Pretty Reckless—Dear God 

 

If 2021’s Death by Rock and Roll was an unsparing self-portrait of Pretty Reckless singer-lyricist Taylor Momsen’s descent into depression and drug abuse after the shocking deaths of Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and the band’s producer Kato Khandwala less than a year apart, the band’s new album, Dear God, is another musically diverse and emotionally varied group of songs that deal honestly with the consequences of a life lived in excess.

 

Although recorded in spurts over the past couple years in between world stadium tours as an opening act for AC/DC, Dear God sounds remarkably cohesive. From the slashing chords of “For I Am Death”—one of the band’s most potent slabs of devilish mayhem—to the mournfully hymnal conclusion, “Dark Days,” this powerful exploration of self-abuse, self-denial and self-discovery
explodes from the speakers.

 

Momsen, who sings and writes the songs with lead guitarist Ben Phillips—who plays in superb lockstep with bassist Mark Damon and drummer Jamie Perkins—has said that the Beatles and Soundgarden are her favorite artists of all time, and the Pretty Reckless’ now-patented blend of grunge influence, heavy-rock riffs and Beatlesque melody, coupled with Momsen’s confessional lyrics and commanding vocal ability, is on display throughout Dear God. 

 

The irresistible punk-pop sizzle of “When I Wake Up” and the exquisitely soulful prayer “Love Me” give way to the killer Fleetwood Mac-meets-Heart cut “Dragonfire,” which chugs along on Perkins’ propulsive drumming. Then there’s the epic, six-minute title track, a glorious Momsen vocal workout on what she has called desperation set to music; the subtle arrangement, with each verse giving way more quickly to the anguished chorus, underlines that torment brilliantly.

 

“About You” blisteringly describes an acrimonious breakup, while the seductive “Spell on You” nods back to Death by Rock and Roll’s incendiary “Witches Burn” to defiantly get revenge on a faithless partner. In the stirring “Eye of the Storm,” Momsen opens with a snapshot of universal despair (“Everything has gone to hell/While the rich get rich/And the poor get, well/Nothing at all, it seems to me”) before movingly tackling her own brush with mortality:

 

 

Momsen sings those lines with a quiet poignancy that’s turns into stark defiance. It’s no coincidence that “Devil in Disguise”—a lovely eulogy to actress Michelle Trachtenberg, one of Momsen’s best friends, who died last year at age 39—follows, covering similar emotional territory with equal intimacy. 

 

Momsen has said that the lyrics for Dear God came from her journal, and it’s true that there are guileless lines like the chorus for “Rollercoaster of Life”: 

 

 

But the song itself is so infectious—and includes a wonderful Easter egg of sorts during the funky middle section, as Momsen sings about “that chili pepper heat” and Mark Damon slyly plays a Flea-inspired bass line—that all is forgiven. Dear God is as candid, aggressive and raw as its predecessor, no mean feat in today’s assembly-line pop and rock world.

4K/UHD Releases of the Week 

Neil Jordan’s best film is brilliantly directed and written (he won the 1992 Oscar for best original screenplay), starting out as a thriller, then shifting gears into a tentative romance until becoming a quasi-mystery for its startling finish. All these disparate parts are melded into a seamless whole by Jordan, who combines standard plot elements with refreshing twists and psychologically acute characterizations and motivations as well as uncannily juggling disparate moods and rhythms.

 

 

And let’s not forget the estimable acting by Stephen Rea, Forrest Whittaker, Natasha Richardson and Jaye Davidson, right down to the smallest parts. Criterion’s UHD transfer superbly accentuates Ian Watson’s tangy cinematography; extras are Jordan’s 2005 commentary, new interviews with Jordan and Rea, 2005 making-of documentary and an alternate ending with Jordan’s commentary.

 

 

 

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy 

For 135 messy minutes, writer-director Lee Cronin slogs through several excruciatingly insipid storylines that tie standard mummy legend to obscure Egyptian mythmaking and, of all things, demonic possession films, especially The Exorcist, which could sue for defamation.

 

 

Sequence after limp sequence marches in front of the camera, and it’s all sadly risible—and the end threatens a sequel. Including his name in the title is quite the flex, as if anyone else would want to take credit. The film does look impressive in UHD; extras comprise Cronin’s commentary, deleted scenes and three making-of featurettes.

 

 

 

In-Theater Releases of the Week 

Director Rachel Israel and a cohort of writers concocted this genial comedy set in a Jewish summer camp that brings together former besties Nomi and Mara, who attended as kids; Nomi takes a job as a counselor from camp director Mara after being kicked out of her own rock band and is told to supervise the “floaters,” camp kids considered misfits.

 

 

Those who are familiar with—or attended—summer camps might get more laughs and nods of recognition from this, but it is certainly likable, especially when the floaters unsurprisingly win over their critics, and nicely-acted by Jackie Tohn (Nomi), Sarah Podemski (Mara) and Judah Lewis, Nina Bloomgarden and Jake Ryan as the head floaters. 

 

 

 

Hadestown 

Orpheus and Eurydice have been fodder for artists for centuries, but this musical—which opened on Broadway in 2019—by book writer-lyricist-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, isn’t a patch on Offenbach or Cocteau. Set in a Depression-era burg that recalls the French Quarter, the show at times spits out the swampy, jazzy Big Easy sounds; at its most original, Mitchell’s music grooves robustly.

 

 

The men (Orpheus, Hades and Hermes) have more to work with vocally than the women (Eurydice and Persephone). That’s no slight on Eva Noblezada and Amber Gray, who sound comfortable in their middle range, but the male leads’ voices—Reeve Carney’s high tenor, Patrick Page’s rumblingly low bass and ageless Andre de Shields in between—go on a more satisfying vocal ride. Although Mitchell’s derivative music, lyrics and book don’t come close to their mythical forebears, director Rachel Chavkin makes the show move, literally—a trio of onstage turntables, combined with Rachel Hauck’s seedy set, Michael Krauss’s sober costumes and Bradley King’s savvy lighting, conjures a sweaty musical purgatory.  

 

 

 

Night Nurse 

Writer-director Georgia Bernstein’s glossy drama about Eleni, a young nurse at a retirement home who becomes entangled in a sordid emotional and criminal relationship with Douglas, one of her elderly patients, tries to be so many things at once—erotic thriller, crime drama, psychological character study—that it ends up flailing unsatisfactorily.

 

 

As Bernstein loses control, the film’s moodiness becomes a liability, as scenes of Eleni and Douglas in various stages of their mutually harmful kinship start to become perfunctory and dull—even a surprising murder seems more a desperate way to end things. On the plus side, Cemre Paksoy gives a commanding performance as the needy Eleni and Bruce McKenzie is nearly as good as the dementia-addled but virile Douglas.

 

 

 

CD Releases of the Week

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s prodigious and impressive output has been reduced over the decades to his best-known orchestral tone poems like Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome; as this excellent disc shows, Respighi was much more than his most popular works. (He even composed several flavorful operas.)

 

 

The DaVinci Ensemble plays two of Respighi’s string quartets and the masterly F-minor piano quintet—with an assurance that showcases the composer’s characteristic melodic sense and musical structure.

 

 

 

John Williams and Bernard Herrmann were two of the greatest film composers—Williams’ long collaboration with Steven Spielberg is equaled by Herrmann’s with Alfred Hitchcock—so this disc, comprising concert works by both composers, is an intriguing left turn.

 

 

Williams’ Essay for Strings (1965) and Concerto for Flute, Strings and Percussion (1969) contain the attractive melodies and ear-catching rhythms associated with his later film scores. Herrmann’s 1967 Clarinet Quintet (subtitled Souvenirs de Voyage), adapted by Hans Sorensen for clarinet and string orchestra, is a pensive late work. The soloists (flutist Jin Ta and clarinetist Ma Yue) and Singapore Symphony Orchestra under conductors Darrell Ang and Joshua Tan play with sensitivity to both composers.

4K/UHD Release of the Week 

Zazie Beetz makes a formidable protagonist as Asia, a young woman at a mysterious Manhattan high-rise who skillfully fights for her life while searching for her younger sister, a maid there—Asia soon finds that the building and its inhabitants are part of a sacrificial satanic cult.

 

 

If this sounds insane, then wait until you watch it, as director-cowriter Kirill Sokolov piles on geysers and geysers of gore along with tongue-in-cheek battles royale that start to wear out their welcome. But it’s bizarre enough to stay with, and Beetz has the making a great action hero—although would anyone really want a sequel? It all looks even more blood-spatted in UHD; extras include on-set featurettes and interviews.

 

 

 

Streaming Releases of the Week

What starts as an obvious but effective satire as a group of tech company employees get together for a retreat soon devolves into a pointlessly ultraviolent screed that makes no sense and relies on unimaginative torture as it lumbers to its blood-soaked finale.

 

 

Director-writer Aaron Fisher and cowriter Kerri Lee Romeo seem to think that rewatching the same torture scenes will magically create some sort of blackly comic masterpiece; instead, I often thought about bailing altogether. Alan Ruck as an insane former CEO and Odeya Rush as one employee’s innocent girlfriend who turns out to be more resourceful than anyone else are the sole reasons to watch, if you can stomach the eye gougings, self-impalings, etc.

 

 

The Get Out 

In Derrick Borte’s diverting action flick, Albanian nightclub owner Kapak is held up by Jeff, a desperate college professor, who is then joined by bank teller (!) Carrie to hold him up again—and that’s not even mentioning the corrupt cop and undercover fed who are hovering around.

 

 

Forget the plot: what makes this watchable is the entertaining cast, led by the hilarious Nina Dobrev as Carrie, Aaron Paul as Jeff, Russell Crowe as the heavily accented Kapak, the always underrated Teresa Palmer as Kapak’s girlfriend and Luke Evans as the fed. 

In-Theater Release of the Week

American poet Mary Oliver’s journey into literary history is chronicled in Sasha Waters’ absorbing and sympathetically documentary, which takes her more seriously than the literary establishment did once she became the most popular poet in the country.

 

 

Waters marshals the forces in the pro-Oliver (who died in 2019 at age 83) camp, including celebrity friends and admirers like John Waters, Oprah Winfrey, Helena Bonham Carter and even Stephen Colbert, the latter who is so taken with Oliver’s poetry that he cannot get through reciting it twice without getting emotional and stopping.  

 

 

 

Blu-ray Release of the Week 

When Egypt’s most famous actor George Fahmy is forced by the regime to star in a propaganda film, he finds himself in even more danger when he starts an affair with the gorgeous wife of the general who is producing the project in director-writer Tarik Saleh’s often amusingly jaundiced satire.

 

 

It’s a film that’s only hamstrung by its length—a good 20 minutes could have been shorn, especially when toward the end it starts to repeat itself. Still, it’s well-acted by a large cast led by Fares Fares as Fahmy and makes pointed observations about cinema and politics throughout. The film looks good on Blu; unfortunately, there are no extras.

 

 

 

CD Release of the Week

French composer Mel (Mélanie) Bonis (1858-1937) is one of those musical names that’s rarely heard, since her contemporaries were men (of course) like Fauré, Debussy, Chausson, and César Franck—but the latter was impressed with her enough to teach her privately. Bonis left behind a huge catalog of more than 300 works in every genre, and this excellent disc consists of nine of her many works for orchestra.

 

 

Leading off with the atmospheric Trois femmes de légende—brief musical portraits of Cleopatra, Shakespeare’s Ophelia, and Salome—the disc also includes several attractive suites and dances and ends, appropriately, with three lovely songs for female voices, including the final one for soprano, mezzo and women’s choir. Joseph Bastian leads the WDR Symphony Orchestra in sensitive readings of these unfairly obscure works.