The Clash Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Hmm, I don't remember any of this week's noteworthy indie DVD releases playing at theaters in my area, so why don't we catch up together and decide what to rent? Listed (roughly) in order of critical favor:

Chop Shop (pictured). Second feature by Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart) is a coming of age story set in a New York junkyard. Cinematical review (entirely positive): Kim Voynar. DVD features: audio commentary with director and actors, rehearsal footage, and trailer.

The Tracey Fragments. Ellen Page stars in Bruce McDonald's harrowing drama. Cinematical reviews (both positive): Erik Davis; James Rocchi. DVD features: behind the scenes footage and interviews with McDonald and Page, entries from the "Tracey: Re-fragmented" contest, a selection of images by photographer Matt Sullivan, and trailer.

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. Julien Temple's doc on the influential Clash musician. Cinematical reviews (both frustrated): Kevin Kelly; Jeffrey M. Anderson. DVD features: audio commentary with Temple, 100 minutes of additional interview footage, and trailer.

American Zombie. Grace Lee's horror comedy depicts the ordinary, day to day challenges of life as one of the undead. Cinematical review (disappointed): Jette Kernion. DVD features: audio commentaries, behind the scenes footage, deleted scenes, and trailers.

Sleepwalking. Family drama about a young girl dealing with life after her mother abandons her; with Nick Stahl, AnnaSophia Robb, Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, and Dennis Hopper. Cinematical reviews (both negative): James Rocchi; Jeffrey M. Anderson. DVD features: "making of," and trailer.

Young @ Heart begins with a vast crowd on their feet, cheering a performance we haven't seen. The crowd is exultant, young, excited; the performers are a group of senior citizens called the Young at Heart Chorus. Their repertoire is varied; their average age is 80. Over the past several years they've toured internationally, acclaimed for their renditions of modern pop and rock songs, all under the guidance of their musical director Bob Cillman.

Directed by Stephen Walker, Young @ Heart follows the chorus through the rehearsals and gigs leading up to the chorus's new big show -- which they have just seven weeks to prepare for. And at once, Young@Heart takes all the standard-issue concerns of the touring band documentary -- creative differences, struggles with the material, preparation and publicity -- and reframes them all in a very different context. The members of Young at Heart aren't looking to become stars or even make a living with their music -- so why exactly are they doing it? And, more bluntly, are the crowds that come out to their shows and tours -- as they cover material from The Clash and Coldplay and Outkast and more -- laughing with the chorus, or at them?

I can't help but think that the huge audiences that flocked to American Gangster this weekend cut into the box office for indie films. it's a big-budget, star-driven, "based on real life" vehicle that has nothing to do with the Iraq War or other Serious Issues, yet it's an adult drama that screams quality. While there were no big break-out numbers posted, though, two docs performed quite respectably, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News.

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten averaged $9,450 on two screens in New York for distributor IFC Films. Our own Jeffrey M. Anderson found the doc to be a frustrating experience, chiefly because director Julien Temple "has never figured out how to move past a short attention span. He's constantly worried that we'll lose interest, even in a story as ferocious and passionate as Joe Strummer's." Other reviews were more positive. The film is also available as part of the IFC InTheaters video on demand service nationwide.

Darfur Now "spotlights six individuals," according to Cinematical's Christopher Campbell, "some of whose stories directly inter-weave, who are affected by the tragedy in Darfur and have been successful at making a difference." The film itself did not generate much enthusiasm among critics, but no doubt its subject matter helped the doc to earn $7,800 at three screens in New York and Los Angeles for distrib Warner Independent.

Sidney Lumet's widely-praised Before the Devil Knows You're Dead expanded into 35 theaters and had the highest per-screen average ($9,830) among limited engagements for distributor ThinkFilm, according to Mr. Klady.

It's difficult to underestimate the significance of The Clash in rock 'n' roll. They belong on any serious list of the top five rock 'n' roll performers of all time, and their 1979 masterpiece London Calling belongs on any list of the top five albums. But beyond that, do we know who they were? Julien Temple's new documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten attempts to answer that question, although if you want to know more about Mick Jones, Topper Headon or Paul Simonon, it'll have to wait for another movie. This is Strummer's world, and we all just wish we were living in it. The movie begins, like any biography, with Strummer's parents. His father was a diplomat that moved from country to country; Strummer was born in Turkey as John Graham Mellor, and later insisted on being called "Woody" before adopting his legendary moniker.

The singer, songwriter and guitarist attended art school, lived as a squatter in an abandoned London flat and busked on the street before forming his first band, a rockabilly unit. But when he saw the Sex Pistols play, he decided to move in a different direction. The Clash was born, and with it a series of extraordinary shows and five great albums. But only the movie's first hour is dedicated to the Clash. As Strummer intones on the soundtrack, they made every conceivable mistake: success went to their heads, too many drugs, etc. They even made up a few new ones. The band grew successful, they began squabbling and they lost their direction. Temple includes a terrific sequence in which he intercuts two performances of "White Riot," one from a small club in 1977 and one from a giant stadium in 1983, brilliantly illustrating how big they grew and how far they fell.

A documentary on John Graham Mellor, more widely known as Joe Strummer -- lead singer of The Clash, has been creating buzz for a while. Way back in January of 2006, Cinematical brought word that director Julaien Temple would be putting together a doc about his long-time friend -- a complete labor of love as Temple was getting the full support of Strummer's family and former bandmates, which meant tons of archival material and interviews. Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten is now complete, and has been taking the festival circuit by storm. In January of this year, our Kevin Kelly reviewed it at Sundance and called it "a more than adequate" film that filled "in the gaps about Joe Strummer," although it left off a lot of his pre-Strummer, Mellor days.

The documentary is now headed for a November 2 limited release, and the website has a bunch of information about the feature, including a trailer, which you can see in everything from 56k to HD. Unsurprisingly, coming from a pro of music videos, the film and trailer are looking pretty slick. It does a good job of showing enough to amp you up without revealing much more than a ton of images and short tidbits. However, while it is completely suitable within the realm of the film, you should be prepared for some loud bursts of song intermingled between softer voice-overs and interviews -- not exactly office material unless you work in a Clash-friendly environment.

[via The Documentary Blog]

If you can imagine what it would be like to try to document the life of one of your closest friends after their death, and to assemble everything into feature film length, you can probably see how difficult the process might be. This is what director Julien Temple had to do while he directed Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, about the lead singer for one of the world's best known bands, The Clash. Temple's documentary utilizes an enormous amount of archival footage, personal interviews, news interviews, vintage photos, audio recordings and footage that he himself had been filming since 1976. Temple also had access to Strummer's personal notebooks, writings and recordings, so they feature heavily in the doc. He uses Strummer's doodles and writings in animations that serve as transitions between scenes, or to underscore different pieces of the film. Of course, the main element that keeps everything sticking together is Joe Strummer and his music.

Director Julien Temple has been around the music business forever, directing videos for such wildly diverse artist as Dexy's Midnight Runners, David Bowie, Blur, and Van Halen (The man directed Jump! For that act alone he should be lauded for the rest of his life.). In addition, he's made a pile of music features, including the very odd Bowie flick Absolute Beginners, and Sex Pistols documentaries The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and The Filth and the Fury.

Temple's next project, however, will be a more personal one: he's started work on a documentary about his longtime friend, Joe Strummer of the Clash, who died in 2002. Since the film is being made with the full support of Strummer's family and former bandmates, Temple finds himself in the possession of a massive amount of archival material, as well as copious new interviews. The film is in the very early stages of production, with Temple busy sorting through the material he has, as well as searching for additional audio and video of Strummer from music journalists on this side of the Atlantic. Because of the amount of material involved, it's hard to say when Temple will finish his film, but the obvious care and passion he's bringing to the project make it one that is sure to thrill Strummer fans.