WCBE 90.5 FM: "Dreamgirls," "The Good Shepherd," "Pan's Labyrinth"

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Dreamgirls," "The Good Shepherd," "Pan's Labyrinth"
Co-hosted, produced & directed by John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 29, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"Dreamgirls" is three parts heart and one part Soul . . .

John

"The Good Shepherd" is a GOOD cold war film . . .

Clay

"Pan's Labyrinth" is full of shadows and fears . . .

HIT THEME MUSIC

Richelle"

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

HIT CD: DREAMGIRLS (CUT 15: ONE NIGHT ONLY - JENNIFER HUDSON), THEN UNDER FOR BOTH REVIEWS

John ("Dreamgirls" 128 words)
Clay, to compete with Moulin Rouge or Chicago, a musical must be robust and unique with actors beautiful and talented. Dreamgirls is a lively film of the Broadway musical about three talented girls who make it big with the help of a sometimes ruthless manager.

Could be the Supremes or the Pips, but these actresses carry plenty of their own charisma, especially the American Idol graduate, Jennifer Hudson, who belts gospel and pop with equal measures of lustiness and soul, a combination of Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand.

Clay

Maybe even better than that.

John (Chuckles and continues)

It’s entertaining beyond the clichés and show stopping songs such as "And I Am Telling You I'm not Going” and "Cadillac Car.” It’s glitz and superficiality with a heavy dose of melodrama, but it is as enjoyably American as that Caddy.

Clay ("Dreamgirls" 127 words)

Well folks, when it comes to holiday movies, glitz is what we want and glitz is what we get. So head out in your Caddy van or SUV and see for yourselves why audiences are bringing down the house when they see Dreamgirls on screen.

Never mind that the material's old. Sure it opened on Broadway twenty-five years ago. And, sure, it's set in Detroit some twenty years earlier. But not to worry, because writer-director Bill Condon (who wowed us with "Chicago") has added some new songs and has done a fine job in casting the film.

Beyoncé is nothing short of classy as the groups' lead singer, Anika Noni Rose is a great backup artist, and Jennifer Hudson's performance (surprise, surprise) is pure Oscar gold.

John

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

John ("The Good Shepherd” 128 words)

I don’t think it’s THAT good, but here’s another GOOD.

The Good Shepherd depicts the beginning of the CIA. Director Robert De Niro knows about intrigue given the dark figures he has played as one of America’s leading actors. His lighting is consistently low key, as if a secret world lies behind every shot. His frame is frequently static and spare, as if the void will be filled by inexplicable pain.

Clay

It always is.

John (Continues)

De Niro knows atmosphere and he knows lonely, isolated characters, as if Travis Bickle were being channeled into Matt Damon’s super spy, Edward Wilson. Damon plays Wilson so minimalist that knowing the interior of his character is impossible. But then, cold is a cold does.

Clay

That's what I've heard.

John (Finishes his review)

The Good Shepherd is coldly satisfying despite almost three hours of the hero's dark loneliness.

It’s rough out there. Just ask Rummy.

Clay ("Pan's Labyrinth" 128 words)

Well, folks, even Rummy might be uncomfortable in Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth," which is an allegorical tale about a mother and her young daughter who find themselves beholden to a Fascist Captain who is intent on terrorizing a small rural village in Franco's post-Civil War Spain.

John

Grim.

Clay

One part Alice in Wonderland, one part Greek Myth, and one part "Harry Potter," "Pan's Labyrinth" may exist only in the mind of the eleven-year-old Ofelia, but you're never 'really' quite sure - even after the closing credits have rolled.

The cruelty of the officer is brutally depicted, as are the creatures grotesque who rule the underground where young Ofelia finds herself wandering at night.

A study in terror, but also a study in courage and hope, "Pan's Labyrinth" will both frighten and delight you.

John

Great!

Clay

But enough of Motown showgirls, CIA shepherders, and underworlds dark and deep, John, because it's grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy Holiday Harpies, Hooray

"Dreamgirls" earns an “A” for its entertaining AMERICAN ARSENAL of music. . .

Clay

"Dreamgirls" gets an "A" because underdogs ALMOST ALWAYS win our hearts . . .

John

"The Good Shepherd" earns a “B” for BARELY warming up the New Year . . .

Clay

"Pan's Labyrinth" gets a "B" because fantasy is sometimes no BETTER than the real . . .

John

Clay, I’ve made a New Year’s resolution to dream more about girls and less about spies.
Do you dream while you snore at our PREVIEWS?

I'm outta here.

Clay

Only if I'm having nightmares about doing 300 more shows with you.

I'm outta here, too.

See you at the movies, folks, and have a Happy New Year!

HIT CD: "DREAMGIRLS" (CUT 5: LOVE YOU I DO), THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando and Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "The History Boys," "We Are Marshall," "Rocky Balboa," "Fur"

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "The History Boys," "We Are Marshall," "Rocky Balboa," "Fur"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Recorded: Wednesday, 1:30 pm, December 20, 2006
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 22, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

"The History Boys" had a successful HISTORY in London and New York and NOW on your screen . . .

Clay

"We Are Marshall" is as much about tenacity as it is about football . .

John

"Rocky Balboa" is a little film about a big guy . . .

Clay

"Fur" is a little film about little people and the woman who took their
pictures . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle"

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("The History Boys" 128 words)

“History is just one f’n thing after another.”

Clay

John, that’s the only stale line in the movie.

John

This quote from The History Boys is the ANTITHESIS of the high-minded quotes and philosophies spouted by teachers and aspiring “Oxbridge” scholars at a public grammar school in Yorkshire.

Clay

Now, THAT'S true.

John

How nice of you.

That quote epitomizes the sub-textual disdain for intellectual snobbery and solipsism that hangs about academic institutions anywhere, anytime.

It’s 1983 in a boys’ public grammar in Yorkshire as the gifted “history boys” prepare for entrance to Oxford or Cambridge. Learning French by acting out a scene in a brothel is the preferred mode of preparation.

Clay

That's what I do.

John

The latent and sometimes overt homosexuality is just another learning experience for the boys. If you love to hear English as it was meant to be spoken, albeit highly stylized, see The History Boys.

Clay ("We Are Marshall" 131 words)

Folks, if you want to hear English spoken the way it is back in the hollars of West Virginia, then “We Are Marshall” is a far better pick.

Sure the ruddy Brit boys heading for Oxford or Cambridge are wittier and classier than their rowdy homespun college counterparts from small town America. But the sons of farmers and factory workers in “We Are Marshall” make up for in spirit and determination what they lack in manners and intellectual shine.

Set in the year following a tragic plane crash that killed most of
their football team, “We Are Marshall” is the story of one of the team's survivors, a newly hired coach, and their old college president who finally catches on to what it means to go for broke.

John ("Rocky Balboa" 129 words)

Here’s another one of those unaassuming films that contribute to a merry Christmas.

Just as Citizen Kane was as much about the rise and fall of Orson Welles, Rocky Balboa is as much about Sylvester Stallone's going one more round with a movie industry unsympathetic to aging. It is a small, underplayed drama about an older man, like you, who still has life and more importantly--spirit.

But Stallone's script and direction emphasize the rightness of Rocky's
trying himself again, having some confidence in his physical ability to stay in the ring with the young man. Actor/director Stallone gives a
sweetness and almost Zen-like wisdom to the boxer's decision.

Stallone has succeeded in giving dignity to his boxer and aging in general, with an attendant life lesson to act always with a charity that helps outside the ring and maybe even inside.

Clay ("Fur" 133 words)

Folks, it’s too bad that the movie “Fur” doesn’t tell you more about the movie’s heroine, the late photographer Diane Arbus. But then it’d be just another bio.

Nicole Kidman, thankfully, rises above this and is able to
capture the sensuality of Arbus while at the same time she is able to expose Arbus’s vulnerabilities as mother, daughter, and wife.

“Fur” is a mythopoetic tale that explores the inner recesses of the mind of the Diane Arbus, who though growing up in the midst of privilege, ended up becoming fixated upon the grotesqueries of lives that existed outside the confines of her own narrow realities.

Part Alice in Wonderland, part a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” “Fur” is a great film to kick-off a discussion about what it is that motivates artists to create.

But enough of those cheeky boys, grunting jocks, and furry, erotic,
monsters, John, because it’s grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy HAPPY HISTORY, Hooray

"The History Boys" earns an “A” because the ACADEMY hasn’t been ACES like this since Dead Poet’s Society . . .

Clay

"We Are Marshall" gets a “B” because it’s a B Movie delight . . .

John

"Rocky Balboa" earns a “B” because BOXING is not BORING. . .

Clay

"Fur" gets an “A” because it ALLUDES to realities that ARE beyond the senses . . .

John

Clay, all this talk of aging and history makes me wonder how you have defied the actuaries and the fur-loving women you have left behind . . .

I'm outta here.

Clay

John, never take on the odds, go with the flow, and when things get too furry, go for the clippers and razor . . .

I'm outta here, too.

See you at the movies, folks and have a happy holiday.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Charlotte's Web," "The Pursuit of Happyness," "The Holiday"

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Charlotte's Web," "The Pursuit of Happyness," "The Holiday"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 15, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"Charlotte's Web" is a live action version of a famous farmyard story . . .

John

"The Pursuit of Happyness" is the pursuit of BOREDOM . . .

Clay

"The Holiday" is all fluffy white pillows and lovers with bright shiny teeth . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle"

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

John ("Charlotte's Web" 129 words)

Clay: The Maine farm is idealized, as if there were no smells from farting cows or slops muddying the barn. In the new Charlotte’s Web both are sweetly displayed in a pristine world where a pig wins your heart and a spider is all heart.

This new version, standing proudly with the first Babe, is refreshing with understated computer graphics and an absence of sardonic pop culture references. Just a solid classic where a lovely spider named Charlotte (the voice of Julia Roberts, which may be her best work yet!) saves a loveable spring piglet runt named Wilbur (Dominic Scott Kay) from the smokehouse by relying on OUR only effective arsenal, Dr., words.

This film, together with the word-heavy History Boys, has renewed my enthusiasm for solid, satisfying holiday fare.

Clay ("Charlotte's Web" 128 words)

"Charlotte's Web” IS a satisfying movie, folks, though it’s a tad too cutesy and about a spoonful of sugar too sweet. Sorry, John, Julia’s Charlotte is a bit too precious for me. Spiders are much more interesting when they have a more sinister edge. But you’re right, Julia’s voice is probably more true to the author’s intentions.

The movie is saved for us cynics, however, by the nasty barnyard rodent as voiced by the lovingly slimy Steve Buscemi, who in many of his own real-life movies finds himself playing a rat.

Not surprisingly words rule the day in this barnyard created by the imaginative mind E. B. White and it’s his elements of style, both verbal and visual, that rule that the day.

A holiday plum for the whole family pudding, indeed.

"John ("The Pursuit of Happyness" 126 words)

Here’s a sour plum.

The Pursuit of Happyness has a down and out dad in 1981 who tries to gain employment at Dean Witter by joining an unpaid internship program. All the charm of Will Smith as a bright but sometimes dimwitted bone density scanner salesman in pricey San Francisco couldn’t possibly pay bills there.

How mom could let a cute kid go to an underachieving father and how he could sell out his stock of useless scanners within a month are just two of the plot holes in a holiday film that makes a strong case for his incompetence.

Because of a malfunction, I missed the last reel. The story up to this
point wasn’t worth telling anyway.

Let’s lace the nog with rum and forget art at its most mediocre.

Clay ("The Holiday" 130 words)

The movie "The Holiday" features an all star cast who in other films have dazzled us on screen. Think the feisty Kate Winslet, the irascible Jack Black, the infectious Cameron Diaz, and the boyishly handsome Jude Law. Sounds like it COULD have been a winner.

Sure writer-director Nancy Meyers had a bit of a loser in her "What Women Want," but that starred a miscast Mel Gibson, who didn't look that great in panty hose. Jack Nicholson, however, brought down the house with her directed and scripted "Something's Gotta Give.”

Her new film, however, "The Holiday," appears to be nothing more than a feel-good film designed to help lonely ladies fill in the empty spaces of their lives during holidays.

At that level, it may be a winner.

But enough of barnyard hijinks, unhappy daddies, and romanceless old maidens, John, because it’s grading time.

HIT DRUMS, THEN UNDER FOR

John

Holy HOG HEAVEN, Hooray

"Charlotte's Web" earns an A because you’re certain to lose your ARACHNOPHOBIA

Clay

"Charlotte's Web" gets an “A” because AUDACIOUS ANIMALS will ALWAYS win their way into your hearts . . .

John

"The Pursuit of Happyness" earns a “C” for its CHRISTMAS CHUMP . . .

Clay

"The Holiday" gets an "F" because it’s too FRIGGIN’ pretty for an old grump like me . . .

John

Clay, I’m going to find a PIG to make my holiday sloppy and sexy.

I'm outta here.

Clay

John, old hams like you never die, they just sizzle or fizzle away.

I'm outa here, too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Clay:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Apocalypto," "Blood Diamond"

WCBE 90.5 FM
It's Movie Time: "Apocalypto," "Blood Diamond"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe with guest film critic Kristin Dreyer Kramer
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 8, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

John

"Apocalypto" is another violence showcase for drunken driver Gibson . . .

Clay

"Blood Diamond" is a well intended thriller as seen through the wrong pair of eyes . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Clay

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando, Clay Lowe and today’s special guest, on-line film critic Kristin Dreyer Kramer . . .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John

I'm John DeSando . . .

Clay

I'm Clay Lowe . . .

Kristin

And I'm Kristin Dreyer Kramer . . . ("Apocalypto" 130 words)

John and Clay,

In Mel Gibson's latest film-set toward the end of the Mayan civilization-a young Mayan named Jaguar Paw, played by engaging newcomer Rudy Youngblood, is captured and marked to be sacrificed to the gods. Jaguar Paw manages to escape, and, with a group of warriors close behind, he races back to his village, where he's hidden his son and his pregnant wife.

Apocalypto is a stunning film with a fascinating story, but it gets lost in scene after scene of unnecessary carnage. If he'd left a few things to the imagination, Gibson would have had a brilliant film on his hands-but he gets so caught up in decapitations and human sacrifices that, as a result, Apocalypto is little more than an exquisitely done horror movie.

John ("Apocalypto" 127 words)

“Stunning,” “fascinating”—Kristin, you’re starved for good movies. From Jesus to a Jaguar, this director is obsessed with blood, on which he slips every time.

Clay

Hey John, the same could be said of that blind poet Homer.

John

Homer may nod, but he never slips.

Gibson loves gore. No, that's not a new political eccentricity for the
mercurial director, but an inference I am drawing from his recent films and his notorious traffic violation.

His fictional Mayan hero, a Braveheart of the jungle, experiences torture at an unprecedented scale, but not improbable for those who have seen Passion of the Christ or traveled in the Yucatan to see the murals depicting throat slicing and decapitation.

Yes, the jungle tracking sequences are worth suffering through the rest of the bloody raids, chases, and sacrifices.

Yes he has missed the opportunity to depict the decline of a great
civilization.

Clay ("Apocalypto" 128 words)

Well, folks, there's no doubt the take-no-prisoners depiction of violence in "Apocalypto" is disturbing. And there's no doubt that director Mel Gibson specializes in the depiction of violence the way that horror movie makers do. Think Wes Craven.

But whether or not Gibson uses violence for a higher purpose or whether he's just trying to time satisfy his own blood lusts - who can truly say?

John

I can say!

Clay

Of course you can, the point is the use of violence in "Apocalypto" is the key to its meaning.

Violence was the hallmark of the Mayan's fear culture, and violence was the way they maintained control.

Like it or not, "Apocalypto" is a brilliantly made movie that even has a few things to say about those who would use violence and fear to control us today.

John ("Blood Diamond" 127 words)

Yes, W and Rummy will love Apocalypto.

Clay

Rummie's gone, John.

John

Civil war and diamond lust rule West Africa’s Sierra Leone, 1999. Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond, starring an excellent Leo DiCaprio, touches TOO many incendiary bases: towns pillaged for young boys to be recruited for rebel armies, big diamond firms manipulating the market to keep the price of diamonds high, foreign concerns such as the US walking narrowly between outrage at human rights violations and interest in the country’s vast resources such as rubber and gems.

Zwick captures ironic beauty through visually stunning landscapes juxtaposed with shots of poverty and mayhem.

Clay

I can't believe you cut him more slack than you do Mel Gibson. As a
director he's clearly inferior.

John

And that’s the problem: Gibson should be superior to Zwick but isn’t.

Blood Diamond turns on love after all, both for a land and a people. If Zwick had stayed longer with the big issues such as politics and corporate corruption, his film would have achieved an Out-of-Africa mystique.

Clay

Folks, enough of fear cultures, shame cultures, and bloody hot diamonds, because it's grading time.

John

Holy BLOODY BUSINESS, Hooray!

John

"Apocalypto" earns “C” for CODDLING audiences with CARNAGE COCAINE . . .

Kristin

Apocalypto earns a C for carelessly chopping off heads instead of capturing viewers' hearts.

Clay

"Apocalypto" gets an “A” despite its gutsy gore because Gibson’s film, this time, IS bloody brilliant . . .

John

"Blood Diamond earns a “B" because this director is interested in MORE than BLOOD . . .

Clay

"Blood Diamond" gets a "C" because it CONTINUOUSLY patronizes the natives . . .

John

Clay and Kristin, I bought a diamond recently for my Russian interpreter, but she BLOODY well refused it.

I guess if modern heroes like me get their heads chopped off spending five grand for rejection, maybe diamonds as well as civilizations ARE not forever.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Better your head than other key portions of your anatomy, John, I'm outta here too, and ya'll come back again Kristin, do ya heah?

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Clay:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5
FM,WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006

WCBE 90.5 FM: "Bobby," "For Your Consideration," "Shut Up and Sing"

WCBE 90.5 FM
It’s Movie Time: "Bobby," "For Your Consideration," "Shut Up and Sing"
Co-hosts, writers & producers: John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Recorded: Wednesday, 1:00 pm, November 29, 2006
Air Time: Friday, 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, December 1, 2006
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org .

Clay

"Bobby" is an uneasy mix of fact and fiction . . .

John

“For Your Consideration"  should be not be CONSIDERED for an OSCAR . . .

Clay

"Shut Up and Sing" showcases the integrity of the Dixie Chicks . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UP THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak McCuen

"It's Movie Time" in Columbus with John DeSando and Clay Lowe. .

MUSIC BRIEFLY UP THEN SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

John: I'm John DeSando

Clay: And I'm Clay Lowe

John ("Bobby" 127 words)

“His passion has aroused the best and the beast in man. And the beast waited for him in the kitchen.” Theodore White about Bobby Kennedy

Film clips in the flaccid film Bobby of him before his assassination are a reminder of the Kennedy charisma and the loss both brothers’ deaths brought. Besides the obvious Crash parallel, Bobby takes the late Robert Altman approach to the day of Robert Kennedy’s death to show in the hotel the intersecting lives that’ll be defined by this history.

Perhaps the point in the disappointing vignettes at the Ambassador Hotel is that all these characters are allowed to age with unremarkable lives while this promising young leader will be shot down.

“Has anybody seen my friend Bobby?  Where has he gone?”

Clay ("Bobby" 126 words)

He’s gone with the wind, John, like our youth, but he’ll not be forgotten.  Perhaps loved, perhaps hated, but not forgotten.

Too bad, however, that the movie wasn’t more about Bobby and less about the lives of the people who just happened to be there the night he was murdered.

The “Grand Hotel” set-up was not a bad idea. Robert Altman pulled it off brilliantly in “Nashville” (which also happened to end in an assassination).

Unfortunately, “Bobby’s” director, Emilio Estevez, was not able to as skillfully weave together the disparate hopes and dreams of the movie’s background characters into an equally meaningful metaphor.

Maybe that’s why you leave the theatre wishing the movie had been less about the minor characts and more about the issues “Bobby” believed in with such passion

John ("For Your Consideration" 129 words)

Here’s even LESS less:

Whenever I review a film, I put out my sensors for the “buzz,” that mysterious rumor cloud praising or damning a film most critics haven’t seen, much less those doing the praising or damning.

Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration satirizes this subtle form of marketing or sabotage, sometimes spot-on funny, but most of the time tired.

However, I was certainly amused by the take on the film critic duo, whose obligatory disagreements turn them into mush when they have to agree---MAYBE like us!
Creative minds need to take a different angle or perhaps a stronger light on the Hollywood spoof, in the spirit of the cinematographer in the film who says when asked to heighten the key light: "It's brighter than Stephen Hawking in here."

Clay ("Shut Up and Sing" 131 words)

Well, folks, you may or not believe that the Dixie Chicks have creative minds, but you’ll walk away from “Shut Up and Sing” knowing they’ve always been willing to speak them.

Veteran documentary filmmaker Barbara Koppel, teaming up with Cecilia Peck, spent three years following this outspoken trio of country singers as they achieve both wanted and unwanted fame,
At issue, in the film, is a remark made three years ago by lead singer Natalie Maines while singing at a concert in London. Distressed by our going to war in Iraq she lets her audience know she’s ashamed that President Bush is also from Texas.

Bring on the swift boats.

“Shut Up and Sing” may not a great documentary, but you’ll be glad you found out about what they’re all about.

But enough of flaccid films, over-hyped movies, and angry Southern warblers, John, because it's grading time.

John

Holy HYPING Hollywood, Hooray.

HIT DRUMS

John

"Bobby" earns a “D” because it’s a DISASTROUS attempt to capture a true hero . . .

Clay

"Bobby" gets a "C" because it's a CRIME it wasn't better . . .

John

"For Your Consideration"  earns a “C” because it’s a CONSIDERABLE disappointment . . .

Clay

"Shut Up and Sing" gets a "B" because the angrier they got, the BETTER they sang . . .

DRUMS OUT

John

Clay: There is more truth in David Hockney’s painting, Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, which I saw last week at London’s National Portrait Gallery, than all the hours of documentary we’ve seen this year.

Or have you so influenced me that I now accept portraiture as superior to caricature? 

This is all too deep for me.

I'm outta here.

Clay

Not to worry, John.   As Paul Klee once said,  "My faces are truer than life," and that certainly holds true for the ones I've taken of you.  They too will someday hang in a rotunda.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT CLOSING THEME THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:

The Award-Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is written and now produced by John DeSando and Clay Lowe in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus, Ohio.

MUSIC UP, THEN DOWN AND OUT

Copyright by John DeSando & Clay Lowe, 2006