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Cadillac Records
Very Good 66 Points 2008

Cadillac Records features truly great music, sexy antics and charismatic portrayals of legendary performers, yet it somehow leaves you blue. Unlike listening to the blues, watching its performers indulge in the proto rockstar life is vicariously wild yet unsatisfying to the soul. I suppose th…

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WikChip Video Muddy & The Stones - "Baby Please Don...
Chuck Berry Hai...
None Yet 0 Points 1987
Classic Albums:...
Good 66 Points 2006

‘Quit singing and jam’ remains my reaction to many Cream songs, including from their defining album. So it’s less than optimal that this rockumentary focuses on Disraeli Gears’ lyrics, lyricists and singing.

David Fricke’s commentary is terrific however.

More to the point, their music ser…

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WikChip Video Sunshine of Your Love 4 R&R HoF Induc...
Classic Albums:...
Great 66 Points 2001

There are classic albums. Then there’s the original classic album – Elvis Presley – the first Rock-and-Roll album to top the charts and the one that introduced its King to mainstream America. Thus this 49 minute documentary tells much more than the story of an album. It documents a seminal m…

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WikChip Image Classic Album Covers Start Here
Classic Albums:...
Good 66 Points 1999

Who’s Next fans – and who’s not – will be delighted by this 50 minute documentary. More celebratory than insightful, it also suffers from a few omissions. However it’s all good when Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle marvel at how their benchmark album came into existence. Long…

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WikChip Image Genius at work with his synthesizer
Coco Chanel & I...
OK 66 Points 2010

Visually scintillating, musically avant-garde, dramatically turgid: This biopic of two cultural giants goes down like Brussels sprouts instead of foie gras. IOW, it takes effort to work through the two hour running time, when it should feel like savoring a rich delicacy. Pity, since Coco & Igor…

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WikChip Image Great design barely trumps turgid drama.
Danny Collins
Great 83 Points 2015

Al Pacino plays faux-rockstar Danny Collins like a demented Neal Diamond, complete with big singalong. Danny Collins instantly enters the Pacino Pantheon, Extreme Extrovert Wing. Rockstar Al is in the house.

The film is entirely high concept, albeit inspired by a real story: John Lennon wro…

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WikChip Video The Story of Danny Collins
Dope
Really Great 83 Points 2015

Dope is brilliant and features more fresh talent than any movie in years. Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Kimberly Elise, Chanel Iman, Quincy Brown, Blake Anderson, Zoë Kravitz & A$AP Rocky are as attractive and compelling a cast as any comedy could have. Clemons & Iman simply si…

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WikChip Video Now this is fresh.
Eat That Questi...
Good 66 Points 2016

Eat That Question is well titled. Frank Zappa in His Own Words is FZ waxing loquacious, repeatedly. Zappa, the pugnacious, contradictory and iconoclastic rockstar, indeed the consummate rockstar, trades heavily on his privilege and arrogance, by turns funny, shocking and ridiculous, a Trump t…

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WikChip Video Václav Havel was a big Zappa fan.
Gaga: Five Foot...
Really Great 17 Points 2017

This well done documentary gets more personal than most, and the fact that Gaga herself made herself so vulnerable for the documentary is impactful. The lady is dramatic both on stage and in real life, but what I learned is that she’s an utmost driven professional, and the quality of her life’s…

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