All posts by Josef Rodriguez

Hey, I'm Joey and I'm a (usually) film and pop culture blogger, but I'll write about pretty much anything.
POP CULTURE

Grizzly Album Review: “Camp” by Childish Gambino

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Many actors become rappers if they have the talent. Many rappers also become actors if they have the talent. Will Smith, Ice Cube, Xzibit, Drake, and Common are some of the names that come to mind, but now I’ve got a new name to add to that list, Childish Gambino. You may recognize him as Troy on the NBC show Community, or the even more successful Derrick Comedy sketches, the film Mystery Team, and as an Emmy-winning writer for 30 Rock. Truth is, Donald Glover AKA Childish Gambino, is one of the hardest working people in the industry right now, balancing both a music, acting, comedy, and writing career almost seamlessly.

Gambino first began releasing music in 2008 with his self-released debut album Sick Boi. The album was a success on the internet, which inspired five more releases (Poindexter, I Am Just A Rapper, I Am Just A Rapper 2, Culdesac, and EP) from 2009-2011 before he was able to release his debut studio release, Camp. Released on Glassnote records, Camp is not only a stylistic, but also a lyrical step forward for Gambino, whose raps consisted mostly of talking about his d***, his chicks, and his money. Personally I felt like his lyrics became much more relatable and interesting around the release of I Am Just A Rapper 2. He had fully taken on the responsibilities of his Childish Gambino personality, and he ran with it. Although d***s, chicks, and money is still extremely prevalent in his music, there’s a clever and usually wildly funny punchline to accompany it.


Earning a degree in Dramatic Writing at NYU, Glover is a skilled and able wordsmith, which is what makes Gambino’s raps not only smooth, but wickedly clever. One of my favorite lines on the whole album occurs on the album’s first single, “Bonfire”, and it goes, “You’re my favorite rapper now, yeah dude I better be, or you can f***ing kiss my ass, Human Centipede!” I mean, if you guys need any reason to go to college, let this be it. You can graduate, start working with Tina Fey on a daily basis, and then become a world famous rapper as a side-job.

Along with the great lyrics that are expected from Gambino come equally as engaging beats and rhythms. When performing live, Donald tends to use a live band as opposed to pre-recorded background. This may in some ways explain the layered and sometimes surprisingly alternative beats that come from him and his team. The result is not only one of the best releases of the year, but also Gambino’s best release ever. Even if you don’t like his voice, check out Camp just for the lyrics, they’re guaranteed to make you crack a smile or even burst out laughing.

Best Track: Bonfire and Backpackers

5/5 Bears

POP CULTURE

Grizzly Album Review: “Blue Slide Park” by Mac Miller

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Since 2007, 19 year old Mac Miller has been gaining a well-deserved following, releasing a steady amount of mixtapes since he was only 15. Now, four years later, he’s releasing his first studio album, Blue Slide Park. Garnering an insane amount of hype on Twitter due to Miller himself posting a constant stream of tweets about it, Blue Slide Park is finally here, and it doesn’t disappoint.

As a newer and sometimes skeptical fan of Mac Miller, Blue Slide Park has a miraculous balance of classic Miller, while also boasting his ability to carry an entire album on his own. That’s right, not one guest spot on this joint, just pure rap with some catchy hooks. I have to say this is a refreshing and much-needed change of pace in a day when some songs have as many as 15 guest stars on them (see: All of the Lights by Kanye West). It’s calming in some ways to know that one voice really can carry a whole album from front to back with no pit stops.

For non-Mac Miller fans, this album probably won’t change your mind, but for fans of the Pittsburgh native, you’ll fall even farther in love with him than you already have. A 16-track album with not one dud is a pretty amazing feat considering the state of hip-hop these days. Miller is a young voice that almost every teenager can relate to in some way or another. I remember on his mixtape Best Day Ever, he has a song entitled “She Said” and in the opening he says, “Yo, I’m feelin’ ill! And not like, cool or anything, like I’m coming down with a sickness.” At that point, I knew this white boy meant business.

The only drawback that I can’t think of at the moment is that Miller is known for rapping about three things: weed, parties, and girls. He hasn’t deviated much from this pattern on Blue Slide Park, and yet in some ways he has, thinking of more creative ways to let the listener visualize these things.

Overall, Blue Slide Park is an extremely solid release, as well as one of the best albums of the year. It’s available now wherever music is sold (iTunes is probably your best bet though).

Best Track: Frick Park Market and Smile Back

4.5/5 Bears

MOVIES

In Case you Missed It: Like Crazy

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Love has been represented on film since cameras could capture imagery. For hundreds of years, love has been the sole representation of many artists through all kinds of artistic mediums. Music, paintings, sculptures, and even buildings have been created due to love.

So, why is it that love can’t be honestly captured through cinema? Is it because “love knows no bounds” and is impossible to represent through a picture? Or is it because we really don’t want to know what love actually is, rather a more, well, romantic version of it.

Like Crazy, which is director Drake Doremus’ debut film, is about a pair of college students who fall for each other during their senior year. Jacob (Anton Yelchin) is an aspiring furniture maker, while Anna (Felicity Jones) is hoping to make it as a journalist. The two meet after Anna leaves a romantic, and somewhat long, note on Jacob’s car. They go on a date, and the chemistry is immediate. For the rest of their final year at college, they’re inseparable, but when graduation rolls around, Anna has to go home because her student visa has expired. She’d have to be out of the country and out of Jacob’s arms for two and a half months. Not able to bear this almost insurmountable amount of time, she decides that she’s going to stay, and Jacob stupidly agrees.

The two spend the rest of the summer together, until she really has to go back for a family member’s wedding. When she tries to come back to the states, though, she is denied access due to violation of her prior visa. She is sent back to London alone and heartbroken. The film then fades to what we can presume is a couple of months later since Jacob and Anna don’t seem to be talking much anymore. Finally, Jacob breaks down and goes to London to visit her, where again the two are madly in love. During the end of their holiday together, Anna suggests that Jacob be allowed to see other people for “his benefit” because she feels like he’s “not able to live the life he wants to.” Jacob is hurt by this, and goes back to the states lonely and heartbroken (sensing a pattern here?).

The film proceeds to fade again to what the audience must presume is months later again. Jacob is now with a girl named Sam (Jennifer Lawrence, oddly enough, as Yelchin’s love interest for the 2nd time this year, after the far superior ‘The Beaver’). Anna is alone, and begs Jacob to come back and marry her because she’s so madly in love with him. Jacob then stupidly agrees again, breaks Sam’s heart, and goes and marries Anna.

They are then separated again for six more months while Anna’s visa application processes. When the six months are up, they go to get everything validated, only to find out that her visa is still not eligible for validation to due the first incident. Angry and annoyed by this, they have another huge fight, which prompts them to divorce.

Jacob goes back to the states lonely and heartbroken yet again.

You guys know the drill by now. Film fades, Jacob is back with Sam, and Anna is with Simon (Charlie Bewley), a neighbor that was a little too friendly with Anna when Jacob wasn’t with her. Both Simon and Sam seem exponentially happy with their relationships whereas Jacob and Anna still aren’t fulfilled even though it clearly looks like they are. I know you must hate me by now as I’m giving away the entire plot, or shreds of what can be called a plot, but I feel required to for numerous reasons.

For one, Like Crazy is a mostly aimless film. Written only in outlines, and having the cast improvise all of the lines, Like Crazy is simply a selection of scenes rather than a coherent story. At first, I thought that the improvisational approach the film took was both experimental and innovative, but seeing how conventional the story is, and how bland the characters are, it seems more like a lazy cop-out than an artistic decision. Our protagonists are borderline unlikable in the way that they toy with the feelings of not only each other, but also all the other people around them. Anna’s parents, whose roles end up being more of an extended cameo than anything, have the most fascinating and funny scenes in the film. They represent a much happier, more decisive couple that knew what they were getting into before they rushed to get married.

In my opinion, Sam was a much better match for Jacob than Anna, but love does what it wants, and in this case, it kicked her heart in the ass, twice I might add, which I felt was extremely unfair to her character. As for Simon, he was also a great guy who truly cared about Anna’s well-being and future. Not that Jacob didn’t, but I felt like Simon took a much more proactive approach to life than Jacob did.

In defense of Like Crazy, the performances, music, and direction were all fantastic, but its lackluster and frankly boring story, as truthful and real as it may seem to be, drags its 89 minute running time to extraneous and unfair lengths. Like Crazy plays out like a hybrid of (500) Days of Summer and Going The Distance, but neither as funny, entertaining or insightful. If you want to see love in all different forms, go to a wedding. There’s more drama, more dancing, and free food.

2/5 Bears

TV

Harold & Kumar and Napoleon Dynamite …the Animated Series?!

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I’m not sure if this is the case for you, but when I think animated series, I usually don’t think about things like Napoleon Dynamite or Harold & Kumar, but it seems like I’m going to have to start thinking about it, because believe it or not, it’s happening. An animated version of Napoleon Dynamite was announced in October of last year, whereas the Harold & Kumar series was announced during the 3rd film’s opening weekend. Napoleon has a trailer (which is much less funny than I expected) as well as a network, FOX. Harold & Kumar has neither of these, but the original cast has already signed on, and there have been reports of many offers by networks.

 

Let me run down Napoleon Dynamite first since it seems to have a more concrete stance as of right now. I first saw the preview back in February or so, and I was extremely under whelmed. Despite the return of the entire cast as well as the writer/directors of the original film, it seems like Mr. Dynamite and crew have completely lost all the wit and subtle humor that made the original film so damn funny. With that being said, I can be as skeptical as I want, but I’m going to have to wait until the show actually premieres to make a decision, and I might be waiting a long time since an official premiere date has not yet been released.

The details on the Harold & Kumar series are much more ambiguous, as the show was just confirmed. Both John Cho and Kal Penn who play Harold and Kumar, respectively, have signed on to the show. The writers of the original three films, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, have also signed on to be the lead writers for the series. This is all great and dandy, but one crucial thing is missing, NPH. Many people are concerned that NPH will be reduced to the occasional cameo due to his commitment to How I Met Your Mother, but I have a different theory. HIMYM, which is on its 7th season, has only one more to go after this. That equates to about one and a half more years of Barney Stinson before the show’s inevitable end. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t that give NPH enough time to do everything?

The most interesting thing, in my opinion, about this whole situation, is that both of the series are based off of modern cult classic films. What’s next, Piranha: The Animated Series? The success of these shows is either going to be immediate or non-existent. Animated shows on FOX have proved to be moderately successful, with both Family Guy and American Dad on their roster. Harold & Kumar’s success though, depends solely on the network that picks it up. The films themselves are known for raunchy content and habitual drug use. If a network like NBC were to nab the show, the censors would be almost devastating to the show’s basic premise. We don’t want a watered-down H&K do we? Another problem I predict is that the antics of the duo will become stale after a season or two. Unless an ongoing issue or plot is introduced, seeing 22 minutes of different fiascos every week may get old quickly. As much as I want to be excited about this, I’m also very scared that it’ll ruin the lore, appeal, wit, and heart that makes the Harold & Kumar films so appealing.

While everyone loves a good animated series, will the fact that they’re based off of movies kill it, or make it worth watching. Let’s look at the track record of other shows based on movies. Clerks: Uncensored was a 2000 animated series based on the successful Kevin Smith Viewaskewniverse. The show itself only lasted six episodes, but has a surprisingly large cult following consider its extremely short screen life. Another film to animation series was The Real Ghostbusters, an extremely successful show that lasted five seasons, totaling 147 episodes. Other big to small screen adaptations include Tales From the Cryptkeeper, Police Academy: The Animated Series, Droids: The Adventures of R2D2 and C3PO, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, RoboCop: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Animated Adventures, Back to the Future: The Animated Series, and Beetlejuice. Some of the shows were successful, but many of them weren’t. With the mostly successful return of Beavis and Butthead, who knows what’s next?

POP CULTURE

Grizzly Concert Review: Odd Future

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The first thing I saw when I pulled up to the Odd Future concert in Tempe, Arizona was the last thing I wanted to see; a line. Not just any line, mind you.  A line that went from the front door all the way across the street to the other end of the street. Needless to say this wasn’t a very good start to what was supposed to be the greatest concert of all time.

Two hours, two bottles of water, several panic attacks, and a thorough backpack search later, I had finally entered the Marquee Theater. I rushed to buy a shirt quickly before the show started, and then made my way into the auditorium. As I entered, I realized that it really wasn’t as crowded as I had original anticipated, which was a definite relief. I made my way into the crowded, nudging between the drunk and the scary, hoping to find a good spot. Alas, no standing room of the such was found. Everything was blocked by people that were far too tall to even be allowed in an auditorium or concert hall. At this point it was about 8:15-8:30 PM. The ticket advertised an 8 PM show time, which in most cases means 8:30. I had to be home at 11:30, so I was trying to be as time conscious as I could. As careful as I was to look at my phone every now and then, the minutes kept moving, and there was still no sign of a concert starting.

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MOVIES

Grizzly Review: A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas

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Everyone loves racist jokes. Everyone loves pot jokes. Everyone loves racist pot jokes (it’s true don’t deny it). These three facts may be an explanation behind the strangely successful Harold & Kumar franchise, which is now on its third film. The other strange thing about the franchise is that it’s one of the only, if not the only successful franchise led without a Caucasian character in a lead role. I’m sure there are others that I’m forgetting, but that’s really not important.

In A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, six years have passed since the previous sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantonomo Bay. On an unrelated note, considering that both Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle and Escape From Guantanomo Bay take place during the same week, and the first Harold & Kumar came out in 2004, the whole 6 years passing thing is extremely close to being accurate as far as the time-lapse. Not very important, but I felt like sharing, now back to the review.

Harold (John Cho) has since married his dream girl Maria (Paula Garcés – Below), who now wants to have a child. Kumar (Kal Penn), who was dumped by his girlfriend Vanessa (Danneel Ackles), now lives alone spending his days getting high and talking to his annoying neighbor, Adrian (Amir Blumenfeld, in what should be his breakout role).

Christmas Eve rolls around, and this is where the fun begins. Harold’s very scary and very Mexican in-laws are in town for the weekend, led by their patriarch, Mr. Perez (Danny Trejo), bringing with him an extremely important and cherished tree that he’s been growing for eight years for this specific Christmas. Harold just wants to show to him that he’s a responsible husband and won’t ruin Christmas.

On Kumar’s side of things, with nothing to do, he decides to go out with Adrian, but hours before doing so, Vanessa drops by to give Kumar a little news; she’s pregnant. On top of all that (yes, there’s more), a package arrives for Harold who hasn’t lived in that apartment for almost five years. With all this on his mind, Kumar and Adrian head to Harold’s house to drop off the package and get out of their as soon as they can, but of course, we know the formula by know, that’s not going to happen.

Basically, to shorten the sequence, Kumar leaves the package on the front stoop and tries to get out clean, he ends up slipping on ice, Harold hears it, comes out, greets him, and invites him in for coffee. Kumar reluctantly agrees only to see that Harold’s new house is, and I quote, “not s**ty.” Harold and Kumar, after their awkward introductions, finally get around to opening the mysterious package, only to find a ridiculously large joint with the words “I killed Bob Marley” written on the side of it (I’m only kidding about that last part). Kumar immediately begins smoking the joint, and Harold forces him to throw it out. The joint, accompanied by some slick movie magic, is thrown out of the window, to only boomerang back into another open window, placing itself neatly on the cherished tree, thus lighting it on fire. Here’s where the adventure begins.

I won’t explain all the things that happen next, but I can say one thing; it’s funny as hell. The Harold & Kumar films, as mindless and raunchy as they may seem, are for the most part expertly plotted, smartly written, and extremely funny films, this being no exception.

The only thing that I thought was more or less distracting was the overall change in style. I can’t quite put my finger on everything that was different, but it’s like watching a sequel or a remake to your favorite movie. It’s probably good, but it just isn’t the same. Another distracting element was the almost constant use of slow-motion and 3D. Unfortunately, I was forced to see the film in 2D, as well as sober, so I probably only got about 1/10th of the effects that every stoner with a pair of 3D glasses did.

But for all the stylistic changes, the addition of new and hilarious characters, including Thomas Lennon as Todd, a naïve father who inadvertently involves him and his even funnier baby girl Ava in Harold and Kumar’s misadventures, as well as the return of all the old characters, notably NPH (whose cameo may be his best yet) and Rosenberg and Goldstein (whose cameo scene will have fans of the original in stitches), make this 3rd outing better than it has any right to be. Additionally, the use of meta-filmmaking makes for some even better laughs than almost any joke in the film. The real genius of this 3rd Harold & Kumar film, is that, it will most likely please fans of the original, but it also makes room for millions of new fans who have not yet been introduced to the antics of this lovable stoner duo.

4/5 Bears