Ad Nauseam

There is one nice thing about living in a one-party state like California.  From now until the election, we're not inundated with political ads. They save them for the swing states.  Four years ago I was visiting the Midwest and any time anyone turned on a TV you'd see nothing but such ads.

They were annoying, but what I found really odd was that none of them made me want to vote for the candidate they were allegedly supporting.

CB

Kind of shocking that Chadwick Boseman has died.  He was 43. I didn't even know he was sick.

He was one of Hollywood's top stars.  While best known as the title character in Black Panther, I don't consider that his best performance.  I much prefer him in the films that originally brought him fame, where he portrayed historical figures.

He was Jackie Robinson in 42, James Brown in Get On Up and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall.  Three completely different performances, but all excellent.

In some ways, he was just hitting his stride.  He'll be missed.

Wise Ways

I've been watching Wiseguy on the Filmrise service. (It offers free movies and TV shows, though every eight minutes you have to sit through five commercials.) Do you remember Wiseguy?  It's a police drama from the late 80s created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo. Well regarded in its day, it was nominated for several Emmys.

It's the story of Vinnie Terranova (Ken Wahl), who does deep cover work for the FBI. So deep the series starts with his coming out of an 18-month stretch in prison not for a crime but for a cover story.  His job is to embed himself in criminal enterprises and get the information he garners out to handler Frank McPike (Jonathan Banks).

The twist, something fairly new at the time, was each season consists of arcs where a guest star portrays a major criminal.  The first year, for instance, has Vinnie become the right-hand man to gangster Sonny Steelgrave (Ray Sharkey) for half the season, followed by his work with super-rich criminal mastermind Mel Profitt (Kevin Spacey) and Mel's beautiful sister Susan (Joan Severance).

I often watched the show when it first aired, picking up on it around the time Kevin Spacey appeared (this was Spacey's introduction to many).  So it was fun to see how things started with Ray Sharkey.  Now that I'm done with that arc, I've got to decide if I'll continue.

The show is a bit clunky--it's a network show (back when that was the only choice) and requires regular, melodramatic payoffs with overheated action.  Still, Wiseguy isn't bad, and was a precursor for stuff like The Sopranos and The Wire.

Star Ken Wahl had an odd career (his career is in the past tense, not his life). With no acting experience he was hired to star in the 1979 film The Wanderers.  After that he did Fort Apache The Bronx.  Then followed a series of indifferent movies and, starting in 1987, Wiseguy.  He was nominated for an Emmy, but his career abruptly ended in 1992 after a severe injury (he literally broke his neck).

Wahl's guest stars didn't fare too well, either.  Ray Sharkey died of AIDS at the age of 40 in 1993. And we all know the Kevin Spacey story.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Banks has gone on to greater fame as Mike Ehrmantraut on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.  Even back on Wiseguy I thought he was the main reason to watch the show.  Others were impressed as well, since he was nominated for an Emmy as McPike. (He also has five nomination for Ehrmantraut--time to win one already.)

McPike's specialty was barely contained, self-righteous anger, and no one was better at it than Jonathan Banks.  He's fun to watch, though he sure looks different from how he looks today.  Don't we all.

Twice-Told Tales

I watched the second season of The Handmaid's Tale and it was just what I feared.  While we learn a bit more about the Republic of Gilead--and the unveiling of Gilead's ways is what's best about the show--it's mostly the new adventures of the same old characters.  In an attempt to be more dramatic, they do more outrageous things, but it simply comes across as repetitive and even silly.

The producers seem to have lost control of their characters, jerking them around to do whatever fits the scene, whether or not it makes sense.  Thus the central character, Offred, the Handmaid of the title, is in one episode openly rebellious (in a way that would have gotten her killed in the first season) and in the next resigned to her fate, only to be openly rebellious in the one after that.

And her relationship with the Waterford family she serves jumps back and forth as well.  In the first season, the growing fascination Fred Waterford had with his handmaid was one of the highlights of the show.  In season two, half the time he's at her throat, the other half, he's still intrigued.  Same for his wife, Serena--in some episodes, she's Offred's closest ally, in others, her worst enemy.

All the characters behave like this.  Maybe it's because the show is off the book at this point. The first season, I believe, mostly followed the original plot of Margaret Atwood's novel, so had a certain integrity.  Now they're just going down a wish list of "wouldn't it be interesting if" without regard to the arc or the characters. (Not that a show has to fail when it leaves the book behind.  The first season of The Leftovers was the book, but seasons two and three were entirely original, and superior.)

In the season finale, Offred makes a decision so bizarre, so bereft of reason, that I'm not sure how the producers thought they could get away with it.  They didn't with me--I'm done with the show.  But what do I know?  It's Hulu's critically admired hit, soon to release its fourth season, so they must be doing something right.  Though my guess is they're living on residual interest created by the characters in the first season.

Punked Out

Lawrence King left an interesting comment to yesterday's tribute to Walter Lure.  I thought I'd put up a post to respond.

I think punk was received differently in the U.K. and the U.S.  It was hugely popular over there right from the start, and the establishment had to react to it. In America, it was easier to dismiss,  It was an underground movement that didn't have much mainstream success until some years later, when it was tamed (and called new wave) and, as you note, more sophisticated musically.

Perhaps this is because England is a smaller country and takes its cultural lead from London, so what was big in the city took over everywhere.  Plus England is more class-based, so the rebellious politics from (allegedly) lower-class performers played better.

Meanwhile, the movement in New York was growing, and small pockets of kids were catching on across the country, but if you looked at the charts you'd barely notice any punk.

Also, punk was different in the UK--the bands were mostly the basic raw sound punk is most well-known for, while the DIY movement in America approached the music from different angles.  You've got the Ramones, of course--the ultimate punk band in my book--who stripped the music to its essence.  But the other big acts at CBGB were Patti Smith, who started out reading poetry to guitar backing, Television, who had lengthy, intricate guitar solos, and Talking Heads, who had a quirky, nervous sound.

It's no surprise that most bands, if they lasted long enough, grew more complex musically.  First, it's hard to keep doing the same thing for years on end when you create your own music.  Second, when you start as elemental as possible, where else will you go? (This trend is common in other types of music--you start out raw and then get more sophisticated.  Look at jazz, for instance.)

When I first heard about punk, the idea sounded stupid. Eventually, though, I listened to it, and it awoke me from my dogmatic slumber.  It reminded me of the excitement at the root of original rock and roll, and now so much of what passed for rock seemed slick and overproduced.

By the way, speaking of predictions, no one got it more correct about Johnny Thunders than the Replacements with "Johnny's Gonna Die."

WL

Walter Lure has died.  He was a guitarist in the punk band the Heartbreakers, not to be confused with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. (I heard that Richard Hell--who was in the punk Heartbreakers for a time--saw Petty and his band as they were just beginning and liked the name so much he stole it, not figuring Petty's band would go anywhere.)

They were a tremendously popular band in New York and London's underground scene of the 1970s, with one of the best live shows around.  They were also major drug users, which made it tough to get a record deal.

Their only studio album was L.A.M.F. (perhaps you can figure out what that stands for).  They were not happy with the production, though I think it sounds fine.

The band broke up before the end of the decade, though they re-formed occasionally for live shows.  In 1991, their leader Johnny Thunders died.  In 1992, drummer Jerry Nolan died.  The original Heartbreakers were definitely done by that point.

Lure went on, interestingly enough, to become a Wall Street broker.  But he would still perform every now and then, so it's good to know he never lost his love of music.

Portlandia

Last year I went to the Hollywood Arclight--can't remember what movie I saw. (Those were the days.) But I do remember when I came out there were a bunch of women walking up and down Sunset wearing red cloaks and white bonnets.  I recognized the costume as coming from the flagship Hulu series The Handmaid's Tale.  I'm still not sure if they were promoting the show or protesting something.

The Emmy-winning series is based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel, which I haven't read.  Nor have I checked out the movie version, or the graphic novel, or the radio adaptation, or the opera.  And, until about a week ago, I'd never seen the TV series. But I've just watched all ten episodes of the first season.  It's pretty good, though I have some misgivings.

The series (and the novel, I assume) is about a dystopian society where a fanatical religious group has overthrown the U.S. government and created the republic of Gilead. It's a big country to take over all of, but I guess they managed.  We mostly follow the story of Offred (Elisabeth Moss), whose thoughts narrate the show.  She's a handmaid in the home of Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski). "Offred" is a sort of title--handmaids get their names from the head of the household, thus she's "of Fred."

There has been a crisis in fertility, and few women can give birth. (It's not explained why, though it seem to be related to environmental damage.) So Gilead rounds up fertile women--Offred had a daughter in the previous society--and assigns them to powerful families to bear children.  This is based on the biblical story of Rachel and her handmaid Bilhah. The household has a regular "Ceremony" where the handmaid lies between the husband and his wife while being impregnated.

Much of the show is about exploring this totalitarian society--how it functions and how it came to be.  There are flashbacks where we see Offred--originally named June--in the before-times, which is pretty much the society we live in today (and I'm assuming in Atwood's novel was life in the 1980s).  We get bits of information about how the fanatics assassinated government leaders and how citizens attempted to flee to safety in Canada.

But most of the show is set in what seems to be a New England town or suburb (where the authorities are wiping out all remnants of former place names).  The handmaids are first brought to the Red Center, where they are indoctrinated by a sort of drill sergeant known as an Aunt.  Like the handmaids, Aunts wear a particular uniform.  The one we get to know is Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd).

Failure to follow commands can be met with met with a poke from a cattle prod, and serious disobedience can end up with an eye plucked out.  Upon graduation, the handmaids are assigned their homes.  If they succeed in producing a child, they'll be sent to another home.

There are also Marthas--housemaids with their own uniforms--and Eyes--black-shirted types who watch over society to make sure everyone stays in line.  Each handmaid partners with another handmaid when she goes out to shop.  People who have committed crimes, such as homosexual acts, have their dead bodies hanging in public for all to see.  There are also lesser punishments for some crimes, such as getting a hand cut off.

I think you get the idea.  The question is how will Offred manage.  Will she escape?  Will she join the underground?  Will she see her husband and daughter again?  Will she get pregnant?  And so forth and so on.

It's a well-imagined society, and seeing how it works (or fails to work) is the best part of the show.  My main complaint it there are three seasons and will soon be a fourth, with no end in sight.  If the main fun is discovering the ins and outs of a new society, seeing more and more adventures in this society might get tiresome.  I'd rather enjoy the unveiling of Gilead and see if Offred succeeds or fails. Ongoing adventures don't sound as exciting.  Though who knows, maybe I'll like later seasons just as much.

In general, the acting is fine, though the show, as a whole, is a bit overwrought, with too many meaningful silences.

As a side note, it is interesting how so many on the left have been frightened of the religious right over the past few decades.  Every clash with them is painted as apocalyptic.  There does seem to be a widespread fantasy that constant vigilance is required to prevent a takeover.  This is especially funny as the religious right, as far as I can tell, has lost every major battle since the 1980s when Atwood published her novel.  The best they've managed is a rear guard action, slowing down the opposing side, but never winning on any big point.

Certainly there have been religious totalitarian societies in the past, and, indeed, they exist in the present.  And, of course, there have been totalitarian societies that weren't particularly religious, or were even explicitly anti-religion.  While I don't think America will sink into totalitarianism, right now it would seem, if it did, the threat comes more from the left.  Which makes watching the show an odd experience.  Especially the reeducation scenes--nothing radical leftists love more than reeducation.

Liz Sez

There's a story in The Hollywood Reporter about Elizabeth Debicki taking the role of Princess Diana in the final seasons of The Crown.  Sounds like a good choice, but I don't watch the show so I don't care.

What caught my eye was the first paragraph:

The actress, who stars in Christopher Nolan's upcoming 'Tenet,' described the upcoming role for season five and six as a "true privelege and honour."

So that's how she described it?  She spelled it wrong when she said it?  Did she pronounce it oddly so the Reporter did its best to get that across?

I can see how she said "honour" with a "u" because The Crown is British and Debicki is Australian.  But "privelege"?  I've noted bad editing before, but this is shocking.  Or should I say shawking?

Tech Talk

I caught another miniseries on Hulu, Alex Garland's Devs.  Garland started as a writer and has directed his own scripts in recent years, putting out Ex Machina and Annihilation.  If you've seen these films, which explore concepts like self-awareness and reality itself, you can see he's interested in thought-provoking sci-fi.  And Devs is that in spades.

The eight-episode show is about tech company Amaya, run by CEO/guru Forest (Nick Offerman). In the premiere episode, Forest invites employee Sergei Pavlov (Karl Glusman) to work at his top secret project Devs.  Turns out it's about designing a computer that's supposed to be able to understand our deterministic universe--if properly programmed and built, it'll be able to look into both the past and the future with perfect accuracy.

Sergei, however, is a spy who tries to steal information on the project, and is killed by Amaya head of security Kenton (Zach Grenier).  The company covers it up by making it look like a suicide. This sets Sergei's girlfriend, Lily (Sonoya Mizuno), on a path of intrigue to discover what actually happened.  She's helped on her quest by cybersecurity master and former boyfriend Jamie (Jin Ha).

Meanwhile, the team at Amaya, including Lyndon (Cailee Spaeny), Stewart (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and chief designer Katie (Alison Pill), are perfecting the Devs project, which will lead to a clash between Lily and Forest.

While the spy stuff isn't bad, it's not what interested me about the show.  I was more captured by the concept of a machine that could, based on where everything is today, know where everything was in the past and will be in the future.

I've always been intrigued by the idea of determinism.  If the universe is material, the argument goes, then if you know where every particle is right now, and understand the physical laws that act on them, you can figure where they will be in the next second, and the second after that, and so on.  The idea of a computer having all this information is ridiculous, of course (at least it is at present), but just because we're not smart enough to figure out what has to happen next doesn't mean what actually happens isn't inevitable.  And if everything is inevitable, this suggests (some would say proves) we don't have free will, only, at best, the illusion of free will.

There are various arguments against determinism, but it's not easy to shake. (Even religious people can't get away from it.  Though some say the soul is not material and allows for free will (which leads to other problems), many also believe in an omniscient Supreme Being--presumably, then, this Being knows precisely what will happen in the future, so how can there be any freedom if everything is pre-ordained?)  There are also arguments that one might call fanciful--such as the "many worlds" concept, brought up in the show, where there are infinite universes with every possible circumstance--that at least seem to fit the known data.

Determinism also creates paradoxes.  If you could create a machine that sees perfectly into the future, then you could see what you're about to do and, presumably, not do it.  Even if an omniscient, omnipotent being told you what you would do in the future, if you actually had free will, you wouldn't have to do it.  So how can perfect predictions, once known, exist?  And if you can't have perfect predictions, then how can determinism be true? (Or is determinism true only if we're not smart enough to figure it out?)

Garland is clever enough to keep the story moving while bringing up these issues.  As noted, the cloak and dagger stuff isn't as exciting (to me) as the philosophical debate.  But Garland does keep you guessing as to how things will turn out. (Garland is the Supreme Being who has determined what will happen, but the show has free will from the watcher's point of view.)

The show features some good performances, especially from supporting actors Henderson, Grenier and Pill.  It would be easy to get swallowed up in all the philosophy, but they carve out memorable characters.  It's also got great design.  I suppose a lot of people will find it moody and slow, but I'd recommend it.

LM

Linda Manz has died.  Haven't thought about her in years.

She hadn't acted in over twenty years, and even when she did, she didn't work much.  But her debut, in Days Of Heaven (1978), was haunting. She had a look that sticks in the mind.  It seemed like she had a future.  I'm not sure why she did only a handful of roles in the next twenty years.

Still, she was also memorable in The Wanderers, Out Of The Blue and Gummo.  Not exactly mainstream titles, but sometimes being in the right film is better than being in a hit.

Raising The Bar

I've been able to watch a little Hulu through a friend's subscription.  One of the first things I checked out was the miniseries Horace And Pete.

Creator Louis C. K. dropped Horace And Pete out of nowhere in early 2016.  He shot it secretly and made it available on his website for anyone willing to pay. The ten episodes are of varying length (shortest is 30 minutes, longest, 67 minutes), which helps give it a homemade feeling, as does a willingness to stop the action to allow a character to discuss something for considerable amounts of time.  Louis C. K. was doing his series Louis around the same time.  Louis is a comedy, though it can be very serious, while Horace And Pete is a drama, though it has plenty of humor.

The basic premise is we're at Horace and Pete's bar, a Brooklyn watering hole that's been around for a century, always run by brothers named Horace and Pete.  Louis C. K. is Horace, Steve Buscemi is Pete, Edie Falco is their sister Sylvia and Alan Alda is Uncle Pete, who used to run the bar. There are also the bar regulars, such as Leon (Steven Wright) and Kurt (Kurt Metzger). There are numerous recurring characters, including Marsha (Jessica Lange), Horace's dad's last partner, Tricia (Maria Dizzia), a woman with Tourettes who met Pete in the mental hospital, and Alice (Aidy Bryant), Horace's estranged daughter. (Mayor De Blasio makes a guest appearance where he actually defends the NYPD, somewhat.  It's also got a theme song written and performed by Paul Simon.)

There are numerous issues the characters have to deal with: Pete has serious mental issues; Horace has relationship problems, new and old; Sylvia has cancer; Uncle Pete is a miserable guy who's hard to deal with; and the bar is run down and perhaps should be sold.

Louis prepared us for Louis C. K.'s vision, so the turn to drama is not that startling.  His willingness to indulge in long monologues, dark stories and cul-de-sac contemplations are given free rein in Horace And Pete.  It makes for compelling moments, but also those where a blue pencil is in order.

Almost all the action takes place at the bar and the rooms above where the characters' live. It's shot like a live show, but done without an audience. In general the acting is fine, and Alan Alda especially stands out (in a part written for Joe Pesci).

While the action may seem almost random at times, it is going somewhere, and I don't want to spoil that.  I'd recommend Horace And Pete.  It's not like anything else on TV, and while it may not have conventional payoffs, it's worth the journey.

TL

Trini Lopez has died.  He was a popular singer and guitarist in the 1960s. (He also acted a little--he was one of the Dirty Dozen.) His two biggest records were songs that had been hits for Peter, Paul and Mary.  They were folkies, but he added his own special energy to the numbers.

Limited

I finally watched all 49 original episodes of The Outer Limits.  Took me about two months.  For all the failings of the show (characters do a lot of dumb things to keep the plot moving), it was still fun.

The first season has 32 episodes, the second, 17.  Even with fewer episodes, the second season is more variable in quality.  Perhaps that's because producer-writer Joseph Stefano quit after the first season.  At least the second season has probably the most famous episode, Harlan Ellison's "Demon With A Glass Hand." (The episode that competes for most famous is probably the first season's 'The Zanti Misfits.") The second season also shortened the iconic opening of the show, which was a mistake.



Each of the 49 hour is self-contained, except for the two-parter "The Inheritors." There's nothing special about the plot, so I'm not sure why it required two episodes. The most notable thing about it is its star, Robert Duvall--who also stars in season one's "The Chameleon."

That's probably what's most fun about the show.  You always wonder what soon-to-be-famous--or formerly famous--face will be featured in each episode.  Some of the names: Donald Pleasence, Warren Oates (hard to recognize with gigantic eyes), Nick Adams, Eddie Albert, Adam West and so on.  And these were the leads. Sometimes you saw someone in a supporting role whom you'd get to know better in a few years--Russell Johnson (Gilligan's Island), Michael Constantine (Room 222), Carroll O'Connor (All In The Family), Marion Ross (Happy Days), Ted Knight and Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Dabney Coleman (many movies), etc.

Then there's the Star Trek connection.  ST was influenced by TOL, sometimes even using similar plots. Of course, TOL was borrowing as well.  For instance, there's the "Arena" plot where a person (or two) from Earth is pitted against an alien (or two)--loser's planet is destroyed. And a bunch of episodes deal with a dying alien race that wants to colonize Earth (if your planet is in trouble, probably best to clean it up--the expense of flying your people millions of light years away is tremendous), and maybe just as many with the problems of Earth trying to colonize another planet.

But the ST connection wasn't just plots, it was actors.  Grace Lee Whitney, James Doohan and Leonard Nimoy (twice) appear in supporting roles. (We also get a double dose of Sally Kellerman, who would be in the ST pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before.") And then there's William Shatner himself, who stars in season two's "Cold Hands, Warm Heart." Why does he get to be the lead?  Simple. He was on the star track.

The show also represents (as did Twilight Zone and Star Trek) your basic liberal viewpoint of the era.  A belief in the power of science (tempered, of course, with wisdom and love).  Hope for the future.  A concern for freedom and the individual.  Each shows end with a narrator delivering a homily about how we need to be careful about the future but there's still hope and blah blah blah.  The casting is fairly progressive, with many supporting roles filled by African-Americans and Asians.  It's still pre-feminist, however, with women mostly playing wives and girlfriends, rarely scientists or astronauts or anyone with an important job.

Finally, there are the monsters.  They're both the glory and main cause of silliness in the show. Almost every episode has some gruesome being--often humanoid, since someone's got to wear the costume.  You sit and wait (usually not too long) to see what we get this week.  A couple episodes seemed desperate.  In one, the bad guys are rocks.  In another, there are killer tumbleweeds.  It's not easy doing a completely new show each week.

Oh yeah, and everyone smokes.

The Game Is Over

Wayne Fontana has died.  He was a British pop singer, best known for his work in Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, who had a #1 hit, "The Game Of Love."

Boxed In

I finally got around to watching Bird Box, the Netflix film that caused a stir about a year and a half ago.  The main thing that kept me from watching--it was over two hours.  Just by a few minutes, but who needs films that long, especially in the horror genre.  Move it along.

Anyway, it was fine.  But what fascinated me was how it played today, as opposed to late 2018.  I'm going to spoil the film a little, but really, if you waited as long as I did, you deserve it.

The story is set in today's world, except there's this illness around that makes people kill themselves. (A similar illness occurred in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening.) So early on in the film we've got this spreading problem killing people all over the world, with lots of unrest in the streets.  I almost turned it off--I can look out the window if I want to see that.

It eventually becomes clear there's an entity and if you see it, you off yourself.  So the only solution is to stay indoors and, if you have to go outside, wear a blindfold.  This film would make a good double bill with another 2018 horror hit A Quiet Place--in one you can't look at anything, in the other you can't make any noise. (The sequel to A Quiet Place was hit by the no-look problem--it was just about to open this year when all the theatres closed.)

Bird Box stars Sandra Bullock along with John Malkovich, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver and Lil Rel Howery, among others.  Most of them don't make it, and some of the fun is wondering how and when they'll exit.  The biggest problem?  Too long.  They could've maintained the tension better if they cut about twenty minutes.  So I was right.

PS  Apparently there was the "Bird Box challenge" where ordinary people would do everyday activities blindfolded.  Boy are people stupid.

Face It

I've been informed that this blog's interface will be changing later this month.  Whether this will affect how the blog looks to the reader, or even if the blog can continue, I don't know.

But if things look different (or suddenly disappear) in a few weeks, at least you'll know why.

What's That Thing?

I was flipping through the channels and there was That Thing You Do! (1996). Not a classic, but a lot of fun.  Before you know it, I watched the whole thing.

The main problem, as I've noted before, is it has no third act.  It's about the rise and inexplicable sudden end of a rock band in the mid-60s.  But what it does have, above its engaging cast, colorful period look and sense of humor, is a great soundtrack.

The movie attempts to recreate the sounds of the era, and does an amazing job.  All the songs written for the central band in the movie, The Wonders, are solid--from the title tune on down.  But other types of songs we get to hear--a "Peter Gunn"-like theme, a girl group weeper--are also great. (Some are written in part by the film's writer-director Tom Hanks.)

There's no guarantee this approach will work. Another movie in release at the same time, Grace Of My Heart, had original tunes (some by name songwriters) trying to capture the Brill Building sound and wasn't half as successful.

A few other thing I noticed:

--The film is full of cameos by people you recognize, but I never before noticed Bryan Cranston (pre-Breaking Bad and Malcolm In The Middle) in a small role as Gus Grissom.  He does a fine job.

--The family of the drummer watches him on color TV, though this being 1964 or 65, it almost certainly would have been black and white.  I guess that would have been distracting and more trouble than it was worth.

--Just as the movie is about a band that hits it big, the cast is full of up-and-comers hoping to make it.  It must have been pretty exciting to be cast as a lead in the first film directed by Tom Hanks.  And though the guys in the band have had decent careers, none really became major movie stars. Perhaps the biggest name today from the movie is Charlize Theron, who has a relatively small supporting role in one of her first films.

Hear Ye

Okay, I don't get this either.