90 Movies in 90 Days: Mur Murs (1981)

I’m kicking off 2023 by trying to watch and review one movie every day for the first 90 days, all of which will be 90 minutes or less.

Title: Mur Murs
Release Date: September 13, 1981
Director: Agnès Varda
Production Company: Ciné-tamaris
Summary/Review:

Without planning to do so, I have watched three Agnès Varda films in the first month of this year.  And I honestly, I want to watch more!  Mur Murs is a documentary film made at the same time as the narrative film Documenteur.  Varda explores greater Los Angeles through the art painted on its walls.  Dozens of murals are shown and in most cases the artists who created them have the opportunity to talk about their work.. The subjects of the murals are also sometimes on hand as well as many locals who live and work among the wall art.

Like all Varda films, Mur Murs is really about her deep love and humanity.  Through the stories of these murals we learn about the lives and dreams of many colorful characters who call Los Angeles home.  She also focuses on the voices of Chicano and Black Americans whose voices are often ignored as well as the violence they endure whether it be from gangs or the police.  On top of all this, the music is great including a disco track for Venice roller skaters and a live performance by a Chicano punk band.

Rating: ****

50 Years, 50 Albums (1983): Sports by Huey Lewis and the News

I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to listen to and review one album from each year of my life, 1973 to 2022.  The only qualification is that it has to be an album I’ve not reviewed previously.  I

Note: Each week I’m choosing a year randomly and then deciding what album to listen to from that year.  You can help by voting in the poll below!  Next week’s year is 2022.

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1983

Top Grossing Albums of 1983:

1. Can’t Slow Down – Lionel Richie
2. Synchronicity – The Police
3. Colour by Numbers – Culture Club
4. She’s So Unusual – Cyndi Lauper
5. Eliminator – ZZ Top

Grammy Award for Album of the Year of 1983:

• Thriller by Michal Jackson
• Let’s Dance by David Bowie
• An Innocent Man by Billy Joel
• Synchronicity – The Police
• Flashdance: Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture – Various Artists

Other Albums I’ve Reviewed from 1983:

• Plays Live – Peter Gabriel
• Ride On – Christy Moore
• Power, Corruption & Lies – New Order
• Murmur – R.E.M.
• Hootenanny – The Replacements
• Speaking in Tongues – Talking Heads
• This Are Two Tone – Various Artists

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Album: Sports
Artist: Huey Lewis and the News
Release Date: September 15, 1983
Label: Chrysalis
Favorite Tracks:

• The Heart of Rock & Roll
• Heart and Soul
• Bad Is Bad
• I Want a New Drug
• If This Is It

Thoughts:

San Francisco’s Huey Lewis and the News hit it big with their third and best-selling album in 1983.  Lewis didn’t look like a rock star, but there he was staring in music videos that were in constant rotation on MTV.  Perhaps his everyday nice guy persona just made him relatable. They were also just talented musicians mixing classic soul, R&B, and doo-wop with New Wave in an easily digestible format.  On the downsides, the preponderance of cheezy synths in 80s music does them no favors.

At any rate, I’d forgotten how loaded this album is with singles.  Six of the nine tracks were released as singles and I recall “Bad is Bad” getting a lot of airplay too (and see the music video down below). It looks like they spread their release out over 2-3 years so you could forget they’re all from the same album.  Anyhow, this was a fun trip down memory lane.

Two things:

• A band called “the News” releasing an album named after a section of the newspaper is funny.  I wished they’d kept this up and released albums called Style, Arts and Leisure, Business, Op-Eds, and their eventual break-up album, Obituaries.
• I have not watched American Psycho and probably never will so I won’t get your references.

Rating: ***1/

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