Gurinder Chadha creates a perfectly pleasant and predictable* Sunday Afternoon Movie* with Blinded by the Light. Springsteen’s music is ably used to further the plot—especially when Viveik Kalra’s character Javed is first introduced to the Boss during a terrible storm.** I had a lot of problems with this film, but enjoyed the lead performances, the depiction 80s-era discrimination, and period details.***
The verdict: Good
(just barely)
Cost: $11.00 Where watched: Baghdad Theater with an audience of Bruce fans who clapped at the end.
*Literally every scene played out in a way that was not at all surprising. **A movie watched as the last pleasant gasp of weekend before the unpleasant chores to gear up for the week begin. **That said, with the depth of the Springsteen catalog, I would have liked them to not have used “Born to Run” in two different parts of the film. ***Though it did the thing I hate: deploy outdated technology for no purpose except to make the audience laugh. In this movie there was a scene with an early mobile phone. The phone had no reason to be in that scene.
Favorite IMDB Trivia Item:
The movie is inspired by the life of journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and his love of the works of Bruce Springsteen. It is based on Manzoor’s memoir Greetings from Bury Park
“Weird Al is going to be in town next week,” I said to Matt while perusing the entertainment section of the newspaper.
“I know, we’re going,” said Matt.
“What?”
It wasn’t properly listed on the calendars, so it wasn’t on my radar, but I did dimly recall a text message chain in the colder months of the year making plans to go.
So my first Edgefield concert was Weird Al.
The line was long when we got there.
So long that I got to spend a lot of time contemplating what these structures were. Here’s what a website listing about the Poor Farm says:
By 1914, the Poor Farm was a success on paper. It housed 302 residents and managed a herd of Holstein dairy cows, 100 Duroc hogs (that ate the leftovers from the dining room), 420 Plymouth Rock hens, and 225 chickens. The crops, vegetables, fruit, hay, grain, eggs, and twenty-seven acres of potatoes were shared with the county jail (which provided some trustees to work in the fields), a hospital, and a juvenile home.
oregonencyclopedia.org
My first read was that it was maybe a jail, but upon re-reading I see the food was shared with those locations, not that they were located there. So I have no idea.
Update! I emailed the McMenamins Historian and Caitlin Popp wrote back saying:
Caitlin here from the McMenamins History Department! The structure that you were looking at on the Edgefield property was a minimum security jail. It was opened in the 1960s, was still open when McMenamins took over the property and didn’t close until 2006. Currently it is storage as well as artist studios.
So my initial thought was right! Also, how interesting that there was a jail operating for a time when McMenamins was running their hotel.
Back to the concert.
We secured our seats. When you get to the concert after work, you get to sit behind a tree. Also note that that man in the blue shirt is probably on the quest for the Passport. That’s a shirt from Centrailia they give you for getting that stamp. I’ve got the same one.
Waiting for the concert.
There wasn’t an opening act listed, but the 40-piece orchestra played three pieces, which was a nice treat.
Also early on, I was thrilled when Weird Al sang “One More Minute” which is from the 1985 album Dare to be Stupid and which, with it’s 50s styling, is my favorite Weird Al song.
The distance, the twilight and the tree got in the way of my usual slightly blurry, ultra-zoomed concert photos. This was my best shot. It was interesting that they had the orchestra, plus the drummer behind a wall, which I assume is for acoustic purposes. Someone has that job!
The crowd was the most multigenerational I’ve seen at a concert—everyone from grandparents to small children. He has been making music long enough to have reached multiple generations and I enjoyed seeing when different people had their peak Weird Al moment. Mine was in 1985, but there were a ton of people there who were all in on Amish Paradise from 1996.
Observation: people just wear whatever to a Weird Al concert. I saw two people in cosplay, and a few in Weird Al t-shirts, but most people looked like, they were wearing whatever they had put on that morning.
Another observation: Weird Al Yankovic can sing! I forget, because mostly he’s brilliant with lyrics and I’m paying attention to that, but this concert highlighted the man’s range.
Carly Stone’s The New Romantic isn’t a love story and it isn’t a screed. Instead, a college newspaper columnist (Jessica Barden) skips out on dating for a different kind of experience.* Hayley Law is great** in the best friend role and Brett Dier is an amusing fellow journalist.
The verdict: Good
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99) Where watched: at home, having failed to make it all the way to the theater for the movie I was planning on watching. (There was traffic)
For reasons I won’t go into, Rob Thomas cannot be accused of fan service in Veronica Mars Season Four. The eight-episode season is chock full of what made the series so beloved* while ably transporting the formerly-teen characters into full-on adults with complicated lives.** Patton Oswalt and J.K. Simmons (as a pizza delivery man, and ex-con toady to Big Dick Casablancas, respectively) are excellent additions.***
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: $11.99/month via Hulu Where watched: at home with Matt
*Wise-cracking, dark humor, solid dad/daughter relationship, a romance that is complicated, mysteries to solve, bad choices to make, good choices to make, and the wealthy/shady beachfront town of Neptune, California. **The multitudes of trauma the characters have experienced is being dealt with in ways both healthy and unhealthy. It’s also gently lampooned in two amusing scenes: one with a bunch of true-crime enthusiasts, another with a high school student recapping previous seasons’ plot lines by asking Veronica, “did you know that…?” ***Two questions annoyed me from the first episode. 1) Why does Neptune have a police department when that was an entire subplot of season two? 2)What in the name of all that is holy has become of Logan’s vast fortune? Both of these questions could have been answered with single sentence asides (Ever since incorporation passed in 2015 the police department has taken over in the incompetent realm. And. After the lawsuit with Trina, there wasn’t much left.) Shoddy story crafting there.
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
In Season 4, the professional NBA player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, is a writer (S4, E6). He’s also the highest-scoring NBA player by total career regular season points scored (38,387). (Stay focused on the show, IMDB trivia writer. He’s also a producer.)
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw* is ably directed by David Leitch and a worthy addition into the Fast & Furious enterprise.** Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham are a great anti-buddy pair while Idris Elba makes a scene chomping (in a good way) villain. The movie does thing thing where the characters travel all over the globe*** in order to boost its international box office draw, and they end up in “Samoa”**** where a bunch of Samoan men somewhat alleviate the lack of Vin Diesel.*****
The verdict: Good
Cost: $8.35 Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12, when I should have been doing other things
*The double ampersand in the title might be some sort of shark jumping indication for this franchise **Good lord, is there anything in this world so ridiculously entertaining as a Fast & Furious movie (that is not2 Fast 2 Furious or The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift)? ***They seem to appear in these new locations as if by magic or Star Trek transponder; even air travel is too slow for the Fast & Furious bunch. ****Hawaii gets the role of Samoa in this film. *****Though I like many things about this installment of the franchise, Mr. Diesel is, and has always been, my reason for watching.
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
Helen Mirren reprises her role from The Fate of the Furious (2017) as Shaw’s mother. She originally landed the role after she had indicated her desire to be part of the franchise one day, and the producers were happy to accommodate her.
Lulu Wang’s The Farewell is a quiet bit of funny and sad as we watch Billi (Awkwafina) come to terms with her Chinese grandmother’s terminal cancer diagnosis.* Shuzhen Zhao (Nai Nai—the grandmother) is a delight, full of vim and opinions and ways to get rid of the negative energy. It’s a movie full of moments that weave together into a loving portrait of a family spread far apart by geography but with a very close bond.
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: $6.00 Where watched: The Hollywood Theatre, with S. North (who paid, because I forgot my wallet)
*Complicating the diagnosis: in China it’s common to withhold the diagnosis from the patient so everyone must act as if the family is only gathering for a family wedding.
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
In addition to writing and directing, Lulu Wang also plays piano on the film’s soundtrack.
