Roz Kelly Movies

The rise and growth of American popular music through the 20th century is reflected in the lives of four generations of one family in this animated drama directed by Ralph Bakshi. Zalmie (voice of Jeffrey Lippa), a Russian Jew, emigrates to America, and tries to struggle along as a comic and musician in vaudeville, until an injury suffered in World War I ends his singing career. Zalmie's son Benny (voice of Richard Singer) inherits his father's love for music, and when he grows to adulthood, he joins a jazz combo as a pianist; his career is cut short, however, when he's killed while fighting in World War II. Benny's son Tony (voice of Ron Thompson) is also bitten by the music bug and is determined to make his mark as a songwriter; he becomes involved in the Beat poetry and music community in San Francisco, and later falls in with a pioneering psychedelic band. Along the way, Tony fathers an illegitimate son named Pete (voice of Eric Taslitz), and ends up becoming Pete's guardian in New York City without realizing he's the boy's father. After Tony's death, Pete supports himself by dealing drugs, while struggling to make his dream of becoming a rock star a reality. Ralph Bakshi achieved American Pop's unique look through a process called "rotoscoping" -- shooting the scenes with live actors, and then tracing their movements onto animation cells.
~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Director Joel Schumacher makes like Robert Altman in the made-for-TV Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill. In the tradition of Altman's Nashville, Schumacher's film is a rambling, anecdotal study of an amateur talent show in a tawdry Southern saloon. The link between the two films is strengthened by the presence in Amateur Night of Henry Gibson, who'd played a Porter Wagoner type in Nashville. Among the contestants is country-western singer Tanya Tucker, who also contributed some of the background themes for the film's musical score. Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill was produced by Motown Industries' motion picture division. Sidebar: To improve ratings, the ad copy for this film was headlined "Disco Killer on the Loose!"--then, in smaller type, the copy explained that "killing" was merely a slang term for winning over the audience! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This wonderfully cheesy TV movie-of-the-week stars Tony Franciosa as a detective hot on the trail of a murderer whose mutilated and predominantly male victims are found encased in silken cocoons. He eventually tracks the killer's path to Los Angeles, where he discovers her true identity -- a woman who was bitten by black widow spiders as a child, who has developed the ability to transform herself into a gigantic spider-monster (as portrayed by a not-too-convincing rubber puppet). An odd diversion for director Dan Curtis, with a 1950's monster-movie mentality incongruous with his earlier TV features. The cast -- comprised of many familiar TV faces -- try to play their roles straight, despite the overall impression that the whole thing is a silly put-on. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Female Response is a sexploitation flick pure and simple--or perhaps just "simple". Raina Barrett plays a newspaper columnist who is fired for printing obscene columns. Undaunted, Raina goes on the lecture circuit with a sex seminar. She signs five women for the course, each of whom is a mammary-laden love machine. The ladies are portrayed by those all-time favorites Jacquie Lyn Colton, Michaela Hope, Jennifer Welles, Gena Wheeler and Marjorie Hirsch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This satire follows the exploits of a young hippy who goes looking for Life's meaning in Central Park. There he is accosted by a corpulent black woman while he watches a young man moon an old woman while she curses at him. He then goes on to have more adventures that lead him to marry a kindred spirit, get a job, and begin raising a daughter. Things are fine until he loses his job, gets abandoned by his wife, and must raise his girl alone. He ends up back in the park pondering the meaning of it all. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

If for nothing else, Greetings would be memorable as the second feature-length directorial effort of Brian DePalma (his first, 1966's The Wedding Party, was released shortly afterward). A satire of late-1960s manners and mores, the film aims its barbs at Lyndon B. Johnson, Vietnam, the draft, the counterculture, Greenwich Village and the John F. Kennedy assassination. Billed first, Robert DeNiro actually has a supporting role as a young longhair who tries to help his best pal (Jonathan Warden) flunk his Army physical. Gerrit Graham is a JFK conspiracy theorist who may well have good reason to be paranoid. Though largely ignored by the mainstream press in America, Greetings was effusively honored at the 1969 Berlin Film Festival. The film was originally rated X due to its considerable sexual content. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi