The second episode of this year’s What We Do In The Shadows is a masterpiece of the ridiculous.
One of the things that made the original film by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement so much fun was the way it asked all kinds of questions inherent to the concept of vampires, questions that no one ever asks in fiction, and the way it brought in almost every pop cultural version of the vampire to interact with one another. Week to week, the show pushes it even further, and I think they’ve had enormous fun with the concept of the familiar on the show, with Guillermo emerging as one of the most quietly delightful characters on TV right now.
If you’re not watching it or not familiar with it, the film was a mockumentary about four vampires sharing a house in Wellington, and one of the things that was so great about it was the mundane approach to everything. It’s that kind of detail that continues to be so funny on the show, like what happens when a vampire in mist form accidentally gets run through an air purifier. There’s a sophistication to the visual gags that is impressive, and a willingness to be silly that I just adore. So far, this season had a zombie in the first episode and now ghosts in the second, which was appropriately enough titled “Ghosts.” It gets into some very weird ideas, and it milks those weird ideas (and Matt Berry, evidently) for all they’re worth. I am impressed at how technically adept and limber the comedy is here. It’s very FX-heavy at times, but it is handled with a light touch. That’s something that can elude even some of our most talented comedy filmmakers at times, so I’m impressed by how consistent they’ve been with this film and the series.
We kicked our Saturday off with Tin Men, the Barry Levinson comedy set in 1963 Baltimore. Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito star as two aluminum-siding salesman who meet over a car accident, launching them into an escalating series of incidents in which they try to screw each other over, eventually involving DeVito’s wife, played by Barbara Hershey. This might be my favorite Levinson film. I genuinely like it more than Diner, which it has a lot in common with. There’s a comedy rhythm here that feels very much like Diner, especially when it’s just salesmen sitting around in restaurants or bars talking to each other. At one point, one guy observed, “I don’t get Bonanza. It’s the story of a 50-year-old rancher and his three 47-year-old sons,” and in any other film, that’s an A+ joke that you give center-stage. Here, it’s just one more hand grenade in a whole flurry of them, one great line after another landing, delivered by an absolutely insane cast of character actors including Seymour Cassel, Bruno Kirby, J.T. Walsh, Richard Portnow, Stanley Brock, Michael Tucker, and towering over everyone, John Goddamn Mahoney.
I haven’t seen the film in years, and watching it today, the only thing about it that struck me as bizarre is the way Fine Young Cannibals got shoehorned into the film as the house band. At the time the film came out, it vanished without a trace, but the FYT cover of “Good Thing” was a pretty solid MTV hit. It overshadowed the film, but that was not uncommon at the time. The marketing machine could turn a hit single into a pretty big buzz hit, and they’d pack the video with clips for the film, and then the film would just go belly-up. I think they blew it here, because the video didn’t feature any clips from the movie, and that might have helped. Then again, it would have made for a really strange fit because the film wasn’t exactly aimed at teenagers or meant to be digested in quick surface images. It’s a shame. The film is incredibly rich, and if you’re a fan of any of the names I listed, from the stars to the supporting players, then you should definitely either revisit or discover this film immediately.
Bonus points for DeVito’s Baltimore accent, which can make the word “toast” a real rollercoaster ride.
Today’s question, then, is what music video do you most remember that was a movie tie-in where the song dwarfed the film in your memory?
I’ll throw in one of the champs here to kick things off…
This is the Saturday Free-For-All, so as always, you’re welcome to bring up anything here. This is just a suggestion, but it could be fun as we’re all spending another Saturday on lockdown.
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Image courtesy of FX Networks Image courtesy of Touchstone Pictures
At a "Doctor Who" convention in 2018 I performed this song for karaoke and found that for the generation of Pearl Mackie (Bill Potts' actress from Capaldi's final season) this song is better known for a Mariah Carey cover than anything. :D
Watched the original “Lonesome Dove” miniseries after doing the two prequel minis that were done later first. (Decided to watch them chronologically.) It’s amazing the difference it makes that the character writing in “Dove” is so much more incisive. The two prequels were a couple of hours shorter, but they felt longer.
Rewatched “Fantasia” on Disney+ and it’s amazing to thing they got away with some of the things they did- especially during the “Pastoral”- in 1940. I still love that movie.
Also did a virtual group screening with my wife and a couple we know of “Shutter Island.” I was the only one who had seen it before. It drew people in, and the theories were fun.
Ooh, what a great question! I'll give two answers: One in which the music single / video actually did eclipse a terrible film and one in which I personally believe the music single / video was far better than the movie it was in although the movie was also a giant blockbuster hit.
So where the music single / video is great but the movie sucked? That would be, "Nobody's Fool," the excellent Kenny Loggins theme song for the God-awful Caddyshack II. It's an honestly great 80's song in one of the worst movies ever made. The best song in a bad movie combo ever.
And where the movie was a blockbuster that made a ton of money even though the movie wasn't that good that also had a great music single / video associated with the film where I think the song is way better than the popular movie? That would be, "Kiss From a Rose," by Seal for the campy mediocrity that was Batman Forever.
Never seen "Caddyshack II" but "Nobody's Fool" is a fabulous song even by Kenny Loggins movie theme standards. Brad Jones, as the Cinema Snob, reviewed the movie; he later had a gag in an "upcoming movies of 2020" video in which "Nobody's Fool" is overlaid on the "Top Gun: Maverick" trailer. Why not?
Also, who remembers that his "Meet Me Halfway" was originally for "Over the Top"?
'80s movie songs as ubiquitous as they were, I love finding strange hidden gems among them. My personal favorite might be a great song that wasn't a perfect fit, at least as originally intended, for a great movie -- Bryan Ferry's "Help Me", which was commissioned by the producers of "The Fly" for the end credits, only for David Cronenberg to convince them that -- while he actually liked the song -- it just wasn't the right note to go out on (so to speak) in the wake of Howard Shore's majestic orchestral score. So instead the tune is background music in the first half of the bar scene, and wasn't included on the soundtrack album (it did appear on a Ferry compilation in 1988)...but it still had a single release, and even a video.
No one talks about the music video or the film that it's associated with but I really dug "Painted On My Heart" by The Cult for the soundtrack of the Gone in 60 Seconds remake. I recall little about the film.
Madonna did a number of 80 s and 90s movie songs. Some were for hits like Desperately Seeking Susan or well- received films like Vision Quest. But the biggest gap between the quality of the film and the songs than her flop Who’s That Girl and her songs Who’s That Girl and Causing a Commotion. The
Against All Odds. The Phil Collins video was on MTV every hour. Great movie but didn’t do well.
There was an IMHO-underrated Peter Gabriel song on that same soundtrack: "Walk Through the Fire".
At a "Doctor Who" convention in 2018 I performed this song for karaoke and found that for the generation of Pearl Mackie (Bill Potts' actress from Capaldi's final season) this song is better known for a Mariah Carey cover than anything. :D
“Reality Bites” remains an interesting film, but it’s hard to argue Lisa Loeb’s “Stay” wasn’t the runaway pop-culture smash that people remembered.
Watched the original “Lonesome Dove” miniseries after doing the two prequel minis that were done later first. (Decided to watch them chronologically.) It’s amazing the difference it makes that the character writing in “Dove” is so much more incisive. The two prequels were a couple of hours shorter, but they felt longer.
Rewatched “Fantasia” on Disney+ and it’s amazing to thing they got away with some of the things they did- especially during the “Pastoral”- in 1940. I still love that movie.
Also did a virtual group screening with my wife and a couple we know of “Shutter Island.” I was the only one who had seen it before. It drew people in, and the theories were fun.
Ooh, what a great question! I'll give two answers: One in which the music single / video actually did eclipse a terrible film and one in which I personally believe the music single / video was far better than the movie it was in although the movie was also a giant blockbuster hit.
So where the music single / video is great but the movie sucked? That would be, "Nobody's Fool," the excellent Kenny Loggins theme song for the God-awful Caddyshack II. It's an honestly great 80's song in one of the worst movies ever made. The best song in a bad movie combo ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5N6-38EhLE
And where the movie was a blockbuster that made a ton of money even though the movie wasn't that good that also had a great music single / video associated with the film where I think the song is way better than the popular movie? That would be, "Kiss From a Rose," by Seal for the campy mediocrity that was Batman Forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMD2TwRvuoU
Man, that song is what kids today call "fire." Fantastic make-out song in the summer of '95, and well, now, too.
Never seen "Caddyshack II" but "Nobody's Fool" is a fabulous song even by Kenny Loggins movie theme standards. Brad Jones, as the Cinema Snob, reviewed the movie; he later had a gag in an "upcoming movies of 2020" video in which "Nobody's Fool" is overlaid on the "Top Gun: Maverick" trailer. Why not?
Also, who remembers that his "Meet Me Halfway" was originally for "Over the Top"?
'80s movie songs as ubiquitous as they were, I love finding strange hidden gems among them. My personal favorite might be a great song that wasn't a perfect fit, at least as originally intended, for a great movie -- Bryan Ferry's "Help Me", which was commissioned by the producers of "The Fly" for the end credits, only for David Cronenberg to convince them that -- while he actually liked the song -- it just wasn't the right note to go out on (so to speak) in the wake of Howard Shore's majestic orchestral score. So instead the tune is background music in the first half of the bar scene, and wasn't included on the soundtrack album (it did appear on a Ferry compilation in 1988)...but it still had a single release, and even a video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ1ou28DMEw
And elsewhere in the weird wonderful world of Brooksfilm, Smokey Robinson's "Love Will Set You Free" -- the theme from..."Solarbabies"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hhPpCwqKoY
"Invincible" by Pat Benatar from "The Legend of Billie Jean"
No one talks about the music video or the film that it's associated with but I really dug "Painted On My Heart" by The Cult for the soundtrack of the Gone in 60 Seconds remake. I recall little about the film.
Madonna did a number of 80 s and 90s movie songs. Some were for hits like Desperately Seeking Susan or well- received films like Vision Quest. But the biggest gap between the quality of the film and the songs than her flop Who’s That Girl and her songs Who’s That Girl and Causing a Commotion. The
Oops, got this published too early. The songs aren’t absolute classics but they are a lot better than the film.