New Releases for the Week of July 19, 2019

THE LION KING

(Disney) Starring the voices of Donald Glover, James Earl Jones, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Beyoncé Knowles, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Alfre Woodward. Directed by Jon Favreau

The latest Disney live-action remake of an animated classic and the second by Favreau who helmed the latest version of The Jungle Book, this one follows the adventures of Simba, the young son of the Lion King Mufasa who must take back the crown from the treacherous Uncle who murdered his father and stole his kingdom.

See the trailer, clips, video featurettes and a promo here
For more on the movie this is the website
Genre: Family
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG (for sequences of violence and peril, and some thematic elements)

The Art of Self-Defense

(Bleecker Street) Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandro Nivola, Imogen Poots, Steve Terada. A timid man decides to learn martial arts after being attacked in the streets. However, as he starts developing some much-needed self-confidence, he discovers a darker testosterone-soaked side to his sensei.

See the trailer, clips and video featurettes here
For more on the movie this is the website  
Genre: Comedy
Now Playing: AMC Altamonte Mall, AMC Disney Springs, Barnstorm Theater, Regal Pointe Orlando, Regal Oviedo Marketplace, Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: PG (for thematic elements)

Carmine Street Guitars

(Abramorama) Rick Kelly, Cindy Hulej, Dorothy Kelly, Lenny Kaye. A small, unassuming guitar shop deep in the heart of Greenwich Village is a mecca for great guitarists not only in New York but all over the country. Owner Rick Kelly is one of the last true guitar craftsmen living, fashioning his guitars out of reclaimed wood from buildings 75 years old and more. Cinema365 has already reviewed this, the latest installment in the acclaimed Enzian Music Mondays monthly series; you can read it at the link under Scheduled for Review.

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website  
Genre: Music Documentary
Now Playing: Enzian Theater (Monday only)
Rating: NR

Maiden

(Sony Classics) Tracy Edwards, Jo Gooding, Bruno Dubois, Barry Pickthall. The incredible true story of the first all-female crew to take on the grueling Round the World sailing race through some of the roughest waters on Earth. Likewise, Cinema365 has also reviewed this previously and you can read the review at the link in Scheduled for Review.

See the trailer here
For more on the movie this is the website  
Genre: Documentary
Now Playing: Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: PG (for ] language, thematic elements, some suggestive content and brief smoking images)

ALSO OPENING IN ORLANDO/DAYTONA:

Above the Shadows
Armstrong
Bottom of the 9^th
Ruta Madre
Smile Please
Summer Night

ALSO OPENING IN MIAMI/FT. LAUDERDALE:

Ismart Shankar
Kadaram Kondan</em
Ophelia
Rojo

ALSO OPENING IN TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG/SARASOTA:

Bottom of the 9^th
Iron Sky: The Coming Race
Ismart Shankar
Pathinettam Padi
Smile Please

ALSO OPENING IN JACKSONVILLE/ST. AUGUSTINE:

Ismart Shankar
The Raft

SCHEDULED FOR REVIEW:

The Art of Self-Defense
Carmine Street Guitars
The Lion King
Maiden

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Carmine Street Guitars

Flowers aren’t the gift; flowers come with the gift.

(2018) Music Documentary (Abramorama) Rick Kelly, Cindy Hulej, Dorothy Kelly, Dallas Good, Travis Good, Lenny Kaye, Bill Frisell, Eszter Balint, Jim Jarmusch, Nels Cline, Marc Ribot, Charlie Sexton, Kirk Douglas, Dave Hill, Eleanor Friedberger, Jamie Hince, Stewart Hurwood, Christine Bougie. Directed by Ron Mann

 

It is sometimes depressing to consider how the world has become so commodified. Everything is product now; mass-produced, soulless, disposable. Hand-crafted items are a rarity now, and becoming rarer by the day. Few people take the time or the effort to make things from scratch.

Rick Kelly is one of those people. He has a storefront in Greenwich Village in New York City; the titular Carmine Street Guitars. There, he and his apprentice Cindy Hulej make guitars the old-fashioned way – by hand. Rick uses wood rescued from buildings that have been demolished, buildings that predate the Civil War and I’m not talking about the Marvel movie.

This documentary ostensibly follows the shop for a week in the life, although it doesn’t ostensibly say so. There are pictures on the wall of some of the store’s famous customers (one, a signed photo of Robert Quine, is crooked and no amount of fiddling will straighten it out) which include the late Lou Reed and Bob Dylan. Dylan’s current guitarist, former New Wave pretty boy Charlie Sexton, drops by to test drive one of Rick’s guitars.

In fact much of the film is people dropping by to check out guitars Rick has made or is making. Those dropping by include Nels Cline of Wilco, there to buy a birthday gift for bandmate Jeff Tweedy; jazz guitar legend Bill Frisell who plays some surf guitar hits from early in his career. Lenny Kaye of the Patty Smith Band also drops by to noodle on a guitar as does avant garde guitarist Marc Ribot. No matter what the style of the guitarist, they all sound pretty amazing on Carmine Street guitars.

This is a stream of consciousness kind of cinema verité; there are no talking head interviews, no animated sequences and there is no archival footage. We are always in the moment during the film; we don’t get a lot of context and are left to manufacture that on our own. Kelly is kind of an ex-hippie who has an almost grandfatherly aspect to him; the guitars are his children and his clients prospective adoptive parents. Hulej is even more interesting than the idiosyncratic Kelly (whose 93-year-old mother answers phones and does the books for the store). A platinum blonde goth punk chick, her extraordinary beauty works for her as a cinematic focal point but against her in her career; she talks frankly with Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces that men often don’t take her seriously because of her looks, particularly as a crafter of guitars.

While Hulej seems to primarily be concerned with burning graphics into the guitars, she can also build them and the sense that these two people are artisans in the best sense of the word also points out that they are a disappearing breed. Watching the two of them at work reminds the viewer that there is something special about those who love what they do and take pride in what they make.

I like that Kelly uses old wood – what he calls “the bones of Old New York” – in his craft. That shows not only a sense of history but also of caring very much about not just where he set up shop but what is sold inside of it. It reminds me why New Yorkers consider their city the greatest on Earth and more importantly, why they have a case for that boast. I know that if I played guitar, I’d want to own one of these. Those who love guitars and the people who play them are very much encouraged to see this one.

REASONS TO SEE: Very much a stream-of-consciousness documentary; no talking heads, no animations. Some great guitar noodling by masters of the craft.
REASONS TO AVOID: May not have as much appeal for non-guitar junkies.
FAMILY VALUES: There are some mild profanity.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2018.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 5/15/19: Rotten Tomatoes: 97% positive reviews: Metacritic: 82/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Strad Style
FINAL RATING: 7.5/10
NEXT: Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury