Category: Movie

Filmmaker Penny Lane has a knack for making sympathetic documentaries about reviled and seemingly irredeemable people — her last one was about Satanists. Her latest takes on someone even more divisive: Kenny G.

I kid, of course. While Listening to Kenny G, premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, recounts a barrage of insults fired at the smooth jazz sensation, it also becomes clear that Kenny G needs no redemption. He’s done a great job rehabbing his own image, through social media acumen, collaborations with modern stars like Katy Perry, Kanye West and The Weeknd, and his own undeniable work ethic.

At least in the film, he seems pleasantly open to self-examination. He’s neither humble nor braggy, but gives give himself credit where it’s due. He says he still practices sax three hours a day, even after selling more than 75 million records, making him arguably the most successful jazz artist of all time. (I say “arguably” because many critics, some of whom are featured in the doc, don’t consider his music jazz.)

Yes, his songs are smooth, easy listening — but as Kenny G makes  clear, he believes those are good attributes. You won’t be surprised to learn that Kenny G is a bit of a people pleaser.

Lane welcomes esteemed jazz critics who make cogent arguments that the man born Kenny Gorlick frustratingly ignores more than a century of jazz music to make hits like “Songbird” and “Silhouette” that have no relation to the works of great jazz saxophonists like Ornette Coleman and Charlie Parker. (At one point, Kenny G — gasp — fails to recognize an image of Thelonious Monk.)

But before you join the scolds, Kenny G owns up to the fact that he was never that into jazz, and grew up more interested in smooth R&B — think of the exquisite Bill Withers-Grover Washington Jr. collaboration “Just the Two of Us.”

Later, we see him at least try to use his powers for good, but shoehorning a playful “sax education” course into recent performances, and trying to turn his fans on to artists like Stan Getz. (Though not everyone loves him paying homage to Louis Armstrong with a duet from beyond the grave. Judge for yourself.)

The doc also artfully addresses the accurate observation that Kenny G is the latest in a long line of white artists who made millions smoothing out the edges on a Black art form to make it more palatable for the masses. After saying, a little astonishingly, that he hasn’t really thought about it, Kenny G addresses this criticism directly, and, I think, respectfully.

Meanwhile, footage from his concerts speaks for itself: As much as his haters might like to think his audience consists entirely of middle-aged white people waiting in elevators and dentists’ offices, his fans undeniable cross all demographic lines. (The film also explains how Kenny G’s undeniably lovely “Going Home” has become China’s official song, of, well, going home.)

The film is executive produced by The Ringer creator Bill Simmons, who has a deal with HBO to produce music documentaries, and is off to a strong start. Another TIFF film to come out of that collaboration is Jagged, an Alanis Morissette documentary drawing lots of press attention this morning.

Lane, whose 2019 film Hail Satan? is the funniest documentary I’ve ever seen, says in an introductory video for TIFF that she made Listening to Kenny G to investigate why some art is considered good and other art is considered bad — and the feelings you feel upon finding out someone hates your favorite artist.

The moral of the story might be that hate is even worse than the worst smooth jazz.

Listening to Kenny G, directed by Penny Lane, is now playing at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Main image: Kenny G on the cover of his 1992 album Breathless.

 

The post In Listening to Kenny G, a Smooth Jazz Icon Shakes Off the Haters appeared first on MovieMaker Magazine.

Alanis Morissette says in the new HBO documentary Jagged that she was raped multiple times as a 15-year-old — and that when she told people about it, no one did anything.

The film, now playing at the Toronto International Film Festival, focuses on Morissette’s breakout stardom in the ’90s and the difficulties of navigating the music industry as a young female star. The critical praise she received was often undercut by criticism of how “angry” she seemed. But she became one of the most successful artists in pop-rock history, and an inspiration to artists like Taylor Swift and Beyonce, both of whom are seen performing her song “You Oughta Know” in the doc.

At one point in the film, director Alison Klayman juxtaposes a decades-old interview in which Morissette talks about difficult relationships, with a new interview in which the Canadian icon, now 47, says she was a victim of multiple statutory rapes, and that no one helped her when she spoke out. She does not name any assailant, but it’s clear she’s talking about more than one case.

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“I had no idea what the concept of a professional boundary meant, but it was me getting a sense of of boundaries, or lack thereof,” she says in the film. “Me not telling specific information about my experience as a teenager was almost solely around wanting to protect — protect my parents, protect my brothers, protect future partners, protect myself, protect my physical safety.”

At that point Morissette pauses, telling her interviewer: “I’m gonna need some help because I never talk about this shit.”

She then continues.

“There’s a lot of shame around having any kind of victimization of any kind, and it took me years in therapy to even admit that there had been any kind of victimization on my part. I would always say, you know I was consenting. And then I’d be reminded, ‘Hey — you were 15. You’re not consenting at 15.’ Now, like, oh yeah — they’re all pedophiles. They’re all statutory rape.”

Canada’s age of consent is 16.

She adds: “I did tell a few people. … It kind of fell on deaf ears a little bit. It would usually be a stand-up, walk-out-of-the-room moment.”

Then she talks more generally about women who come forward with sexual abuse allegations, and aren’t believed.

“A lot of people say, ‘Why did that woman wait 30 years?’ I’m like fuck off, they didn’t wait 30 years. No one was listening, or their livelihood was threatened, or their family was threatened. So yeah, the whole ‘Why do women wait’ thing? Women don’t wait. A culture doesn’t listen.”

The film premieres at Toronto tonight and is available now digitally. But The Washington Post reports that Morrisette is unhappy with the film for “unspecified reasons” and will not attend. The Post cited “a person familiar with Morissette’s plans.”

Klayman told Deadline in regards to Morissette not attending: “Of course, it would have been great if she could be here with us, but I’m so grateful for all the time that she did put into making this film.”

Morissette talks at length in the film about the difficulties of being a woman in a male-dominated industry — and says problems persisted even though she was the star. She notes her anger when she found at that the men in her backup band would leverage access to Morissette to meet female fans. (Morissette pointedly rejects the term “groupies” as dehumanizing.)

Jagged includes interviews with Shirley Manson of Garbage, critic Hanif Abdurraqib, and filmmaker Kevin Smith,  who cast Alanis Morissette as God in his film Dogma. The film takes its title from Morissette’s massive hit record Jagged Little Pill, which has sold 33 million copies — the 12th most in music history.

The film is produced by The Ringer founder Bill Simmons, who has a deal with HBO for a series of music-centered documentaries. Another, Listening to Kenny G, is also premiering at TIFF.

The Alanis Morissette documentary Jagged, directed by Alison Klayman, is now at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Main image: Alanis Morisette in Jagged.

 

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The Card Counter writer-director Paul Schrader has been making classic films since the 1970s — but he still embraces digital cinematography.

“Certainly, there’s a lot to be said for film,” Schrader tells MovieMaker. “But the advantage of digital is obviously that it’s just so much faster — everything is faster.”

He continues: “There’s almost no relighting, and you never leave the set. You used to have all that trailer time. But now, if I had to set up a scene and enter my trailer, by the time I reached the door of my trailer, the PA would be tapping me on the shoulder: ‘Mr. Schrader, they are ready.’ So it allows you to move much, much quicker.”

Schrader rattles off more advantages: “You don’t have any reload time. You don’t cut gels as you can relight from your iPad. And that’s only half the story. The other half is that you can relight the whole thing in post.”

Schrader says shooting digitally gave him much more creative control on The Card Counter, which stars Oscar Isaac as a poker player consumed with guilt. Final cut is especially important to Schrader after he lost it on his 2014 film Dying of the Light.

“You’re dealing with the economics of a 20-day shoot. We didn’t shoot anything that’s not in the film. You can’t afford to take longer than you need to do something. That’s the price you pay for freedom — I have final cut, and no one tells me what to do. But I better make those 20 days, and I better keep the audience interested,” he says.

The Card Counter is Schrader’s third collaboration with cinematographer Alexander Dynan after Dog Eat Dog (2016) and First Reformed (2017), and all were lensed digitally.

Nighttime exteriors are a major perk of digital cinematography. In Schrader’s commentary track for the Blu-Ray release of his 1979 film Hardcore, he comes off a little hard on himself as he bemoans the lack of camera movement and points out sequences that seem over-lit. At one point he jokes that he needs sunglasses, and compares a location to a supermarket.

“I remember going in there as the grouchy old man, attacking my film for an hour and a half,” Schrader says of the commentary, which was recorded in 2016.

“Back in those days, everything was over-lit, and it really wasn’t until digital — the first one was Miami Vice — where they could really film with available light at night,” he continues. “Otherwise at night you’re always pouring all this light in. And you can always tell on some of these films, particularly exteriors, where the character is too bright. We were always afraid that you couldn’t see the characters.”

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Schrader says one exception from that era was cinematographer Gordon Willis and Francis Ford Coppola’s collaboration on The Godfather trilogy. For those films, he says, “it didn’t matter. So what, you can’t see him very well?”

“But a normal film, you would get a call the next day after dailies from the studio yelling at you that everything is too dark.”

Asked about recent low-budget American indies that are shot on 16mm and allow viewers to miss details during dark sequences, he replies bluntly: “Well, it’s a bad choice.”

“That’s what digital was made for. I remember Michael Mann said to me, ‘You can even see the clouds at night.’ And there’s no way with normal film you could see the clouds at night.”

The Card Counter, written and directed by Paul Schrader, is now in theaters.

Main image (above): Oscar Isaac and Tiffany Haddish in The Card Counter, from writer-director Paul Schrader.

The post Paul Schrader Says Shooting The Card Counter Digitally Helped Him Retain Final Cut appeared first on MovieMaker Magazine.

Blue Bayou has Justin Chon leaving L.A. — the city where he was born and where his previous two features, Gook and Ms. Purple take place — for New Orleans.

Chon says that it was never his intention to “only make films in L.A.” But there were certain benefits of making films in his hometown, which also happens to be the film capital of the world.

“As an independent filmmaker, accessibility-wise, making films all at home in Los Angeles, is much more accessible. You can get people together and favors can be had,” he says.

With Blue Bayou, Chon was able to widen his scope for his immigration tale that explores the experience of Korean-American adoptee Antonio, played by Chon.

“I wanted to go to New Orleans, because I felt like the city embodied what Antonio was like as a character — the resilience of New Orleans and also the welcoming nature,” he says.

Every script that writer-director Chon has written has been achieved differently, but there is a similarity between all of them, including Blue Bayou: an adherence to the concept of the “vomit draft.”

“I do believe in the vomit draft,” Chon says. “Just getting something on paper that’s substantial, with a beginning, middle, and end — you just get it out.”

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One way this film differed from his others was the level of research during the scripting process. In order to build an authentic portrait of Antonio and his family, Chon spent a lot of time interviewing Asian adoptees from all over the country.

“I spoke to somebody that grew up in Jersey. I spoke to somebody who grew up in Southern California. I spoke to somebody who grew up in New York. I spoke to somebody from the South,” he says. “Just like any of our experiences would be different, so are theirs.”

He continues: “But there are common threads of being adopted from another country that I think ring true, generally, no matter where you grew up. Like, not having people that look like you in your family.”

One of the people he spoke to shared an insight that made its way directly into the script.

“An adoptee consultant told me that one of the biggest, most influential moments in her life was when she had her own children,” Chon says. “Because it’s the first time as an adoptee, that you’re holding somebody, or looking at somebody, that’s actually blood related to you.”

“So that’s in the film. When Antonio holds his child for the first time, it’s a very emotional moment, because of the conversation I had with this particular adoptee.”

Blue Bayou, written and directed by Justin Chon, opens in theaters on Friday. 

Main image (above): Alicia Vikander and Justin Chon in Blue Bayou.

The post Justin Chon Set Blue Bayou in New Orleans Because of Its Resilience appeared first on MovieMaker Magazine.

We remember Norm Macdonald with some of his terrific jokes; a new (reputable) crowdfunding idea invites you to get in on the ground floor; Alanis Morissette denounces a new documentary she took part in; film festival news from two beloved New York beach communities. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

But First: California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who recently signed a bill adding $330 million to the state’s film and TV incentives program, easily survived a recall effort. Probably not because of the incentives problem but I’m sure it didn’t hurt.

A Crowdfunding Idea: This is in its very early stages, but filmmaker Lucas McNelly, who recently wrote this lovely piece for us, is trying to assemble an army (the non-violent kind) of people to help crowdfund indie films. He calls it The Cavalry, and you can read about it — and how to get involved — here.

Alanis Morissette: Hours after the new Alanis Morissette documentary Jagged drew widespread attention for a moment when she discusses sexual abuse, the singer denounced the film for having what she called a “salacious agenda.” She adds: “This was not the story I agreed to tell. I sit here now experiencing the full impact of having trusted someone who did not warrant being trusted.” Here’s her full statement to Variety. Hey, you can always watch the Kenny G documentary instead.

Hamptons: The Hamptons International Film Festival, taking place Oct. 7-13, just unveiled a lineup that includes some of the most anticipated films of the year, including the closing night film The French Dispatch, the Saturday Centerpiece screening of Spencer, and the Spotlight selections Cyrano, The Lost Daughter, Parallel Mothers, Passing, and The Power of the Dog.

Rockaway: The Rockaway Film Festival, now underway until Sept. 19, features in-person discussions with filmmakers including the Oscar-nominated Shaka King (Judas and the Black Messiah), Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) and Sky Hopinka (maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore). We’re grateful to Schoenbrun for being one of the panelists on our latest list of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World, and Hopkina for serving on the same panel last year.

Grants: The Redford Center, founded by Robert Redford and his son, James Redford, just announced nearly $300,000 in funding for film projects focused on environmental justice — including development grants to Demon Mineral, Impossible Town, Oaklead, and To The End, and impact campaign grants to Razing Liberty Square and We Still Here/Aqui Estamos.

R.I.P. Norm Macdonald: The brilliant comedian, who starred in Dirty Work and bowed to no one as Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update anchor, has died at 61 after a long fight with cancer that he kept private for many years. Watching old Norm clips yesterday I laughed harder than I have in a very long time. He could deliver the most perfectly cutting jokes, but never at the wrong person, and the childlike quality to his delivery made everything funnier — as if he discovered the truth of things as he said them. Here are a few of the things he said and did that made me laugh the most.

These First Two O.J. Jokes:

Carrot Top:

Death:

The Norm Macdonald Extremely Gentle Celebrity Roast:

Main image: Norm Macdonald in the 1998 film Dirty Work.

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