks this summer and walked home with a pair of Grammys for his most recent album, Something More Than Free. Catch both of those shows if you can – Isbell muscles up his tunes live and the Truckers themselves always deliver – but if you don’t know the records start here. Just promise that you’ll continue on from here to more – Southern Rock Opera, English Oceans, Decoration Day, or my personal fave, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. And then you’ll come back to this one and remember just how great it is.

-         Patrick Brown

I'd Love to Turn You On At the Movies #136 - 2046 (2004, dir. Wong Kar-wai)

Chow Mo Wan: Take care. Maybe one day you'll escape your past. If you do, look for me.

Wong Kar-wai is one of the most accomplished and respected directors working in film today and there is no doubt in my mind that he deserves all of the reverence heaped upon him. This film, 2046, which is an odd, round-about sequel to his masterpieces Days of Being Wild (1990) and In the Mood for Love (2000), is certainly a testament to the talents of this director. The enthrallingly complex story, the gorgeous visuals, and the portrayals of the perfectly handpicked cast culminate in what is certainly a film that warrants multiple viewings and will most assuredly steal your heart as it has mine.

Weaving adeptly between the past, present, and a fictional science-fiction future (informed directly by the past) the story follows author Chow Mo-wan (Tony Chiu Wai Leung) through a variety of different periods of his life as well as the life of the fictional character that he writes for his series of "2046" stories. The plot is entirely too complex and full of beautiful nuance to truly do it justice in such a short synopsis. The only way that I might perhaps be able to describe the film in an attempt to advocate for its narrative is to try and convey just how engaging and successful Wong Kar-wai was in crafting a world (or worlds in this case) in which you, the viewer, are invited to spend some time. The film is both firmly rooted in a time period, yet timeless, and it is inhabited by fascinating characters that are equal parts elegant and human. When I reflect upon my time spent in the universe of 2046, I am hit equally by an intense empathetic remembrance of the emotions evoked by the characters throughout the story and my memory of the sheer elegance and splendor of the visuals of the setting that Wong Kar-Wai has created for his characters.

These two aspects are brought to life through the amazing performances of the actors and actresses and the beautiful cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Pung-Leung Kwan. In addition to the captivating and commanding performance of Tony Chiu Wai Leung as our leading man, Li Gong, Faye Wong (who was the enchanting co-lead again with Tony Chiu Wai Leung in Wong Kar-Wai's fantastic romantic comedy, Chungking Express (1994)), Takuya Kimura, Ziyi Zhang, Carina Lau and many others provide skillfully nuanced performances that bring life to the beautiful scenery. While an amazing lead performance is certainly necessary, it is the strength of the supporting cast that makes the story of our leading man truly worth following. This immense story of love and loss, and humanity's often unhealthy worship of and escape to the past would be nothing without the hypnotic performances of all of the actors and actresses in this film.

Often when I think about the films of Wong Kar-wai my mind is immediately drawn to just how magnificently they are shot and the fact that I can't help but be swept into the plot of a film that inhabits such a lush, wondrous and striking space. My experience with Kar-Wai’s films has been rather strange as 2046 was the first of his films that I saw and it directly and tacitly references two of his more venerated works. Initially after seeing the trailer for the film and the poster/design campaign behind the film, I was drawn to the set design, costume design, art direction, and sheer exquisiteness of every detail of the movie. I then decided that I needed to watch the film and see what it was all about, it was then that the true power of the story and multifaceted narrative took me over. After that I insatiably sought out as much of the director’s work as I could find, beginning with In the Mood for Love and Chungking Express (and then on to many others).

Even though this film is in many ways a strange sort of sequel to a couple of Wong Kar-wai's films, I wouldn't say that I regret watching the pieces in reverse order, so if you have or haven't seen Days of Being Wild and/or In the Mood for Love I would recommend this film regardless. For me this film was the gateway to the world of an amazingly talented director and I would be delighted if I was able to assist in turning you on to this film.

Edward Hill

I'd Love to Turn You On #149 - The Blues Project - Projections

I can put myself in the late 1960’s and remember being a pre-teen looking at the cover of Projections by The Blues Project. I stared at bassist/flautist Andy Kulberg - the guy in the front - and thought; as a Jewish kid, that’s probably about as cool as I could ever hope to look. The corduroy jacket and matching pants. The double-collared shirt, flowered tie and tousled hair - oh man this guy looked hip. In fact they all looked cool standing on Haight Street in San Francisco - Al Kooper wearing a military surplus jacket, Danny Kalb with his flowered shirt and early rock and roll combover - they looked like they were waiting for history to come over and tap them on the shoulder: “Excuse me gentlemen, are you prepared to make a singular, great album and then essentially disappear from history, leaving a few half-baked reunions, but really just this one, era-defining masterpiece and then gone to the sands of time?” Surely their answer would have been “No! We are going to be huge, with hit after hit and a gigantic fan base.” They would have been wrong, because The Blues Project did make a couple more albums with revolving line-ups, but Projections remains the album they are defined by, and with good reason.

Released in 1966 and produced by the great Tom Wilson (Dylan, Zappa, Simon & Garfunkel), Projections is way ahead of its time, encompassing several genres of music: pop, blues, jazz, all with instrumental chops and performing prowess that few of their peers matched. The Blues Project were both crafty songwriters and arrangers, offering up smart pop confections like their take on Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me,” or “Cheryl’s Going Home” and “Fly Away,” but they also excelled at taking blues numbers and stretching them out, like “Caress Me Baby” or their masterful take on Muddy Waters’ “Two Trains Running,” which at eleven and a half minutes is a real late night classic, winding through memorable guitar and keyboard improvisations and climaxing with a classic train wreck of sound. It is a great example of a slow build, which required a listening patience that many pop fans in this era didn’t possess. I certainly credit “Two Trains Running” equally with Fairport Convention’s “A Sailor’s Tale” or The Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” for expanding my own musical horizons and helping me understand forms that expanded beyond standard pop conventions. This led me ultimately to jazz, classical, and a larger understanding of music and its possibilities. Projections also has a couple of anomalous compositions that further opened my eyes. Both “Steve’s Song” and “Flute Thing” take the popular music form to even stranger places by dispensing with vocals and creating something entirely more contemplative. Before I really started to understand jazz, “Flute Thing,” with its repetitive and hypnotic melody circling around Kooper’s smart keyboard parts, served as my rudimentary introduction to the genre. It was eye-opening and intellectually liberating to hear young musicians unafraid to step outside the rules of AM radio.

There are only a handful of records I can point to that changed the way I think about music, but Projections is surely one of them. In spite of the fact that The Beatles were using more sophisticated song structures with lots of fancy chords, and Dylan was expressing very elevated sentiments in his lyrics, The Blues Project were also briefly successful at filling the dancefloors of psychedelic ballrooms with extended groovy tunes. There is a simple joy in the making of and equally in the listening to this music which reminds me of why I originally fell for it in the first place. It’s really well-played, exuberant music that thrills me to this day. Only Al Kooper went on to have a tremendously successful career after The Blues Project, but all of the performances on this album are first rate and show all the musicians to be top-notch. Projections is a definitive 1960’s rock album in that its feet are firmly planted in Chicago blues and the top 10 charts while its head is deep in the cosmos.

-         Paul Epstein

I'd Love to Turn You On At the Movies #135 - Sleeper (1973, dir. Woody Allen)

Back before Woody Allen got serious in the late 70s, he was an heir to the great slapstick film comedians. Roger Ebert drops Buster Keaton’s name in his review of this film while Allen himself says that he thought of it as a tribute to two of his favorite comedians, Groucho Marx and Bob Hope – and they’re both right. There are slapstick moments in Sleeper that are as funny as anything Keaton put on film and self-deprecating verbal wit on par with Groucho or Hope, all wrapped up in a goofy, freewheeling science fiction story that’s really just an excuse for Allen to riff on his favorite subjects – love, sex, and death – and take potshots at the some of the ridiculousness of the early 1970s.

Allen uses the standard sci-fi approach of a futuristic dystopia to tell the story of Miles Monroe, owner of a Greenwich Village health food store who goes in for a routine surgical procedure in 1973 and wakes up in 2173, unfrozen from his cryogenic sleep by a band of underground rebels who enlist him to help stop the oppressive Leader from enacting the sinister Aries Project. That’s about as much plot as is needed because the rest works itself out in ways you’ve seen before, though it’s Allen’s wit and goofy scenarios taking off from these commonplace plot elements that make this film something special. Some of them are time-bound – jokes about Nixon, Howard Cosell and United Federation of Teachers organizer Albert Shanker – and funnier to audiences of the time, but others – as when he’s forced to impersonate a robot servant, a convenience-oriented society that uses an “Orgasmatron” instead of sex, or when he drops lines like “My brain? That’s my second favorite organ” or “I was beaten up by Quakers” that don’t require any translation from 1973 to today. And some of the film’s moments are downright strange – as when he believes he’s being crowned Miss America or when he and Diane Keaton suddenly drop in a gender-swapped routine from Streetcar Named Desire – and funnier as a result. With training from his standup years in nightclubs, Allen is great with one-liners and I wouldn’t want to spoil any more of them, but this is the first of his films where he shows that he’s equally conversant in film – nodding to silent comedy of course (usually in dialogue-free scenes that feature him playing ragtime clarinet alongside the Preservation Hall Jazz Band or The New Orleans Funeral Ragtime Orchestra), and also to contemporary sci-fi (he enlists Douglas Rain, the voice of 2001’s HAL, to play a sinister computer here as well).

And as a special bonus for Coloradoans, much of the film was shot here in Colorado – within the first few minutes there’s a shot of our famous Botanic Gardens building, several scenes take place in and around The Sculptured House (the “mushroom house” off I-70 just west of the city, often now called “the Sleeper house” due to its inclusion in the film), the Church of the Risen Christ on South Monaco is turned into a McDonald’s, some of the outdoor shots were filmed at the Table Mesa Laboratory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, and so forth. Beyond the laughs of the film and the inevitable budding romance of Allen and Keaton’s characters, it’s fun for those of local privilege to location spot throughout the film. Sleeper stands as the finest film from a delightful era of Allen’s development, when slapstick and a ruthless desire to make people laugh was at the forefront of his mind. With the release of the classic Annie Hall in 1977, he started to take the relationships in his films far more seriously, and with 1978’s great Interiors he paid direct tribute to one of his cinematic heroes, Ingmar Bergman, rather than satirizing him as he’d done only a few years prior in Love and Death. I don’t value this period over his more mature works but there’s a verve here, a willingness to go to any lengths for a laugh that is missed in his later films, whatever other virtues they may have.

-          Patrick Brown

I'd Love to Turn You On #148 - Brian Eno/David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

After Talking Heads released their fourth album and masterpiece, Remain in Light, the band went on hiatus while its members explored side projects. Guitarist Jerry Harrison released The Red and the Black, an underrated solo album which built on his work with The Modern Lovers and Talking Heads. Rhythm section and married couple, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, formed Tom Tom Club with Tina’s sisters and members of the Remain in Light touring band. Tom Tom Club’s debut functions like a release valve for the pressures building on Remain in Light and endures as a funky, energetic party album. Lead singer David Byrne and Brian Eno, producer of three Talking Heads albums, set off to create an album that draws upon similar archetypes as Remain in Light, but stands apart from anything these considerable talents have created before or since. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts sounds like Byrne and Eno discovered a way to tune into the radio signal of this entire planet and distill it into 40 minutes of genre-blurring, hypnotically engaging, and beautifully layered music.

Three and a half decades after its release, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts remains a ground-breaking and brilliant tangent from the minds of two of the most idiosyncratic and cerebral artists in popular music. Whereas Tom Tom Club seized upon the incredible pool of talent that had formed around Talking Heads and aimed it in a loose, upbeat, and fun-loving direction, Eno and Byrne set out on a concentrated, enigmatic, and exploratory mission into the unknown. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts contains some of the same DNA of poly-rhythms, experimentalism, and pastiche as Remain in Light, but this album grows into its environment without the frames and guidance of Byrne’s observational characters or recognizable song structures. Although both Eno and Byrne were known at this point for their skills and abilities as lead singers and songwriters, it may come as a surprise to some that this album features neither their voices nor their lyrics. The album’s liner notes credit both Brian Eno and David Byrne with, “guitars, basses, synthesizers, drums, percussions, found objects.” In place of Eno and Byrne’s vocals, nine of the eleven songs on the album contain elements cited in the liner notes as “voices” and include samples of radio hosts and callers, preachers, an exorcist, and singers from Egypt, coastal islands near the state of Georgia, and Lebanon. Among the eleven musicians who worked with Eno and Byrne on this album, eight are percussionists and three play bass. Eno and Byrne combine this robust rhythmic engine with the found, fragmented vocals to create a set of self-contained, evocative snapshots that, when regarded as a whole, reflect back to the listener like a mosaic formed from the pieces of a broken mirror.

Eno and Byrne reunited in 2008 for Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, an album that serves as a high point for both artists’ output in the last twenty years but bears no discernible connection to their first collaborative album. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today features some of Eno’s best recent production work as well as some of Byrne’s most natural vocals and most compelling lyrics since Talking Heads, but feels strangely orthodox and prosaic compared to the radical poetry contained within their first joint musical endeavor. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts merges elements of art rock, experimental music, funk, electronic music, African pop, folk music, field recordings, and minimalism into a highly influential sum, but few of its successors can compare with this fascinating musical exploration.    

John Parsell

I'd Love to Turn You On At the Movies #134 - The Five Obstructions (2003, dir. Jørgen Leth/Lars von Trier)

In this century, few directors have provoked, shocked, and captivated audiences like Lars von Trier. People who have watched Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, or Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 & 2 are very unlikely to forget these films whether they loved or hated them. For a filmmaker who has specialized in crafting highly memorable and, in some cases, indelible on-screen moments, Lars von Trier himself can’t forget The Perfect Human, Jørgen Leth’s 1967 short film. The Five Obstructions, the documentary that tracks von Trier’s disciplined efforts to push Leth to re-examine and re-create The Perfect Human again and again with new limitations, serves as a revealing and intimate look at filmmaking, a portrait of an artist struggling against depression, and an unorthodox lesson in the redemptive power of a friend’s love.

The Five Obstructions opens with von Trier and Leth sitting down to watch The Perfect Human before they decide on restrictions for making a new version of the film. As they begin to debrief the film and create challenges for the next iteration, von Trier unleashes an almost wicked glee as he conjures up seemingly absurd rules for the new film. By the end of the brief meeting the two men agree that Leth’s next rendering of The Perfect Human must contain edits no longer than twelve frames, take place in Cuba (a country Leth had never visited before), answer the questions posed in the first version, and use no sets. Leth, who was in his mid-sixties during filming, staggers out of the initial meeting appearing stunned and befuddled at the amount of work ahead of him. Von Trier, who was in his mid-forties as this all transpired, counters Leth’s weary patience with a reassuringly firm confidence in the process of this project. Despite von Trier’s self-described “satanic” behavior in developing the successive courses of complications, the younger director consistently demonstrates affection and respect for the man he calls his “hero.” Upon returning from Cuba, Leth comes across as both rejuvenated and proud of his solutions to von Trier’s invented problems. Both men watch The Perfect Human: Cuba together and express how impressed they are with the result, but feelings of contentment pass quickly as von Trier begins the work of generating a new set of hurdles for Leth to clear for the next edition of The Perfect Human. Yes, this process occurs four more times and each time, von Trier’s motivation for engaging Leth in this endeavor becomes more apparent. The dynamic between von Trier and Leth pushes deeply into a special brand of pedantry. Once the pupil, von Trier reverses the student/teacher dynamic as he nudges, admonishes, and goads his mentor. As the film progresses, von Trier and Leth allow the audience sit in on a master class in which a former student challenges his teacher to unlearn the considerable skills he has gained over a lifetime in order to explore the still untapped potential within him.

A sense of love and a spirit of experiential learning flow through all stages of The Five Obstructions. I saw this film on the recommendation of a good friend who stated, “You should watch this. It reminds me of your relationship with your dad.” At first I was a little confused by the comparison, but it didn’t take long for me to see connections. My father was a teacher and I grew up with him telling me stories about an influential teacher from his youth. My father never forgot the time this teacher, Gladys Metcalf, explained to him, “You’re an ‘A’ student doing ‘B’ work and that’s why you’re making a ‘C’ in this class.” Society has developed many norms for guiding the young through their development, but there are few templates for mentoring our mentors. Lars von Trier reminds me of Gladys Metcalf in this film and reaffirms the value of asking more from people who we trust are able to accomplish more. The Five Obstructions rewards those who are familiar with von Trier’s feature films as well as those who know nothing of his work by sharing a compelling story about someone who won’t allow his friend and mentor to give up and fade away.

John Parsell

I'd Love to Turn You On #147 - Mary Lou Williams – Zoning

The average jazz listener is likely to come up short if asked to name the jazz pianist who began their musical career in the 1920s and, aside from a couple breaks, didn’t stop performing until their death in 1981; who started out playing stride piano and writing big band arrangements; who played a role in helping many of the bebop players solidify their concepts; who encouraged the gospel of jazz – often literally – in both Europe and the U.S.; and who continually refined their approach to the music, including ideas that would even encompass events as far out as performing a controversial 1977 two-piano concert alongside unrepentant avant-gardist Cecil Taylor. A good (though incorrect) guess would be Duke Ellington, who covers most of the time span in question, but the correct answer is the underappreciated jazz great Mary Lou Williams.

Williams began playing piano at age 6 and by the time she was 19 she was writing arrangements for Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy in Kansas City (and later New York), a gig she held until the early 40s when she began playing matron to the rising stars of bebop. From an interview for Melody Maker she noted "During this period Monk and the kids would come to my apartment every morning around four or pick me up at the Café after I'd finished my last show, and we'd play and swap ideas until noon or later." Anyone who refers to Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell (to name only three of the musicians she coached and traded ideas with) “the kids” deserves a much greater status than Williams currently holds. But she didn’t just teach them, she took their ideas to heart and in her mid-40s work – notably 1945’s Zodiac Suite – you can hear bebop’s influence on her own playing.

In 1952, Williams began performing and living in Europe for two years, going on a hiatus from performing music upon her return to the States to focus on charity work within the Roman Catholic Church – specifically on helping addicted musicians kick drugs and return to performing. But by the late 50s, at the urging of two priests and Dizzy Gillespie, she returned to playing and before long was creating some of the most creative work of her career, blending her spiritual leanings with jazz, including two modernist masterworks: Mary Lou’s Mass and Black Christ of the Andes, both of which show an enormous grasp of different styles of music and a readiness to make her music challenging when she saw fit to do so.

After focusing mainly on live performances and working with children’s choirs throughout the rest of the 1960s the 70s found her recording in earnest, starting with the 1974 release, Zoning. It’s a great record, but that’s not all it is – like much of Williams’ latter-day work, this record encompasses a history of jazz that she was present for at every turn. Most of the record finds her working in one of two trios – a traditional piano-bass-drums group and contrasting with that a piano-bass-congas group – though on some cuts she plays solo, or in duo with one of the trio players. And on a couple cuts, she looks forward to her live date with Cecil Taylor by featuring a second pianist (Zita Carno) alongside her, creating some of the loosest, freest, and most abstract music on the record. It opens easy enough though, with the funky, driving bonus track “Syl-O-Gism” which was not on the original album. In listening, it’s difficult to imagine that anything but time constraints kept this off the record’s initial release. It’s followed immediately by Dizzy Gillespie’s lovely, reflective “Olinga,” featuring the same trio instrumentation, and that is in turn followed by “Medi II” which pushes the tempo back up to a rocketing speed. Williams’ interfacing with the bop crowd is readily evident in her playing here. The other bonus cut “Gloria” is the piano-bass-drums alternate version of the tune that occurs later in the disc and again – quality is not in question; it can only be the physical limitations of putting music on an LP that kept this slower version of the tune off the original release. Two dual-piano tracks follow: “Intermission” finds Williams and Carno working in unison before stretching out on this fragmentary and impressionistic tune, but the oddly-titled “Zoning Fungus” opens with a very loose and abstract pianos-only intro before the rhythm section drops in a tight groove for them to work against. The record is then given over to two piano/bass duos, with Mary Lou and Bob Cranshaw playing the lovely “Holy Ghost” and the bluesier and sometimes mildly dissonant “Medi I.” The bluesiness of “Medi I” gives way to the slow, funky, in the pocket groove of “Rosa Mae” which in turn leads to the impressionistic solo piano ballad “Ghost of Love.” The three tracks that close out the record all feature the piano-bass-congas trio, starting with the fastest number here: “Praise the Lord,” in which the rhythm section sets up a fast tempo then Williams drops into it and effortlessly finds her place. She’s not often given to showy runs in her solos, preferring instead to hitting the right note or phrase at exactly the right time – not unlike that “kid” Monk that she used to talk with. The originally released version of “Gloria” follows, faster than the earlier one on the album, and every bit as good and fun. The record closes with “Play It Momma,” a slow groover that is – as usual – funky and showcases Williams’ exquisite timing. A perfect ending to a great album.

Williams would make more records through the remainder of the 1970s (many of them worth seeking out), teach music at Duke University, perform at the White House, create the Mary Lou Williams Foundation to help the underprivileged and young find their way to jazz, and then pass away in 1981 of bladder cancer. In her biography Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams she would sum up her long and accomplished life with this simple statement that says it better than anything I could add: "I did it, didn't I? Through muck and mud."

-         Patrick Brown

I'd Love to Turn You On At the Movies #133 - The Hustler – (1961, dir. Robert Rossen)

Deep in the heart of every American male lies an aching question he must face throughout his life in moments of doubt and crises; “Am I A Loser?” I suspect women also face this feeling, but I don’t know for sure, and since The Hustler is an extremely male movie, and because our society has a different set of expectations and rules for men, we can run with that idea as a premise. There are few pastimes available in our society that are more inextricably linked to this question than gambling, or hustling. For the purposes of this particular movie, the hustle is pool, and the male is Paul Newman. In the history of anti-heroes, it’s hard to think of a more appealing loser than Newman’s character, Fast Eddie Felson. Made in 1961, The Hustler could be considered Newman’s breakout role. He speaks in his own voice, not affecting the southern, good-ol’-boy accent he used to such great effect early in his career, and he digs deep in exploring the motivations and weaknesses of his character, who is a pool hustler making his way across the country, haunting the seedy, grey temples of loss known as pool halls. Director Robert Rossen memorably shoots the entire movie on location in real pool halls, real bus stations and real dive bars, and the ambiance is palpable - the bottoms of your shoes might be sticky after this movie. Fast Eddie has a goal: he wants to play, and beat, the legendary pool hustler Minnesota Fats, played with Buddha-like calm by Jackie Gleason. He gets his chance early in the movie, starting strongly and beating Fats for the first 12 hours of a day-long pool marathon. Then, slowly his resolve starts to slip, just as Fats gets his second wind. Eddie slips into drunken sloppiness as the fat man turns the tables and takes Eddie for every penny he’s worth. He’s left broke and shaken and he embarks on his own personal trip to the bottom, so he can start to claw his way back to the top (bearing in mind “the top” in Eddie’s world is actually the lowest rung of society).

Eddie’s journey takes him into the arms of a drunken, artistic, sweet, but ultimately damaged woman named Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie), who tries to offer some meaning to Eddie’s life beside the endless spiral of drunken loss he finds in pool halls. He scrabbles his way along the bottom, having both his thumbs broken in a hustle gone bad and seeking solace in Laurie’s needy embrace. For a brief moment Eddie has a glimpse of what a “normal,” nice life might be like. As soon as the casts are off his hands however, he is back at the pool table, this time with the management and financial backing of a demonic gambler named Bert Gordon. Gordon is played by George C. Scott in his third-ever role, and the entirety of his weighty reputation as an actor could rest on this role of a lifetime. Gordon embodies everything that is venal and cruel in this world. When men look in the mirror, it is Bert Gordon who stares back and says “yes, you are a loser!” Gordon takes Fast Eddie and Sarah to Kentucky to play billiards with a rich dilettante after the Kentucky Derby, but instead Eddie again loses and, in a sad seduction, Scott uses both Eddie and Sarah’s weaknesses against them and causes Sarah to commit suicide in a sad and heartless scene. Eddie is further numbed as his life continues to follow a sad path to nowhere.

Eddie finally makes his way back to Minnesota Fats. He is in the same pitiful pool room, with the same group of wagering jackals (including Bert Gordon), but this time he has a sober intensity. He has reached the bottom. The face in the mirror has told him with no hesitation that he was indeed a loser. He’d lost everything: his pride, his money, his one shot at true love, what small reputation he once had - it’s all gone into the corner pocket. But here he is with one last chance to play Fats. The pool scenes in The Hustler are like the fight scenes in Raging Bull. In other words, they are beautiful, black and white works of art. Everything is shot in clear mid-screen shots, with the action on the table getting as much attention as the action on the character’s faces. And what action it is! Eddie plays the games of his life. He is playing for Sarah and to prove to Gordon and himself that he has value. Eddie wins, but it is a hollow victory. He has the respect of Minnesota Fats and the other losers in the pool room, but by turning on Bert Gordon he has sealed his fate and effectively ended his own career as a pool hustler. He leaves with his pride and some money, but we can’t be sure what the future holds for Eddie.

Ultimately the power of The Hustler lies in the post-noir seediness of the environment the director creates, and in the elemental brilliance of the four main performances. Rossen's depiction of the world is unrelentingly bleak and Newman, Scott, Gleason and Laurie all inhabit their characters in an uncanny way. Each one seems to embody an emotion - Newman’s pride, Gleason’s confidence, Laurie’s self-doubt and Scott’s ferocious desire, which, in the skillful hands of the director, give flesh to these emotions, and we can certainly see some part of ourselves in that flesh.

-         Paul Epstein

I'd Love to Turn You On #146 - Devo - Duty Now For the Future

You probably know something about the art project/guerrilla theater/rock band from Akron, OH known as Devo, The De-Evolutionary Band. After years of underground touring to go with handmade films and other forms of art-propaganda they finally released their debut album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO! in 1978. It was produced by Brian Eno (along with David Bowie an early supporter of the band) and is considered a post-punk classic. Two years later, their third album, Freedom of Choice, became a new wave smash, propelled by the hit single "Whip It." It is both perverse and inevitable that a band like Devo would score a big mainstream hit. Yet it also fits in with the band's philosophy and methodology, critiquing the excessive consumerism of modern Western society. Was this part of the plan all along? For Devo to first break through to the mainstream and then years later be considered yet another disposable one-hit wonder seems like it could have been the master plot of Devo masterminds Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale.

But we're not here to talk about all that today. For between the landmark debut and the massive breakthrough came the difficult second album, Duty Now For the Future. The twist, and there always is one with Devo, is that this often overlooked album is nearly as good as the first one, with lots of hidden gems and lost classics. Opening with the synthesized fanfare of the "Devo Corporate Anthem," the album picks up in earnest with the energetic "Clockout." This critique of corporate office work reminds us that the best part of the workday is often the end of it. Another short instrumental, "Timing X," displays the band's musical chops, particularly those of drummer Alan Myers. Devo's talent as musicians is rarely acknowledged, even by hardcore Devo-tees, yet they could always work their way around the tricky arrangements they created for themselves. "Wiggly World" is a great high energy rocker with some musical twists of its own. Lyrically, it provides advice for navigating a strange world where "It's never straight up and down." "Blockhead" is clearly a cousin of the first album's "Mongoloid" but is also a great song in its own right. After charging through at full speed for most of the album so far, Devo slows things down a bit for the moody and creepy "S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain)."

The inward turn continues with the start of the album's second half. "Triumph of the Will" uncomfortably combines fascist imagery with relationship trauma. Things pick up again with the cheery sounds of "The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize." "Pink Pussycat" is a nice bouncy pop tune which leaves the listener to wonder if Devo are indulging in cheap juvenile jokes or mocking them. Probably a little bit of both. Perhaps the album's best known song is "Secret Agent Man." This cover/parody of the hit 60s TV theme song had been in the band's repertoire since their earliest days. The additional lyrics play up the absurdity of undercover spy as pop culture hero. Even Devo know how to rock out and they do on the album highlight "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA." The lyrics further deepen the band's philosophy and mythology that they had previously established on their debut album and underground films like The Truth About De-Evolution. Musically, the band charge through traditional rock song structure even including a couple instrumental breaks that show off the guitar work of Bob Mothersbaugh while Myers again brings strong drumming. The album concludes with the high energy synth-driven "Red Eye." The current CD edition includes a generous helping of bonus tracks. A pair of singles included here, "Soo Bawlz" and "Be Stiff," are just as good as anything on the album.

As the years roll on, Devo's achievements continue to gain recognition and their influence continues to grow. In the past year, right here in Denver, the Museum of Contemporary Art hosted an exhibition of Mark Mothersbaugh's visual works. He's also been one of the top film composers of the past few decades, particularly known for his work with Wes Anderson. The art and message of Devo have always taken on multiple formats. Yet their great run of studio albums has always been their core and the best way for newcomers to enter their wiggly world. When diving into this world, be sure not to overlook Duty Now For the Future.  It's one of the best.

-          Adam Reshotko

I'd Love to Turn You On At the Movies #132 - Monsoon Wedding (2001, dir. Mira Nair)

Simply put, Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding is a romantic comedy of great substance! What on the outside would seem to be a straightforward story of an extended family and their friends preparing for the wedding of their daughter becomes something much more multifaceted and captivating. In the true fashion of a Shakespearian comedy the central storyline is complicated and littered with an array of side stories that vary from directly related to almost completely unrelated to the central story and therein lies the true charm of this film. Additionally what makes this film important is the way that Nair and writer Sabrina Dhawan have crafted a film that highlights and plays with the conventions and traditions of the Indian culture and its evolving place in the modern world.

At the heart of it, this is the story of an arranged marriage. But when you take a step back after the first few scenes it becomes obvious just how many different plotlines are working to tell this seemingly straightforward story. Of course there is the central love story of the arranged couple, Hemant Rai (Parvin Dabas) and Aditi Verma (Vasundhara Das ), and all of the complications therein, including (but certainly not limited to) Aditi's prior (and somewhat current...) love affair with the married talk-show host Vikram Mehta (Sameer Arya). While this is certainly an engaging story arc the most engaging stories are those that happen around this central tale. There is the stressful story of a father, Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah), and mother, Pimmi Verma (Lillete Dubey), planning the wedding that relatives and friends from all around the world are flying in to attend; the humorous dealings of Lalit with the lovable fool of a wedding planner "P.K." Dubey (Vijay Raaz); P.K.'s own love story with the housekeeper Alice (Tillotama Shome); and a number of additional love stories sprinkled in for good measure and tumultuous issues bubbling just under the surface. While most of the stories described above are cheerful and exciting with a hint of drama, there is another brooding story of familial and monetary obligation and a family friend's abuse of power to exploit the daughters of his friend.

This is most definitely a film that focuses on the tensions involved in life, and by zeroing in on one very stressful and happy moment in the life of a family, Nair and Dhawan are able to portray not only the surface but the thoughts, emotions, secrets, joys, and sorrows that make us human. And the success of the film truly hinges of the way in which the story is told. The dialogue is succinct and subtle and the yet the way that the actors deliver the lines says way more about what is going on than the simple text would lead you to believe. In this film, as in life, it is all about subtext and reading between the lines. The way that the film was written and directed as well as the way that the actors portray their characters brings an undeniable, humanist element to every aspect of the narrative.

In addition to the complex and relatable Shakespearian story and amazing dialogue, two other things that make this film so special are the performances from all of the actors and the way that it was shot. Nair wanted to use several non-actors for the film as well as some seasoned and extremely talented Indian actors and actresses, which serves to amplify the human element of the film as many of the performances seem untouched by the craft of acting, lending a more "real" quality to some of the performances. Additionally, what really rounds out the humanity of this story is the fact that it was shot in around 40 days on handheld camera (with cinematography by Declan Quinn). While this technique isn't always effective, here, as in Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration, it places the viewer squarely in the action and we feel as if we are a part of this family. We are there with them witnessing their triumphant celebrations as well as moments of defeat and desperation.

While this entry got quite wordy quickly, I assure you this is one of the most purely enjoyable, relatable, and engrossing films that I will have a chance to write about for this blog. Within the first half hour of the movie I can almost guarantee that you will absorbed in the plot and waiting with bated breath to see what happens next. So consider this your cordial invitation to Monsoon Wedding.

-         Edward Hill