Entertainment

Film Review: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’

Published

10 years ago

May 15, 2015

By Dwight Brown
NNPA Syndication Film Critic

It seems like just yesterday—well three decades ago—when a brash Australian actor, Mel Gibson, stormed on to the screen in the post-apocalyptic Australian Outback action film Mad Max. The original director/writer George Miller has breathed new life into that classic franchise and the result is an absolutely riveting, visually arresting and perfectly acted film that sets up a netherworld where water and gasoline are at a premium, evildoers rule and humanity is down on its luck.

Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy, The Dark Knight Rises), the Road Warrior, is a loner, wandering the desert wasteland until he is caught and imprisoned by pasty white War Boys who have sworn allegiance to a diabolical leader, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, Mad Max), who treats the plebeians who live in his outpost, a Citadel, like peons. He lords over them, with the generosity of Marie Antoinette, sometimes giving them a bit of the coveted commodity H2O.

All fear him except Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron, Monster). She is a warrior who drives a fuel tank rig. Her job is to pick up gasoline, but on one fateful day she goes off course to find her homeland. And she has the Immortan’s wives—breeders—hidden inside her tanker. She’s helping them escape. She and her cargo are being followed—chased by Immortan Joe and his men. Fate puts Max in her path. And so it begins.

As with the original Mad Max, the core of this film is the action sequences, with trucks, tanks, motorcycles and other vehicles in a near constant state of chase and chaos. The stunts, all real and not CGI, are amazing to watch. They are a testament to George Miller’s visionary direction. He sets a style, somewhere between sci-fi, adventure, action and thriller, and rarely takes the pressure off. John Seale’s cinematography is so graphic that the fiery rust color of the Namibian desert is burned in your eyes and the arid parched wilderness so dry you thirst for water. Fight scenes, gun battles, flamethrowers, stabbings and characters dangling in-between menacing wheels… It’s a parade of mind-numbing action (stunt coordinator Guy Norris) that glues your eyes to the screen.

The netherworld that Miller, co-screenwriters Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris and production designer Colin Gibson create looks alternately like a desert war zone, the backstage of a Wagner opera and a stock car race on steroids. There is no preparation for what you will see, even if you can remember the old Mad Max series. There are also moments in which the dialogue is evocative, “My name is Max. My world is fire and blood,” or revealing, “I am the one who runs from both the living and the dead.”

Though Max and Furiosa are enigmatic characters, you don’t feel like you need to know more about them than you do. They have gravitas, as do most of the supporting characters except for the crew of super models who play The Wives. They are a faux pas. They look like refugees from a Victoria’s Secrets ad.

There could be a good debate about who interprets Max better, Mel Gibson or Tom Hardy. Hard to imagine Gibson, in his present state, ever being rough enough to be Max. But back in the day, he handled it well. Tom Hardy, a 37-year-old 5’9” actor looks like an ageless giant on screen. Laconic, tough, mysterious, haunted, his Max is fighting as many demons inside as outside. Theron, who had not found another role as career-defining as her Oscar-winning turn as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, takes this opportunity to show she is all guts. You never question her ability to drive a truck the length of a railroad car, or beat down a warrior, or take a bullet. She is the real deal. Keays-Byrne plays Immortan Joe like a villain from Shakespeare. Very theatrical. Very flamboyant. The more subtle performance comes from Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Days of Future Past), who gives the War Boy named Nux a cunning, devious side and an innocence that makes him more complex than the rest.

When the chase scenes subside, there are moments of depth, clarity and exposition. There are also some lapses in judgment and timing. There are points when the lush cinematography focuses on scenes (The Wives pouting) that belong in a Vogue magazine and not a hardcore action film. There are gaps when people seem to be staring off into space. Clocking in at 120 minutes, the movie can be excused for these faults. Once Furiosa puts her bloodied foot on the accelerator, or Max leaps to another truck to kill a fiend, or a vehicle somersaults and bursts into flames, all is forgiven.

The memories of the original Mad Max series are intact. This is not more of the same. Fury Road takes you down a different trail. More arty, more violent, more relentless, more pageantry. If this is just the first in a series to come, imagine what’s coming next. Just imagine.

Visit NNPA Syndication Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.

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In ‘Affrilachia: Testimonies,’ Puts Blacks in Appalacia on the Map

Published

3 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Oakland Post

Author Chris Aluka. Photo courtesy of Chris Aluka.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez

An average oak tree is bigger around than two people together can reach.

That mighty tree starts out with an acorn the size of a nickel, ultimately growing to some 80 feet tall, with a canopy of a hundred feet or more across.

And like the new book, “Affrilachia” by Chris Aluka Berry (with Kelly Elaine Navies and Maia A. Surdam), its roots spread wide and wider.

Affriclachia is a term a Kentucky poet coined in the 1990s referring to the Black communities in Appalachia who are similarly referred to as Affrilachians.

In 2016, “on a foggy Sunday morning in March,” Berry visited Affrilachia for the first time by going the Mount Zion AME Zion Church in Cullowhee, North Carolina. The congregation was tiny; just a handful of people were there that day, but a pair of siblings stood out to him.

According to Berry, Ann Rogers and Mae Louise Allen lived on opposite sides of town, and neither had a driver’s license. He surmised that church was the only time the elderly sisters were together then, but their devotion to one another was clear.

As the service ended, he asked Allen if he could visit her. Was she willing to talk about her life in the Appalachians, her parents, her town?

She was, and arrangements were made, but before Barry could get back to Cullowhee, he learned that Allen had died. Saddened, he wondered how many stories are lost each day in mountain communities where African Americans have lived for more than a century.

“I couldn’t make photographs of the past,” he says, “but I could document the people and places living now.”

In doing so he also offers photographs that he collected from people he met in ‘Affrilachia,’ in North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, at a rustic “camp” that was likely created by enslaved people, at churches, and in modest houses along highways.

The people he interviewed recalled family tales and community stories of support, hardship, and home.

Says coauthor Navies, “These images shout without making a sound.”

If it’s true what they say about a picture being worth 1,000 words, then “Affrilachia,” as packed with photos as it is, is worth a million.

With that in mind, there’s not a lot of narrative inside this book, just a few poems, a small number of very brief interviews, a handful of memories passed down, and some background stories from author Berry and his co-authors. The tales are interesting but scant.

For most readers, though, that lack of narrative isn’t going to matter much. The photographs are the reason why you’d have this book.

Here are pictures of life as it was 50 years or a century ago: group photos, pictures taken of proud moments, worn pews, and happy children. Some of the modern pictures may make you wonder why they’re included, but they set a tone and tell a tale.

This is the kind of book you’ll take off the shelf, and notice something different every time you do. “Affrilachia” doesn’t contain a lot of words, but it’s a good choice when it’s time to branch out in your reading.

“Affrilachia: Testimonies,” by Chris Aluka Berry with Kelly Elaine Navies and Maia A. Surdam

c.2024, University of Kentucky Press, $50.00.

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Oakland Post: Week of December 18 – 24, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 18 – 24, 2024

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December 20, 2024

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Promise Marks Performs Songs of Etta James in One-Woman Show, “A Sunday Kind of Love” at the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley

“The (show) is a fictional story about a character named Etta, aka Lady Peaches,” said Marks. “She falls in love with Johnny Rhythm, leader of the Rhythm Players Band and headliners of Madam G’s Glitta Lounge.” Marks channeled the essence of Etta James, singing favorites such as “Sugar on the Floor” and “At Last.”

Published

5 days ago

December 18, 2024

Oakland Post

Photo Courtesy Of Promise Marks.

Special to the Post

It was “A Sunday Kind of Love” at the Black Repertory Group Theater in Berkeley on Saturday night, Dec. 7. The one-woman musical based on the music of Etta James featured the multi-talented singer Promise Marks

Marks, who wrote and directed the musical, also owns PM Productions.

Marks channeled the essence of Etta James, singing favorites such as “Sugar on the Floor” and “At Last.”

In between her soulful songs, Marks narrated impactful moments of the love story and journey of blues and forgiveness.

Marks sultry voice carried the audience back to an era that echoed with the power of Black music and a time of great change.

Marks said James shared love for the Black community by singing at gatherings during the Civil Rights Movement uplifting the people.

“She spoke to the movement, spoke to the people, and let her music speak for itself,” Marks said.

Backing the musical’s monologues, images and videos of Etta James are projected for the audience to view. While the production is fictional, Marks infused script with the unfairness and heartbreak James experienced while performing.

Marks performed gospel artist Donnie McClurkin’s “We Fall Down” as she narrated acts of reconciliation and forgiveness among the characters at Johnny Rhythm’s deathbed.

Marks, who regularly sings for the Miss America Pageant, was asked to perform as Etta James last year. “(At the event) a lady yelled out to me: ‘You’re Etta James!’ And then the audience went crazy. I said to myself, ‘I may have something here,’” she said.

Within 12 months, Marks created the musical production, which featured a dozen songs honoring “the great legacy of Etta James,” she said.

Marks says she was saddened to see how Etta James was often judged by the struggles in her life and wanted to offer attendees a more layered view.

“Etta’s life was so big. I want people to know that she was more than her drug addiction,” said Marks. “We can’t make that her legacy. Her catalog is too amazing. You can’t just be that and have the catalog that she (created). I don’t want the addiction to be the focus: I want her music, her element, her sassiness, and what she brought to be the focus – her woman-ness, that she was strong, and I wanted to honor that.”

Set Designer Nora Burnette says she created the set segments to mirror James’ life story. A set designer for BRG since 2016, she explained that her process of researching the scenario and the character serve as her inspiration for her design.

“I try to design a set as close to real life as possible so that the actress can deliver the performance sincerely,” said Burnette. “By creating the right setting, it helps the actors release the true essence of a character.”

The set brought the story to life and absolutely floored Marks. “Once Promise (Marks) saw the actual set, she understood my vision: ‘Wow, you get me. You get it,'” Marks told the designer.

Born Jamesetta Hawkins, Etta James, began her career in 1954 and gained fame with hits such “At Last” and “I’d Rather Go Blind.” She faced a number of personal problems, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album “Seven Year Itch.”

Co-producer and BRG Development Director, Sean Vaughn Scott, works with Overseer Production. According to producer Pamela Spikes, “Marks talent truly does Etta’s life story justice.”

Pam Jacobs of Hercules, a friend of Marks’ mom, Jackie Smith, said, Marks “was fabulous and sang all of those songs flawlessly.”

“I’m so proud of my daughter,” said Smith.

Marks, who has served as an instructor for BRG, will return on Feb. 21- 23 for an encore run of the musical.

“It’s an honor to be a part of the BRG (Black Repertory Group) family and continue our executive director Dr. Mona Vaughn Scott’s vision for the Black Repertory Group theater,” said Marks.

The Black Repertory Group Theatre is located at 3201 Adeline St., Berkeley, CA 94703. For information, visit: BlackRepertoryGroup.com