Notes from 7 blog: ‘Locke,’ ‘Lovers’ move from AMC to Lantern
(Posted Wednesday) After one of the busiest weeks of the year, one in which some half-dozen worthy films opened all at once, we return to a bit of quiet, with the mainstream taking the lead. Today’s openings are as follows:
“Maleficent”: Angelina Jolie stars as the presumed “evil” fairy who decrees that the young princess (Elle Fanning) will prick her finger on a spinning wheel, thus falling into her long nap. But this is revisionist, live-action Disney, so don’t expect a reprise of the 1959 animated effort.
“A Million Ways to Die in the West”: Two words: Seth MacFarlane. That’s pretty much all you need to know about this comic look at a Western town and the many comically dangerous things that the “Family Guy” creator finds funny about the Old West.
Meanwhile, the Magic Lantern picks up two of the more interesting films that screened all of one week at AMC River Park Square, both of which are much better fits for Spokane’s only art house theater:
“Locke”: Tom Hardy plays a man driving, driving, driving as he struggles to do what he thinks is right as his life falls apart around him. I’m reminded of the old tagline for the TV series “The Naked City”: “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.”
“Only Lovers Left Alive”: Jim Jarmusch makes a vampire film with two of the coolest bloodsuckers imaginable, Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton. Not much happens, but it all happens with … style.
Dan Webster
Jazzy Spokane
(Posted Thursday) It’s a big week for Spokane jazz fans, as two big-name performers plan gigs at Spokane Falls Community College.
First up is guitarist Bill Frisell. The Bainbridge Island resident is practically a cottage industry of collaboration, having worked with everyone from Ginger Baker and Elvis Costello to Norah Jones and Laurie Anderson. This Grammy winner, called a “wizard of touch and harmony” by the New York Times in January, has recorded nearly 40 albums, the most recent of which is 2013’s “Big Sur.”
His appearance at SFCC on Friday (today) will include Eyvind Kang (viola) and Rudy Royston (drums), with whom he recorded the 2010 album “Beautiful Dreamers.”
The trio will be in the performing arts auditorium (Building 15) from 1 to 2:30 p.m. today. And oh, yeah. The show is free.
Then on Thursday, jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas hits campus with a free master class in the afternoon and a concert that night. Douglas has released more than 20 albums since 1993.
As the Times noted in 2012, Douglas is one of the busiest trumpeter/composers in jazz, and his “body of work reflects an inveterate engagement with the world, taking inspiration from literature, politics, dance and film, as well as jazz and new-music traditions.” No kidding. He once, with his trio Keystone, released a CD of music inspired by silent film star Fatty Arbuckle. “The Infinite,” from 2001, featured music inspired by Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) and Rufus Wainwright. (His guest star on the 2004 record “Strange Liberation”? Frisell.)
The free master class will be held in the Building 15 auditorium from 12:30 to 2 p.m. on Thursday. The evening’s concert will be held in the same space, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 general, $10 for students, available at the SFCC cashier’s office, Amend Music Center, Hoffman Music, or through any TicketsWest outlets.
SFCC is located at 3410 W. Fort George Wright Drive. For information on the Douglas show, call (509) 533-3757. For details on the Frisell show, call (509) 533-3741.
Carolyn Lamberson