At the pinnacle of the band’s critical and financial success, the decision to lay LCD Soundsystem to rest was and remains a conundrum. James Murphy, the creative mind behind the band, started making music under the LCD guise in his 30s with no expectations other than to have some fun, but when his dance-centric tunes started to catch the public ear, he decided to form a band that could perform his songs live. Years later, putting a massive bookend on the project, Murphy and the crew booked Madison Square Garden for their final show. With the Sundance preemed Shut Up And Play The Hits, directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern documented not only LCD Soundsystem’s final live performance, but managed to construct a highly conflicted portrait of Murphy over the 48 hours prior to the event. The question isn’t whether or not his final show will be a success,...
- 10/16/2012
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Director Emmett Malloy has returned with an excellent follow up to 2009’s “Under Great Northern Lights” with another winning concert documentary titled "Big Easy Express." In a tight 60-odd minutes, the film follows three bands, Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and Old Crow Medicine Show, as they travel from San Francisco to New Orleans, Louisiana, on a sold-out 6-stop tour, aboard the most beautiful-looking train you've ever seen. From the opening tracking shot that follows 'Magnetic Zeroes' singer Jade Castrinos as she walks through the various rustic train cars, past Mumford and Sons playing in one, 'Old Crow' in another and right down the back to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Malloy's film is not only beautifully soundtracked, courtesy of all three bands, but is also dreamily captured.
Though essentially a live concert film, Malloy manages to chronicle the more intimate and visually arresting jam sessions happening off stage,...
Though essentially a live concert film, Malloy manages to chronicle the more intimate and visually arresting jam sessions happening off stage,...
- 5/1/2012
- by Samantha Chater
- The Playlist
A sensitively handled, intelligently acted romantic drama about a promising actress who finds out she's been infected with AIDS, "Touch Me" adroitly avoids the usual disease-of-the-week pitfalls.
Former first assistant director H. Gordon Boos ("Platoon", "Tin Cup"), who also co-wrote the melodrama-free script with Greg H. Sims, does a fine job with the potentially tricky material and an interesting cast.
Still, given the downer subject matter and no Tom Hanks or even a Mary-Louise Parker on the marquee, "Touch Me" is going to have a tough time attracting mainstream audiences despite the ultimately upbeat tone.
Amanda Peet ("She's the One") delivers a nicely contained performance as Brigette, an attractive young woman whose life is really starting to come together. She's just landed the female lead in a Los Angeles production of David Mamet's "Speed the Plow" and has embarked on a promising relationship with Adam (Michael Vartan), who manages the fitness club where she works part time as an aerobics instructor.
But then comes the phone call that will change things forever -- a former boyfriend is dying of AIDS, and she may have been infected. A subsequent blood test confirms her worst fears, and while Adam still wants very much to be a part of her life, she shuts him out and moves back to her hometown. Gradually, however, as time and potent new drugs begin to initiate the healing process, Brigette learns how to live again.
At the heart of the picture is a crucial, believable rapport between Peet and Vartan (who bears a passing resemblance to Luke Perry), both of whom do affecting work. Memorable, too, are Erica Gimpel as a mother who's dying of the virus, Peter Facinelli as Vartan's always-partying Little Brother and Greg Louganis in his big-screen debut as a nurturing member of Peet's support group.
Technical support is solid across the board, particularly director of photography Giles Dunning and production designer Abigail Mannox, who create distinctive lighting and color schemes to neatly evoke the picture's shifting emotional phases.
TOUCH ME
Devin Entertainment
A Greg H. Sims production
An H. Gordon Boos film
Credits: Director: H. Gordon Boos; Screenwriters: H. Gordon Boos, Greg H. Sims; Producers: Greg H. Sims and David Scott Rubin; Executive producer: Greg H. Sims; Director of photography: Giles Dunning; Production designer: Abigail Mannox; Editor: Steve Nevius; Costume designer: Denise Wingate; Music: Claude Foisy; Music supervisor: Marvin Scott Jarrett. Cast: Brigette: Amanda Peet; Adam: Michael Vartan; Margot: Kari Wuhrer; Bail: Peter Facinelli; Kareen: Erica Gimpel; Link: Jamie Harris; Robert: Stephen Macht; David: Greg Louganis. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 107 minutes...
Former first assistant director H. Gordon Boos ("Platoon", "Tin Cup"), who also co-wrote the melodrama-free script with Greg H. Sims, does a fine job with the potentially tricky material and an interesting cast.
Still, given the downer subject matter and no Tom Hanks or even a Mary-Louise Parker on the marquee, "Touch Me" is going to have a tough time attracting mainstream audiences despite the ultimately upbeat tone.
Amanda Peet ("She's the One") delivers a nicely contained performance as Brigette, an attractive young woman whose life is really starting to come together. She's just landed the female lead in a Los Angeles production of David Mamet's "Speed the Plow" and has embarked on a promising relationship with Adam (Michael Vartan), who manages the fitness club where she works part time as an aerobics instructor.
But then comes the phone call that will change things forever -- a former boyfriend is dying of AIDS, and she may have been infected. A subsequent blood test confirms her worst fears, and while Adam still wants very much to be a part of her life, she shuts him out and moves back to her hometown. Gradually, however, as time and potent new drugs begin to initiate the healing process, Brigette learns how to live again.
At the heart of the picture is a crucial, believable rapport between Peet and Vartan (who bears a passing resemblance to Luke Perry), both of whom do affecting work. Memorable, too, are Erica Gimpel as a mother who's dying of the virus, Peter Facinelli as Vartan's always-partying Little Brother and Greg Louganis in his big-screen debut as a nurturing member of Peet's support group.
Technical support is solid across the board, particularly director of photography Giles Dunning and production designer Abigail Mannox, who create distinctive lighting and color schemes to neatly evoke the picture's shifting emotional phases.
TOUCH ME
Devin Entertainment
A Greg H. Sims production
An H. Gordon Boos film
Credits: Director: H. Gordon Boos; Screenwriters: H. Gordon Boos, Greg H. Sims; Producers: Greg H. Sims and David Scott Rubin; Executive producer: Greg H. Sims; Director of photography: Giles Dunning; Production designer: Abigail Mannox; Editor: Steve Nevius; Costume designer: Denise Wingate; Music: Claude Foisy; Music supervisor: Marvin Scott Jarrett. Cast: Brigette: Amanda Peet; Adam: Michael Vartan; Margot: Kari Wuhrer; Bail: Peter Facinelli; Kareen: Erica Gimpel; Link: Jamie Harris; Robert: Stephen Macht; David: Greg Louganis. No MPAA rating. Color/stereo. Running time -- 107 minutes...
- 5/12/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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