Searching for Sugarman: The Story of Sixto Rodriguez

 

Many of us would like to believe in destiny. Many of us wander our way through life, satisfied in the knowledge that our path may already be laid out ahead of us. Others jump from dream to dream, waiting for fate to find them. Yet, no matter the journey, all of us yearn to reach the same destination, our fate, our happily ever after. Your dreams may become reality, or they could forever remain unreachable, a work of fiction.

Directed by Malik Bendejoull, Searching for Sugarman is a documentary film detailing the fascinating life of 1970’s musician Sixto Rodriguez. “Who”, I hear you ask? Well, the unfortunate truth is that if this is the first time you’re reading about Rodriguez, the likelihood is you, like many others, have never heard of him.

video via studiocanaluk

Rodriguez lived his life on the mean streets of 1960/70’s Detroit. He is described as being a drifter, a lost soul, and not much more than a homeless man, who would spend his days doing odd jobs and playing music around the city. Those who had contact with Rodriguez maintain his mysterious, prophet like image. He was a good man, who kept himself to himself, and until the release of Searching for Sugarman in 2012, those who had heard of Rodriguez had very little to add to that information.

After becoming somewhat of a local mystery, Rodriguez released Cold Fact in 1970, followed by Coming from Reality a year later. Both albums dramatically flopped in the US and Sixto was swiftly dropped from his label. Thought to have become depressed, he later committed suicide, allegedly shooting himself in the head during a performance in a local Detroit bar, though this information cannot be confirmed.

Compared by his management to Bob Dylan, in terms of song writing ability, the tragedy of Sixto Rodriguez represents how life has a funny way of putting you on a path to destiny.

South Africa was a dangerous place in the 1970’s. With apartheid in full swing, the troubled country was a cultural boycott. A behind closed doors situation, damaged by violence and racial tensions, with some events described as resembling the holocaust. Nobody is quite sure how the first copy of Cold Fact found itself in the country, but that album would change life in South Africa forever.

By 1975, Cold Fact was a platinum selling album in the country. Rodriguez’s music inspired musicians across the country to stand up and take action against their government. “Anti-Establishment” was not even a recognized word in South Africa before it appeared on a Rodriguez record. Cold Fact and Coming from Reality taught the South African people, of all races and creeds, that it was fine to be angry at the government.

Elvis; the Beatles; Bob Dylan; Cat Stevens, you name it, Rodriguez was bigger.  Bendejoull’s Oscar winning masterpiece is an absolute must watch for fans of film, music and life. This is not a review, nor a recommendation. It is a command. If you’ve ever had a dream, this documentary is for you, and one is assured, the best is yet to come.

See the Studio Canal UK trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKXewWDh1og

Leonardo Dicaprio and that elusive Oscar.

Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr, Johnny Depp, and even our Inside Film favourite Bill Murray, are just a few of countless examples of superstar actors who have, surprisingly, never won an Oscar.

However, none ever seemed more surprising than the case of Leonardo DiCaprio, possibly the most “A-list” one of all. In recent years, the capture of “Leo” as your lead or supporting actor almost guaranteed Box Office success.  His four film partnership with master director Martin Scorsese has provided some of the most complete pictures of the last two decades.

The Aviator picked up five Oscars in 2004, whilst the Departed took four in 2007. He was the main event of the $160 million dollar blockbuster Inception, which also won four Oscars. The joint highest academy award winning film in one year, Titanic, which took eleven, co-starred DiCaprio in what once was the highest grossing film of all time, second only to Avatar.

Did DiCaprio ever really stand a chanc of winning an Oscar in 2014? "Absolutely ****ing not. image via www.awardsdaily.com

Did DiCaprio ever really stand a chanc of winning an Oscar in 2014? “Absolutely ****ing not.
image via www.awardsdaily.com

Yet, as we all know, DiCaprio has not managed to pick up an Oscar for himself, and that has slowly become a somewhat begrudgingly, accepted reality. Speaking to Deadline.com before the 89th Academy Awards, DiCaprio said that “As you know my friend, no one knows what is going to happen. Everyone has their predictions about everything. I’ve no expectations whatsoever for anything or anyone. All I am doing at this point is doing my best to showcase a project I love very dearly and am very proud of.”

No one ever really expected Leonardo to win Best Lead when he was nominated in 2014, yet everyone was rooting for him when the award eventually went to Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club.

Despite his countlessly diverse roles, undeniable popularity and an ability to be an absolute box-office smash hit, DiCaprio appears to be no closer to making his acceptance speech to the academy. Moreover, his recent announcements to take a “long, long break” from acting, after filming the Great Gatsby, Django Unchained and the Wolf of Wall Street back to back threatens any opportunity of academy award nominations, of which he has only ever had four, in the near future. His last substantial hiatus lasted over two years and DiCaprio has given very little to indicate when he will return to the screen.

However, with Scorsese remaining precautious over details of a Frank Sinatra biopic, which may or may not be coming sooner than we originally thought, it has become a widespread assumption that DiCaprio will take the lead on a sixth collaboration. Biopics have long since been seen as an actor’s easiest way to win the award, a recent example being Jamie Foxx taking the Best Actor award for Ray in 2004.

So, perhaps it may still be a case of when, rather than if, Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Academy Award. DiCaprio said in 2014 that “I don’t feel like I deserve anything but it feels good to just be in the conversation and have your peers say, ‘OK, this is at least worth talking about’. “ Though in hindsight, does Leonardo even need the award in the first place? He may not have been officially recognized by the Academy, but that does not mean DiCaprio still has anything to prove. Not to his fans at least, who to them – the longer Leo goes on without winning an Oscar, the less significant every past Oscar winner becomes.

Keep smiling Leo!

image via kelizaeverson.wordpress.com

image via kelizaeverson.wordpress.com

IMDb voters move Disaster Movie off the bottom of the pile.

Directors Friedberg and Seltzer image via www.listal.com

Directors Friedberg and Seltzer
image via www.listal.com

On the 31st of August 2008, Disaster Movie was named by IMDb as being the worst movie of all time. With an average rating of just 1.9 out of 10 after over 63,000 votes, Disaster Movie out flops titles such as Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2, Zombie Nightmare and even Birdemic: Shock and Terror, a film in which a two survivors fight off a platoon of eagles and vultures who had partnered up in murdering most of the residents of a small town. Yes, really.

The parody, starring Matt Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Carmen Electra and even an acting début from the multi-talented Kim Kardashian, received six nominations at the 29th annual Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture, nominations for both Electra and Kardashian in the Worst Supporting Actress category, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel.

The only positive review of the film came from Australian newspaper critic Jim Schembri, who described the film as being “dumb but also undeniably funny in more spots than a right-thinking mature person feels comfortable admitting” giving it a rating of 3 ½ stars out of 5.
Schembri’s was himself subjected to criticism from peers and Rotten Tomato website visitors for the review.

Directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are used to negative reviews. Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans were voted the two worst films of 2008 by the Times. Empire released their own list of “the Worst Movies of All Time”, in which all but one of Friedberg and Seltzer’s films made it into the countdown.

Although it did manage to recoup nearly $40million in box-office and DVD sales, Disaster Movie was considered by many as being the worst movie ever made, but not anymore.

With a rating of only 1.3 after over 40,000 votes, Indian action crime thriller movie Gunday has “overtaken” Disaster Movie on IMDb’s list of worst rated films.

Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, Gunday received mixed reviews with many critics admitting the movie had a credible storyline, but was structurally poor. Whilst reviewing the film, Bollywood critic Saibal Chaterjee said that “It really is difficult to keep a two-and-a-half-hour film from losing its wheels when its engine room is bereft of the propellant of genuine inspiration. Gunday is like the dusty minefields it is set in. Its loud explosions deliver loads of coal, but no trace of any diamonds.”

Although far from being a classic, Gunday is seen by many as a commendable effort, and it’s position on IMDb’s list seems quite frankly, a little harsh.

However, for the directors who have been described as being the “”evildoers, charlatans, symbols of western civilization’s decline” and “a plague on our cinematic landscape, a national shame, a danger to our culture, a typhoon-sized natural disaster disguised as a filmmaking team, a Hollywood monster wreaking havoc on the minds of America’s youth and setting civilization back thousands of years”, Friedberg and Seltzer, for now, are no longer the directors of the worst movie of all time.