Rick’s Flicks Picks » This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates Musical Bio-Pics

This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates Musical Bio-Pics

14 05 2008

Last week Todd Haynes’ enigmatic biopic of Bob Dylan, I’M NOT THERE, arrived on DVD, giving inspiration for this week’s lineup on musical biopics. Rock, soul and country are all represented, often crisscrossing. Two straight-laced performers, two troubled singers and one chameleon. One film mixes the artist’s music with performances from the actors while the other four films are evenly divided between prerecorded tracks and live performances. This musical film festival is sure to get your toe tappin’.

I’M NOT THERE starts us off with a film that fictionalizes the seemingly different personalities of folk/rock legend Bob Dylan. Six different actors play a version of the singer who wore many masks over the course of his career. Receiving an Oscar nomination for her work, Cate Blanchett’s pretentious folk singer that has turned his back on political messages and his fans is an unforgettable portrait of Dylan during the time of the classic rock doc DON’T LOOK BACK. Heath Ledger’s version of Dylan is a misogynistic actor who rose to fame playing influential folk singer Jack Rollins, who is played by Christian Bale. Ledger’s Dylan is married to an abstract artist who harks back to Dylan’s real-life first wife Sara, brining a rare look into the heart of the man. Bale’s Rollins is a folk icon that turns to Christianity. A trio of other Dylans include 11-year-old African-American Woody Guthrie played by Marcus Carl Franklin, 19-year-old poet Arthur Rimbaud played by Ben Whishaw, and middle-aged Billy the Kid played by Richard Gere. This thought-provoking experiment tries to understand the forces that drove the musical legend to invent and re-invent himself over and over again. What drove his social conscience songs and then his later rejection of them? How did the lure of fame twist his soul and later make him run and hide? I’M NOT THERE doesn’t answer these questions, only presents possibilities for us to contemplate. As I said in my original review, “For someone who watches a great deal of films and looks for something different, this film delivers a passionate performance and excites with invention. It’s a fascinating portrait of a man who could be a completely different person on any given day and does justice to that complexity.”

The two Saturday productions both end in the same way with the same musicians dying in the same plane crash. The first is LA BAMBA, which chronicles the rise to fame of Ritchie Valens, played passionately by Lou Diamond Phillips. The story begins with Ritchie picking produce with his mother when his motorcycle driving, older brother Bob, played with fire by Esai Morales, rides in and takes them to L.A. where he has bought them a house. Never going anywhere without his guitar, Ritchie is determined to be a star. As we watch the teenager quickly take the pop charts by storm, family resents begins to bubble to the surface between Ritchie, the brother who can do no wrong, and Bob, the brother who can do no right. Due to the short and less than dramatic life of Valens (or Valenzuela), director/writer Luis Valdez has room to develop other characters in Ritchie’s life and how they react to his fame when they are just left behind to watch. As a 17-year-old, Valens broke barriers for Latinos he didn’t even know that he was breaking, because the film paints him simple as any other kid with a dream and drive to rock. As I said in my original review, “Like the legacy of James Dean, another young star that also died tragically too soon, youthful enthusiasm frozen in time by loss haunts this film as well.”

As you may have already guessed, THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY is the Saturday closer. Like Valens, Buddy Holly, played in a transformative performance by Gary Busey, had a short life with little drama. So the film focuses on the barriers that Holly passed and the music that he made. Infusing the film with electric, Busey, along with Charles Martin Smith and Don Stroud as the Crickets, plays the music live, transporting the viewer into what feel like a rock documentary. While facts were changed, Busey’s Holly captures amazingly the essence of the unlikely horn-rimmed glasses-wearing rocker. Busey gives Holly a sense of drive and passion that is unshakable. He knows what he wants and won’t take no for an answer. Coming from Texas, he can’t convince Nashville record labels to accept his “negro” sound. His music is filled with so much soul that when he was booked to play the Apollo Theater, they didn’t know we was white. Additionally, Holly’s quick, sweet romance with his wife Maria is handled with tenderness and charm. It’s an enthusiastic tribute to the iconic musician. To quote my original review, “the energy of Holly and his music is what the film captures so perfectly. And when making a movie about a rock legend what’s more important anyway?”

If Saturday was for dedicated to the good that died young then Sunday is for artists who lived long and hard. The opening film is Taylor Hackford’s Oscar-nominated RAY, chronicling the life of legendary soul originator Ray Charles. As I said in my original review, “The film is a powerful drama mainly driven by amazing performances.” In an Oscar-winning turn Jamie Foxx channels the singing sensation, creating a man who was a great artist, but a terrible husband to his wife Della Bea, played with hope, pain and sadness by Kerry Washington. Along with Washington, Sharon Warren and Regina King give powerful performances as the other women in Ray’s life — his mother, and drug-addled lover, respectively. From his days in poverty when he lost his sight and his older brother to his monster success as an artist who took control of his career like no other, Foxx’s Charles is a man who sees no obstacles that he can’t overcome. He’s a man of great pride, never using a cane. Though he stood tall in public, he masked his internal struggles with drugs and women. Performing during a period in American history when African-Americans were still treated as second-class citizens, Charles accomplished feats unheard of for a black man and helped to rid the South of Jim Crow laws.

For our closing film, WALK THE LINE, as I predicted in my original review, “Last year, Jamie Foxx deserved his Oscar for embodying Ray Charles in RAY. Joaquin Phoenix is just as good as Johnny Cash… As for Reese Witherspoon playing June Carter, she should start writing her Oscar acceptance speech right now for she’s the best of the year.” In chronicling the ups and downs of Cash’s career, this top-notched production also tells the touching romance between Cash and Carter. Like all great musical bio-pics, one does not need to be a fan to enjoy the story or the music. Singing the songs himself, Phoenix makes us nearly forget Cash’s voice and accept him as the man in black. By focusing on the love story and mixing in great versions of Cash’s tunes, WALK THE LINE avoids dwelling on the rock clichés of a man who raised from poverty to attain fame then succumbs to drugs and alcohol. In addition to June’s support, Cash finds help in the deeply faithful Carter family. Like all great bip-pics in general, this moving drama captures the people and world around the star, which puts the whole experience in context.

So tell me what you think of these musical true-life stories. Like always, it’s that time to visit the video store, update the rental queue, check out Zap2It.com for TV schedules or purchase the films on DVD via the links below. Much thanks to those who buy the films I recommend through the site because it helps support this site and this column.