Music

BLAZE (2018)


Blaze Foley lived a short and eventful life. He had heaps of talent but combine that with the self destructive gene many artists possess and success was beyond his reach.

Ethan Hawke directs this beautiful, tender portrait of an artist who didn’t reach the heights he may, like many others, have attained. In an interview Hawke talked about the desire to make a film about an artist who didn’t make it:

“One of the things about music biopics is that they’re always about Ray Charles or Johnny Cash or somebody who made it big, and the subtext of that is always that the making it big is what made their life story worth telling and the great mass of musicians that I’ve met and spent time with in my life have all been, you know almost universally met with indifference. That’s kind of the more normal story in the arts and I, in the back of my mind thought I’d love to make a music movie about a guy who didn’t make it, like that would be true to life. I’d like to see that movie and that intersected one night, I’ve been friends with Mr Dickey here for I don’t know 15 years or so and it was a couple of new years eves ago we were sitting around the fire and Ben started playing Clay Pigeons and the idea I said out loud you should play Blaze Foley in a movie and Ben laughed and I kind of….synapses in the back of my neck exploded and I was like I think I’m supposed to do that.”

This quote really stuck with me in the same way that the film did. It is a film that subtly takes a hold of you and doesn’t let go. I don’t listen to a lot of folk music, I appreciate it as I do all music but it’s never on my playlist so without a recommendation from my dear friend and fellow film lover, the very talented writer, Adam Nightingale, I may never have seen it. I do like Ethan Hawke though, I rate him as an actor and an artist who constantly makes interesting films and always seems to choose from the left of centre which is massively refreshing for a film star.


Let’s talk about Ben Dickey, who plays Blaze Foley in the film for a minute. His performance in this is deserving of all the awards. He is not an actor. I repeat he is not an actor. He is a musician which gives the film an authenticity most music bios lack. He is joined by another musician of massive note, Charlie Sexton who plays Blaze’s friend, real life singer songwriter, Townes Van Zandt. This is one of the main reasons the film hits another level of realism. Ben Dickey clearly has a charisma that shines through the screen and brings Blaze to life and his ability to show the pain is evident.

Blaze lived a short life but his songs touched many. The film opens with a quote by Willie Nelson: “There was a lot to ‘ol Blaze” and Willie recorded a cover of one of Blaze’s songs ‘If I Could only Fly’ with another musical legend Merle Haggard in 1987 so clearly this was an artist with talent and great songwriting skills.

Bring on more tales of the unsung artists. After all there are countless documentaries already out there about the famous and lauded. When I saw the Straight outta Compton film all I wanted to do afterwards was watch an actual documentary about the group to wash the taste of artifice out of my mouth. It wasn’t a bad film it just had too much Hallmark about it, as in the drama was too pointed, it lacked subtlety. This is the issue I usually have with biopics, we already know too much about the subject(s) and have already formed our opinions but if the subject is new to us we can approach the film with a blank slate. Many people love these biopics and I’m definitely not saying that they are wrong, merely that the average biopics are not really my lane.


There is a lovely swan song cameo from Kris Kristofferson playing Blaze’s father and cameos from three greats as the oilmen who sign Blaze to make music for them. Wyatt Russell is great as the the owner of the treehouse that Blaze and Sybil live in for a time but the heart of the film belongs to Alia Shawkat who play the love of Blaze’s life, Sybil Rosen (who incidentally plays her own mother in the film). The film is based on Sybil Rosen’s book ‘Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley. Alia gives a performance filled with love, longing, understanding, joy and pain and is wonderful, like Rosen, Shawkat really is the heart of this film.


I think it’s important to wave the flag for films that may have flown under the radar and that is why I’m doing a piece on this one.

See it now on Disney Plus.

Directed by Ethan Hawke

Starring: Ben Dickey, Alia Shawkat, Josh Hamilton, Charlie Sexton, Kris Kristofferson and Wyatt Russell.

THE FABELMANS (2022)


For Steven Spielberg’s 34th feature film he tells an autobiographical tale about his early years and his journey into filmmaking. It tells the story of Mitzi and Burt Fabelman and their 3 (then 4) children with Sammy, the Steven Spielberg stand-in being the eldest. The film opens with them going to the cinema to see young Sammy’s first film, Cecil B DeMille’s epic film ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. To say it has a profound effect on him is probably an understatement and thus his passion for film begins.

The film shows Sammy and his family during his childhood and teenage years. This is a film that one can’t help but be charmed by. It is a story of family, through the fun times and the not so and as you watch you become attached to the Fabelmans and care and that is all we really want, right? It’s not about liking them or not, it’s about empathising and recognising the humanity and the struggle in them. 

Michelle Williams gives an Oscar worthy performance as Sammy’s Mother, Mitzi, who’s artistic dreams and romantic ideas sometimes clash with her husband, Burt who is a very talented computer engineer. She is a gifted pianist and musician but her art seems to have no outlet and thus friction is born.

Gabriel LaBelle plays Steven, sorry, Sammy with all the wide-eyed wonder and teenage confusion clearly on display with a subtlety that really works. He even looks more and more like the young Steven as the movie goes on.


Once again John Williams scores the film and does so with heart and warmth. This is purported to be his last ever score but we’ll see about that…..
This is a gently, beautiful ode to Spielberg’s early years and his family especially his Mother, Leah Adler and Father, Arnold Spielberg who died in 2017 and 2020 respectively. Apparently they both wanted Steven to make a film about their life and he had originally conceived of the idea and written a script in 1999 with his sister Anne. Spielberg eventually revisited the idea and worked on a script with his regular collaborator, the award winning writer, Tony Kushner during the making of West Side Story.

Also worth mentioning is a cameo by the wonderful, Judd Hirsch, playing his Grand Uncle Boris, a one time circus worker and was involved in the film business who lights a fire under Sammy in regard to his art. Seth Rogen is very good as Bennie, a close friend of the family and work colleague of Burt. Julia Butters, who was so good in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, plays Reggie Fabelman based on Spielberg’s sister, Anne and is again brilliant. We get a little of James Urbaniak and a smidgeon of Greg Grunberg, both great and both a welcome addition to the cast.

The internets describe a fabel as ‘a fictitious narrative intended to enforce some useful truth or precept’ hence The Fabelmans title. A nice word play on what the film is.

The last Spielberg film I saw was Lincoln in 2012, I have seen 24 out of his 34 films and this one was lovely, a beautifully honest and at times, raw portrait of his early family life. A truly great homage to his parents and family.


Surely, Michelle Williams will be nominated for Best Actress at the very least. 

What an incredibly varied and mutli-genred career Spielberg has. Along with fellow peers Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola among others he has cemented himself as one of America’s greatest film directors of the 20th and 21st century. He has blessed us with treasures that are still admired and enjoyed today and I, for one am thankful for him and his art.

An intensely personal film for the maestro.

“Most of my movies have been a reflection of things that happened to me in my formative years,” Spielberg says. “Everything that a filmmaker puts him or herself into, even if it’s somebody else’s script, your life is going to come spilling out onto celluloid, whether you like it or not. It just happens. But with The Fabelmans, it wasn’t about the metaphor; it was about the memory.”

Released in Australia on January 5th 2023.

150 minutes