What the Right Soundtrack Does for a Movie Like "The Help"

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Trailers & Video Coming to Theaters In Theaters New on DVD Trailers by Genre Trailers by Decade Movie Mix Tape What the Right Soundtrack Does for a Movie Like "The Help" Posted by Nina Hämmerling Smith on Aug 9 2011 Nina Hämmerling Smith full bio of Nina Hämmerling Smith Tweet Any period-piece movie runs the risk of sounding tone-deaf to the nuances of the times. Add to the mix a controversial or emotionally laden theme and the result can be decidedly off-key. But the right music doesn't just set the tone for the movie; it can add the weight of history and emotional authenticity. 

Such is the case in The Help, the new movie about a young white would-be author in early-'60s Mississippi and the African-American maids whose stories she wants to tell.

Based on the bestselling novel by Kathryn Stockett, the movie stars Emma Stone (Easy A, Zombieland) as Skeeter, an ambitious college grad whose mother just wants her to find a nice man and settle down; Viola Davis (Doubt, Traffic) as Aibileen, the long-suffering maid who raises countless white children but has a crisis of identity after losing her own son; and Octavia Spencer (Seven Pounds, Ugly Betty) as the irrepressible maid Minny, whose tongue gets her in trouble with her employers.

It's about a moment that represented a crossroads for both race relations and political activism in the U.S. Music, of course, played a vital role in that struggle, both as nostalgia and as an agent for change.

The soundtrack for The Help tells the story in song, with choices that represent the disparate currents of the time. Here's the full track listing: 

1. "The Living Proof," Mary J. Blige
2. "Jackson," Johnny Cash and June Carter
3. "Sherry," Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
4. "I Ain't Never," Webb Pierce
5. "Victory Is Mine," Dorothy Norwood
6. "Road Runner," Bo Diddley
7. "Hallelujah I Love Her So," Ray Charles
8. "The Wah-Watusi," The Orlons
9. "Personality," Lloyd Price
10. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," Bob Dylan
11. "Let's Twist Again," Chubby Checker
12. "Don't Knock," Mavis Staples

 
Other than the theme by Mary J. Blige (who has said that she was inspired by her aunt, "one of those women," when writing "The Living Proof" for the movie) and the legendary Mavis Staples' "Don't Knock" (which came out in 2010), all of the songs are time capsules from the era.

There's the late-'50s honky-tonk of Webb Pierce's "I Ain't Never" alongside dance crazes ("The Wah-Watusi" and "Let's Twist Again"). There's inspirational gospel ("Victory Is Mine," in addition to Staples' "Don't Knock") and country royalty ("Jackson," by Johnny Cash and June Carter). Bo Diddley, who is often credited with making the shift from blues to rock & roll, and soul legend Ray Charles are both featured, along with "Mr. Personality" Lloyd Price. And of course "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," by Bob Dylan, whose songs famously fomented social upheaval.

Just as the different threads of American culture butted heads, overlapped and ultimately inextricably wove together, so did the music of the time. As do the songs on the soundtrack for The Help.
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Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Bill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.Ever since Charlton Heston crumbled in the rising surf, realizing that the alien world overrun by intelligent primates on which he had been marooned was actually Earth thousands of years in the future, Hollywood has tried to trump the original Planet of the Apes. From several early sequels (Beneath, Escape, Conquest, Battle) to a TV series and a misguided 2001 reboot (which director Tim Burton still wishes he could forget), the lure of evolution spiraling out of control has just been too great to avoid. Now, Fox is once again offering a complete overhaul of the franchise, giving us a brand new explanation for the end of humanity and the rise of the chimp. Luckily, it's a late Summer season surprise, a throwback to the days when science fiction could have heart...and a little horror...as part of its often solemn designs.

Will Rodman (James Franco) is an earnest young scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer's Disease. While his company and his boss (David Oyelowo) only see dollar signs, the concerned researcher has a more personal reason for his studies -- his father (John Lithgow) is in the final stages of the disease and Will just can't stand to see him fading away. Unfortunately, most of Will's work is on hold after an "incident" leaves officials less than enthusiastic about further funding. In the aftermath, Will takes a small ape child into his home, hoping to save its life. As the newly dubbed Caesar (Andy Serkis, via motion capture) grows, he shows signs of remarkable intelligence. Later, it's determined that the drug works, and that more animal subjects should be tested. However, when Caesar ends up in a cruel compound filled with others of his kind, he decides that the real enemy is man...and that man has to be destroyed.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an excellent post-modern meditation on animal rights and human complicity in the continuing fulfillment/failure of same. It's a smooth and slick entertainment, loaded with emotional heartbreak and angering abuse. It sets ups its heroes and villains in strange, restricted strokes and then paints in the subtleties once our simian protagonist prepares for revenge. Make no mistake about it, this is a film founded on payback. Caesar is treated like a nominal entity, fine when he's funny and friendly, relegated to a gulag-like "sanctuary" when his behavior becomes more instinctual and uncontrollable. There is a nice dichotomy between what Franco's Will knows about his ape and what the rest of his neighbors see. Their over-reactionary dread helps fuel the animal's shocking stand at the end.

This is a movie that flows effortlessly from idea to idea; it takes nice natural narrative leaps and hopes the audience will go along for the ride. This is not some goofy or gratuitous attempt to cash in on the series name -- someone clearly sat down and took a serious look at how to recreate the classic scenario (fall of Man, rise of Ape) as well as how to make it resonate with a cynical contemporary crowd. All praise to newcomer Rupert Wyatt, whose direction and sense of spectacle are rooted in ideas, not eye candy. The action scenes, when they come, are genuinely exciting and the pathos is clever and well-earned. Even better, it all makes sense. Rise avoids the "Monkey Lincoln" illogic of the 2001 version to, instead, play everything straightforward and sound.

Of course, the excellent CG ape work mostly out-acts its human counterparts and there are a few moments, here and there, where the movie misses opportunities and mishandles important moments. Still, when you consider what it could have become and what it ends up being, Rise of the Planet of the Apes triumphs. It is an excellent example of restrained speculation, something there is very little of in today's slam bang spectacle driven sci-fi.    

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30 Minutes or Less

Winner of several imaginary literary and filmmaking awards.30 Minutes or Less could've been titled Paycheck, since that seems to be the only motivating factor for anyone involved in the movie -- from above-the-title stars to below-the-line crew members -- to actually participate in its creation. Popular, talented, well-known actors run around with as much energy as they can possibly feign, being directed by a talented filmmaker who apparently realized too late that this was the wrong project to take on as a follow-up to his dynamo first feature, and the result feels as phoned-in as an order to the local pizza shack.

Nearly every element feels forced and incongruous in the film, from the screenplay -- which wants desperately to mimic the gleeful chaos of a Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg script like Pineapple Express or The Green Hornet -- to the directing of actors, which must've consisted of director Ruben Fleischer telling his cast, "Go watch any Judd Apatow movie and then act like that." Unfortunately, imitating successful comedy filmmakers does not make a movie funny, or interesting, or even morbidly curious as a failure. This one sits dead on the screen, stringing stale and offensive one-liners through a series of leaden action sequences and telling a story so uninspired, incoherent, and insignificant it barely registers as a potential entertainment.

So how, exactly, did the project attract all this talent? Jesse Eisenberg, fresh off his brilliant Oscar-nominated performance in The Social Network, plays the hero, while the typically hilarious and in-demand Danny McBride plays the villain, with en vogue offbeat comedians Aziz Ansari (Observe and Report) and Nick Swardson (Just Go With It) as their respective sidekicks. Insert Fleischer as director, on the heels of gaining serious cinematic capital after the guns-blazing awesomeness of Zombieland, and one would hope for the summer's smartest, coolest, most anachronistic comedy. But the actors appear less interested with every subsequent line reading, never coming into sync with the quirky charisma that made them stars. And Fleischer, who deftly created his own zeitgeist-y world in his first film, now appears lost in a tonal haze, unable to ignite a single moment of charm, let alone recapture the magic of Zombieland.

The "story" is tissue paper-thin and yet is somehow overly-complicated, with Eisenberg's pizza delivery boy drawn into a bank-robbing scheme by idiot slackers McBride and Swardson. They strap a bomb to the kid's chest (these idiots can build a bomb?) and give him 10 hours (so...maybe call it 10 Hours or Less?) to bring them $100,000 from the local bank, which they will give to a stripper, who will get her hitman boyfriend to kill McBride's rich father (poor Fred Ward) so the slackers can claim the inheritance and use it to open a tanning salon with a backdoor prostitution ring. Comedy gold, right?

A plot this stupid should at least understand its vapidity and take an attitude toward it, but 30 Minutes or Less operates under the apparent assumption that its story is engaging, or that it at least makes sense within a screw-loose comedic context. It doesn't. The movie is a tonal disaster, blending smart-aleck comedy with hard-boiled crime and vague satire with insipid earnestness, all peppered with language and scenarios so ugly and cruel that the only emotion that arises out of 80 minutes of near-constant boredom is uneasy disgust. Raunchy comedy works when it is humane. 30 Minutes or Less seems to use inhumanity as a plot mechanism, and it's not even slick enough hide its disdain under a sheen of professionalism. The actors are bored, the director is lost, the writing is hateful, and the audience will be non-existent.

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Final Destination 5 (2011)

Bill Gibron is a veteran film critic from Tampa, Florida.What does it say about a horror movie -- especially the fifth in a long considered DOA franchise -- that you simply want the storyline to stop and the inventive deaths to occur? Let's face it -- the Final Destination films have long since stopped being interesting as expressions of dread. Instead, it's the creative kills that keep us locked in. This time around, the splatter is just as spiffy, but missing is a sense of urgency, as if the series has actually caught up with the fanbase and realizes no one care about the characters. Still, first time director Steven Quale wants to get all touchy-feely with the targeted individuals and their emotional motives. All we end up caring about is the blood.

After they survive a horrific bridge collapse, the so-called "Lucky Eight" of a local corporate manufacturing interest become convinced that Death itself is out to take back what it has been cheated out of. For wannabe chef Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto), his on-again, off again girlfriend Molly (Emma Bell), co-workers Peter (Miles Fisher), Candice (Ellen Wroe), Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), Isaac (P.J. Byrne), and Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta), as well as their boss Dennis (David Koechner), it appears they are destined to die, one by one. According to a mysterious coroner named Bludworth (Tony Todd), the only way they can escape their fate is to take the life of another. As they begin to perish in more and more peculiar ways, a Federal Agent (Courtney B. Vance) tries to establish some kind of pattern. Of course, when dealing with something as diabolical as the Grim Reaper, all bets are off.

Lacking the spark and spunk of previous installments, Final Destination 5 -- supplanting the supposed finale from two years ago tagged The Final Destination -- is a so-so pseudo slasher. Taking the slice and dice dynamic and modifying it via a supernatural stalker, the results are basically the same as when Jason Voorhees gets a wild hair up his hockey mask. Each film starts with a set-piece (airplane crash, traffic accident, amusement park tragedy, NASCAR pile-up) and the near flawless treatment of the suspension bridge collapse prepares us for something special. But then the script, by Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street remake, the upcoming Thing prequel), keeps trying to get us to care, to worry if Sam and Molly will get back together or if Peter will ever get over the death of his beloved...and nothing hinders suspense more than meaningless melodrama.

Luckily, the killings here are top notch. They do the typical Destination thing -- making us believe one item will do the deadly deed (a random screw, an eye surgeon's laser) before changing up and going all Rube Goldberg on our expectations. Brains fly. Guts explode. Heads are crushed, and torsos are eviscerated. By the time we get to the twist ending (and it's a good one), we've once again experienced a madman's imagination's worth of wounds. Quale's lack of experience can't undermine the fun,. Even the unnecessary 3D fails to put a damper on our brazen cinematic bloodlust.

Since it delivers what we expect in the manner in which we expect it, Final Destination 5 succeeds. It's no classic, and one can easily see the studio continuing to milk this material as long as there are screenwriters capable of concocting crazier and crazier deaths. A word to the wise -- next time, nix all the unnecessary character development and personal backstory.  We fans just want to see gore...and when we get it, the flaws in Final Destination 5 are all but forgotten.

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The Boy Mir: Ten Years in Afghanistan

In the late 6th and early 7th centuries, on what was a Buddhist religious site, monks who lived in small caves on the local mountain carved the largest Buddhas in the world into the side of the Bamiyan cliffs of Afghanistan. As a major cultural monument to religious expression, the statues stood in sculptural splendor with finely detailed textures molded from mud and straw. Most would agree that they were as much art as icons of a major world religion. It is hard to imagine anyone thinking of them as anything less than a treasure of the ages.

On March, 2001, they were gone -- ordered destroyed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of the Taliban, who saw them as "idols" that posed a threat to his uncivilized dogma. Needless to say, most of the rest of the world was shocked and appalled.

In 2004 one man, a documentarian, was moved by this tragedy to go to the site to better understand the loss from the perspective of Afghans who resided in the very caves once occupied by the statues' sculptors.

Though it was the destruction of the Buddhas that brought him to the high altitudes of the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan, 143 miles northwest of Kabul, British director Phil Grabsky (Muhammad Ali: Through the Eyes of the World) knew that his film needed a compelling central figure -- a local person who would consider attention from an outsider with a camera a favorable novelty, and who would be willing to endure the demands of being the subject of a film. This person would, ideally, have a bit of a ham in his or her bones. And it would be through the perspective of such a person that a story would unfold.

It didn't take StarSearch to find that person. As Grabsky was filming a general view of the area, who poked his face into the frame but an impudent eight-year old boy named Mir. The central figure of the film that would become The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan had thus volunteered for a great deal of camera attention, which pleased him as much as it did the filmmaker.

That serendipitous moment got the first part of the story off to a start, and is reprised in this sequel and ten-year followup. The Boy Mir, contains the new film star's maturation from rash eight-year-old with a gleam in his eye to young adult of eighteen and the conflicting impulses that guide him into manhood.

Throughout the footage, a mutuality of dedication to the project is evident between the man behind the camera and his subjects as their difficult lives evolve. Never is there a question of intrusion. Rather, there's an earnestness that suggests the pride Mir and his family take in being the ones chosen for the endeavor. Relating the details of their lives, ordinary and consequential, has become a unique way for an Afghan family of little opportunity to share their triumphs and sufferings with the larger world.

A major family concern throughout the film is Mir's schooling versus a destiny of manual labor in the local coal mines, gathering wood or driving livestock. Both Mir's father Abdul, who suffered a mining accident that ended his days of physical labor, and Mir's older brother Khushdel, the family's essential breadwinner, express the desire to see the boy become more than they ever did. Dad's feelings about his son's schooling wavers as immediate needs pressure him, while big brother remains steadfast in his support of the youngster's betterment.

Growing up, Mir himself is torn by conflicting impulses.  He understands the value of school and study, and understands what it could mean for him and his family, but maintaining status among his peers is an opposing force that is very compelling.  He spends a portion of his meager income for a bicycle (which his excellent brother helps buy) and, when that's destroyed, a motorcycle. Do we judge this as squandering a family's resources or a poor teenager's need for gratification?

The filmmaker captures the universality of such behavior in a country we think of as being too corrupt and fanatical to break out of the chains of its violent history and dysfunctional government. The predominantly secular village of the Bamiyan valley, fortunately left in freedom during a period when the Taliban are elsewhere preoccupied turns this film into a study of generalized human experience.

Grabsky's mosaic of village life shows us glimpses of an overburdened school; of Mir as one of ten young men shoveling a load of coal into a company truck for his cut of $400 a day; of a wealthy man sponsoring races for the young men of the village and paying the winners and runner-ups. We see the extraordinary case of the village residents who, having no taxing authority, chip in for an electric generator and Mir's subsequent delight when he is able to watch TV with his friends and neighbors. We witness the mutual fear between villagers and a two-vehicle military unit on a goodwill patrol, leaving behind a gift of notepads that does little more than provoke cynicism for such inept gestures.  High country landscapes through changing seasons are used to bridge Grabsky's many visits.

The footage of family and community is assembled by editor Phil Reynolds to provide continuity in the ten years of the project, mirroring the physical growth and increasing awareness of the title subject. Mir and brother Khushdel's articulation in the interviews grow in confidence and sense of participation even as they recount frustrations and disappointments in their lives.

There's no happy ending in this slice of life. What this glimpse of a young man's destiny of hardship affords us is the unveiling of realities in a distant place. The impressions it makes are plain and unalloyed, private, intimate, and free of a censor's scissors or a publicist's hype.

The operative word is "free." In a land so endangered by war, religious fundamentalism, and corruption, Mir and his brethren are, at least, free. And we can take to heart the commonalities we share with the most disparate societies on the planet. This documentary may be less than polished, but in conveying an understanding of Afghan culture better than anything we've seen yet, it's well worth its ninety minute screen time, and a lot more.

Aka, O mikros Mir - Deka hronia sto Afghanistan (in the Dari language)

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New on DVD: "Paul" and "Super" -- August 9, 2011

Chris Barsanti has been a Filmcritic reviewer since 2002. So there.Aliens invade weirdly and superheroes play pretend: In Paul, a pair of comic fans are astonished to find themselves in possession of their own little green man, while in Super, an ordinary guy decides to turn himself into a superhero, disregarding that he has no powers to speak of; these and other films ranging from the funny (Your Highness) to the downright disgraceful (Mars Needs Moms) are coming this week to Blu-ray and DVD.

Paul
After taking on the zombie film and action-flick genres in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, writers Simon Pegg and Nick Frost aim for the nerd contingent in this comedy about two British fanboys (played by Pegg and Frost) heading to Comic-Con who pick up a short pothead alien named Paul (Seth Rogen), who's on the lam from the government. Although the film has a smart, knowing take on its geeky subculture, for our critic it never quite took off: "It is fun and clever, but it doesn't push into the next dimension."

Super
James Gunn's ultra-low-budget comedy stars Rainn Wilson as a normal middle-aged guy with nothing special about him who decides to become a superhero named the Crimson Bolt. He's armed with a big wrench, a comic-book-knowledgeable sidekick named Boltie (Ellen Page), and the unerring belief that he is destined to dispense justice however he sees fit. Reality has other ideas, of course, and it's in the uneasy interplay between the hero's vision of his superherodom and how it violently plays out in the real world that our critic thought that the half-ingenious Super was most successful, though admitting that it "still plays like the comic-book version of this material."

Your Highness
Just about what you would expect when the director of the pot-comedy/action flick-satire Pineapple Express decided to take on the fantasy epic genre, this send-up of films like Willow and The Princess Bride (already a satire itself, but never mind...) sends two royal brothers (James Franco and Danny McBride) on a quest to save a fair maiden from an evil wizard. The result is a hyperviolent and awkwardly comedic film that our writer termed a "gratuitous, inventive, and thoroughly outlandish take on Tolkien lore" that "isn't immune from immaturity fatigue."

Jumping the Broom
A nakedly desperate attempt to glom onto the Tyler Perry gravy train, this erstwhile comedy throws together two radically different black families (the groom's side is Brooklyn and working-class, the bride's is Martha's Vineyard and aristocratic) for a big wedding where misunderstandings and hilarity are meant to ensue. "About as joyless as a shotgun wedding and twice as precarious," our critic said, adding that "Jumping the Broom is the kind of movie that makes one long for the backhand to the face farce of Mabel 'Madea' Simmons."

Mars Needs Moms
A low-rent variation on one of Robert Zemeckis's image-capture animated family films, this dour disappointment centers its story around a boy whose mother is captured by Martians and has to rescue her. Our utterly annoyed critic called it "a film that regurgitates witless moronism at the audience for 90 minutes and concludes with an uncomfortable statement about the importance of dominant patriarchy in modern society."

Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Based on a book that Cameron Crowe wrote after going undercover in a California high school, Amy Heckerling's brilliant 1982 comedy of suburban ennui and broken teenage fantasies features Sean Penn as the king of surf-stoners and Jennifer Jason Leigh in a heartwrenching turn as a girl making all the wrong decisions, not to mention a mind-meltingly fantastic soundtrack. Now available on Blu-ray.

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An Oscar for Andy Serkis

John Scalzi is an award-winning science fiction writer.Dear Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:

As you are obviously aware, each year your organization gives out the Academy Awards, the most prestigious film awards in the world, across several categories. It also gives out honorary Academy Awards, which celebrate achievements in film and the film industry that are not covered by a specific category of award.

While these days these honorary Oscars tend to go to older actors and filmmakers to celebrate their body of work (last year's recipients, for example: actor Eli Wallach and director Jean-Luc Godard), they have historically also been awarded to active filmmakers for exceptional effort in specialized fields. In 1968, for example, makeup artist John Chambers was given an honorary Oscar "for his outstanding makeup achievement for Planet of the Apes."

In this latter vein, allow me to suggest to you a person for whom an Honorary Academy Award is amply deserved: Andy Serkis. For what? For his outstanding achievement as an actor in the field of motion capture. And here is why:

1. Because his motion capture roles are integral to his films. It is literally inconceivable to imagine the Lord of the Rings series without Gollum, Peter Jackson's 2005 King Kong without its great ape, or this year's Rise of the Planet of the Apes without Ceasar. These are not lead performances, but they are critical performances, and the success of each of these films to a very large extent rests on how well Serkis acts the role.

Make no mistake: In each case, Serkis' performance is heavily mediated by effects. But also in each case, it's Serkis' initial live-action performance that gives his effects crews the foundation to build on. No amount of special effects will save a bad performance. Which brings us to the second point:

2. Because Serkis' motion capture work is already award-winning. These performances have already garnered significant critical praise and also a few awards: The Toronto Film Critics Association tipped him in 2005 for his motion-capture work on King Kong. In 2003, he won the Best Supporting Actor Saturn Award (a specialty science fiction and fantasy film award) for his work as Gollum in The Two Towers, as well as a Critics Choice Award for Best Digital Acting Performance. His work as Gollum in The Return of the King won him an Empire Award (given by the UK's top film magazine) for Best British Actor. And Serkis, in conjunction with his animation team, won two Visual Effects Society Awards for his work in Return and Kong, and a third for The Two Towers (shared with Elijah Wood and Sean Astin).

3. And so is his non-motion capture work. Serkis' best-known and most influential work has been done as a motion capture actor, and that shouldn't be discounted -- it is its own discipline, and a highly specialized one at that. But Serkis wouldn't be a great motion capture actor if he were not a good actor. Serkis' chops as a live action actor were most recently shown in the 2010 film Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, in which he played Ian Dury, a seminal figure in the British New Wave movement. For the performance, he was nominated for the Best Actor award by BAFTA (the UK's equivalent of the Academy), the British Independent Film Awards and the London Critics Circle Film Awards, and won the category at the Evening Standard British Film Awards. Serkis has also been nominated for an Emmy (in 2008, for his supporting role in Little Dorrit, which aired on PBS), and a Golden Globe (in 2006, for his supporting role in the television biopic Longford). The guy can act, whether he's covered in motion capture dots or not.

But when he is covered in motion capture dots...

4. Serkis gets snubbed -- but everyone else involved in his performance isn't. Which is to say, the visual effects teams that animated the characters of Gollum and King Kong -- or, at the very least, the team leaders -- walked away with Academy Awards, in the category of Best Achievement in Visual Effects. It seems likely the visual effects crew on Rise of the Planet of the Apes will get at least a nod (although The Adventures of Tintin, the upcoming motion capture animated film in which Serkis plays Captain Haddock, won't get a Best Animated Feature nod because of new rules against motion capture films in the category). But Serkis' performances have been nowhere to be seen in the Academy Awards acting slates -- motivated, one suspects, at least partially by an atavistic fear that CGI characters will one day replace live-action actors.

That's a debate for another time, but what isn't a debate is whether Serkis, for a decade of work exploring and expanding the possibilities of motion capture performance, deserves official recognition for his role in the technology, and for his roles as an actor. He does. As the governors of the Academy, you have it in your power to recognize a man who is in his way one of the most significant filmmakers of the last decade. You should consider doing so.

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