THE SOURCE FAMILY (B+) -A thoroughly entertaining examination of the utopian California cult of the last '60s and '70s, led by the charismatic man known as Father Yod.
The Source Family started as a hangout on the Sunset Strip where James Edward Baker, a martial arts aficionado, started one of the first health-food restaurants (the kind later parodied by Woody Allen in 1977's "Annie Hall"). Baker drew a lot of underage runaways to work in the eatery, and soon everyone was living Manson Family-style in a big house. Hounded by neighbors and the press for their housing of teens and for Father Yod's multiple wives, they moved to Hawaii.
There, the script turns familiar -- the sexual backlash against the omnipotent leader, an infatuation with violence and the apocalypse -- yet filmmakers Jodi Wille and Maria Demopoulos expertly build tension as in an assured drama, particularly in the scene of a harrowing natural childbirth. The archival footage -- both visual and audio -- is fascinating. Many of the members contribute as current-day talking heads, including Isis Aquarian and Electricity Aquarian (many took New Age surnames), who chronicled the group's history in a book in 2006. Their eyes tell as many stories as their voices do. Some continued on the path of simple living off the grid.
The group also featured a Zappa-like band of musicians who played psychedelic space jams. The whole package works as a whole to capture the peak of the '60s/'70s counterculture. The film conjures up a melange of pop-culture touchstones, as if Timothy Leary, the Partridge Family and Jonestown all lived happily ever after.
DECEPTIVE PRACTICE: THE MYSTERIES AND MENTORS OF RICKY JAY (B) -
This was highly enjoyable, with an entertaining subject and clever framing device. I would give it a higher grade -- because it's definitely worth seeing -- but for two reasons: 1) You need to be a little bit of a fan of Ricky Jay and/or his card tricks. 2) Grading this too high would suggest that this is the ultimate profile of Ricky Jay and his magician mentors; it's not.
But at times, it's true joy. Jay was a child star in the '50s and grew up to be the Penn Jillette of the '70s, perfecting his card-tossing routine as a long-haired hippie of the now generation. You may know his face from David Mamet's films opposite Joe Mantegna in the '80s, such as "House of Cards," "Things Change" and "Homicide." He's also the author of numerous books on magic and various oddities.
What this documentary brings to light is Jay's role as a historian in the world of magic. Because he was already an established performer in the 1950s (urged on by his amateur-magician dad), he provides a key link to the artists going back to the turn of the last century. His library is comprehensive.
Director Molly Bernstein stretches the soup a few times when she's stumped for footage, but she employs a simple but effective framing device: Jay sitting in front of a mirror at a felt table shuffling a deck of cards and occasionally showing off his sleight of hand. She introduces us to the elders: Al Flosso, Slydini, Cardini and others. She shows respect for the secrets of these men.
We also get clips of Jay hamming it up with Dinah Shore on her talk show. And we see closeups of the face of a man easing into old age, his hands still quicker than the eye.
Bonus Track
The trailer for "The Source Family":
No comments:
Post a Comment