Cultural Mining

Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

This week, I’m looking at three new movies, about men whose professions place them in uncomfortable situations. There’s a singer in a cover band whose one great song is stolen, a weatherman ordered to save the free world, and a piano tuner who finds himself involved in organized crime.

Power Ballad
Co-Wri/Dir: John Carney (Sing Street)

Rick Power (Paul Rudd) is a professional singer. He came to Ireland on a European tour with his rock band, and fell in love. 15 years later, he’s still there and still in love with his wife Rachel and their 14-year-old daughter, Aja. But while he still dreams of playing Madison Square Garden, his real life is much more mundane. He earns his living singing in a cover band at weddings across the Emerald Isle. Though he occasionally tries to insert a few of his own tunes into their playlist, his boss never ceases to remind him, you’re not a rockstar, you’re a human jukebox. Stick to the oldies.

But one day, they land a particularly lavish gig, performing at an actual castle. Not only that, the bride insist he sing alongside their childhood friend, Danny (Nick Jonas). Danny was in a hugely successful boyband, but his solo career never took off. The two hit it off, and spend the night jamming and playing their songs together, offering one another suggestions on how to make their songs into hits. Danny flies back to LA and life goes on… until his career does a turn around with a number one hit, which soon goes platinum worldwide. Only problem is, it’s Rick’s song, his one great tune, the one he sang for him after that wedding. Danny stole it. But he has no proof. Can Rick somehow reach Danny and get him to give credit where credit is due? Or will he remain a failed rock musician forever?

Power Ballad is a very cute drama about family, friendship and music. It spans buskers in Ireland (where the whole movie was shot), to stadium concerts and powerbrokers in LA. Nick Jonas (late of the Jonas brothers) sings his own tunes, but, surprisingly, so does Paul Rudd! (Who new?) And there’s almost constant singing throughout the movie, as the wedding band performs their oldies. The story is somewhat cornball, but ends up better than the parts it’s made of. I would credit that to Irish filmmaker John Carney. His films — Sing Street and Once — look at similar themes: failed musicians with a heart. And they never fail to move me — I go in thinking I’ll hate them, but they turn out really good.

Hard Ballad is fun, cute and totally enjoyable, and you’ll leave humming the songs.

Pressure
Co-Wri/Dir: Anthony Maras

It’s May, 1945 in England. Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) is at home, taking care of his wife, now 9 months pregnant, when he is called to a very important meeting. And he doesn’t know when he’ll be back. It’s a few days before D Day — the wholesale invasion of Normandy by allied troops — and they need Stagg for an unspecified reason. Is he a munitions expert? A ship captain? A logistical specialist? None of the above. He’s a weatherman, a meteorologist. He’s also nasty and priggish, dismissive of the people he works with and a royal pain in the ass. He first meets Kay (Kerry Condon) who is Dwight D Eisenhower’s (Brendan Fraser) right-hand man (or woman). He kicks her out of his offices and gets to work. He also encounters Krick (Chris Messina) an American weather expert, who loves playing pop songs on the rickety piano and telling jokes. He’s smart and likeable — Ike has successfully relied on his weather predictions in campaigns all across North Africa. He refers to historical graphs and charts about the weather from 10, 20 and 50 years ago to verify what they’ll do on D Day. There are decoy tanks and weapons set up to confuse and mislead the Nazis. And all the soldiers are ready to go. So the generals — including Bernard ‘Monty’ Montgomery — are meeting to confirm the day of the invasion. And what does Stagg say? The planned date for the invasion is wrong. There are two major storms brewing in the Atlantic with heavy rain and huge waves coming which will make a successful landing impossible. Everyone — except Stagg — is saying the planned day is the allies’ last chance to defeat Germany and win WWII. Who is right — Stagg or Krick? Who will Ike go with? And who will win WWII?

Pressure is an historical English war drama about the three days leading up to D Day. Good understated acting, full of stiff upper-lips, but able to bring a tear or two. And all the lead roles — Scott, Fraser, Messina and Condon — are quite well played. It mainly takes place in a stately mansion, but there are a few scenes at sea, in the air and on the beaches. It’s historically accurate… except for the fact it completely erases Canada’s role — the 14,000 troops 110 ships and 15 RCAF squadrons at Juno Beach — but, hey, what’s history when you’re making a movie? That said, it’s totally watchable, if you’re into old-school wartime dramas.

Not bad, not bad…

Tuner
Co-Wri/Dir: Daniel Roher

Niki (Leo Woodall) is an apprentice piano tuner in New York. His mentor, Harry (a cuddly Dustin Hoffman) and his wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh) have served as his surrogate parents ever since a traumatic accident in his teens. They work well as a team, with Harry teaching him the ins and outs of the specialized business. Niki is a bit of. An oddball: he wears headphones all the time to protect his extremely sensitive hearing. Loud noises are physically painful for him. But Harry is old and losing it, with the business on thin ice, which puts Niki in a precarious position. And now he’s in hospital and can’t pay the bills. That’s when two things happen: First, he meets Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu) a charming and beautiful composer and piano virtuoso about to make her big debut. He’s there to tune her grand piano on stage at the concert hall. She is initially dubious about his claims he has perfect pitch and actually knows a lot about music, but warms to him later when he helps her out in an emergency. Sparks fly and soon they’re spending more time together getting to know each other. And second, Niki is tuning a baby grand in a mansion late at night because it was too noisy during the day, when he hears more loud noises. He investigates where the sounds coming from and he encounters Uri (Lior Raz) — the owner of a security agency — and two sketchy henchmen drilling into a huge safe. “It’s not what it looks like”, he says, “It’s just to move the valuables to a safer vault”. But the noise is unbearable, so Niki offers to open the safe using just his amazingly sensitive ears, so he can get back to his piano tuning. Uri is so impressed he hires him to do similar jobs to earn some really big money. But Niki soon discovers he’s in over his head. Can he rescue Harry and Marla’s failing piano business, move in with Ruthie, and say bye-bye to Uri and his thugs? Or is everything falling apart?

Tuner is a rich and delightful dramatic thriller about music, love and organized crime. It deftly combines the fiercely competitive world of classical music, the arcane profession of piano tuning and the intricacies of safe-cracking. Even the smaller side-characters are well developed, not just stereotypes. Toronto filmmaker Daniel Roher — who previously directed award-winning docs on Russian dissident Navalny and musician Robbie Robertson — is now trying his hand at dramatic movies… and this one is just perfect.

See it!

Tuner and Pressure are playing this weekend in Toronto, with Power Ballad opening next weekend; check your local listings.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website  culturalmining.com.