The Filtered Excellence: May 14, 2015
Bob Geldof once asked us, “Where is the filtered excellence!?” It’s right here. Once a week we take a break from comedy to bring you this weeks picks of the best things to watch, the most interesting things to do, great things to try, the best picks to read, our favorite things to listen to and more:
WATCH THIS:
Good Kill. The psychological and emotional effects of drone warfare are at the heart of this new film from Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord Of War). Ethan Hawke stars as Air Force pilot Tom Egan, who after six tours of duty in Afghanistan, now fights the Taliban from an air conditioned room half a world away. At first, the set up works for him as he and his crew fight the war as if they were playing video games. But as time passes, Tom feels a need to get back into the air – and more guilty about being forced to watch the collateral damage he causes by simply pushing a button. It’s this guilt that begins to affect his performance, his nerves and his relationship with his wife (January Jones). Niccol gives us a unique look at how warfare has gone high tech and the new moral challenges that come with it. He has to perfect actor to confront this issues in Hawke, who gives a measured, affecting performance. Together, they have constructed a great war film for the 21st Century. Good Kill opens this Friday nationwide.
Mad Men. The Emmy Award winning series – which made stars out of Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks – will air the series finale this weekend. Speculation has run rampant as to how the show – which began during the 1960 Presidential campaign and has now shifted to the early 70s – will end, but one thing is certain: It will gone down as one of the greatest dramas in television history. What fate will befall Don, Peggy, Roger, Joan and the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce team? Tune in Sunday night at 10pm Eastern on AMC.
You can also go www.amctv.com for more information.
Bessie. This long overdue biopic stars Queen Latifah plays Bessie Smith, who went from growing up poor and orphaned to becoming one of the most influential vocalists of all-time. The film also covers Smith’s life off-stage: her tumultuous marriage to Jack Gee, her unrequited love for a young performer names Lucille (Tika Sumpter), her battle to paid the same as male singers, dealing with racism, and how alcoholism and the Great Depression nearly derailed her career. Latifah delivers her finest performance to date, channeling Smith’s essence and spirit – not to mention delivering powerful renditions of Smith’s classic material. She’s anchored by a strong supporting cast that includes Michael K. Williams, Khandi Alexander, Mo’Nique, and Mike Epps. Loaded with great music and explosive dramatic turn by Latifah, Bessie is a fitting tribute to The Empress Of The Blues. It premieres Saturday at 8pm Eastern on HBO.
You can also go to www.bessiethemovie.com for more information.
You can go to www.ifcfilms.com for more information.
Mad Max: Fury Road. The fourth film in the Mad Max series (and the first not to star Mel Gibson) puts the foot on the pedal and doesn’t let go. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, Tom Hardy plays Max, the former highway patrolman who now wanders the wasteland alone following the loss of his family. There he encounters Furiosa (Charlize Theron) who is leading a group being pursued by gangs send by Immortal Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a tyrannical warlord who runs The Citadel. Furiosa has taken something that is irreplaceable to Joe and he will stop at nothing to get it back. Max initially wants no part of it, but after he’s captured and tortured by Joe, he finds himself in the middle of full scale road war. It’s been 30 years since the last Mad Max movie, but to say it was worth the wait would be an understatement. George Miller has put together THE action movie of the summer – filled with enough kick ass car chases, crashes and visuals that will blow your mind. More incredibly, most of it was done with little CGI which makes even more amazing. Hardy is the perfect replacement for Gibson as Max, constantly getting confronted by the lawless world he left behind, despite all of this efforts to ride away from it. The real revelation is Theron as Furiosa. Sporting a cropped head and a mechanical left arm, she’s not a passenger on this ride, she’s a co-pilot and she’s badass. Even though he’s at an age where most directors are hinting at retirement, Miller is promising at least two more Mad Max movies. Can’t say that you can blame him: Fury Road rocks. It opens this Friday nationwide.
You can go to www.madmaxmovie.com for more info.
LISTEN TO THIS:
Can’t Forget: A Souvenir Of The Grand Tour by Leonard Cohen. Recorded during his 2008 world tour, the latest live album from Leonard Cohen features two new songs (‘Never Gave Nobody Trouble’, ‘Got a Little Secret’) two covers (the George Jones hit ‘Choices’ and ‘La Manic’ by Georges Dor, which Cohen performed in Quebec City) and several of his classic compositions that are rarely performed live, if at all (‘Light As A Breeze’, ‘Night Comes On’, ‘I Can’t Forget). Mostly recorded during sound checks, the tracks come off with a relaxed intimate feel of a studio session rather than aderaline rush of a live show. Cohen and his extraordinary group of musicians sound like they are having blast and why wouldn’t they? Look at the material they get to work with. The 2008 tour may have been Cohen’s last victory lap, but with this release, it serves a fitting reminder of an artist who walked away on top. Can’t Forget is available now through Amazon, Itunes and all major music retailers.
Order Can’t Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour
You can also go to www.leonardcohen.com for more information.
The Traveler by Rhett Miller with Black Prairie. Having recently celebrated his 20th anniversary as frontman of Old 97’s with “Most Messed Up,” an album filled with two decades of road-tested debauchery and a little splash of Tommy Stinson for combustion, Rhett Miller’s new solo album- “The Traveler” feels like Sunday morning coming ’round. Joining Miller on his front porch are his friends- Black Prairie, a folk-bluegrass outfit consisting of members of The Decemberists. Tracked live in a recording studio, the record has that freewheeling vibe only good friends sitting around singing songs together can produce. Acoustic guitars, mandolins, accordions, bass, drums, fiddles and voices. While the songs are all Rhett’s, Black Prairie take them off on a new journey, adding vocal harmonies and even dueling mandolins and fiddle jams along the way. R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey even drop by with their jangly electric guitars and add to the fun.
Order The Traveler
Catch Rhett on tour now.
READ THIS:
How To Be A Man (and other illusions) by Duff McKagen. In the follow up to his best selling memoir ‘It’s So Easy (and other lies), the founding member of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver picks up where that book left off: Newly sober, starting a family and developing new life disciplines to stay healthy and financially stable. An excellent storyteller, one of the more riveting pieces of the book involves how a trip to New York to watch the Super Bowl triggered memories about playing CBGBs for the first time, receiving the news that his daughter’s band was going to play at the CBGB’s Festival and a chilling reminder of how far he has come in his battles with addiction. Frank, straight forward, yet entertaining, McKagen has put together another great collection of stories about overcoming tremendous physical and mental challenges to becoming a successful husband, father, musician and a person. How To Be A Man is available now through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all major book retailers.
Order How to Be a Man: (and other illusions)
DO THIS:
NEW YORK CITY: Vernon Reid Presents Harriet Tubman. The legendary guitarist has teamed up with The Iridium to present a monthly series that Reid says will be ‘a chance to present some of the most unique, entertaining and original guitar players of various styles, who have in common a quality of soul.’ They’re gritty, honest, uncompromising, risk-taking, cool and hot’. The latest installment will feature Harriet Tubman, an experimental soul/rock/jazz trio featuring guitarist Brandon Ross, Melvin Gibbs on bass and J.T. Lewis on drums. Taking their name from the famous abolitionist, the band, like Tubman, represents complete and uncompromising musical freedom fusing together the worlds of rock, funk, jazz, avant-garde, and punk into a sound that is uniquely and completely their own. These are three top flight musicians at the top of their game and every show has become an event. Come out and be amazed.
Go to www.theiridium.com for tickets and more information.
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY: Brian Wilson at The State Theatre. 2015 has been a busy year for Brian Wilson. He just released his 11th studio solo album, No Pier Pressure, which features, among others, Beach Boy members Al Jardine, David Marks, She & Him, Kacey Musgraves and Mark Isham, and the long awaited biopic Love & Mercy starring Paul Dano, John Cusack and Elizabeth Marks hits theaters next month. Wilson is also maintaining a heavy touring schedule, which will include an extensive round of dates across the U.S. and the UK that will last through the fall. Brian Wilson will be performing at The State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey to benefit the venue’s many arts-education programs. Expect to hear some of the new album, along with a ton of Beach Boy classics.
Go to www.brianwilson.com for additional info.
Visit www.statetheatrenj.org for tickets and additional info.
LOS ANGELES: Lana Del Rey at The Hollywood Bowl. After a disastrous appearance on Saturday Night Live (two weeks before her major label debut album was set to hit stores), many thought Lana Del Rey’s career would crash and burn. Del Rey would end up with the last laugh: Born To Die became a worldwide hit, hitting #2 on the Billboard album charts here in the States and peaking at #1 in 8 countries. Her follow-up Ultraviolence (co-produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys) fared even better, debuting at #1 and has become the best selling album of her career. Del Rey will be bringing her ‘Endless Summer’ tour to the iconic Hollywood Bowl, where she’ll performing songs from both albums and expected to preview material from her forthcoming album, Honeymoon. Another reason to check out this tour: Courtney Love will be opening.
Go to www.lanadelrey.com for tickets and more info.
CHICAGO: Ben Folds at The Fourth Presbyterian Church. After reassembling Ben Folds Five and then performing with his ‘Concerto For Piano And Orchestra’ with symphony orchestras for much of 2013, Ben Folds was looking to explore new musical territory. Collaborating with the NYC-based sextet Music, Folds worked at breakneck speed, writing and recording the new album in just two weeks. Folds promises that the songs will be ‘straight up rock’, but will feature odd pairings: piano, cello, viola, violin, flute/piccolo/alto flute, trumpet/French horn, and clarinet/bass clarinet with no bass and almost no drums. To preview what Folds calls ‘a record that we’ve never heard before’, he and yMusic will be performing a pair of shows at The Fourth Presbyterian Church on the 15th and at Park West on the 16th. Folds has always been one of the most eclectic and most adventurous musicians, so this has all of the makings of being a wild ride.
Go to www.benfolds.com for tickets and more information.
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