December 2006 Archives

You could tell it was a banner weekend for me, renting and actually watching two movies. I've wanted to see "Little Miss Sunshine" for some time. The quirky story of a little girl with big beauty-pageant dreams and the dysfunctional family who loves her is the feel-good indie hit of the year. Great performances by Alan Arkin as the druggie grandpa, Steve Carell as the depressed gay Proust scholar, Paul Dano as the silent teen who dreams of flying jets, and especially Abigail Breslin as young Olive, who dreams of being Little Miss Sunshine, make the movie entertaining enough. I'll call it the "Fat Greek Wedding" of 2006 (don't know if there's been a "Fat Greek" type of movie for the past few years, but I digress), even though "Sunshine" has quite a bit more edge and believability to it.

But I didn't come here to talk about scripts, actors or plot points. I want to focus on the real star of "Little Miss Sunshine," the late-'70s VW Bus that takes the family on its long journey to California for the beauty pageant, and which loses its clutch minutes into the trip. It's an experience I know well, having owned four manual-transmission cars over the years, including a 1978 VW Bus that was the sweetest freakin' car ever -- until it got smashed a few times and blew a head gasket, that is.

In "Sunshine," the family has to push-start the bus about 20 times. You have to put it in neutral, push it as fast as you can, and then pop it into gear, which in the movie was third gear. I seem to remember push-starting in second, but it's been a few years, know what I mean? And parking on a hill is always the best advice, 'cause you can roll down without having to push. Anyhow, those VWs are built like freaking tanks. They have big, expensive engines. (I'm talking about the late-'70s version, which shared a motor with the Porsche 914, though you could maybe make 65 MPH going downhill on the freeway, at which point the whole thing would start to shake like a motherf----.) That scene with the door falling off (pictured above)? It'd never happen -- those doors are solid. And the bus in the movie is described, somewhere, at some point, as "rusted." There was a little rust on the bumper, but those things rust like crazy, especially on the roof. What were those damn Germans thinking? The vehicle in the movie must've been very well taken care of -- with a really good rust-removal and paint job

Anyhow, I really didn't know much about "Sunshine" before I saw it, so a lot of the plot points took me totally by surprise, and I really enjoyed the movie in that context. All the characters who aren't Toni Collette (her part's pretty thin) are going through life-changing crises, and that makes for a great movie. It's especially nice to see Steve Carell play a character who's not like his usual village idiot (not that I don't absolutely enjoy his every creepy-annoying nuance in "The Office," because he reminds me of an old boss). And Greg Kinnear as a wannabe-self-help guru who can't get his motivational-speaking career off the ground? Loved that.

I'd like to give "Little Miss Sunshine" 3 and a half stars, but I'm hedging ... so 3 stars it is. Maybe a tire-changing scene or a little talk about valve adjustments or oil-cooled engines would've put it over the top. ... I can dream, can't I?

Saw "The Devil Wears Prada" on DVD over the holiday weekend, and I have to say it's way more entertaining than the average chick flick. Having Meryl Streep as the big editor at the Vogue-like fashion magazine doesn't hurt in terms of raising the bar, and Anne Hathaway was pretty good, too, although the whole "she's fat and unattractive" thing really doesn't hold water. Same with her inability -- as a Northwestern grad, no less -- to get a journalism job in Manhattan, which is crawling with underpaid and overworked magazine and newspaper underlings.

Though it sounds like I'm slagging on it, I really did like the movie ... but I couldn't help but wonder at the large number of similarities to "Ugly Betty." The ABC show directly references "Devil Wears Prada" at times, and there are so many similiarities, from characters to plot points to props, that somebody has got to be considering suing somebody else ... or at least doing a little revenue sharing. If they turn "Prada" into a TV show, as I've heard rumored, they'll have a tough time separating it from "Betty."

Anyway, I did enjoy seeing Hathaway's transformation from above-it-all yet out-of-her-element sweater-wearer to pain-bringing uber-assistant, and the havoc wrought and suffered by all. And the turning of the plot on Streep's editor character is also miles above the average chick-flick script. Another quibble (sorry to be so negative, but not really), Hathaway's boyfriend, an aspiring chef played by "Entourage" principal Adrian Grenier, is pretty much aghast at her career path the whole way, and I think a scene of him enjoying the fruits of her labor would have added some much-needed complexity to his character. (Chick Flick Rule No. 14: Male characters have no depth, little breadth.) For instance, maybe Hathaway's connections at the magazine would get the boyfriend noticed -- and hired -- by a chef at a big-time restaurant, so he'd have some stake (and steak) in her rise to the top.

Stanley Tucci acquits himself well as the resident gay fashion arbiter at the magazine. His role could've been bigger.

But overall, if you're going to rent a chick flick, you could do much worse than "The Devil Wears Prada."

My rating: 3 stars

I'm coming home from dropping our daughter off at grandma's ... so we can paint the house ... and when I say paint the house, I mean PAINT THE HOUSE ... and I hear two great tunes in a row on KKJZ-FM (88.1). I stopped the car and made a note to check them out on the station's playlist.

The first tune I knew who it was mmediately, the second I wasn't so sure about, but the KKJZ playlist helped me figure it all out. And the list has been revamped to include links that allow you to search for the track on iTunes (where it may or may not be for sale).

I first heard "What'll I Do" by the Nat King Cole Trio, from "The Very Best of Nat King Cole." I think that's Oscar Moore on guitar, one of the unsung (or is it unstrummed?) heroes of the instrument, who plays countless classic solos all over Nat Cole's catalog. The record is from 1947, Moore's final year with Cole. For the guitar-geeky in the audience, you can hear the clear sound of Gibson's P-90 pickups, and he's just so musical and swinging. I can imagine someone scatting those lines -- there really is a vocal quality to his playing that makes it so very enjoyable to hear.

I didn't know anything about this, but after Moore left the Cole trio, according to Wikipedia, he played with his brother Johnny Moore through the mid-'50s., made a Cole tribute album in 1965, but otherwise didn't play out and became a bricklayer in Los Angeles.

The second tune I heard was an organ trio's version of "Puttin' on the Ritz." I'd never heard that tune played on the Hammond B3, and the player had a pretty good command of the instrument. I could hear him soloing with the right hand only -- I wasn't even sure if he was doing a left-hand bass, let alone using the bass pedals. But it was a model of B3 soulfulness. The guitarist took great care with the comping, leaving the organist little need to keep the left hand going. It wasn't Grant Green (there's rhythm playing on it), it didn't sound like George Benson or Kenny Burrell. But the organist could be Jimmy Smith ...

Turns out it's Sherman Oaks' own Larry Goldings on the B3, with the great Peter Bernstein on guitar from the "Light Blue" disc, which is so rare that a used copy on Amazon is selling for $69.99. Sheesh.

Check out Larry Goldings and local guitar legend-in-the-making Anthony Wilson in a duo from Dec. 13 to 15 at the Jazz Bakery. And pray for a Peter Bernstein's return to the West Coast.

Larry Golding's Web site is currently "under construction," but like every musician these days, he's on MySpace. Anthony Wilson is also on MySpace, and after the duo gig ends, he's playing an additional solo show at the Bakery on Dec. 16. Anthony Wilson solo -- could be very interesting. And since one MySpace page leads to another, one of Anthony's MySpace "friends" is Joe Bagg, the organist on Wilson's records, and one of L.A.'s leading B3 players.

Good news for late night fans: David Letterman has re-upped with CBS's "The Late Show" through fall of 2010. So he's hanging in for three more years of undeserved ratings punishment from "The Tonight Show," until some TBA date in 2009 when Jay Leno turns over NBC's desk to Conan O'Brien. And Letterman's willing to go at least a few months toe-to-toe with O'Brien, who's really more of a match for his wit than Leno ever will be. Just keep serving up those Top Ten Lists, those odd stunts involving a New York rooftop and asphalt below, visits to the Hello Deli, digs at the president and pictures of your beautiful boy, Dave.