TutoneSF Reviews

Detachment (2011)

Howling Poem

[10/10 · 5 August 2021]

Brody's character embarks on a landscape of despair to discover the undreamable, the stuck masses to which he reaches out with a heart made of gold. His cameo explanations of the state of things are exquisite vignettes of his reality amidst complacency and a failed educational system among the poor. His performance is a howling poem and tribute to everyone struggling to make sense of and to meet the challenges of today in America, how to think for one's self rather than being swept up in this train of an uncaring majority.

A Rainy Day in New York (2019)

Comedy Pathos and OMG the Dialogue

[10/10 · 29 July 2021]

I think it was the haunting sweetness in Challomet's singing of "Things Always Happen to Me" that brought me back to this film time and again. I suppose I never took much notice of the piano bar sound until I heard it here as it defined for me what I had been missing for so long. All those masterfully written tunes of the past that I realized I could never again take for granted. And the one liners were poignant, funny, sad and contradictions of astute intelligence and capacity. Allen has portrayed this type of character in other films such as "Midnight in Paris" ie as the main character undergoes a change of heart at the end with a delicacy of grand dimension as he recedes from his current love interest and fades into the background toward a more meaningful path leaving society to fend for itself. Yes Woody Allen is one of the greats of our time and knows how to put it all together for which I will be forever grateful.

Bayou Maharajah (2013)

The Soul of a Piano Wizard

[10/10 · 15 August 2014]

I knew of James Booker having lived above him in a French Quarter apartment in New Orleans before he passed in 1983. When I saw him he was quiet with a kind demeanor. I only really learned about him and his legacy after the fact and was glad to discover his music at the radio station of WWOZ 90.7 FM between 1988-93 (when it was still located in Louis Armstrong Park) where I was a jazz host and had the privilege of auditioning my playlist before each show. I discovered he had many personas behind a troubled life and yet his music was the expression of a gifted artist who sang and played piano that felt joyful, heart wrenching, divine.. He will always be one of my favorite piano players. I am sad that he lived such a short life but through this film you too will discover music that will grab hold of you and never let go.

Get on Up (2014)

James Brown . . . Is That You?

[9/10 · 5 August 2014]

Chadwick Boseman is James Brown as he recreates his evolution as a performer in exhaustive dimension and magnitude. The raw and charismatic excitement of Brown's presence are all here. This shows dedication and natural ability as Boseman reminds us of a heritage that music cannot deny and a story that needs to be told again and again as Brown's influence continues to mesmerize us when we hear him. The entire cast were soulful and talented. Viola Davis was very moving as Brown's mother who had abandoned him as a young child and we sense the deep sorrow and loss that Brown must have endured and helps us understand his determination and inner fire as he himself catches hold of his spiritual connection to source and allows his musical genius to take hold of him and us. The words and messages in the songs that Brown wrote may at times seem simplistic but true as he sings them with such knowing, a man who has experienced life in all its dimensions.

Venus in Fur (2013)

More than the Sum of its Parts

[10/10 · 14 July 2014]

I was thrilled, amused and caught in a tailspin of magic by the performances as Polanski's characters slowly seduced me into their inner circle and although I knew it to be farce, their exchanges caught me off guard as I began to believe Vanda's every word and knew what she was up to. It was as if I were really viewing a dream of the author as he was writing the script. These two characters are as one. His dream is the script of his desire to relive his experience of subjugation, humiliation and total domination by his aunt when he was a young boy and Vanda is more than ready to strip him of all his defenses as he completely submits to her. The denouement comes when Vanda throws the author's cell phone across the room and breaks it after she has "forced" him to call his fiancée and let her know that he is not coming home and the delicious end as Vanda makes her retreat in her dance of victory and her subject is left to his bewildered and sensual dreams. He too is victorious. Polanski's theatre wraps around us with deliberate contradictions of amusement amidst pain that cannot be denied.