KanyeWest Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Watch This: Spike Jonze and Kanye West Make a Short Film
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy », DIY/Filmmaking », Trailers and Clips »
Most people look at Kanye West as a bit of a joke these days, and to be fair he's responsible for most of the damage to his own reputation as an egomaniac and a bit of a blowhard. But I guess it takes the directorial genius of Spike Jonze to remind us that there's probably more going on underneath Kanye's surface than we give him credit for, and no matter what you may think of West he does have pretty good taste in his pop culture 'associations' -- and the latest is an 11-minute short film directed by Jonze that premiered at the Los Angeles Film Fest earlier this summer and is now available online.
Unfortunately I can't really tell you much about it, because frankly, you have to see it to believe it. But here is what I can tell you: the film is titled We Were Once a Fairytale and it starts out with Kanye being his usual drunken and obnoxious self (though luckily Taylor Swift is nowhere in sight). But keep in mind this is Jonze's short, and as to be expected, things take a very strange (and somewhat disturbing) turn.
Hopefully the success of Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are this weekend means we will be seeing more from the director this year, because this short reminds us that there's nobody that makes movies like Jonze -- not to mention that he does the impossible with this short: he makes Kanye West seem almost human.
After the jump: West's life imitates Jonze's art in We Were Once a Fairytale...
Sundance Review: The Carter
Filed under: Documentary », Sundance », Theatrical Reviews », Sundance Reviews 2009 »
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Heading in to watch The Carter, a new documentary that chronicles the life and times of Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (aka Lil' Wayne), I thought what more is there to know about the hip, slick, fast-paced rapper lifestyle? Well, surprisingly, director Adam Bhala Lough expertly pieces together not just a movie about another well-to-do rapper, but one about a workaholic, a drug addict, a father, an artist and an icon.
When we first shove our way into Lil' Wayne's life, he's holed up in a hotel room in Amsterdam, smoking mass amounts of marijuana while he religiously stands at a make-shift mic for hours recording songs on the fly thanks to the portable studio he brings with him everywhere. We learn Wayne's new album, The Carter III, is due in stores in nine days -- and even though a million copies have already leaked overseas, Wayne and his manager both feel they'll sell a million copies in the first week. As we jump back and forth between the United States and Europe, we slowly become more intimate with Wayne through his interviews with international reporters, as well as through the unpredictable man himself.
Hip-Hop v the Law, the Movie
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Music & Musicals », Cinematical Indie »
According to first-time director Don Sikorski's
documentary Rap Sheet: Hip-Hop and the Cops, "law enforcement
has been compiling secret dossiers on hundreds of hip-hop artists and execs for years." In the movie, Sikorski
details what is described as a "nationwide task force" - aka "the hip-hop cops" - involving local
police forces, the DEA, and the FBI that, among other things, compiles surveillance videos (obtained by Sikorski from
the NYPD) on its subjects. While Variety reports that some of Sikorski's film is built on information acquired
through use of the Freedom of Information Act, it also makes it sound like the movie relies heavily on the words of
artist such as Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, and Snoop Dogg, sources unlikely to be granted much credence by some
audiences.The movie doesn't yet have distribution, so all discussion of it at the moment is moot - hopefully a company with some balls will pick it up, put together a smart advertising campaign based on its controversial content, and get it into theaters, so we can decide for ourselves how plausible Sikorski's case is.
Kanye West Cares About Movie People
Filed under: Music & Musicals », Casting », Deals », New Line », Newsstand »
Look everybody - Kanye West's ego is making a movie!
While his concept - a series of interconnected stories directed by different people - is a cool one, the fact that the
stories are all required to be "inspired by his music" is more than a little repellent. Oh, and he's also
going to be in the movie. Of course he is. Dude, you're an undeniably talented rapper/producer/guy who apparently is
also interested in film. Right on. So why not, you know, act in some movies - or, hell, even direct some no-budget
flick, if that's what you're interested in - before decided to take over the world?That said, however, West can't really be blamed for getting paid. I mean, if the people at Anonymous Content and New Line want to finance a movie based on his music, what's he going to do, say no? At the moment it's thought that the film - "a multiperspective portrait of the U.S." - will be in the hands of six different writers and 10-12 directors, all of whom will be overseen by George C. Wolfe, who is acting a sort of creative director.
Kanye West to write Mission Impossible 3 theme
Filed under: Newsstand »
Well, at least they're not asking Limp Bizkit to do it again.
The Chicago rapper has been picked to pen yet another updated version of the classic TV theme for the third installment of the series. Apparently, director J.J. Abrams wants this new film to be "familiar, but absolutely brand new" and thinks Kanye is just the man to handle the task of re-interpreting the main theme. As long as Abrams is trying to make the movie "familiar, but absolutely brand new" he should also try making it "lengthy, but brief" and "riveting, but dismissible."
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