When Danny finally convinces the reluctant fishermen, his friends can’t believe he fell for the joke: “Do you really think we’d sign a buoy band with the combined age of 643?”
Nevertheless, Danny persists, convinced, “In a world saturated with manufactured pop bands, the fishermen are a real catch!”
The rest is music history. After signing with Island Records, the Fishermen’s debut became the biggest selling traditional folk album of all time. The weaknesses of the film lie with writers Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard, who don’t give director Chris Foggin a full roster of clearly delineated characters and succumb to a formulaic, underdog structure.
Fortunately, all members of the original band have cameos and are serve as consultants. Now, almost 30 years later, the Fisherman’s Friends still sing at the Golden Lion pub on the “platt” (harbor) in Port Isaac during the summer months.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Fisherman’s Friends” is a salty 7, a gentle gem that’s filled with engaging sea shanties.
Until I streamed “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” I’d never heard of the world’s biggest song competition. Neither had Will Ferrell until he saw it with his Swedish wife Viveca Paulin and decided to make a mockumentary about the bizarre show that famously introduced ABBA’s “Waterloo” in 1974.
Living in the tiny village of Husavik on the north coast of Iceland, oafish Lars Erickssong (Ferrell) always wanted to sing and dance, often embarrassing his uptight fisherman father (Pierce Brosnan).
Lars is accompanied by adoring Sigrit Ericksdottir (Rachel McAdams), who whimsically communes with magical elves. Due to bizarrely explosive circumstances — Lars and Sigrid, whose duo is called Fire Saga, become Iceland’s official contestants.
Traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland, naive Lars rejects Sigrit’s romantic overtures — claiming “romance ruins bands” — leaving her vulnerable to the advances of Russia’s preening, predatory Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens) and his sultry wing-woman, Greek singer Mita Xenakis (Melissanthi Mahut).
Sketchily scripted by Farrell and Andrew Steele, it follows Farrell’s previous vocational parodies: “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and “Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” And director David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) draws on his video experience with Elton John and Maroon 5, aided by cinematographer Danny Cohen.
There’s lots of overproduced Euro-pop music, featuring Demi Lovato, Sweden’s Johnny Johnny-John-John, bearded Austrian drag artist Conchita Wurst, among others — peppered with commentary by BBC’s Graham Norton.
While Farrell does his own singing, Rachel McAdams’s voice is blended with Swedish singer Molly Sanden, and Dan Stevens’ is dubbed by Sweden’s Erik Mjones.
FYI: The wacky stunt involving an eight-ton hamster wheel gone awry was inspired by Ukraine’s 2014 dance number.
Originally scheduled on Netflix in May to coincide with the 65th Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the annual competition was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the Granger Gauge, “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of the Fire Saga” is an absurd 6, a campy comedy, filled with silly Nordic kitsch.
Having caused controversy and massive ‘walkouts’ during film festivals, Czech filmmaker Vaclav Marhoul’s three-hour, black-and-white adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s grim, gruesome autobiographical novel “The Painted Bird” is an epic revelation of extreme cruelty and brutality during World War II.
Filled with horrifying, unrelenting violence, it begins as a somber six year-old Jewish lad (Petr Kotlar) is abandoned by his parents in Eastern Europe. As he stoically wanders from village to village, he’s subjected to one grotesque atrocity after another from superstitious peasants as he tries to elude Russian Cossacks and the Gestapo.
In one segment of this odyssey, he’s buried up to his neck in dirt so crows can pick out his eyeballs. In another, he’s raped repeatedly by a pedophile who is, subsequently, eaten alive by rats. There’s sexual perversion, even bestiality. And as Jews jump off freight trains bound for concentration camps, they’re systematically gunned down and stripped of their goods and clothes.
Years after its publication, Kosinski’s uncompromising memoir was debunked by Polish authorities, who claimed his family — hiding as Christians under false names — had been sheltered by friends and that he was never handed over to the Nazis. Others claim some elements were lifted from the tormented childhood of his friend, Polish director Roman Polanski.
The title comes from a story about catching and painting the feathers of a tiny songbird; when it’s set free and returns to its flock, it’s considered an outcast, attacked and killed.
Episodically structured, it’s adapted and directed by Vaclav Marhoul (“Tobruk”). The carnage is realistically photographed in 35 mm by Vladimir Smutny with supporting performances by Stellan Skarsgard, Julian Sands, Harvey Keitel and Udo Kier and Barry Pepper.
FYI: This film was the Czech Republic’s 2020 Oscar entry.
In Czech, German, Russian and Pan-Slavic Esperanto with sparse English subtitles, on the Granger Gauge, “The Painted Bird” is a barbaric, stomach-churning 4. Under no circumstances would I recommend it.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
When Danny finally convinces the reluctant fishermen, his friends can’t believe he fell for the joke: “Do you really think we’d sign a buoy band with the combined age of 643?”
Nevertheless, Danny persists, convinced, “In a world saturated with manufactured pop bands, the fishermen are a real catch!”
The rest is music history. After signing with Island Records, the Fishermen’s debut became the biggest selling traditional folk album of all time. The weaknesses of the film lie with writers Nick Moorcroft and Meg Leonard, who don’t give director Chris Foggin a full roster of clearly delineated characters and succumb to a formulaic, underdog structure.
Fortunately, all members of the original band have cameos and are serve as consultants. Now, almost 30 years later, the Fisherman’s Friends still sing at the Golden Lion pub on the “platt” (harbor) in Port Isaac during the summer months.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Fisherman’s Friends” is a salty 7, a gentle gem that’s filled with engaging sea shanties.
Until I streamed “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” I’d never heard of the world’s biggest song competition. Neither had Will Ferrell until he saw it with his Swedish wife Viveca Paulin and decided to make a mockumentary about the bizarre show that famously introduced ABBA’s “Waterloo” in 1974.
Living in the tiny village of Husavik on the north coast of Iceland, oafish Lars Erickssong (Ferrell) always wanted to sing and dance, often embarrassing his uptight fisherman father (Pierce Brosnan).
Lars is accompanied by adoring Sigrit Ericksdottir (Rachel McAdams), who whimsically communes with magical elves. Due to bizarrely explosive circumstances — Lars and Sigrid, whose duo is called Fire Saga, become Iceland’s official contestants.
Traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland, naive Lars rejects Sigrit’s romantic overtures — claiming “romance ruins bands” — leaving her vulnerable to the advances of Russia’s preening, predatory Alexander Lemtov (Dan Stevens) and his sultry wing-woman, Greek singer Mita Xenakis (Melissanthi Mahut).
Sketchily scripted by Farrell and Andrew Steele, it follows Farrell’s previous vocational parodies: “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and “Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” And director David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) draws on his video experience with Elton John and Maroon 5, aided by cinematographer Danny Cohen.
There’s lots of overproduced Euro-pop music, featuring Demi Lovato, Sweden’s Johnny Johnny-John-John, bearded Austrian drag artist Conchita Wurst, among others — peppered with commentary by BBC’s Graham Norton.
While Farrell does his own singing, Rachel McAdams’s voice is blended with Swedish singer Molly Sanden, and Dan Stevens’ is dubbed by Sweden’s Erik Mjones.
FYI: The wacky stunt involving an eight-ton hamster wheel gone awry was inspired by Ukraine’s 2014 dance number.
Originally scheduled on Netflix in May to coincide with the 65th Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the annual competition was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the Granger Gauge, “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of the Fire Saga” is an absurd 6, a campy comedy, filled with silly Nordic kitsch.
Having caused controversy and massive ‘walkouts’ during film festivals, Czech filmmaker Vaclav Marhoul’s three-hour, black-and-white adaptation of Jerzy Kosinski’s grim, gruesome autobiographical novel “The Painted Bird” is an epic revelation of extreme cruelty and brutality during World War II.
Filled with horrifying, unrelenting violence, it begins as a somber six year-old Jewish lad (Petr Kotlar) is abandoned by his parents in Eastern Europe. As he stoically wanders from village to village, he’s subjected to one grotesque atrocity after another from superstitious peasants as he tries to elude Russian Cossacks and the Gestapo.
In one segment of this odyssey, he’s buried up to his neck in dirt so crows can pick out his eyeballs. In another, he’s raped repeatedly by a pedophile who is, subsequently, eaten alive by rats. There’s sexual perversion, even bestiality. And as Jews jump off freight trains bound for concentration camps, they’re systematically gunned down and stripped of their goods and clothes.
Years after its publication, Kosinski’s uncompromising memoir was debunked by Polish authorities, who claimed his family — hiding as Christians under false names — had been sheltered by friends and that he was never handed over to the Nazis. Others claim some elements were lifted from the tormented childhood of his friend, Polish director Roman Polanski.
The title comes from a story about catching and painting the feathers of a tiny songbird; when it’s set free and returns to its flock, it’s considered an outcast, attacked and killed.
Episodically structured, it’s adapted and directed by Vaclav Marhoul (“Tobruk”). The carnage is realistically photographed in 35 mm by Vladimir Smutny with supporting performances by Stellan Skarsgard, Julian Sands, Harvey Keitel and Udo Kier and Barry Pepper.
FYI: This film was the Czech Republic’s 2020 Oscar entry.
In Czech, German, Russian and Pan-Slavic Esperanto with sparse English subtitles, on the Granger Gauge, “The Painted Bird” is a barbaric, stomach-churning 4. Under no circumstances would I recommend it.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
