Cocaine Cowboys: Reloaded (2014) is an expanded DVD version of Cocaine Cowboys (2006). I just watched it and highly recommended it. It’s a documentary about the drug wars in Miami in the 1980s which also involved Columbia.
On the right of the page, there are links to clips from the film
Author Edna Buchanan is interviewed several times in the film. I recommend her book about Miami, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (1987).
‘Screwball’ (2018) is a documentary about the Florida part of the baseball Biogenesis PED scandal. It features interviews plus news broadcasts from the time. There are recreations of scenes with kids playing the roles of the participants – this is an entertaining way to present this hard-to-believe scandal.
I recommend it very much – funny, wild, informative.
There are several famous pizza restaurants in New Haven. CT. This Washington Post article on Pepe’s reminded me of the film Pizza: A Love Story which is about several New Haven pizza places. I supported it on Kickstarter.
At Frank Pepe’s, a century of coal, clams and thin-crust pizza
I recently watched two films directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Kirk Douglas which were about filmmaking. They’re both on Warner Archive Blu-rays.
The first, The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) stars Douglas as a producer who screws over a writer, director and actor. Most of the film takes place in flashbacks. The great Gloria Grahame won an Oscar for a role in which she only had nine minutes of screen time. There’s lots of speculation on who the main characters are based on. It’s an entertaining gossipy film about the sleazy side of Hollywood and is well worth seeing.
Two Weeksi in Another Town (1962) isn’t a sequel. This time, Douglas plays an actor who is down on his luck and gets a role in a film shot in Rome. Hollywood’s underbelly is on display again but this one isn’t quite as good. One cool reference to the earlier film is when they show a clip of it; they show Douglas’s character in this one as an actor in the first one.
Some other Hollywood films about filmmaking that I like (and I’ll probably add to this)
Ed Wood (1994) is Tim Burton’s excellent film about the director of some of the worst films ever. It smartly is shot in black and white and focuses on three of his films. What makes it work is that Wood doesn’t realize he is terrible; he actually thinks he’s good.
Boogie Nights (1997) is Paul Thomas Anderson’s ensemble film about the porno film industry.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) is a musical about the transition from silent films to sound films. One of the best musical films ever.
What Price Hollywood? (1932) directed by George Cukor follows the rise of a waitress to stardom
Bombshell (1933) directed by Victor Fleming is a comedy about a movie star played by Jean Harlow
The Last Command (1928) a silent film directed by Josef von Sternberg about a former Russian leader reduced to a movie extra.
I thought ‘A Complete Unknown’ which is about Bob Dylan’s life from 1961-1965 was excellent. Timothee Chalamet is outstanding as Dylan and does a fine job singing and playing guitar as well as acting. The rest of the cast is excellent, too. It’s especially hard to portray living and recent figures when we know what they sound like but this cast carries it off. It’s much harder than, for example, playing George Washington since we don’t know what he sounded like and there are no photographs of him.
It’s very impressive that they didn’t whitewash Dylan’s behavior. There are times he behaves badly. The film also gives insight into how difficult it is to be famous.
I am a big Dylan fan and have been (most of the time) for 60 years,
Dylan and Bob Neuwirth play “Railroad Bill” in the studio (jn what I assume is 1965). Like other old songs like “Delia” and “Stagger Lee”, “Railroad Bill is based on a real person. Dylan didn’t record it until the Self Portrait sessions in1970 and it wasn’t released until 2013. I listened to it today for the first time and thought it was great.
I also like Dave Alvin’s 2000 version:
Tom Wilson, shown in the booth when Dylan is recording, also produced artists such as The Mothers of Invention, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Velvet Underground.
I was a little disoriented when songs were performed out of the order in which they were released on records. Maybe they were actually written in the order in the film. This is not a documentary and the creators have the right to artistic license to film the story their way. The audience member shouting “Judas” and Dylan saying “Play It Loud” actually happened in 1966 at a show in England.
There is a fine documentary on Dylan’s performances at the Newport Folk Festival from 1963-65 titled The Other Side of the Mirror. It was released in 2007. The documentary Dont Look Back covers his 1965 tour of England. The tour is now shown in the new film but something he got in England was mentioned.
The part about Al Kooper playing organ on “Like A Rolling Stone” even though he was not an experienced organ player seems like something they would make up but it really happened in a way generally like it is shown in the film.
Dylan’s early albums are solo with just his voice and guitar. I don’t think they would have been made that way less than 10 years later. Look at the recordings of John Prine, Steve Goodman and Jim Croce. The singer is accompanied by a full band, I saw all of them in the early 1970s. Prine and Goodman played solo and Croce was accompanied by another acoustic guitarist. Dylan going electric probably influenced having these artists recording with a band.
At the end, there is text about Dylan playing at the Guthrie Tribute Concert on January 20, 1968. He was accompanied by the Band and they did three songs – “I Ain’t Got No Home”, “Grand Coulee Dam”, and “Dear Mrs. Roosevelt”. The performances are great – loud rock and roll. There are recordings but the sound quality is only fair. The three songs are on YouTube and there is a box set of the two tribute concerts. Unlike in 1965, the audience was very enthusiastic.
‘Hundreds of Beavers’ is a hilarious independent film comedy. It’s in black and white and was made for $150,00 with no famous actors. The animal characters are obviously people in costumes and there is hardly any dialogue.
It’s very original but was clearly influenced by silent comedies, video games and cartoons. The main character experiences events that should kill him but bounces right back.
The plot especially reminded me of Buster Keaton’s slient films – the conflict between the suitor and his beloved’s father and his incompetence until his stunning overwhelming success.
It was just released on Blu-ray.
I have seen this film which is available on Blu-Ray. It’s excellent. Hedy Lamarr accomplished a lot.
Columbia Noir: five under-the-radar gems for Noirvember
I have seen all five of the films in the article above and recommend them. They are all on DVD and/or Blu-ray.
Sad! 