In the interest of updating the stagnating Spins, Flicks, and Words section I'm going to knock out the last two items and because I love my readers (both of them) there will be a BONUS SPIN!
Also, you may have noticed a new sidebar section that archives entries by category giving you, the valued reader, quick, convenient access to all my worthless opinions.
RABBIT-PROOF FENCE
Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence is a simple yet affecting film, based on a true story, about the journey of three young girls from a detention center back to their families. The historical background of the film is a harrowing story in itself. Throughout the twentieth century, as late as 1970, the Australian government enforced a policy of separating half-white, half-Aborigine children from their families in the outback and "educating" them in detention centers. The children were taught to be domestic servants and factory workers and ultimately white Australians hoped to "breed out" the inferior genes. The scene in which Kenneth Branagh, playing the man in charge of the program, explains the dubious science behind the institutional racism is chilling. He, along with most of the film's white characters, is compellingly convinced that what they believe is right. The conviction with which Branagh says that the Aborigine genes must be "simply bred out" is truly scary.
The three girls, played by three Aborigines, (a feature on the casting process on the DVD is fascinating) escape the center and begin a 1500 mile journey back to their family. There is no mistreatment at the center, but Noyce very clearly gives us a sense of the natural fear and grief the children must feel after such a traumatic separation. The girls' guide is the rabbit-proof fence, a fence constructed to keep farmlands safe from rabbits and essentially dividing the country between civilization and the outback. Along the way the girls are helped by strangers, some of them white, and show and endearing mix of perseverance and ingenuity.
Noyce's direction very subtly draws the viewer into the film. The camera swoops and floats over the girls as they make their journey, giving their story a mythic and legendary quality. Their small triumphs will uplift you, but the ending will break your heart. Beautiful and emotionally powerful, Rabbit-Proof Fence will leave you overwhelmed with the realization that real people, in very recent times, had to endure such inhumanity.
MS. DYNAMITE - A LITTLE DEEPER
If you're like me and you thought that Lauryn Hill's Miseducation CD was just a tad too preachy at times, well then Ms. Dynamite is the artist for you. Equal parts conscious hip-hop, radio friendly R&B and Jamaican dancehall party jams, A Little Deeper is one of the most intelligent and complete albums of the year.
Despite her young age, the British Ms. Dynamite has alot to say and is clearly not interested in pulling any punches, "You talking like you a g/But you a killer killing your own/You're just a racist man's pussy." Her raps cut and bite with a wisdom that avoids cliche preaching, and her smooth voice is heavy with a hurt and urgency as she recounts her own experiences and observes the problems of those around her.
The production on A Little Deeper is just as fresh and new as Ms. Dynamite. The beats are diverse and inventive and provide the perfect compliment to Dynamite's voice. Conscious without being preachy, sexy without being exlpoitive and at times, deeply personal, A Little Deeper is a cut above typical American R&B.
BONUS SPIN: METALLICA - ST. ANGER
By special request from the oft-mentioned G, I am going to offer my review of the new Metallica. First of all, this CD should come with a warning label. CAUTION: THIS ALBUM WILL BLUDGEON YOU WITH ITS WALL OF NOISE.
With that said, I think it's an excellent album. A review that G pointed me towards claims that aside from the musical merits or shortcomings of St. Anger, a more important artistic statement is being made by the band's production choices and recording process. I'm not sure about all that, (that's on some serious Duchampesque-modern-art shit), but St. Anger is definitely unlike anything else Metallica has done in the post-Black album era. What was left? Metallica had experimented with everything, even releasing an album of covers and recording with a symphony. In a way, then, it's very fitting that Metallica has gone back in time for its next album. Up until Black, Metallica had followed a progression, an evolution from speed, thrash metal, to slick, tuneful mainstream metal, but whatever form their music took Metallica infused it with their own sense of majesty, their knack for monster riffs backed by epic soundscapes. ( My first exposure to Metallica was the video for "One". It scared me, I was 7, but I was also profoundly impressed and affected by the drama of the music, and I think that speaks to the unique, broad appeal that sets Metallica apart.)
St. Anger keeps the signtare Metallica stamp, while returning to the raw, brutal metal of their early 80's incarnation. Metallica doesn't just imitate their early music, though, they twist it. Scratch that. They stick a knife into it and twist it, and they keep twisting until it hurts. The production is spare and hungry. The guitars swerve and crash, stop and start. James' vocals crack and strain under the weight of his emotional release ("Fran-tic-tic-tic-tick-tock, Fran-tic-tic-tic-TICK-TOCK!") St. Anger is harsh at first listen, but it will grow on you.
*******
"Make me call my homey on the phone
Like there's somethin new out, that got me in the zone
Just that feelin, got me
I wish music could adopt me"
----Erick Sermon
I'm a reader, did you count me?!
On St. Anger: Even the G had trouble listening to Lars's trash-can drumming. It's a little loud for me, but I'm getting used to it. Surely not a smooth as the Black Album. That was heavy metal flowing. This is heavy metal twitching.
Posted by: Ram at June 17, 2003 12:01 PM