MaestroReviews

Deb and I are artists, painters actually. We go see films as often as once a week. That's right, we go to the theater and sit in a dark room with strangers to see movies. We rarely rent. We like "little" movies, foreign and documentary films. We try to stay away from mainstream and blockbusters whenever possible, but a couple sneak in each year. We seek out the obscure. We try to avoid violent movies, and that really limits our choices, most film makers seem to think violence makes a story interesting.
I try not to give anything away in the reviews, but offer an honest reaction.
We rate them 1~10, 10 being highest.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Take Me To The River

Deb 8      Me 8

This is a movie made about creating an album of music fusing talents of the legendary STAX musicians and the popular rap artists of today. From the first scenes I could see that the filmmaker took the time to sync even the most incidental almost-off-camera performers to the music up front. That was impressive. Then there was a quick a capella performance of the Rhodes Sisters (who look like a bunch PTA moms) that could've been embarrassing but was terrific. That sold me. The rest of the movie was riveting. 
The STAX musicians are not only wonderful, but they're fun people too. The work of the rappers is integrated into the live recordings, and although the heartfelt words are strung together in a clever way they are all strikingly similar in delivery. There were moments when the film felt like a commercial for the pending album, and the unexplained absence of Steve Cropper stands out, but overall this was a great document of our society in the heyday of the STAX (from about 1960 through early 70s) and how the music shaped and reflected its times. A really nice way to spend the evening.
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