Home Media Magazine - July 13-19, 2008 - (Page 18)

REVIEWS www.homemediamagazine.com I DOWN THE TRACKS: THE MUSIC THAT INFLUENCED BOB DYLAN Street 7/15 Eagle Rock/Kayos, Music, $12.98 DVD, NR. W e tend to think of Bob Dylan as the singersongwriter who transformed the art and became the primary inspiration for thousands of musicians who followed. This is likely true, but also true is that Dylan enjoyed his own formidable influences. Down the Tracks examines the musicians who shaped Dylan’s musical tastes. Not surprisingly, these artists comprise some of the massive heavyweights in 20th century American folk music. While growing up in Hibbing, Minn., Dylan was first a movie fan. His uncle owned a movie theater, and Dylan was a constant presence, learning the rhythm of language from the great films of the 1940s and ’50s. Dylan was also a fan of folk music early on, particularly Woody Guthrie, the ultimate troubadour of the Dust Bowl era, whom Dylan worshiped. In fact, when Dylan first arrived in New York City in January 1961, he made a pilgrimage to Guthrie’s nursing home, where the legendary folkster was living with his debilitating hereditary disease, and sat by Guthrie’s bed, singing songs for him. The documentary uses interviews with musical historians and wonderful archival footage of some of the other greats, including Leadbelly, Blind Willy McTell, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Guthrie successor Pete Seeger, who offers his own in-depth observations on Dylan’s influences. Also covered are the political leanings of many of these early artists, and how Dylan learned to merge his musical tastes with political and cultural commentary. This understanding gave Dylan a head start as he immersed himself — and helped form — the renegade Greenwich Village music scene of the early 1960s. The documentary lacks Dylan’s participation but makes up for that missing piece of the story by interviewing musicians who know Dylan — or perhaps know him as well as anyone can know Dylan. This is a scholarly enterprise that also easily entertains, and is not only a find for Dylan fans, but also for anyone with an interest in classic American folk and blues music. – Dan Bennett I Y.M.I. Prebook 7/18; Street 8/26 Vanguard, Drama, $19.95 DVD, NR. Stars Marek Probosz, Cy Carter, William Smith, R. Lee Ermey, Mageina Tovah, Andrew Mariano Jr., Owen Williams. I BIG DREAMS LITTLE TOKYO Street 7/22 Echo Bridge, Comedy, $14.99 DVD, NR. Stars Dave Boyle, James Kyson Lee, Jayson Watabe. S ubtle humor, understated to the point of being almost imperceptible at times, is only one of the unexpectedly satisfying joys of this brazenly original and intelligent film. Adventurous viewers not afraid to work to find meaning in their entertainment, as opposed to having empty images and run-of-the-mill plots spoon-fed to them, will find much to sink their teeth into here. The film is the feature debut of writer-director-star David Boyle. Boyle stars as Boyd, fluent in Japanese and slightly Asian looking, a sort of alien in his own country with his almost androgynous appearance, limited social skills and apparent inability to find employment in anything other than one of his own improbable, unsuccessful ventures, a language school, translation service and authoring an English-language instruction book that he tries to sell to anyone he can engage face to face, be it door to door or inside a local bookstore. Along for the ride is Boyd’s roommate, Jerome (Watabe), a JapaneseAmerican who longs to be a sumo wrestler despite consistent rejection from a training program and a diet that only raises his blood pressure rather than his body mass index. Boyd aspires to be a self-made tycoon and tries to ingratiate himself into an executive position with a local Japanese-owned corporation. This utterly charming, low-key film follows him on his quest to find his way in the world, in his own way, on his own terms. The filmmaker clearly has a lot on his mind as he explores themes surrounding the nature of cultural and personal identity, who we really are as opposed to who we would like to be. He raises the question of what is more important, literal identity as defined by race, religion or nationality, or how we are defined by the way we choose to live our lives. – David Greenberg V eteran actor Marek Probosz’s directing and writing debut examines three Goth teens driving through the eerie, desolate California nighttime in the hopes of killing themselves and facing “the transcendence of death.” Most viewers will hope they commit the fatal act sooner rather than later. As their nocturnal drive progresses, the young men (Williams of Til Night, Carter of Starship Troopers 2, and film newcomer Mariano Jr.) pick up others, including a cuckolded nebbish (Todd Patrick Breaugh of Gang Related) and a strange young lady (Desmond of The Hood Has Eyez) who is just as fascinated with the great beyond as the three friends. Also thrown into the morbid mix is the boys’ history teacher (Probosz), whose gorgeous wife has been mysteriously killed. Probosz aims for a movie featuring wayward youth and the lost world of California; call it a mix of Kids and Mulholland Drive, but be warned: Y.M.I. comes nowhere near the quality of those movies. This movie’s plot is incomprehensible, it features not a single authentic character (though the presence of Full Metal Jacket star Ermey as a grizzled townie is most welcome), and the dialogue is either laughable or pedantic. A movie about teenage suicide could have real value as an effective public service announcement, but with its showy production values and pseudopoetic rambling, Y.M.I. won’t have much sway in conveying that message. And that’s too bad. – Pete Croatto 18 Home Media Magazine July 13–19, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com

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Home Media Magazine - July 13-19, 2008

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