DVD Review: My Time in the Thick Brick Cult

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Thursday, 06 December 2012 05:00

Written by Renzo Adler

A mention of Troma Entertainment elicits one of two reactions: quizzical looks, or rampant enthusiasm. Troma is best known as the house that gave birth to The Toxic Avenger, a gory and raunchy series of films that filled video stores, and for a brief period in the early 90’s was also a poorly conceived children’s cartoon. Troma is also where I used to work.

When I started out there as a wee intern, I was approached by Justin Martell and Travis Campbell to help out on a movie. Not the new Toxie, or a sequel to Surf Nazis Must Die, but something called Mr. Bricks: A Heavy Metal Murder Musical. Oh yeah, and they also had to make the movie on the side while juggling a full time job (more on that later).

Mr. Bricks as a film really doesn’t fit in with the majority of low/no budget shock flicks you see these days. No slasher clichés drenched with winks and nods to validate their inadequacies.  No nouveau-gothic abandoned hospitals or asylums. Just stark, barren, industrial grey Queens and Long Island City provide the backdrop of this sordid tale.

Eugene 'Mr. Bricks' Hicks (Tim Dax) tries to re-call the events of a previous night after he wakes up in a hovel with a woman’s shoe in his hands, a bullet lodged in his head, and two men trying to dispose of him. He crosses paths with Officer Dukes (Vito Trigo) and Officer Scarlett Morretti (kinda-scream queen Nicola Fiore) as he spirals further down searching for the truth.

Bricks is played by tattooed muscle man, dancer, and fixture of many music videos, Tim Dax.

If I had to describe Dax’s performance in a single word, it would be “enthusiastic.” Dax doesn’t just brood or stand and look tough, he jumps, he swaggers, he screams, he cries, he’s all over the place! Dax’s flare is a little comic-booky, but it keeps the character interesting.

Mr. Bricks is a difficult film to categorize. Simply calling it a musical would be gross over-simplification, while calling it a horror flick doesn’t fit either since the horror is more about inner turmoil rather than dead bodies (don’t get me wrong though, there are still plenty of dead bodies in this movie).

The songs, while not exactly created by Meatloaf maestro Jim Steinman, are a melodic version of metal with some clearly enunciated lyrics so you can actually get an impression of what the characters are singing about.  The lyrics are what you would expect in metal fare, but there is enough humor and flare in them to keep them interesting. Besides, who can’t agree that “love is murder”?

You could call it an exploitation film, but thankfully, Mr. Bricks doesn’t indulge in obnoxious faux-1980’s flares that you see in movies that use the moniker “exploitation” these days. And while Mr. Bricks is not the most polished film you will see, it is a truly earnest effort by filmmakers that embodies Troma’s history of films that defy categorization.  

The earnestness of this production can be seen in the making of documentary on the DVD, Brick By Brick, where we see how Travis Campbell (Writer and Director) and Justin Martell (Producer) created this film with a shoe-string budget while also working full time jobs at Troma, drenching the production in espionage.  I’m also in Brick by Brick, since I was working at Troma when Bricks was being made, so I won’t lie when I say there is a personal tie that I have with this film and the tortures and triumphs the people working on it went through.

At the end of the day, Mr. Bricks is simply a film unlike any other. It might be a little rough around the edges, but it bravely traverses territory few have done before by making a gritty musical.

Mr. Bricks A Heavy Metal Murder Musical is out on DVD December 11, 2012.

DVD Interview: "Paradise Lost" Director Joe Berlinger

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 04 December 2012 15:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

Director Joe Berlinger (photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images North America)

KF: What’s your take on the deal made so they could finally be freed from prison?

DVD Review: This Could Be Para-Para-Paradise

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 02 December 2012 16:00

Written by Abner Willis

Coldplay
Coldplay Live 2012
(Capitol Records)

“Is there anybody out there?” asks a jubilant Chris Martin as he bounds every which way across the stage in front of his band, Brit-pop arena rockers Coldplay. 

There’s some irony to his question as he can barely be heard over 30,000+ screaming fans, the sort of crowd that greets him regularly in cities all over the world. 

This night fans have been issued multi-colored LED wristbands that light up in sync with the music, creating a beautiful and fluid digital mosaic best viewed from the birds-eye shots of the crowd seen throughout Coldplay Live 2012. The film documents the band’s world tour in support of their fifth album, Mylo Xyloto, released in 2011.

The 14-song LP is a colorful pop opus with a loose rock-opera-like storyline about art, music and love emerging in the face of a totalitarian society. 

Formed in 1996 at University College in London, Coldplay’s breakthrough single “Yellow”, a sparkling and melancholy power ballad, arrived a few years later. They released albums steadily throughout the following decade, winning many awards from multiple countries including seven Grammys.

Coldplay has become the biggest band in the world by transforming what could have been sentimental and cheesy into music that’s artful and moving. The quartet has done this through honest lyrics and an undeniable skill for crafting pop melodies and engaging arrangements.

Each Coldplay album comes with its own musical and visual aesthetic, one that is reflected in the band’s stage show. In the film, Chris Martin says that the image that inspired album’s theme was a flower growing out of a crack in the concrete. 

By the time this London-based ensemble hits the stage that crack has burst wide open. It dazzles the audience with color, sound, art, and an infectious vitality and joyfulness; it’s clear that the audience is having a blast. Massive spray-painted curtains hang behind the stage. Literally everything – the stage itself, the instruments, the members’ rag-tag band-of-soldiers army coats – is covered in multicolored graffiti-style designs and snippets of lyrics from their songs. 

 Audience member at any one of these massive shows would surely find the staging impressive, but would miss the details a concert film is able to highlight.

Director Paul Dugdale makes sure the film’s viewers experience every seat in the house – from the nosebleeds to front-and-center – and then some. Close-up shots of band members (guitarist Johnny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion) as well as the paintings on their instruments and the intricate designs on the stage enhance the experience and make it worth seeing even if – maybe especially if – you’ve seen it on tour.

Martin, who narrates parts of the feature, is very explicit about one point – Coldplay is not for cool kids. The band doesn’t buy into the “we’re so dangerous” mythos of Rock & Roll. And they don’t believe in oversized egos or smashing hotel rooms. 

The group believes in sing-alongs; their job is to bring people together and deliver the most spontaneous, exciting and joyful show they can every night. Quoting Bruce Springsteen, Martin says, “Every night could be someone’s first concert, it could be someone’s last. You have to play like that’s the case.”

And Coldplay does, as the film makes clear. Martin does laps around the stage, jumping, convulsing, and flailing his body in rhythm with the drums, falling to his knees in fits of emotion and even flopping on the ground in exhaustion after especially intense moments. He effortlessly transitions between vocals, keyboard, and guitar depending on the needs of a given song.

Buckland and Berryman are more reserved on their instruments but in their own quiet way look engaged and very present. Champion slams the drums with so much energy and drive that he almost comes across as a second front man.

The set list is as crowd-pleasing as the performance; they play what is essentially a greatest hits collection weighted slightly toward Mylo Xyloto.

Every few songs, (the concert footage is taken from various dates on their world tour but mostly in Paris) a band member narrates over scenes of band and crew traveling, checking into hotels, and setting up for the nights’ show. The interviews are interesting but not revelatory; they establish the band’s mission statement – delivering a killer, fun show unconcerned with coolness or posturing – but don’t delve deeply into their emotional lives. Behind the Music this is not. 

 In one section Buckland does talk about the helpless is-it-all-worth-it feeling of being a million miles away from home and getting a call that his child is in the hospital. This is about as dark or gritty as the band (or film) gets. And you get the feeling that after a bit of consideration, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

Martin says that throughout their career Coldplay has battled the addictions, breakups, and trouble that most bands go through. But he adds that he doesn’t see why in Rock & Roll those struggles should be celebrated or emphasized given that people in any line of work endure similar struggles. He has a strong sense of duty; his music should provide a service for the audience and be a conduit for human connection.

“This could be Para – Para – Paradise” goes the refrain of the most popular song from Mylo Xyloto, aptly titled “Paradise.” As the LED wristbands light up and the confetti flies, it feels like an invitation to the crowd – let yourself go, and we could all be there together. 

The adoring crowd hangs on his every word and movement, singing choruses back to him and cheering when he raises his hands. In smash hit “Viva la Vida” he sings, “I used to rule world” – but the song’s reception indicates Coldplay’s reign is far from over.

The band ends the Paris show with “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall”, a song about the redemptive power of art (specifically music) that holds pop songs to a very high standard. “I turn my music up/I got my records on…my heart starts beating to my favorite song…every siren is a symphony / and every teardrop is a waterfall”. 

Coldplay doesn’t back down from the challenge of making every person in the audience feel this transcendence; this transformation of the difficulties of life into the sublime. The 35-year-old front man says he performs for the audience member in the furthest back, top right-hand seat in the arena—and again, the concert footage backs him up.

Whether you’re a die-hard fan who’s seen them three times this year or someone who stays tuned when “Yellow” or “Clocks” comes on the radio, this cinematic document is worth a viewing. The sheer scale of the tour is awe-inspiring, and the concerts are filmed to great effect. 

 Most important, the band’s joyful attitude is infectious. 

Even if you’re a little skeptical about teardrops being waterfalls, I bet it’ll at least make you want to (to paraphrase that same song) put your records on and turn them up.