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Tuesday, November 25th, 2014

Low Down

The renowned jazz musician Joe Albany was the only white pianist to have ever played bepop with the great Charlie Parker.  It was height of the success that Albany achieved but something that is merely hinted at in this new sobering biopic that focuses more on the musician’s struggle with his addiction to alcohol and drugs that eventually killed him at the age of 64 in 1988.
 
The movie written by Albany’s daughter Amy-Joy and based on her memoir, starts in 1974 when the two of them are holed up in a Hollywood flophouse living hand to mouth alongside hookers and other colorful characters.  Amy, a teenager, is aware of her father’s problems as he has been in and out of jail for most of her life but she still complete dotes on him. She is his biggest, and at times his only, fan.  Albany released on parole, still risks being re-committed as he continually relapses the moment he gets some money in his pocket.  One day the couple get a visit from Amy’s strung out alcoholic mother who is happy enough to be there when she gets her own way, but she soon quickly disappears again back to her own squalid apartment and the Bar where she drinks her self to a stupor most days. 

After Albany is arrested again for parole violations Amy takes refuge with her tough but kind maternal grandmother who still stands by her son regardless of the trouble he gets into. The next time he gets released he breaks the news to them that he is running off to Europe away from the long arm of the law and where his musicianship is respected.

The story picks up two years later when Albany arrives back in LA without any warning to crash at his mother’s tiny apartment again. He has enjoyed some considerable success in Europe having made several recordings but then gets deported ignominiously for possession of drugs.  Amy now a young lady still lives with her Grandmother and  has her first boyfriend. He’s also a musician but a result of regular beatings from his stepfather suffers from epileptic fits. Albany is sympathetic with his plight until the night the Police arrest the kid for mistaking a fit for a drunken rage, and Albany high as a kite, lets the whole family down yet again.  

It’s more than a somewhat depressing story and one that has been stretched out too long by Cinematographer Jeff Preiss in his directing debut. Preiss had cut his jazz teeth on Bruce Weber’s acclaimed documentaries ‘Broken Noises’ and ‘Let’s Get Lost’ so his appreciation for Albany’s music was a foregone conclusion, and one of the movie’s best parts is the rather glorious soundtrack. Oscar nominee John Hawkes who looks uncannily like Albany was pitch perfect as the troubled soul who simply couldn’t help himself and who, when sober at least, tried so hard to be good single parent. He was beautifully matched by a very mature performance by Ellie Fanning as Amy the girl who had to grow up too quickly. The triangle was completed by the superb Glenn Close playing dowdy for a change as Albany’s blue-collared mother who knew she had to give up on her son in the end. 

This movie tells the story completely from Amy’s viewpoint and doesn’t attempt to provoke an ounce of sympathy for Albany its subject.  In part its like being a voyeur to one long cathartic experience for Amy to deal with the demons of her childhood, and I’m not really sure it succeeds.

 


Posted by queerguru  at  22:19


Genres:  biopic

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