It’s been said a lot recently that we’re living in a new Golden Age of the music movie, and it’s tough to argue.
Between a parade of music documentaries, concert films, and of course the rebirth of the musical, from awards darlings like “La La Land” and “West Side Story” to the box office explosion of event films like “Wicked” and even head-scratchers like “Emilia Perez,” music has been dominating our movie theaters.
Well, that trend isn’t likely to end any time soon, but over the next few weeks, it’ll take a big left turn into some decidedly stranger, psychedelic territory, breaking all the usual rules of the artistic music video, the high-volume concert movie, and the band-driven narrative musical.
So open your ears and open your minds, because Oklahoma City theaters are about to take a few serious sonic journeys.
‘Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII’ – Cinemark Tinseltown; AMC Quail Springs; Moore Warren – April 24th & April 27th
Is it the best and most awesome concert film of all time?
Yes, yes it is, and I’ll hear no argument to the contrary.
Filmed in 1971, between their early psych-rock heyday and their still-forthcoming ascent to prog-rock superstardom, director Adrian Maben captured Pink Floyd in all their glorious, grasping transition, still willing to experiment wildly, but learning to incorporate the epic brilliance, improvisational mastery, and melodic atmosphere for which they’d become legends.
But even though the music here is fantastic – showcasing soon-to-be classics like “Echoes” and “One of These Days” and “sound collage” experiments like “A Saucerful of Secrets” – the real genius of the film is Maben’s decision to shoot the band in the ruined desolation of Pompeii with no audience.
In the era that spawned concert mega-films like “Woodstock” and “Monterey Pop” that spotlighted the crazed audiences as much as the artists themselves, it was a groundbreaking choice to set The Pink Floyd against naught but the ruins and dirt, and it all only adds to the band’s dark atmosphere.
Plus, you get some great behind-the-scenes footage cut in of the band writing and recording the songs that will become their mammoth mainstream breakthrough “The Dark Side of the Moon.”
So any re-release or screening of “Pompeii” is enough to excite any Floyd fanatic, but this time around, the full film has been restored, reconceived, and remastered for IMAX screens for just two special nights this month.
Don’t miss it.
For showtimes and tickets, visit amc.com, cinemark.com, and regmovies.com.
‘One to One: John & Yoko’ – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – April 26th & April 27th
It’s become an annoyingly common and undue trope to discount or write off Yoko Ono as a controlling, band-destroying artistic madwoman, just as it’s become an admittedly reasonable trope to reframe John Lennon as a deeply flawed and problematic egotist.
In reality, they were just two human beings, as complicated and messed up as anyone, both hopelessly in love and hopelessly flailing against the expectations of their celebrity and the limited extremes of their creativity. And that’s not even including all the drugs and mind-expanding.
But before the world is yet again flooded with the overtly aggrandizing “Beatlemania” hero worship that’ll surely accompany the promo blitz of the upcoming four-pronged biopic series about The Beatles, directors Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards have offered this documentary showing John and Yoko as they actually were.
Told through footage and recordings mainly made throughout 1971 (the same time Pink Floyd were filming in Pompeii,) this doc tracks the lead-up to the hyper-famous couple’s massive “One to One” protest concert at Madison Square Garden.
But more importantly, it offers their lives in their own words and as the real people that they were: TV-obsessed, irrationally idealistic, and trying to do what they thought was the right thing, even as they frequently got it all wrong.
For showtimes and tickets, visit okcmoa.com.
‘Thom Yorke & Mark Pritchard’s Tall Tales’ – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – May 8th
The first collaborative album from Radiohead mastermind Thom Yorke and groundbreaking electronic producer Mark Pritchard would already be cause for curiosity and weirdo music fan celebration.
But it all got kicked into higher gear with the announcement that the album would be released and showcased alongside a full-length theatrical presentation with the music set to all-new experimental visuals by video artist Jonathon Zawada in a one-night-only worldwide theater experience.
No one is quite sure just what to expect yet, though the trailers show a range of mind-bending visuals and computer graphic creations set to an ominous score of minimalist beats and dark electr-experimentalism, just what you’d expect from Yorke and Pritchard.
If you want to get in on this one-time global event, OKCMOA provides your chance.
For showtimes and tickets, visit okcmoa.com.
‘Wild Zero’ – Rodeo Cinema – May 15th
Rock and pop acts have been staring in their own movies for decades, from The Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night,” to The Ramones in “Rock n Roll High School,” to last year’s “Better Man” featuring singer Robbie Williams lampooning his own personality as a CGI monkey man.
But even as wacky and fun as all of those personality-parodying films were, none of them involved gunfights, aliens, or zombies.
And that’s because that level of musical insanity is reserved for guitar-blasting Japanese rockabilly punks Guitar Wolf and their very own headlining sci-fi/horror/comedy film “Wild Zero.”
As much a love letter to the unhinged, pure-energy punk-rock of Guitar Wolf as to the ridiculousness of underground American B-horror movies, “Wild Zero” is maybe your one opportunity to see a band of leather jacket-clad Japanese rockers do battle with an alien-controlled zombie horde with laser-firing guitar picks.
And really, what else could you possibly want from a movie?
For showtimes and tickets, visit rodeocinema.org.
Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
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Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
