PARK CITY -- Black soul from Mississippi and white hillbilly music from Tennessee met up and married around Memphis and, essentially, rock 'n' roll was born. Centering on one of the good-ol'-boy icons of this musical magic, Forty Shades of Blue is a drab, minor-key melodrama that seems millions of miles from the barbecue 'n' blues world of Beale Street and the musical greatness that sprang from that Sun Records region.
A weepy slide guitar would be the proper instrument to ring forth this film's sad commercial prospects.
In as saucy an environs as Memphis you'd expect some odd mixings: Screenwriters Michael Rohatyn and Ira Sachs ladle up a weathered music legend, Alan (Rip Torn) living in kitschy splendor with a young Russian beauty (Dina Korzun) whom he's snapped up on a tour. She's in the stereotypical Russian mold, icy cold and a problem drinker. Big legend Alan doesn't notice much outside his own orbit, including his California-based son (Darren Burrows) who slouches homeward for the old man's coronation at some music wingding. Depressed foreign beauty, wayward old coot and resentful son -- you know the dance patterns of this old song already.
Filmmaker Ira Sachs' smart but sore scenario is crammed with somber story chords and predictable character refrains. While the Memphis backdrop spices things up, Forty Shades of Blue is plodding and predictable. The only scenes with any fiber are set around too much drinking, indicative of the film's slim characterizations. The players deliver with those handicaps. Rip Torn is a fine dusty/crusty mix of hoot and holler but none of the other players are able to enliven their flat parts.
Under Sachs' strummy hand, technical contributions are also wrong notes, including composer Dickon Hinchliffe's baleful sounds and cinematographer Julian Whatley's pan-'n'-scan compositions.
Forty Shades of Blue
Credits:
Producers: Margot Bridger, Ira Sachs, Mary Bing, Jawal Nga, Donald Rosenfeld
Director: Ira Sachs
Screenwriters: Michael Rohatyn, Ira Sachs
Executive producers: Geoff Stier, Diane Von Furstenberg
Director of photography: Julian Whatley
Editor: Alfonso Goncalves
Production designer: Teresa Mastropierro
Costume designer: Eric Daman
Music: Dickon Hinchliffe
Music supervisor: Susan Jacobs
Sound mixer: Dominick Tavella
Casting: Avy Kaufman, Jordan Beswick
Cast:
Alan: Rip Torn
Michael: Darren Burrows
Shel: Jerry Chipman
Tom Skolnick: Stuart Greer
Sam James: Andrew Henderson
Karin: Charly Kayle
Laura: Dina Korzun
Gina: Mary Jean McAdams
April James: Emily McKenna
Celia: Jenny O'Hara
Betty: Joanne Pankow
Gary: Forrest Pruett
Lonni: Paprika Steen
Barry: John Boyd West
Duigan: Red West
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 107 minutes...
A weepy slide guitar would be the proper instrument to ring forth this film's sad commercial prospects.
In as saucy an environs as Memphis you'd expect some odd mixings: Screenwriters Michael Rohatyn and Ira Sachs ladle up a weathered music legend, Alan (Rip Torn) living in kitschy splendor with a young Russian beauty (Dina Korzun) whom he's snapped up on a tour. She's in the stereotypical Russian mold, icy cold and a problem drinker. Big legend Alan doesn't notice much outside his own orbit, including his California-based son (Darren Burrows) who slouches homeward for the old man's coronation at some music wingding. Depressed foreign beauty, wayward old coot and resentful son -- you know the dance patterns of this old song already.
Filmmaker Ira Sachs' smart but sore scenario is crammed with somber story chords and predictable character refrains. While the Memphis backdrop spices things up, Forty Shades of Blue is plodding and predictable. The only scenes with any fiber are set around too much drinking, indicative of the film's slim characterizations. The players deliver with those handicaps. Rip Torn is a fine dusty/crusty mix of hoot and holler but none of the other players are able to enliven their flat parts.
Under Sachs' strummy hand, technical contributions are also wrong notes, including composer Dickon Hinchliffe's baleful sounds and cinematographer Julian Whatley's pan-'n'-scan compositions.
Forty Shades of Blue
Credits:
Producers: Margot Bridger, Ira Sachs, Mary Bing, Jawal Nga, Donald Rosenfeld
Director: Ira Sachs
Screenwriters: Michael Rohatyn, Ira Sachs
Executive producers: Geoff Stier, Diane Von Furstenberg
Director of photography: Julian Whatley
Editor: Alfonso Goncalves
Production designer: Teresa Mastropierro
Costume designer: Eric Daman
Music: Dickon Hinchliffe
Music supervisor: Susan Jacobs
Sound mixer: Dominick Tavella
Casting: Avy Kaufman, Jordan Beswick
Cast:
Alan: Rip Torn
Michael: Darren Burrows
Shel: Jerry Chipman
Tom Skolnick: Stuart Greer
Sam James: Andrew Henderson
Karin: Charly Kayle
Laura: Dina Korzun
Gina: Mary Jean McAdams
April James: Emily McKenna
Celia: Jenny O'Hara
Betty: Joanne Pankow
Gary: Forrest Pruett
Lonni: Paprika Steen
Barry: John Boyd West
Duigan: Red West
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 107 minutes...
- 1/25/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A cinematic hybrid that's hard to take seriously and not entertaining or profound enough to make up for its stilted delivery, "The Social Disease" is a black-and-white puzzler about young moderns struggling with morality, hypocrisy and the sexual urge.
The 1996 low-budget independent screened recently in the American Cinematheque's ongoing "Alternative Screen" series.
Writer, director and co-producer Julian Whatley explores the wavering convictions of four people who seem unlikely in real life to form a unit.
David (Spencer Garrett) and cousin Hunter (Yul Vazquez) work together and talk about the former's upcoming marriage.
These two could not be more divergent in their attitudes to the opposite sex. Hunter is a believer in not limiting himself to one or even a few partners.
In the natural world, he explains, male animals are promiscuous. But, fearful of contamination, he's now after only virgins.
David is religious and believes in waiting until marriage to consummate his love for Michelle (Kellie Overbey), a smiling nice girl who doesn't seem to mind.
But we're tipped off in the opening scene set in a spooky, abandoned house that she has nasty dreams and a raw sensitivity toward sex resulting from a bad experience.
Enter Linda Mary Ellen Lyon), Michelle's roommate with an agenda. After Michelle has a mental breakdown, Linda starts spending time with David, and Hunter advises him that she's looking to replace Michelle.
David is even more conflicted when Linda lies about Michelle's past.
Along with some overly long dialogue scenes that address problems directly but hardly help sort things out, the plot thrusts Michelle at Hunter for a fling that has "fatal mistake" written all over it.
Indeed, the murder of Hunter follows soon after, and unhinged Michelle is pegged for the crime.
The ending, alas, is foreseeable almost from the start, while several nasty revelations near the conclusion are too convenient to be the devastatingly ironic developments intended.
Whatley, meanwhile, evokes soap operas, Bette Davis melodramas and film noir, but it doesn't coalesce into a compelling cinematic experience.
Set in San Francisco and filmed on a Burbank soundstage, "The Social Disease" at times revels in its artificiality.
But beyond the anachronistic look, Whatley's approach is basically theatrical as the actors are left to sink or swim with the material.
THE SOCIAL DISEASE
Giant Rock Pictures
Writer-director Julian Whatley
Producers C. Devin Whatley, Julian Whatley
Executive producer Therese Kehoe
Production designer Milana Kosovac
Editor Piero Mura
Cinematographers Stuart Cropley, Rory Knepp
Black and white/stereo
Cast:
Michelle Kellie Overbey
David Spencer Garrett
Linda Mary Ellen Lyon
Hunter Yul Vazquez
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The 1996 low-budget independent screened recently in the American Cinematheque's ongoing "Alternative Screen" series.
Writer, director and co-producer Julian Whatley explores the wavering convictions of four people who seem unlikely in real life to form a unit.
David (Spencer Garrett) and cousin Hunter (Yul Vazquez) work together and talk about the former's upcoming marriage.
These two could not be more divergent in their attitudes to the opposite sex. Hunter is a believer in not limiting himself to one or even a few partners.
In the natural world, he explains, male animals are promiscuous. But, fearful of contamination, he's now after only virgins.
David is religious and believes in waiting until marriage to consummate his love for Michelle (Kellie Overbey), a smiling nice girl who doesn't seem to mind.
But we're tipped off in the opening scene set in a spooky, abandoned house that she has nasty dreams and a raw sensitivity toward sex resulting from a bad experience.
Enter Linda Mary Ellen Lyon), Michelle's roommate with an agenda. After Michelle has a mental breakdown, Linda starts spending time with David, and Hunter advises him that she's looking to replace Michelle.
David is even more conflicted when Linda lies about Michelle's past.
Along with some overly long dialogue scenes that address problems directly but hardly help sort things out, the plot thrusts Michelle at Hunter for a fling that has "fatal mistake" written all over it.
Indeed, the murder of Hunter follows soon after, and unhinged Michelle is pegged for the crime.
The ending, alas, is foreseeable almost from the start, while several nasty revelations near the conclusion are too convenient to be the devastatingly ironic developments intended.
Whatley, meanwhile, evokes soap operas, Bette Davis melodramas and film noir, but it doesn't coalesce into a compelling cinematic experience.
Set in San Francisco and filmed on a Burbank soundstage, "The Social Disease" at times revels in its artificiality.
But beyond the anachronistic look, Whatley's approach is basically theatrical as the actors are left to sink or swim with the material.
THE SOCIAL DISEASE
Giant Rock Pictures
Writer-director Julian Whatley
Producers C. Devin Whatley, Julian Whatley
Executive producer Therese Kehoe
Production designer Milana Kosovac
Editor Piero Mura
Cinematographers Stuart Cropley, Rory Knepp
Black and white/stereo
Cast:
Michelle Kellie Overbey
David Spencer Garrett
Linda Mary Ellen Lyon
Hunter Yul Vazquez
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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