The Next Picture Show

My wife and I went to an early matinee of A Single Man at the Hamilton AMC Thursday afternoon. The first trailer we saw? It was for A Single Man. Maybe management was trying to get us really pumped for the movie or, more likely, it was an oversight. For a moment or two, we wondered if we were in the right theater.

The decision by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to nominate 10 movies for best picture instead of five caused quite a stir last year. At the time, a few friends asked me what I thought about the change and the only answer I could come up with is that I didn’t have an opinion.

That’s partly because I’m not much interested in the Oscars anymore. I’ll watch them and, as usual, when they’re over I’ll tell myself the time would have been better-spent by watching a good movie.

But I also didn’t know what would be nominated with the best picture field being doubled. Now that we know the 10 contenders in this new system, I have a few thoughts to share.

The Academy nominated the following movies: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up, and Up in the Air.

My guess is that Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Precious and Up in the Air would have been nominated under the old system. The Blind Side didn’t get the critical push received by typical nominated movies, District 9’s nomination is the biggest surprise of all, A Serious Man has the Coen Brothers’ pedigree behind it, but it isn’t their best work, and Up would have been delegated to the Best Animated category (where it also scored a nomination). Inglorious Basterds might have snagged a spot over An Education or Precious.

One hope was to cut down on controversial omissions. On this the academy failed because they’ll surely be debate on movies like Invictus, Crazy Heart and The Messenger losing to less Oscar-like movies like Up and District 9.

Another of the academy’s goals in doubling the number of nominations was to add more populist movies to the mix, which would lead to more viewers. The Blind Side and District 9 clearly fit that bill, but where was the nomination for Star Trek, probably the best-reviewed blockbuster of the year? And while Up in the Air has plenty of laughs, pure comedies aren’t invited to the part again, despite the praise given to movies like The Hangover and Adventureland.

I doubt the wider field will bring anymore eyeballs to the broadcast. The Blind Side’s largely female audience would likely tune in anyway for pure stargazing. And I can’t imagine the geeks of the world tuning in because District 9 earned a spot, but as it happens, they’ll watch anyway because of Avatar’s nominations.

In fact, if the Oscars get bigger ratings this year, it’ll be because of Avatar. It’s the kind of big, huge movie we haven’t seen in a while: It’s groundbreaking, got great reviews, is making tons of money and has a long life at the box office. And in this age of targeting specific audiences, Avatar is appealing to everyone. Men go for its action, women like its love story. It’s also appealed to different age groups, from kids to seniors.

The bottom line: Nominating 10 movies instead of five just doesn’t matter. Not this year anyway.

Amidst all the news about the new direction for the Spider-Man franchise, I can’t help but laugh over the new director’s last name being “Webb.”

popwatch.ew.com/2010/01/20/marc-webb-spiderman-4/

You know when you watch an animated movie, recognize a voice, but can’t quite put a finger on where you’ve heard it before?

Nothing like that happened to me when I took my daughter to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. All the chipmunks in the movie, male and female, have altered voices so that sound very high-pitched. (Even if you’ve never seen a Chipmunk movie, you’ve certainly heard “The Chipmunk Song” at Christmastime, so you’ve got an idea of what I’m talking about.)

So I was quite surprise when the closing credits started to roll and I saw some well-known names voiced the little rodents in the movie. The first name I recognized was Justin Long. He was a regular on the show Ed, a recent favorite of mine and has been in movies like Live Free or Die Hard and Funny People.

But then the real surprises came with the names of the women who voiced the “Chipettes” — Amy Poehler, Anna Faris and Christina Applegate, and I can’t help but wonder why money was spent on these actors to do voice work, only to have their voices altered so that they all sound pretty similar to each other. Is there a 6-year-old out there who wants to see singing, football-playing chipmunks because Amy Poehler voiced Eleanor?

There are times when a famous actor’s personality brings something to the movie (think Jack Black in Kung Fu Panda). But many times, big stars are cast in roles to which they bring very little (like Angelina Jolie in Kung Fu Panda). In these instances, why not save some money and give a struggling actor a job?

Here’s the Squeakquel trailer to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

I think I (and my life) have changed more over the past 10 years than they did in any other decade. I started the Aughts engaged and months into the best job I’ve ever had. I ended it a married father of an 8-year-old girl, and laid off for the second time since 2005.

I was in Manhattan on 9/11 (never in danger, but the fear in the building I worked in was palpable that day) and am witnessing my country suffer horrible economic times — just when what happens in the real world started to matter to me.

And through it all, I’ve watched movies. Not as many as I’d liked to, but I saw hundreds of them since Jan. 1, 2000. I saw some on dates with my wife, some with friends old and new, many by myself and, over the last few years, quite a few with my daughter. I also watched a lot of them on DVD, cable, and even a few on VHS, which was still fairly viable at the decade’s start. Watching a movie at home isn’t ideal, but it’s a good way to spend an evening. I have yet to watch a movie on a hand-held device, and I’m not sure I want to.

As I put together a list of my favorites of the decade, I wonder how all of these experiences have affected me and how I react to movies. Would this list be different if I were in my 20s or 30s? Families and children factor into so many of these, can that be a coincidence? I’d say no, we bring our lives and experiences into that theater. They shape us and our perspective of things. A good movie is a good movie, but the special ones, the rare ones that we really remember and care about, have as much to do with us as individuals as they do with the people who made them.

I normally find lists a waste of time but running down the decade’s best is worthwhile because movies have such a short shelf life these days. The memories of seeing E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark stayed with me for years. Today’s young moviegoers had long forgotten about Star Trek by the time they bought their tickets to Transformers 2 just weeks later. Great works should be remembered and relived.

So here is one person’s list of the best movies released between 2000 and 2009 (at least out of the ones I saw). I should note that the order is unimportant, though numbers 6 through 1 came to mind immediately. The other four were in contention with a lot of possibilities.

10. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003). Sometimes I’m amazed at how much I love Quentin Tarantino’s movies. I’m much more into story than style, and I dislike movies that try to remind me how cool and clever the director is (think Brian De Palma or Guy Ritchie). But Tarantino pulls it all off because he really is cool and clever. He toys with his audience like Hitchcock, and writes dialogue that can’t be replicated (thank goodness people seemed to have stopped trying). That scene when Uma Thurman’s Bride walks barefooted over an eyeball should have made me sick. Instead, I just chuckled at how Tarantino had the audacity to do it. By the way Vol. 2 is also great, in a different way.

9. The Hurt Locker (2009). Hollywood’s attempts at tackling the Iraq war were, for the most part, boring and self-righteous. Instead of preaching, Kathryn Bigelow’s story of a bomb-detecting squad shows us what our troops are dealing with in modern warfare - the potential for enemies to be everywhere, figuring out if a person is holding a cell phone or a detonator, the heat, and doing work that comes with a constant risk of death. Leading a cast so good that it’s impossible to see the acting is Jeremy Renner as a squad leader who is frighteningly good as his job.

8. The Wrestler (2008). Mickey Rourke’s performance in this movie was the talk of 2008, but Darren Aronofsky’s movie is great for a variety of reasons. It’s a downer of a movie, about a man who lived a reckless, selfish life and gets wise too late in life to change anything. Randy “The Ram” Robinson is a wrestler who was a legend in the ’80s, but is now a has-been. He performs on third-tier circuit, damaging his body for some cheers and small paychecks. After a health scare, he realizes how lonely he is, and tries to form a relationship with a stripper (Marisa Tomei) and re-connect with his daughter. The results are tragic and compelling. Most of it is Randy’s fault, but that doesn’t mean we can’t understand him.

7. The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). The plot is weird and complicated, but the message is simple: Love is worth the heartbreak. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet (perhaps the decade’s best actor) play Joel and Clementine, ex lovers who meet on a Long Island Railroad train. The trick is, they don’t remember each other because they both underwent a process to remove the memories of the relationship from their brains. It was Clementine’s idea, then Joel did it out of spite. We learn that during the process, Joel changed his mind and fought to hold onto the memories, particularly when the happiest ones of Clementine were removed. Charlie Kauffman’s script is complex, but never frantic or crowded, and director Michel Gondry keeps the mind-spinning story centered around love. You may debate what lies in Joel and Clementine’s future, but it seems pretty certain that however they end up, it’ll be worth remembering.

6. Ratatouille (2007). This is the first of two Pixar movies on my list. A third (Finding Nemo) could easily be here as well, but I restrained myself. This story, from Brad Bird, is about a rat named Remy who is somehow blessed with incredible culinary skills. It’s not as emotional as Toy Story 2 or Up, but it’s a delight to see a character delve into work he truly loves, even if that character’s a rodent. I love the way we root for Remy, but still get creeped out when we see regular rats in a kitchen. It’s also a beautiful movie to look at — the images of Paris will make you wish you were there (if you’re not already wishing that). No movie of the past 10 years did a better job of expressing our quest for happiness and satisfaction in what we do.

5. Catch Me if You Can. One of my pet peeves of this decade was the elitist dismissal of Steven Spielberg’s 2002 comedic adventure as a pleasant, light diversion. The story of the real-life con man Frank Abagnale Jr.(Leonardo DiCaprio) may not be as weighty as Saving Private Ryan, Munich or even Minority Report, but neither is it flimsy. In fact, it has real depth. It’s about a man’s desire for a father who’s responsible. Sure Frank’s real dad (a wonderful performance by Christopher Walken) loves him but he’s a scammer of his own, moving his family around and never able to provide a real home. Frank pretends to be all sorts of things - a doctor, a pilot - and steals a lot of money along the way. Carl Hanratty (another great performance by Tom Hanks) the FBI man chasing Frank, wants to catch him, but also needs their relationship. The movie’s best scene comes when Carl gets a call from Frank on Christmas and is thrilled to hear his voice. And not, I suspect, just because he’s trying to track the scammer down. This is Spielberg’s least pretentious work in years, the story zips along in style, the dialogue is pitch-perfect and so are the performances. And to start things off, there are also those delightful old-school opening credits. For all of those reasons, I place it on my list. Do you concur?

4. Sweeney Todd (2007). Musicals made something of a comeback in the decade, but most of them failed. Chicago and Dreamgirls were dreary, and afraid to be real musicals. The Producers was absolutely lifeless. But somehow Tim Burton and Johnny Depp teamed up for the best musical in decades. It’s faithful to Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant work, while being wonderfully cinematic. The singing isn’t perfect, but it fits the material. The songs are non-stop but never get in the way of the story. I remember watching it on New Year’s Day and sensing the audience enraptured with the tale of Sweeney and his quest for revenge against the man who ruined his life. It’s emotional and tragic and contains Depp’s best performance this side of Ed Wood. Other great performances come from Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman (delightfully creepy) and Sacha Baron Cohen (I, for one, would like to see Cohen stop with the pranks and act). Some thought it was too violent, but I found the bloodshed too over the top to be disturbing.

3. Sideways. Alexander Payne’s 2004 movie features Paul Giamatti playing one of the decade’s best characters. Miles is a frustrated teacher hoping to publish a novel. He’s recently divorced and still in love with his ex-wife when he takes his best friend, a second-rate actor named Jack, on a two-man bachelor party prior to Jack’s wedding. Miles is no hero — he’s selfish (the weekend, a trip through wine country is Miles’ idea of fun, not Jack’s) and high-maintenance but that doesn’t mean we don’t care about him. Jack is no better, and Thomas Hayden Church is great playing a different kind of selfish guy, he’s more blatant in his self-obsession. Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh are terrific as the women the duo meets on the road, but this movie is about Miles, and Giamatti’s performance is what makes it great. The scene where Miles drinks a rare, wonderful bottle of wine out of a plastic cup while shoveling a diner hamburger down is throat is so emotional, I can barely stand to think about it.

2. Almost Famous. Most of the movies on this list hit me with incredibly powerful moments. Cameron Crowe’s 2000 movie is a two-hour journey of joy. Based on Crowe’s experiences as a young (very young) writer for Rolling Stone, Almost Famous follows William Miller, who’s assigned to write a story about a band on the rise called Stillwater. There are incredibly funny moments and more memorable lines than any other movie of the decade (“It’s a think piece,” “I am a golden god,” “Is it that hard to make us look cool?” “Of course I’m home. I’m always home. I’m uncool”) and it’s about life, love, music and finding a place in this world where you fit in. There’s not a false note in any of the performances, from Billy Crudup and Jason Lee as two of the band members, to Philip Seymour Hoffman as the legendary Lester Bangs, Frances McDormand as William’s mother, and Kate Hudson as the groupie Penny Lane. If you’ve never seen Almost Famous, treat yourself to a viewing. And be sure to rent the “Untitled” version, the rare DVD director’s cut that is worth your extra time.

1. Up (2009). What a strange, wonderful experience. It opens with a boy and girl meeting each other followed by a montage showing how they got married, suffered a miscarriage and learned they can’t have children. They grow old, the wife dies, and the man thinks he’s wasted his life, along with the life of the woman he loved so much. That all happens in the first 10 minutes of Up. Then the old man ties thousands of balloons to his house to fly away and escape the world he’s grown to loathe. To think it comes from Pixar and is a children’s movie! Up has humor, adventure, talking dogs (well, not exactly talking but it would take too long to really explain what the dogs are doing), a plucky boy scout, and a silent, tall bird named Kevin. Most of all there is Carl Fredrickson (voiced by Ed Asner) and the story’s heart. In one of the decade’s best movie moments, Carl sits down with his wife’s childhood scrapbook. It was supposed to be filled with remembrances of her great adventures, her travels around the world. Life got in the way and they never ventured far from home, so Carl is expecting to flip through empty pages. He finds something else, something that is purely joyous.

Runners up (movies that almost made the list, in totally random order): The Royal Tenenbaums, Ghost World, There Will Be Blood, Elf, Children of Men, No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Mighty Wind, The Aviator, Pan’s Labyrinth.

Most overrated (but they’re good): The Departed and The Dark Knight.

The Decade’s Biggest Surprise: Rocky Balboa. Who wanted another Rocky movie? It turns out I did. The ending was predictable, but the set-up was believable and touching and erased the memories of Rocky IV and Rocky V.

I’m going to stray from movies for this post, if you don’t mind, because I have to vent a bit about Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 50 greatest Beatles songs of all time.

In case you didn’t know, Beatlemania is back (for some of us, it never goes away) with the new video game The Beatles: Rock Band and the first re-mastering of the Fab Four’s original canon in more than 20 years. In celebration of these releases, Entertainment Weekly compiled a list of the group’s 50 best songs.

When my copy of the magazine arrived in the mail and I saw that black-and-white image with John’s hand draped over Paul’s shoulder, my reaction was “Yeah, yeah, yeah!” But as I read the list, my thoughts quickly changed to “I read the news today, oh boy!”

Let me talk about what I’m doing here. I’m not quibbling about order, if a song is deserving of a spot, I’m not commenting on it. I don’t know if “A Hard Day’s Night” is the Beatles’ best song, but it sure is great, so I’m leaving it alone.

Rather, I’m suggesting songs I’d remove and naming fitting replacements. The result still wouldn’t be my list of their 50 greatest songs. I’d love to find a place for “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” “Old Brown Shoe,” “Good Day Sunshine,” “Get Back” and “You’re Going To Lose that Girl,” but I couldn’t find songs that I could convincingly argue are less deserving of a spot on the list.

But that’s OK, I’d never expect such a list to fit my tastes exactly, but I’m confident that replacing the following 10 songs with my suggestions would result in a far more interesting and thoughtful list of the 50 greatest songs by the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band ever.

First: Replace “Yesterday” (number 3 on the list) and replace it with “For No One,” (from Revolver)

In writing about “Yesterday” EW’s staffers note that some people find it “mawkish,” but they ignore that it’s also tuneless and its lyrics are ridiculously simple, almost childlike: “YesterDAY/All my trouble seemed so far AWAY/Now it looks as though they’re here to STAY.” No wonder Lennon later mocked it.

“For No One” is so superior, musically and lyrically. Its tune is melancholy but infectious. The instrumentation includes a clavichord (played by Paul) and a famous French horn solo. And the lyrics are so much more mature: “Your day breaks, your mind aches/You find that all the words of kindness linger on/When she no longer needs you.” Or how about this: “And in her eyes you see nothing/No sign of love behind the tears/Cried for no one/A love that should have lasted years.”

Second: Replace “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” (No. 17, from Help!) with “Girl” (from Rubber Soul)

Why go gaga over Lennon imitating Dylan when you can praise Lennon for being Lennon? “Girl” is more heartbreaking, more adventurous and more trippy than “Hide.” It has one of John’s best vocal performances and that curious sucking in sound (rumored to represent toting a joint). It has the maturity of mid-Beatles with a touch of pop thanks to McCartney and Harrison singing “dit-dit-dit-dit” in the background (though, according to Wikipedia, they sang something slightly different). John rarely talked about his Beatles song after the band’s breakup, but this one seemed to stay with him when he said his 1980 song “Woman” reminded him of “Girl.”

Third: Replace “Blackbird” (18 on the list) with “Sexy Sadie”

Paul’s “Blackbird” has a social message to it, but Bob Dylan beat McCartney to the punch by about six years with “Blowin’ in the Wind.” “Sexy Sadie” is a much better White Album track. It was written by Lennon about his disillusionment with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (the ambiguous title was a result of George’s refusal to participate in a more obvious critique). “Sexy Sadie” has a pure Beatles sound thanks to McCartney and Harrison’s background vocals beautifully complementing Lennon. But it’s also a clear indication of the direction John wanted to take his music.

Fourth: Replace the “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End” medley (19 on the list) with “Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”

This is a tough one, and if I wrote my own list from top to bottom, both medleys might make it. But if we’re going to choose just one Abbey Road grouping, I go for “Mean Mr. Mustard” and company. EW’s choice has the gravitas of that famous last line (”And in the end/The love you take/Is equal to the love/You make”) but the build-up to it is a bit one-note.

My choice has a little of everything you’d want from a Beatles suite. A funny song by Lennon in “Mustard,” then those hard acoustic chords (reminiscent of “A Hard Day’s Night”) leading into “Polythene Pam” (who happens to be Mr. Mustard’s sister).

“Pam” has some terrifically clever lyrics: “She’s the kind of a girl that makes the News of the World/Yes you could say she was attractively built” followed by one last “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” “Pam” also has Ringo drumming with a conga beat (similar to what he did years earlier on “I Feel Fine”), some great bass courtesy of Paul, and a guitar solo from George that’s so good Lennon cries out “Listen to that now” and “Oh Look Out” during it.

All of this leads perfectly into McCartney’s clever and funny “Bathroom.” Abbey Road ends on a note of finality, but before getting to it, the boys from Liverpool gave us one last dose of pure fun.

Fifth: Replace “If I Fell” (22 on the list) with “Things We Said Today”

Lennon was the serious Beatle while McCartney wrote silly love songs, right? Well those roles were reversed with these two numbers from A Hard Day’s Night. “If I Fell” is a good song, but it’s simple next to “Things We Said Today” an overlooked, layered gem.

It’s got some heavy lyrics for an early Beatles tune (”Someday when we’re dreaming/Deep in love, not a lot to say/Then we will remember/Things we said today”), and a haunting melody. Midway through, there’s a drastic change to an up-tempo beat, but the tune never loses its bite.

Sixth: Replace “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” (27 on the list) with “Yer Blues.”

There’s nothing wrong with “Happiness,” but Lennon had a few White Album tracks that were better, including the bluesy and howling “Yer Blues,” which rocks full-tilt with blistering guitar and vocal. The lyrics are downright painful (”Feel so suicidal/Even hate my rock ‘n’ roll”) and begin Lennon’s journey to Plastic Ono Band.

Seventh: Replace “I Want You (She’s So Heavy ) (No. 30) with “Oh! Darling”

EW calls Lennon’s rocker “lyrically uncomplicated” but “musically ambitious.” I say it’s simply long and repetitive. McCartney’s “Oh! Darling” is a better rock love ballad from Abbey Road’s Side 1. Paul isn’t as convincing a blues singer as John, but you gotta love this tune for its beat, all four Beatles jamming together, and McCartney channeling his inner Little Richard for old time’s sake.

Eighth: Replace “She Said, She Said” (No. 37) with “Got to Get You Into My Life”

“She Said” is an obvious “cool” pick from Revolver, but “Into My Life” is, quite simply, a better song. Lennon’s track is, typically, deeper than McCartney’s but that doesn’t mean Paul’s genius should always take a back seat. McCartney said he was trying to write a soul song in the style of artists heard on the Stax label with this one. The result is actually a strange (if catchy) addition to the Beatles’ catalog.

Everything builds with a bass-driven beat, including McCartney’s vocal, until it reaches a crescendo full of horns. Other highlights are Ringo’s drumming (which in recent years has gained more respect) and fading out right after a glorious shout of the song’s opening words (”I was alone/I took a ride/I didn’t know what I would find there…”).

Ninth: Replace “Day Tripper” (No. 41) with “And You’re Bird Can Sing” (from Revolver)

Again, it’s not like “Day Tripper” is a bad song, but a great guitar riff alone doesn’t make it one of the Beatles’ best songs. “And You’re Bird Can Sing” is better poppy guitar number in which Lennon and McCartney share vocals. Once again, let’s compare lyrics: Day Tripper has “Got a good reason/For taking the easy way out” over and over again. “Bird” has “When your prized possessions/start to weigh you down/Look in my direction/I’ll be round.”

And to top it all off, there are a whole bunch of theories as to who Lennon was singing about here. According to Wikipedia, the theories include Marianne Faithful and Frank Sinatra. Who else but the Beatles could link those two?

Tenth: Replace “Helter Skelter” (No. 47, from the White Album) with “Hey Bulldog” (from Yellow Submarine)

I understand the inclination to honor the Beatles’ hardest rock song, but “Helter Skelter” is a bit of forced faux heavy metal. “Hey Bulldog” is just as guitar driven and, in its own way, rocks just as hard - guitar and piano rock together side by side, that’s innovation!

It has typically brilliant Lennon lyrics (”Some kind of happiness is/measured out in miles/What makes your think you’re something special when you smile”), Lennon and McCartney singing together, more great bass from Paul, dazzling guitar and a dose of humor.

The following is a guest review by TIMEOFF assistant editor Adam Grybowski.
-Anthony Stoeckert

In 2004, when Phish played what was then their final show (the band has since regrouped), some 70,000 fans made the trek to Coventry, Vermont. The show was billed as a three-day festival, a final gathering and celebration of a band that developed a die hard fan base with few rivals.

In Chris Pepino’s new documentary, We Enjoy Yourself, which will premier at the New Jersey Film Festival Sept. 4-5, we see those fans demonstrate their dedication. A downpour nearly derailed the festival, causing a massive traffic jam that snaked for 10, 20 miles down I-91. Some fans sat in traffic for around 50 hours - more than a two-day standstill. Then they’re told they wouldn’t be allowed in because the grounds were too muddy. Should they turn around and go home? Perhaps some did, but the majority, it appears, decided to abandon their cars and hike for miles to the show.

The drama provides tension to the movie, which otherwise would have been only been a record of Phish fans testifying to their connection to the band. Besides the traffic jam, the entirety of the 60-minute We Enjoy Yourself takes place in amphitheater parking lots and on the road, where Phish fans are interviewed before and after shows, and we get glimpses of their culture - the food, language, clothes and politics.

Director Chris Pepino
The fans come off as remarkably earnest, cheerful, easygoing and adaptable. Despite the beyond-belief traffic jam, nearly everyone is smiling as they parse rumors and ruefully scheme ways to bypass the traffic and reach the venue in time before the first set. Or they’re sleeping in their cars. Or they’re dancing in the street, having opened their doors and turned on Phish.

Who are these people - and who is this band? For the uninitiated, We Enjoy Yourself won’t explain the reason Phish attracts such ardor. In this movie the band is mysterious. Their songs and voices are heard in music clips and announcements but they’re never seen (except for bass player Mike Gordon, who is shown driving a golf cart among fans before a show, and they treat his appearance rather casually).

Neither does the movie explain why Phish is calling it quits, what’s caused them to abandon these fans. In any case it’s clear the fans don’t want them to go. They express overwhelming gratitude to these four musicians, and the band’s sound clips from the stage mirror that affection. During this last performance they take turns telling the fans how much they love them and appreciate their fantastic efforts to support them. Despite the bittersweet stamp of it all coming to an end, not to mention the mud and traffic, Phish’s Coventry concert was a love-fest, an emblem of one band’s ability to unite the masses. The band and their fans seem to not only enjoy each other, but to create joy together.

We Enjoy Yourself will premier at the New Jersey Film Festival, Scott Hall, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Sept. 4-5, 7 p.m., with in-person appearances by director Chris Pepino. Tickets cost $8-$10. www.njfilmfest.com

Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Richard were all younger in the early 1970s than Bruce Springsteen and Bono are today. But the three legends of rock ‘n’ roll are oldies acts in Let the Good Times Roll, a 1972 concert film featuring that holy trinity, along with  Chubby Checker, Bill Haley and the Comets, the Shirelles, the Five Satins, and others.

The movie is revered among rock ‘n’ roll lovers but isn’t available on DVD, and is rarely shown on television, which makes its Aug. 26, 7:30 p.m. screening in Hillsborough a late-summer treat. The screening is the last of Hillsborough’s Summer Cruise Night movies

Berry, Diddley and Richard may have been done making hit records at the time of the movie, but they were still vibrant performers. Diddley’s performance may be the best of them. Dressed completely in black, from his boots to his fedora (”Black is beautiful,” he tells the camera, “black is nasty, black is evil… and I’m in it. Black on Black.”) he rages through “I’m a Man” before dancing around the stage during a lengthy performance of…

Of what, exactly? It’s not a song but is simply Diddley and the band playing his famous beat. And if that beat hasn’t bounced its way into your brain by now, you don’t know rock ‘n’ roll. He stomps, jumps, gyrates and moves his feet at a dizzying speed, but never stops playing his rectangular guitar.

Diddley’s song “Mona” was a staple of Springsteen’s concerts in the 1970s, and it’s clear the Boss learned something about entertaining an audience from performers like Diddley. Most of Springsteen’s contemporaries (think of Led Zeppelin) were too cool to show any joy in concert, Diddley has attitude  but is also joyous.

Little Richard is equally dynamic. He’s more flamboyant and colorful than Diddley (he wears a teal outfit studded with reflectors) and blasts through “Lucille” and “Rip It Up.” Before his set is over, he’s climbing equipment, removing his shirt and throwing it into crowd (along with a gaudy bracelet). A wonderful moment shows a women with a perfectly coiffed hairdo pleasantly bouncing and clapping to “Rip It Up” while a shirtless, sweaty Richard pounds on his piano. The woman takes a pause from her dancing to check her watch, and a concerned look appears to cross her face when she sees what time it is.

As good as Richard is on stage (and man, he’s good), he’s just as captivating off it. Seen in a limo on the way to the show, he’s wearing a crown labeled King of Rock ‘N” Roll. He later tells the audience “I want to tell you, I am the king of rock ‘n’ roll.” Elvis was still alive, and the claim seems funny at first, but it’s an important statement. Richard and other black rock ‘n’ rollers invented this music, then saw white men take it to the top of the charts. Richard’s musical arranger talks about how Pat Boone got more radio play out of “Tutti Frutti” than Richard did. So they recorded “Long Tall Sally” at a speed faster than Boone, or any other white singer, could. Richard, for his part, refuses to betray any bitterness. Of his first string of hits, he says, “The Lord blessed my soul.”

Applying makeup in his dressing room Richard says “I can’t look no better than that.” As he approaches the stage, he sees his piano, and says it’s too far from the stage. “It has to be closer to the people,” he says repeatedly, as if it were a mantra. The promoter tells him it can’t be moved, and begs him to take the stage. “That’s a trick on me,” Richard scolds, and it’s clear during his performance that the distance from the crowd is irking him.

He gets his revenge, though. Told that audience members are banned from the stage, Richard has three couples dancing up there during “Rip it Up.” One last note about Richard, on stage with him is a man, I’m assuming he’s a security guard, who stands stone faced during the performance. How he keeps still amidst all that excitement is beyond me.

Berry closes the show and the movie. His performance is solid, marked by a version of “Reelin’ and Rockin” with more sexually charged lyrics than the original record: “We did it in the kitchen and we did it in the hall, I got some on my finger and I wiped it on the wall,” he sings with a mischievous glint in his eye. He wears bright orange pants on his long legs and a multi-colored silk shirt.

The other performers are what they are, oldies acts. Bill Haley looks like a parody of himself in his younger days, playing what looks like the same guitar from the ’50s, and his hair replicated to the last curl. The Five Satins sing a medley of hits (including of course, “In the Still of the Night”) while wearing maroon tuxes, and Chubby Checker offers little other than various “Twist” songs.

The filmmaking is top-notch, right up there with Woodstock and The Last Waltz. Directors Sid Levin and Bob Abel use the Woodstock split-screen method to show multiple views of the performers and the virtually all-white, crowd. The split-screen trick also shows old footage of the artists next to their live performances, along with images from movies like I Was a Teenage Werewolf and old news footage, most memorably Nixon’s Checkers speech.

The movie used to be shown on music cable channels occasionally and a terrific widescreen print was shown on Turner Classic Movies earlier this year. But opportunities to see Let the Good Times Roll are rare, and the price ($1.50 a ticket, that’s not a misprint) makes it a bargain.

And seeing it in a theater offers an aisle to dance in.

The Last Picture Show is more than a place to go for insightful, witty commentary on movies, it’s also a media trendsetter. This was proved last week when Keith Olbermann called Glenn Beck “Lonesome Rhodes” when honoring Beck as the Worst Person in the World.

It was a reference to A Face in the Crowd, the great movie starring Andy Griffith as a manipulative (and insane) television commentator named Lonesome Rhodes. I wrote about the movie on this blog shortly before the reference. You can think it’s a coincidence, I like to think otherwise.

Below is the clip.

I recently wrote about A Face in the Crowd, a great movie written by Budd Schulberg. Schulberg died Aug. 5 and his obituary makes for a fascinating read. How much do we weigh his talents and the contribution he made to the Nuremberg trials against the fact that he named names to the House Un-American Activities Committee? In this age of certainty, Schulberg’s life is proof that human beings are complicated creatures. Below is a link to his obituary in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/movies/06schulberg.html?_r=1&hpw