Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
The history of art, in any of the myriad forms it takes, is littered with almosts. The director with an incredible vision who couldn’t bankroll the projects they wanted, or who were shut out of the system because of their gender or ethnicity. The brilliant writer who just couldn’t get published. The painter who got swallowed alive by their demons before they had a chance to blossom.
And, in perhaps the most American permutation of this phenomenon, there’s the garage band that never quite made it out of the garage, even when the talent is there. Culturally speaking, we tend to focus only on the one-in-a-million shots that eventually yielded success. Failures, even noble ones, just don’t play as well.
Which brings us to Death. A Band Called Death. The band was formed by the three Hackney brothers, who came of age in Detroit during the ‘60s and ‘70s, the sons of a Baptist preacher. But whereas the record labels were nigh-on printing money with Motown hits, the Hackney brothers, led by visionary brother David, chased a far different sound.
A Band Called Death, from directors Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett, examines a musical revolution that wasn’t meant to be. Decades later, surviving brothers Bobby and Dannis and their family reflect on the close-shaves they had with stardom. Bad luck, bad decisions, and a sonic landscape that just didn’t have a place for them resulted in Death’s sound being snuffed out before it even had a chance to be heard.
But A Band Called Death, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this month, worked to rectify that, with even acclaimed rockers like Alice Cooper and Jack White exalting the brothers for being decades ahead of the culture. It may not be the traditional route you take to stardom, but you never know just how someone will find their way free of being an ‘almost’.
Next Week’s Pick:
In a cinema landscape littered with blockbuster juggernauts and carefully polished awards bait, Lady Bird came out of nowhere last year to be a sleeper hit. While many in the indie fold knew Greta Gerwig for her luminous screen presence and terrific screenwriting, it’s fair to say that her directorial debut launched her and leading ladies Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf into a whole new stratosphere.
Lady Bird is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Would you like to be a guest in next week’s Two Cents column? Simply watch and send your under-200-word review on any MCU film to twocents(at)cinapse.co anytime before midnight on Thursday!
The Team
There are three kinds of documentaries I enjoy. The first type includes documentaries that explore and/or celebrate things I am interested in — like favorite bands, filmmakers, or interesting true crime stories. The second includes documentaries that are so well done they make something I didn’t think I cared about into something I’m very intrigued by. But it’s the third type that really has the chance to leave the deepest impression on me.
Take a topic I care about and tell the story in a way that makes it unforgettable. In other words, combine types 1 and 2. And, A Band Called Death does just that.
As soon as you tell me that I’m about the learn about a proto-punk garage rock act that I’ve never heard of, I’m in. Combine that with incredible direction and an amazingly constructed bit of storytelling and you have the formula for one of my all time favorite documentaries.
Amazing music and a compelling tale make this the stuff that true legends are made of. (@ThePaintedMan)
A Band Called Death’s secret weapon is the music from the titular band. There are many (many many many many many) versions of this story littering both fiction and non-fiction, and to be honest, each telling lives and dies on how good the actual art (be it a film, a book, or music) being created actually is. If you invest a ton of energy into establishing how ‘important’ or ‘special’ a particular artwork or artist is, and then it doesn’t live up to what you’ve established, you’re left with…well…Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Luckily, the music Death conjured up is exactly as good as Alice Cooper promises (proving, once again, that Alice Cooper cannot lie), and that earns your ticket for the tempestuous ride that the brothers Hackney embark on as they try, and fail, to bring their sound to the national stage.
The directors are wise enough to back off and let the brothers and their family and friends tell their own stories, trusting that their chemistry and charisma will be enough. It is, and A Band Called Death is stronger for the sincerity this approach allows. (@theTrueBrendanF)
This was more bittersweet and hauntingly touching than I’d expected it to be. I guess I thought I “knew the story” before watching it, but the subjects here are as compelling as the overarching “plot” of the band’s rediscovery. These brothers from Detroit are the stars. Long live Death. (@ed_travis)
No doubt the promise of the untold origin of punk before punk is the big draw of this story, and to that end it does not disappoint. The music of Death is both incredible and groundbreaking. But watching A Band Called Death, it’s the family that takes the spotlight, eventually unwinding into a saga spanning the next generation of the Hackney family.
Death is not only the name of the band and critical conceptual basis for elder brother David’s vision, but an intrinsic component of the story in a way that no one in the band could ever have anticipated, an irony that is lost on them, nor the filmmakers. It’s ultimately devotion to God and each other that helps them battle demons and weather trials.
Thankfully the documentary itself is also very well made. Directors Mark Covino and Jeff Howlett get to the heart of the story and let the brothers do the talking, editing to achieve a comfortable flow and structure and infusing the story with impressive motion graphics that keep things interesting visually and bring photographs to life.
I originally watched this film in its Drafthouse theatrical run and cried freely throughout. When the lights came on, I immediately declared it my favorite film of 2013, which it remains. Revisiting it again five years later, none of its incredible power has dissipated. (@VforVashaw)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuwTUhLR6Jk
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Next week’s pick: