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Reviews
The Greatest Night in Pop (2024)
Couldn't Stop Watching
I can't recall the last time I watched a film from beginning to end without taking a break or even thinking of taking a break. And this has nothing to do with the quality of the ultimate product, although the film made me appreciate "We Are the World" far more than I did at the time of its creation. The experience of seeing how this event was created, assembled and carried out was mesmerizing, engrossing and tremendously moving.
The film enlarged, exponentially, my knowledge and understanding of the individuals who participated in creating the song and video. For example, I appreciate, for the first time, the scope of Lionel Ritchie's talent, which extends far beyond singing. Wrangling pop stars is more difficult than herding house cats, but Ritchie proved to be a master of the art. He was the film's star, with Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones close behind. The scenes showing Stevie's interactions with Ray Charles and Bob Dylan were, at the same time, hilarious and moving.
The film also enhanced my appreciation of the level of talent that participated in the project. As a contemporary of most of the participants, I realize now that they were a lot more talented than I might have thought back in the 1980s.
From a technical standpoint, condensing a ten-hour all night recording session into the last hour of a ninety minute film was no mean feat. The editing of tons of archival material into a coherent narrative was masterful. If Netflix can mount more retrospective documentaries of similar events from the late twentieth century, I would welcome the endeavor.
If I have one criticism, it is that I wanted to know more about the selection process, about the artists who elected not to participate, and about the one, Waylon Jennings, who walked out. Madonna was mentioned once. And maybe Waylon was there because he lost a bet to his pal Willie, and of course Prince was Prince. But Waylon and Willie were the only representatives of a genre that IS music to millions of Americans. Were any others asked?
But on the whole, the film was an Oscar level documentary and should be recognized as such.
Maestro (2023)
Scenes from a marriage
For someone who got used to seeing Bernstein conduct the NY Philharmonic every year as part of a season subscription and was shocked by the announcement of his death from emphysema in 1990, the questions I had about Bernstein had little to do with his music but about his life as a husband, father, and, to paraphrase the hot tub scene from Spartacus, a snails-and oysters man. Cooper and his co-author understood and correctly represented that Bernstein and Felicia were "Greatest Generation" representatives and those folks never talked directly about sex. The arguments, when they happened, were always supposedly about something else. Thus, Felicia's use of the words "old queen" at the end of the Thanksgiving Day argument, after 25 years of marriage, is appropriately jarring. I have always wondered how their three kids survived all those years in that Central Park West apartment in which the air must have been as thick as the Great London Smog of 1952. Having parents who could afford a country house for the summer probably helped. Cooper to his credit does not candy coat their mutual, fatal addiction. He also got from Carey Mulligan the performance of a lifetime: real, raw and mesmerizing. He was a bit less successful directing himself. It is appropriate that Bernstein's nose was the creation of a Japanese make up master, since there seemed to be too much of the Kabuki mask in Cooper's Bernstein. Did the real Lenny behave that way at home as well as in public? Perhaps the point was that Bernstein was a self-created Kabuki man/god like Harukami. So its not a perfect film, and there are other, minor flaws, and the title doesn't represent what the film is about, but it is commendable and well worth the time.