Billy Joel: And So It Goes: Just recently released on HBO is a new two-part documentary on the life and music of Billy Joel. I will admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this, even though I wouldn’t say that I am the biggest Joel fan. In fact, in times of fixed phone storage for music I have debated removing my Joel tunes. But that isn’t material here.
Told basically chronologically, we see the life of young Billy Joel growing up in Long Island to a musical Dad who isn’t on the scene long and his poor loving mother. Interviews from school chums say that “there was poor and there there was Joel poor.” Early on what Billy had was a talent, and one that Mom even in hard financial times managed to get music lessons.
What fascinates me in these types of stories is the creative process. I do not possess any artistry in music. I banged on drums in middle and high school but never learned to read music and play an instrument. Guitar or piano would have been useful I feel. I still marvel at those who can sit at a piano and “just play”. For Joel he was part of bands in his younger days and he was quickly identified as someone with talent. I learned a number of things in this story. One is that Joel isn’t Italian but rather Jewish and many of his ancestors had died in German prison camps during WWII. I also learned that he fell in love at an early age with his best friends’ wife. She later married him, raising a step-son for Billy and she later still became his manager. She was an adept manager too, not only committed to her husband’s work but being very organized and business savvy. He lost plenty when she no longer acted as his manager, as he foolishly brought on her brother (his ex-brother-in-law) who ended stealing millions from him. He had written all that amazing music in his early days from albums like The Stranger and 52nd Street with some mega-hits. There is talk of his marriages, as he has been married four times, with the last two being of similar age as his own daughter Alexa Ray (now 40yo). There are some good interviews with musical icons like Paul McCartney, Don Henley, Bruce Springsteen and former band mates. It all adds up to very watchable tv about an artist who has been going through his own renaissance, still selling out the annual Madison Square Garden concert. Also there in the second part is a lengthy discussion about his family history and they in WWII and he looking to reconcile with his Dad, who had moved back to Europe. Fascinating.
His talent is undeniable despite those who claimed he was “derivative” and stole from others. What music that he did create, he created on his own. Producers helped of course but he wrote the songs. There are plenty of musical styles but that is how you stay relevant over many decades and “reinvent” yourself. So rather than delete the Joel music from my phone, I have now supplemented my songs with a couple of his that I had forgotten about. Well worth checking out.
M3GAN 2.0: The original M3GAN was released in 2022 and it has some success. It was notable for the movements and voice of the robotic lead character, and a story which parents can relate to. In it the very busy business executive and developer has created a doll/robot to be a companion to her niece. It is basically a surrogate babysitter, that looks a little bit like Chucky in its creepiness. Things goes awry and there are many lessons learned about the dangers of robots and AI.
The sequel was released June this year and didn’t do very well at the box office. Having just seen it I can understand why. Whereas the original seemed fresh and novel in its approach, the sequel aims for the low hanging fruit in a plot device to have the technology, aimed at household use, and turn it into a military prototype. It doesn’t work. Allison Williams returns as the too-busy robot developer with her older niece and takes measures initially that seem reasonable in addressing the outcome of the first story. But being shown a military use and the desire to create a new version of M3GAN feels forced. There are some good quips between the newer, more lippy version of the robot and the creator/developer as it admonishes the developer and what she had originally created. But it isn’t enough as the story becomes even more silly in its application. Sure putting the intelligence of the new AI robot into a children’s toy version body was funny and clever as technically the developer did as she was asked. But the humour falls away and we are left with a tiresome battle between robots which is nowhere near as compelling as a Terminator 2. It is more the weak effort starring Robin Williams in Toys. I pretty much became fully disengaged when the newer robot started singing. Yep. Singing. The bad person in this isn’t too difficult to pick out and ultimately it falls flat. I cannot recommend it. So a hard pass.
Mondays With Robbie 