Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary

First Hit:  A fantastic film about the friendship and paths of these two amazing spiritual adventurers.

I believe that being a baby boomer helped me to see this film with fascination, wonder, and joyous recognition.

I can imagine that being born in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, these men and their exploits might be new news. However, as a baby boomer who did/used acid (LSD), mescaline, and other psychedelics, I smirked with a knowing smile remembering the great trips and the ones that scared the holy Jesus out of me. Like these two, this experimentation with drugs, along with my burgeoning meditation practice starting in 1967, created a crack within my consciousness wide enough for me to consider the larger picture of the whole and consider living in the now.

Just as with Ram and Timothy, many of our generation's spiritual practice was enhanced by the fissures created in perception by using drugs. Here, Timothy is nearing death and the now’s are pointing straight into the arms of death or non-breathing. Ram is sitting with Timothy and they just have a conversation.

The thrust of the film is their conversation of life's recollections, where they are now, and  how they might address the door of death.The film traces their friendship, kinship and paths to find a way to live from what they learn and not by the rules set up by our structured society.

We learn from each of them, how much they meant to each other’s own growth and how they face or see death. Leary is near death during the film and we have glimpses of him in his last moments. We also have Ram Dass learning how to live after suffering a major stroke.

The documentarian was very skilled at giving light to each’s path along with their communal path, our common path.

Robert Redford's narration was perfectly paced and toned. David Leach wrote the script for narrator Robert Redford. Gay Dillingham pieced together an amazing, funny, and insightful story from current and archive film.

Overall:  I left the film inspired to continue to do more spiritual work.

Amy

First Hit:  Very well crafted, visually arresting, and a finely produced film of Amy Winehouse’s short lived music career.

Three or four times during the first half-hour of the film I thought to myself, I’m so glad they put the words to the songs Amy was singing on the screen.

There were also occasions when the director used captions when Amy or some others, like Blake, spoke. To me the director did this for two reasons: 1) To show the power of her lyrics without getting caught up in deciphering the words in her musical pacing and 2) Her heavy cockney accent was at times difficult to understand, especially with some of the home filmed segments.

The captions made this film and story more accessible. This film starts with a brief show of her powerful voice when she sings “Happy Birthday”, and ends with her death. In between these two points, we get a deep view and listening to her heavily jazz influenced music stylings.

The film does not hold back on pictures showing Amy as high as a kite, make-up skewed, and holding on to either her ego, self-obsessed father, Mitch, or the love of her life Blake Fielder-Civil. Despite their pronounced lover for Amy, these men appeared to only care about themselves and what they could or would get them (fame, money, drugs, and booze). The people who really cared and loved her by their actions were her childhood girlfriends, Yasin Bey (Mos Def) and a few others.

Tony Bennett’s admiration of her singing ability and support meant so much to Amy. In the end it is a story of someone who misplaced what would really make her happy with the influence and behaviors supported by her hanger’s on.

Asif Kapadia did an outstanding job of putting together, phone video, still photos, and studio level video to create an amazing journey through Amy’s adult life.

Overall:  Well done story.

Testament of Youth

First Hit:  This beautifully acted film, especially Alicia Vikander, is a powerful story of how WWI affected a woman, family, friends and a country.

It isn’t often that I’m transfixed by an actor in a role, however Vikander as Vera Brittain, did just this. As Vera, a young woman who wants to be a writer and go to Oxford, she is independent, willful and driven. She spurns her brother Edward’s (Taron Egerton) friend Victor (Colin Morgan) as a suitor for her hand because she doesn’t have any intention of getting married.

However, when Victor and Edward’s mutual friend Roland (Kit Harrington) comes into the scene, things change, she is emotionally moved. Yet, despite her budding feelings, her primary focus is her career and she does find a way to get into Oxford. Soon after, her brother, Victor, and Roland are drawn into the war so she decides that she must do her part and becomes a nurse’s volunteer.

Through this experience she sees and experiences the travesty of war on human lives. The scenes, the pacing of the film, and the eloquence by which this story is told was deeply felt, moving, and sincerely touching.

Vikander was first rate and amazing. She was excellent in Ex Machina and again here. This actress is someone who will continue to grow and amaze on the screen. Egerton is wonderful and endearing as Vera’s brother. Harrington is strong as the shell-shocked lover. Morgan is endearing and wonderful as the heartbroken friend. Dominic West and Emily Watson were perfect as Vera’s parents. Juliette Towhidi wrote a wonderful screen play based on Vera’s own book of the same title. James Kent did an outstanding job in directing by showing the depths of WWI on a personal, family, friends, and country level.

Overall:  I was deeply moved by the film and this stemmed from Vikander’s performance.

Love & Mercy

First Hit:  Acting and story was extremely heartfelt while riding the ups and downs of Brian Wilson’s life.

I fondly recall The Beach Boys because I was a beach oriented guy myself in the 1960's.

In 1964 when the Beatles came into the musical consciousness of my life, there was a conflict of who was better. By the Beatles "Revolver", I knew the Beatles had risen to the top. This was partially because of the type of music, but also because of the struggles The Beach Boys were having internally as a group. The focus of those struggles, Brian Wilson, the genius behind the music. He wanted to take the group in a different direction than what they had done in the past.

This film documents Brian of the early years (Paul Dano) and the Brian of the mid 1990’s (John Cusack). Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson (Brett Davern and Kenny Wormald respectively) where brought up by a very mean, aggressive and extremely abusive father, Murry (Bill Camp). It effected Brian the most because he was the songwriter and leader of the group.

In his later years after spending an infamous 2 years in bed, Brian he was then controlled and manipulated by a psychiatrist named Dr. Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti). The visual likeness of Landy and Murray was amazing and was telling how Brian fell into Landy’s fold. Then there was Melinda (Elizabeth Banks) a Cadillac selling girl who sees Brian as a sensitive honest human being. Her relationship helps Brian to free himself from Landy and his life begins again.

Paul Dano was absolutely amazing at being the young Wilson by giving us a Brian who was always on the edge of sanity. He even looked a lot like a young Brian. Cusack was very strong as the older Brian attempting to find his way back into usefulness. Camp was good as the oppressive and abusive father. Giamatti was almost over the top at the unhinged psychiatrist who controlled Brian for his own purposes. Banks was inspiring and really good as the woman who could see Brian for more than what Dr. Landy was presenting. Michael A. Lerner wrote a fantastic script. Oren Moverman did an amazing job of creating a biography film that was both interesting and compelling to watch.

The music was fantastic; the story even better.

Lambert & Stamp

First Hit:  A wonderful film providing a thoughtful history of the people behind the rock band "The Who "and how they grew to be famous.

The film was focused on Kit Lambert and Christopher (Chris) Stamp a pair of two unlikely collaborators that decided to help make a rock band famous so that they could film them and become filmmakers. Kit grew up in a stately environment with his father being an orchestra conductor and Chris was strictly from working class beginnings.

They both had dreams of making films. Although Kit was a gay man in England where being gay was illegal, he found friends and solace with Chris and The Who. This is the band Kit and Chris identified as the band they wanted to work with. They liked the crazy approach "The High Numbers" (as they were originally called) used to create their music.

The stage antics helped as well which included destroying their equipment on stage. The film uses lots of footage they shot back then and because Kit died some years ago, he is only seen and heard through this footage.

Most of the film is narrated by Chris, his brother and actor Terrence, Roger Daltrey lead singer of The Who, Pete Townshend lead guitarist and songwriter for The Who, Heather Daltrey wife of Roger, and a number of other friends. Because Keith Moon (drummer) and John Entwistle (bass player) had already passed we only see them in film.

The story unfolds around The Who’s career, how they changed over time and how these six worked together, fought together, and, in the end, pulled together to become a well-known famous rock and roll band. The ups and downs between the members were discussed openly and honestly. In the end the audience is treated to a wonderful view of young vigor moving to older wisdom and peace.

James Cooper directed and cut the interviews and archival footage in an amazing way.

Overall: this was a heartfelt amazing film highlighting one of my favorite rock bands ever.