Bovie Movie

Spike Lee’s 1990 directing effort is a jazz film, the story of a fictional trumpeter named Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington). He leads a quintet at the Beneath the Underground club with a flashy saxophonist named Shadow Henderson (Wesley Snipes). Though Shadow takes a few too many solos, everything seems fine in Bleek’s life. Trouble soon arises, however, and he is forced to make decisions regarding both his best friend Giant (Spike Lee), and his relationships with two women. Giant, his manager and old pal, is addicted to gambling and often gets roughed up by thugs looking for pay back. Bleek is the only member of the quintet who wants to keep him as manager. The trumpeter’s woman problems concern trying to decide between two girlfriends who both love him: a schoolteacher (Joie Lee) and a singer (Cynda Williams). Spike’s father Bill Lee scored the film, with contributions from Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Abbey Lincoln and Ruben Blades (who plays Giant’s bookie).

In this musical, a youthful trombonist is thrilled when he is allowed to play with Benny Goodman’s Orchestra. Afterward he becomes insufferably egotistical and tries to start his own swing band. It’s his girl friend’s idea, and unfortunately he fails. He then returns to his old mill job. Fortunately, he is given another chance to play with Benny and the boys. Musical numbers include: “I’m Making Believe,” (Mack Gordon, James V. Monaco), as well as “Chug-Chug-Choo-Choo-Chug,” “Hey Bub, Let’s Have a Ball,” “Ten Days with a Baby” (Gordon, Monaco), “I Found a New Baby” (Jack Palmer, Spencer Williams), “Jersey Bounce” (Robert B. Wright, Bobby Plater, Tiny Bradshaw, Edward Johnson), “Let’s Dance” (Fanny Baldridge, Gregory Stone, Joseph Bonine), “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise” (Gene Lockhart, Ernest Seitz), “Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet” (performed by Goodman and strings), “No Love, No Nothing” (Leo Robin, Harry Warren), “Rachel’s Dream” (Benny Goodman), and “I Yi Yi Yi Yi, I Like You Very Much” (Gordon, Warren)

The documentary directing team of Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman makes their narrative feature debut with the biographical comedy drama American Splendor. Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti) is a comic book writer inspired by the work of his friend Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak). Pekar writes his comics about the sad monotony of everyday life, based on his own life in Cleveland, OH, working as a file clerk at a veteran’s hospital and spending his time reading books and listening to jazz. He meets up with Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis) and they enjoy a depressive relationship together. The filmmakers employ a combination of live-action film, video, and animation, including narration and commentary from the real-life Harvey Pekar. The screenplay was based on Pekar’s comic book series American Splendor, which he has been writing since 1976 on Dark Horse Comics, and the 1994 book-length comic Our Cancer Year, written by Pekar and Brabner. American Splendor won the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic Competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.