Maria Bethania: Music Is Perfume

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Brazilian Bio-Pic Takes Loving Look at Musical Career of Legendary Samba Singer

Maria Bethania is a legendary samba singer whose siren call has stirred the souls of her fellow Brazilians for generations. Now in her sixties, the full-throated diva proves here that she is still capable of delivering a ballad in heartrending fashion. The performance-driven picture features plenty of concert footage, offset by interviews with friends, family (including her brother, composer Caetano Veloso) and Maria herself.
Her career began in 1964 and has endured enough for her to release 30 albums thusfar. The movie amounts to the cinematic equivalent of a fanzine, a delightful musical montage during which Maria meanders through the classic hits from her extensive repertoire.
Offstage, Maria is at her best while sharing her feelings about music, such as when she describes samba as “sadness dancing. That is the very essence of samba.” Equally evocative are the moments when she talks about the genre’s history, describing it as “a black people’s lament.” Acknowledging a debt owed to African slaves, she goes on to say that “We were colonized by the Portuguese, but our heritage, the richness of our music, is black.”
And to think I always blamed it on the bossa nova.

Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
In Portuguese with subtitles.
Running time: 82 minutes
Studio: ArtMattan Productions

To see a trailer of Maria Bethania: Music Is Perfume, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgB6T8sZKoE

Youssou N'Dour: Return to Goree

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Afro-Jazz Documentary Retraces Slave Trade Route

Described by Rolling Stone Magazine in 2004 as “perhaps the most famous singer alive,” Grammy award-winner Youssou N'Dour has been touring the world playing his genre-defying brand of jazz since the Seventies. The Senegalese tenor is a self-described griot/storyteller/percussionist/composer/emcee and bandleader of a group which effortlessly blends elements of African, Latin, gospel, rock and pop.
Youssou is also a dedicated social activist who has been involved over the years with a variety of human rights causes, including Amnesty International, Live 8, UNICEF, and the anti-Apartheid movement. Return to Goree is a performance flick which mixes music with a history lesson about the slave trade. The movie is essentially comprised of a series of recording, rap and jam sessions in America, then Europe, and finally Africa, where the closing credits roll during a concert staged at a scenic, seaside slave castle in Dakar.
Though frequently unfocused in spots, the film accurately captures the freewheeling feeling of the lifestyle of a roaming troubadour capable of calling anyplace he hangs his fez home. As he perambulates the planet, Youssou gradually amasses a multi-ethnic ensemble of accompanists. By the time of the big finale, among his sidemen are drummer Idris Muhammad and vocalist Pyeng Threadgill.
However, as important as the tunes are the contributors’ (including poet Amiri Baraka’s) insights about the Middle Passage and the toll that slavery took on displaced Africans throughout the diaspora. Fortunately, despite the tragedy which decimated the continent’s population for several centuries, the music in Return to Goree stands as a testament to the fact that folks figured a way to nourish their souls and thus somehow survive in the face of a cruel system of absolute subjugation determined to crush their spirits at every turn.
Listening to a tour guide positioned before the infamous “Door to the Journey of No Return” talk about how black families were deliberately separated at that spot, with the mother being sent, say, to Brazil, the father to Louisiana, and the children scattered among Haiti, Cuba and the Antilles, this profound picture chillingly conveys a palpable sense of what being a direct victim of the evil institution might have felt like and why the fallout persists to this day like the proverbial ripples on a pond.

Excellent (3.5 stars)
Unrated
In French and English with subtitles.
Running time: 108 minutes
Studio: ArtMattan Productions

To see a trailer of Youssou N'Dour, visit: http://www.retouragoree.com/trailer.html

Keke Palmer: The Longshots Interview

with Kam Williams

Headline: Kicking It with Keke

Lauren Keyana Palmer was born on August 26, 1993 in Harvey, Illinois to Sharon, an elementary school teacher, and Lawrence, a salesman. The second of four children, Keke showed such promise at an early age that her parents decided to relocate the family to Los Angeles when she was just nine years-old. And that same year, she made her screen debut as Ice Cube’s niece in Barberbershop 2: Back in Business.
Then, after bit roles on such TV series as Cold Case, Law & Order, ER, she found international fame as the title character in the critically-acclaimed Akeelah and the Bee for which she won an NAACP Image Award and a host of other accolades. Also, in 2006, she played Tyler Perry’s feisty foster child in Madea’s Family Reunion. Since then, the versatile actress/singer has released her own CD on Atlantic Records, So Uncool, and she’s appeared in the Ludacris/Mary J. Blige video for the song Runaway Love.
Here, she talks about her new movie, The Longshots, a bio-pic about Jasmine Plummer, the first female quarterback to lead her team to the Pop Warner Superbowl.

KW: Hey, Keke, thanks for the time.
KP: No problem.
KW: I was just telling your father that your performance in Akeelah and the Bee was very powerful, and had me in tears.
KP: Oh, thank you very much.
KW: Where did you think all that talent came from at such a young age?
KP: I started singing regularly in the choir with my mom. I think it comes from the encouragement my parents and my church gave me to follow my dreams and they’re telling me that I could achieve anything. So, I’ve always felt confident and secure, and was able to be myself and to have a good time. And when the acting came up, I just applied that same approach to movies and television.
KW: I imagine you received a lot of positive feedback after playing the inspirational role of Akeelah.
KP: Yes I did. And because of that movie’s message, I was approached by lots of community organizations like the Girls Scout, It’s Cool to Be Smart and Urban Farming.
KW: I know your mom’s a schoolteacher. Are you home schooled by her?
KP: She was my teacher for a little while, after we first moved to Los Angeles. But now I work independently, except for when I’m shooting a film. When I’m on set, I have a tutor.
KW: After the success of Akeelah and the Bee, were fans always asking you to spell words?
KP: People would sometimes ask me to spell stuff, but I didn’t really feel any pressure.
KW: What interested you in The Longshots?
KP: What mainly interested me in the role was that it was so inspirational. And not only that, but because it’s a true story, I thought it would really motivate young girls to pursue their dreams
KW: After playing Jasmine Plummer, are you going to feel pressure to prove yourself as a football player?
KP: Well, I think the movie speaks for itself, because that was really me playing.
KW: How did you prepare for the role?
KP: I practiced for about four months, getting my arm ready, and then learning the footwork.
KW: Had you ever played football before that?
KP: Oh no, I didn’t have any experience in it at all.
KW: Are you a football fan, now?
KP: Not watching it, but I like playing.
KW: How did you like working with Ice Cube?
KP: It was a lot of fun. I was really excited to work with him one-on-one, because he gave me my first break in Barbershop 2. It was a small role, but it was the second I had ever auditioned for, and the first one I ever got.
KW: How did you get along with Tasha Smith who plays your mother?
KP: Great! I worked with her on the TV show Second Time Around when I first came to California, and I was happy to work with her again because she’s so nice.
KW: What message do you hope kids will take away from this movie?
KP: That you can achieve anything, as long as you put your mind to it, whatever it is, even if it’s supposed to be only for boys, or only for girls, for that matter. You can go as far as you want to go.
KW: Did you ever meet Jasmine Plummer, the girl The Longshots was based on?
KP: Yes, I did. I met her towards the end of the filming. She’s a very nice girl. And luckily, I portrayed her as she was. And I think she was glad about that.
KW: Are you planning to record another CD soon?
KP: No, I just departed from the record label that put out my first album in ’07. So, I’m just going to be doing little stuff here and there, and maybe some soundtracks.
KW: Well, music maven Heather Covington wants to know who you’re you listening to right now.
KP: Hmm… I’m listening to a lot of people. I love Rhianna.
KW: You’re turning 15 soon. How do you plan to celebrate your birthday?
KP: I don’t know what I’m going to do. Maybe something small.
KW: Bookworm Troy Johnson wants to know, what was the last book you read?
KP: The last book I read was a novel by Jerry Spinelli called Stargirl.
KW: If you were old enough to vote, who would you vote for for President?
KP: Obama.
KW: The Columbus Short question: Are you happy?
KP: Yes.
KW: Is there any question nobody ever asks you, that you wish somebody would?
KP: No, I think I’ve been asked everything.
KW: How do you fell about the passing of Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes?
KP: I was so shocked when I heard that Bernie Mac had passed. I know he’d been sick for awhile, but I was still really, really sad that he’d died. He was so talented and had worked so hard. I felt the same way about Isaac Hayes. It was so sudden, that I was just shocked. They’re in a better place now, but I’m still sad and we miss them down here.
KW: Are you able to live like a regular teenager? Can you still go to the mall or a movie theater without being followed by fans?
KP: I can most of the time. There are certain situations where they come up to me. I only get noticed if I stand around for a long time.
KW: Do you have a website?
KP: Yes I do, it’s www.kekepalmer.com .
KW: Do you answer your fan mail yourself?
KP: Yes I do.
KW: Nosy “Realtor to the Stars” Jimmy Bayan asks: Where in L.A. do you live?”
KP: In Altadena, about 20 minutes from L.A.
KW: I see you’ll be playing the title character on a new TV show this fall on Nickelodeon.
KP: Yeah, it’s called True Jackson, V.P. It’s about a 15 year-old girl who gets a vice president’s job at a fashion company.
KW: Well, thanks again for the interview, and I wish you the best of success as you continue to blossom into a beautiful young lady.
KP: Thank you very much.

The Longshots

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Keke Palmer Plays Another Underdog in Sentimental Family Flick

In 2003, Jasmine Plummer made history as the first female ever to play quarterback in the Pop Warner Football League. However, the competitive 11 year-old, not content just to cross the gender line, went on to lead her team all the way to the Pee Wee Division Superbowl.
Now, the talented tomboy’s real-life exploits are the subject of The Longshots, a sentimental bio-pic directed by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, of all people. The singer-turned-director brings Jasmine’s life story to the big screen as an against-the-odds sports saga which seeks to tug on your heartstrings at every opportunity.
The film features Keke Palmer in a very familiar role as the same sort of spunky underdog she played in Akeelah and the Bee. But instead of spelling her way to the National Bee in Washington, DC, here her character accomplishes a series of equally-unlikely feats on the gridiron.
Jasmine also has innumerable personal obstacles to overcome off the field, starting with the trauma of abandonment by a father (Malcolm Goodwin) she hasn’t seen in five years. His conspicuous absence has, in turn, translated into less quality time with her exhausted mom (Tasha Smith) who has to work long hours at the diner to make ends meet.
Things are no better for Jasmine in the halls of Minden Middle School where she tries to make friends with members of the fashion club. The lonely social zero only finds herself mercilessly teased by mean girls who hand her a plunger to unclog bathroom toilets since her surname is a homonym for “plumber.”
A blessing in disguise arrives in Jasmine’s Uncle Curtis (Ice Cube), a smelly, down-and-out alcoholic who walks around their blue-collar community cradling a football every where he goes. The former high school standout’s need to clean up his act conveniently dovetails with his niece’s for a father figure and an after-school activity.
Of course, it isn’t long before Curtis is teaching her to play quarterback, and putting her on an austere training regimen, ala the Karate Kid’s Mr. Miyagi. When his promising protégé is ready, he encourages her to try out for the Browns, much to the dismay of the misogynist boys who respond to her presence with wisecracks like, “I’m going to knock her out of her training bra.”
Nonetheless, in fast order, Jasmine’s ability soon wins first their respect, then the starting job, followed by a string of wins that takes the team to the title game. While The Longshots doesn’t have nearly the charm of Akeelah and the Bee, at least this well-intentioned variation on the theme offers as wholesome and moving a message likely to be appreciated by minors.
A pleasant, if predictable, tale of female empowerment ideal for the under ten set.

Good (2 stars)
Rated PG-13 for mild epithets, mature themes and crude humor.
Running time: 94 minutes
Studio: MGM/The Weinstein Company

To see a trailer for The Longshots, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WM6w6hTfHE

What Happens in Vegas… DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Kutcher and Diaz’s Battle-of-the-Sexes Comedy Comes to DVD

New Yorker Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz) has just been unceremoniously dumped by her fiancé at a surprise birthday party she threw for him. Meanwhile, somewhere across town, slacker Jack Fuller (Ashton Kutcher) is being fired from the family business by his bitterly disappointed father (Treat Williams).
Both of these sad sacks venture to Vegas to lick their wounds, Joy accompanied by her best friend, Tipper (Lake Bell), Jack by his buddy, Hater (Rob Corddry). Fate conspires to have the four cross paths when their hotel accidentally assigns them to the same room.
And although misogynistic Hater and man-hating Tipper instantly dislike each other, Joy and Jack hit it off so well that they impulsively decide to get married after a night of imbibing and debauchery. However, by the time their hangovers wear off the next morning, they realize they have nothing in common. So, saner heads prevail and the newlyweds agree to get a quickie divorce.
But just as they are about to go their separate ways, Jack deposits one of his bride’s quarters in a slot machine, and wouldn’t you know he hits a $3,000,000 jackpot. Because they can’t agree on how to divvy up the cash amicably, the greedy couple ends up in divorce court where the judge (Dennis Miller) sentences them to live together for six months before he’ll render a decision.
Joy reluctantly moves into Jack’s apartment and the two proceed to drive each other crazy in a standoff with nothing new to offer to anyone familiar with the battle-of-the-sexes genre. He gets under her skin with alpha-male antics like urinating in the sink and leaving the toilet seat up, and she’s no angel either, relying on shrewish Tipper for advice about how to torture her hubby.
A recycled romantic comedy best left in Vegas.

Fair (1.5 stars)
Rated PG-13 for sexuality, profanity, crude humor and a drug reference
Running time: 99 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
2-Disc DVD Extras: Director’s commentary, a bonus digital copy of the film, behind the scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, theatrical trailers and additional trailers for other upcoming Fox releases.

To see a trailer for What Happens in Vegas, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJGAsbcfuRs

CNN Presents: Black in America DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: CNN Wastes No time in Releasing Over-Hyped Special on DVD

Just a month after its over-hyped special aired on TV, CNN is already releasing “Black in America” on DVD. Hosted by Soledad O’Brien, the disappointing series originally aired in two parts, the first entitled “The Black Woman and Family,” the second, “The Black Man.”
Unfortunately, each half was less a cohesive study of its subjects than a string of loosely-connected segments each introduced by lame raps by a brother in a cap. Serving up everything but the kitchen sink, it opens with the reunion of an African-American family named Rand that can trace its roots back to a white man who in the 19th Century had seven kids with his white wife and another six with his black mistress.
This storyline builds up to a first-time meeting of the black and white sides of the Rands. What a so called “white patriarch” has to do with “The Black Woman” is beyond me.
After that weird start, the slapdash investigation turns to the question of education. Here, we’re informed that half of all black kids don’t graduate from high school. What else is new? Nothing about this supposedly landmark series struck me as particularly innovative.
My biggest overall problem had to do with the program’s periodic factual inaccuracies, such as when Soledad refers to the riot which erupted in L.A. after the Rodney King decision as the most deadly U.S. riot in 100 years. She conveniently ignores other more bloody incidents like the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 when over 300 blacks were slaughtered by white militiamen. What’s up with that?
Such infuriating mistakes which I was well aware of left me wondering how accurate CNN was when citing statistics I was unfamiliar with, especially since so much anecdotal evidence about rap music, AIDS, skin color, mixed-marriages etcetera sounded awfully subjective.

Fair (1 star)
Unrated
Running time: 160 minutes
Studio: CNN

A/K/A Tommy Chong DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Chronicles Case of Pot Comic Imprisoned after Passing of the Patriot Act

Cheech & Chong were a celebrated comedy duo whose sophomoric brand of humor appealed to stoners because it basically revolved around behaving like their brains had been burnt out fom smoking pot. They came to fame in the Seventies, appearing in a seemingly neverending series of Marijuana movies in which they were typecast as goofy hippies.
After the comedy well ran dry, Chong chose to continue to milk the theme that had made them famous by selling a line of bongs and other drug paraphernalia over the Internet. The business flourished until President Bush came into office and decided to make an example of the 66 year-old head shop supplier.
Attorney General John Ashcroft set up a sting operation in Pennsylvania, one of only two states where it’s illegal to sell pipes and rolling papers. From there, federal agents called Chong in California over 20 times, trying to entrap him into sending some contraband across state lines.
Because Chong repeatedly refused, the frustrated agents finally traveled to West to place a huge order in person, promising to return to pick up the merchandise. But then they began nagging Tommy to mail the goods to an address outside Pittsburgh. After eight months, against his better judgment, he capitulated, since the boxes were taking up half his valuable storage space.
Well, that technical infraction was all that Ashcroft needed, and immediately, helmeted DEA agents with guns drawn swooped down on the house, arresting the entire Chong family. This frightening nightmare ended with Tommy behind bars after pleading guilty only to save his wife and son from a long stint in Federal prison.
A very scary documentary considering the carte blanche accorded Big brother by the Patriot Act.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 80 minutes
Studio: Infinity Entertainment
DVD Extras: an interview with Cheech and Chong, and a featurette showing Tommy at home.