Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher are the heart and soul of Fishbone (photo by Erin Flynn)
EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE (Lev Anderson & Chris Metzler, 2010)
Marcus Garvey Park
18 Mount Morris Park West
Wednesday, July 11, free, music at 7:30, film at 8:30
imagenation.us
www.fishbonedocumentary.com
When they were junior high school students in South Central Los Angeles in 1979, Angelo Moore and Norwood Fisher formed the core of Fishbone, what would soon become one of the most exciting live bands on the planet. Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson document the band’s rise and fall — and rise and fall, and rise and fall, etc. — in the stirring Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone. Using archival footage, old and new interviews, and playful animation, Metzler and Anderson follow the group — Moore and Fisher along with fellow founding members Chris Dowd, Walter “Dirty Walt” Kibby II, and Kendall Jones — through its many personal and financial struggles as it tries to deal with such socioeconomic issues as racism, violence, and the anti-liberal bias taking hold of the nation in Ronald Reagan’s 1980s. Fishbone held nothing back on such albums as In Your Face (1986), Truth and Soul (1988), The Reality of My Surroundings (1991), Give a Monkey a Brain and He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe (1993), and Chim Chim’s Badass Revenge (1996), mixing in pop, punk, funk, ska, reggae, R&B, soul, jazz, and hardcore, prancing about the stage without shirts, diving into the crowd, and always speaking their mind, and they hold nothing back in Everyday Sunshine as well. Narrated by Laurence Fishburne, the film really picks up speed when it delves into the Rodney King beating and the mysterious circumstances involving Jones’s religious transformation and the band’s attempt at an intervention. The decidedly unusual tale also features an impressive lineup of talking heads offering their views on the history of Fishbone, including Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction, fIREHOSE’s Mike Watt, No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal, the Roots’ ?uestlove, Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hutz, Parliament-Funkadelic’s George Clinton, Primus’s Les Clayool, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, Circle Jerk Keith Morris, Ice-T, and, perhaps most informatively, Columbia Records executive David Kahne, who lends fascinating insight into what made Fishbone great — and what kept them from greater success. While you definitely don’t have to know a thing about Fishbone to enjoy this very intimate documentary, longtime fans should eat it up. Everyday Sunshine is screening on July 11 in Marcus Garvey Park as part of the ImageNation Outdoors summer series and will be preceded by live performances by GAME Rebellion and Daví. The festival continues with such free screenings as Night Catches Us on July 21 at Weekesville, Africa United with live music by Taj Weekes & Adowa, Shine & the Moonbeams, and Randolph Matthews on July 29 in Springfield Park, and Taking Root! A Tribute to Wangari Maathal on August 1 in West Harlem Pier Park.
A soap-opera melodrama that morphs into an erotic thriller, Secret Love tells the intense story of a complex and dangerous love triangle in modern-day Korea. Shortly after a whirlwind courtship, Yeon’s (Yoon Jin-seo) new husband, Jin-woo (Yoo Ji-tae), lapses into a coma that he might never awake from. Yeon is soon shocked to meet Jin-woo’s twin brother, Jin-ho (also played by Yoo Ji-tae), who recently emerged from a coma himself. As Yeon and Jin-ho grow closer, their relationship threatens to go to the next level — but when Jin-woo suddenly and unexpectedly arises from his coma, the love triangle becomes overwhelmed by betrayal, uncontrollable passion, and mistaken identity. Directed by Kwon Ji-yeon and cowriter Ryoo Hoon-I (who penned the screenplay with Park Hyun-soo), Secret Love, which is also known as The Secret River, uses water as an underlying motif, with many scenes taking place over a river, in the shower or bath, or at an aquarium. Although it begins slowly and sappy, the film picks up speed as hidden passions explode and danger lurks at every twist and turn. Secret Love is screening for free July 10 at 
With all the movies, TV series, and everything else, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan just might be the best thing that has ever come out of Star Trek land. We’re talking the Genesis project here, earwigs, Kirk’s offspring, Khan’s superior intellect, Kirstie Alley as a Vulcan, Spock bending the truth, the Kobayashi Maru no-win scenario, and Kirk screaming out his enemy’s name in unforgettable fashion, a classic movie moment. Everybody’s on board the USS Enterprise for this journey, including Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), Hikaru Sulu (George Takei), Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Chekhov (Walter Koenig), Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner). The enemy is the conniving but brilliant Khan Noonien Singh, played with delightful relish by Ricardo Montalban, returning from an episode of the original television series. Just the way Montalban pronounces “Kirk” is worth the price of admission; the film serves up a bevy of memorable quotes throughout. The ending is both surprising and surprisingly heartwarming, laying the groundwork for the third film. The Wrath of Khan is about loyalty, friendship, honor, honesty, midlife crisis, fathers and sons, aging — and a bunch of great characters coming together yet again to do a far, far better thing than they have ever done before, or since.
Based on the 2010 book by Don Winslow, Oliver Stone’s Savages is a sort of Jules and Jim meets Breaking Bad by way of Pulp Fiction, Saw, and Blow but falls far short of all of those far superior works. Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson star as childhood friends Chon, a former Navy SEAL with a violent streak just waiting to explode, and Ben, a surfer dude who is making the most potent pot around. They live with and share O (Blake Lively), a carefree woman who loves them both as they run an easygoing marijuana operation in Laguna Beach. When Elena “La Reina” Sanchez (Salma Hayek), head of the vicious Baja Cartel, gets wind of Chon and Ben’s extraordinary weed, she first sends her lawyer, Alex (Demián Bichir), to them to make a deal, but when they reject it, they next have to face the dark, brooding Lado (Benicio del Toro), who enjoys such things as torture and killing. As the film spins out of control, its only saving grace is the occasional appearances of John Travolta as Dennis, a pleasant but corrupt DEA agent who just might know a lot more than he’s telling. The primary problem with Savages is that it is filled with characters who are hard to care about in any way or have sympathy for at all, whether they’re over-the-top evil or treacly sweet. Each side calls the other savages, and because that is indeed true, the film feels lost from the start. Once again Stone shows himself to be an immensely talented but frustrating filmmaker choosing style over substance. But things significantly improve whenever Travolta is on-screen, playing Dennis with a wry sense of humor and un-Travolta-like hair.