Ah, those songs and that voice! Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's fine new documentary, LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE

Do kids today even know who Linda Ronstadt is? My generation and probably that of my daughter certainly do, but what a shame and a waste if my grandkids miss out. They (and we) will get a very good taste of the magic that was this singing idol, who gave her last live concert in 2009 due to Parkinson's Disease, via the new documentary LINDA RONSTANDT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE. Ms Ronstadt may not have written the songs she performed, but as one of the many talking heads in the doc explains to us, she made every song she sang her own.

As directed by the duo of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (shown at right, with Mr. Friedman on the left), the documentary bubbles along mostly joyously, even though we learn about the Parkinson's early on, offering up Ms Ronstandt's history and her songs, via a plethora of "greats" from the world of music -- mostly "country" and "folk" -- from Dolly Parton and Emmy Lou Harris to Bonnie Raitt and Maria Muldaur.

We trace her heritage (Mexican and European) and via some fine archival footage, meet her family and learn how her career took off almost immediately once she left Tucson, Arizona, for Los Angeles -- where that glorious voice of hers attracted immediate attention from audiences, critics, music producers and other musicians.

The young Ronstadt (above and below) proved as beautiful to view as her voice was to hear, and she was also blessed with a grace and graciousness that stood her in good stead throughout her career.

What seems most striking now about that lengthy and enormously successful career is how willing -- nay, insistent -- was the singer on consistently challenging herself to try new things

These included an unheard-of-for-a-single-singer range of musical genres, folk and country to rock, pop and even Mexican canciones to appearing in live theater in New York City in a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance (first outdoors in Central Park, then transferring to Broadway and finally being made into a movie for theatrical release).

She of course did the constant touring in amphitheaters across the country but over time grew tired of this. And that's when her expansion began.

Unlike most documentaries or narrative films about hugely successful pop/rock musicians, Ronstadt didn't have much of a struggle with drugs or alcohol. The worst she managed, from what we see here, was a temporary diet-pill problem.

The film does not delve too deeply into Ronstadt's romantic relationships, and only once or twice during its brisk 95-minute running time does it veer a little too near hagiography. Granted, there does seem to be nothing but good things to say about her, but too-many, too-close-together is never a good idea in these bio-docs.

That said, if the sound of Ms Ronstadt's incredible voice does not reduce you to rubble, even as the sight of her lithe, young and beautiful self in the midst of those redolent 1970s brings back loads of fond memories, TrustMovies shall be very surprised.

Released by Greenwich Entertainment, 1091 and CNN Films, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice opens this Friday, September 6, in New York City at Film Forum and in Los Angeles at The Landmark and Arclight Hollywood. Here in South Florida, it will open on Friday, September 13, at the AMC Aventura and at The Movies of Delray and The Movies of Lake Worth. Wherever you live around the country, click here to find the playdates and location of the theaters nearest you.

Gay rights, Los Angeles-style, in the 1970s: Travis Fine's dark and teary ANY DAY NOW

Let's get it over with. ANY DAY NOW -- the new film directed and co-written (with George Arthur Bloom) by Travis Fine -- is a multi-hanky tear-jerker. Let's also be straight (so to speak, as this is a gay-themed movie): It earns every fucking one of those tears. Given the situation, together with the fact that this movie is very well- written, directed and acted, how could it not?

When a Down-syndrome boy, above, a teenager with a drug-addicted mother who may love him but cannot care for him, is suddenly abandoned, his neighbor, a female impersonator/singer -- along with his sudden new lover, an assistant D.A. who is for the first time giving in to his homosexuality -- decides to take the kid in and provide him, at long last, a real home. If only the legal system will allow it.

Come on: this is heart-wrenching, finally heart-breaking, stuff. What keeps it afloat, often aloft, is the utter darkness that hangs over the movie, provided by the situation, the characters and the period and place -- Los Angeles in the 1970s. TrustMovies was himself a closeted bi-sexual man who lived in the L.A. area during this time and can attest to much of the prejudice and difficulties present back then. Writer/
director Fine, shown at left, dries out those inevitable damp hankies with a lot of smart, dark humor; performances that remain true through thick and thin (thin being some inevitable clichés); and a richness of purpose and a balanced execution that render this story worth our time and tears.

Most talked about, no doubt, will be the stops-out performance of Alan Cumming (above) as the singer/impersonator who gets the story's ball rolling. Cumming is almost frighteningly real. He gives us the kind of man -- and performance -- that constantly challenges the character, as well as the viewer, to be proud (and loud) and refuse to put up with any bullshit. This is a very fine line to walk, and if Cumming sometimes appears to nearly topple over, he (along with the script, direction and the work of his co-stars) somehow achieves the necessary but tricky balance. He's got a good singing voice, too, as several soundtrack songs will prove. (The music for the film, including the great Bob Dylan title tune is well-chosen and put together.)

In the role of the D.A. lover, Garret Dillahunt (above, left) proves every bit the sturdy, studly straight-appearing male, and then softens it enough to make us believe this hunk could go for the likes of Cumming. But haven't we all seen this in life at one time or another: the odd pairing of men and/or women who thrive on each other's seeming opposition, whether via personality, looks, or the whole shebang? Cumming has the showy role, but Dillahunt provide the necessary foundation and back-up.

The role of the boy, Marco, features Isaac Leyva (above, himself a Down-syndrome fellow) who offers everything that is required from this, his film debut. Much of the supporting cast is made up of stalwarts like Frances Fisher, Chris Mulkey, Gregg Henry and Michael Nouri -- all just fine and some near-hissable in their villainy. Yet this is not in the least unbelievable; what we see here was the standard attitude some 35 years ago, a time in which many of my readers were not yet born. Even those characters shown to be kindly and helpful were generally not ready to stand up and shout for gay rights. (Nor was I, now that I think about it...)

One thing this noble movie should make us older folk realize anew is how much circumstances have changed for the better for the GLBT set. Though, as anyone who knows history will realize, it's a fight just to remain in place.

Any Day Now, running 97 minutes and from Music Box Films (the company that has given us, with Keep the Lights On and now this one, the two best gay movies of the year), opens this Friday, December 14 in a dozen cities around the country and will expand to many more in the weeks to come. In New York, see it at the Sunshine Cinema or the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center; in L.A. it's at Laemmle's Monica 4, Town Center 5, Playhouse 7, and at the Sundance Cinema Sunset 5.  Click here -- and then click THEATERS on the drop-down bar -- to view all currently scheduled playdates.

Andrea Callard TALKING LANDSCAPE: Early Media Work, 1974-1984 at Maysles Cinema

TrustMovies often prefers to know little or nothing about a film before he views it -- just sit, then watch and listen. Sometimes, though, it's good to have a bit of background. That's probably the case with the work of Andrea Callard, shown at right, whom I knew literally nothing of, prior to sitting and viewing TALKING LANDSCAPE: Early Media Work, 1974-1984. On the basis of what I saw in this 73-minute compilation of Ms Callard's film work, I'd call her -- gheesh! I hate using this phrase 'cause it seems to turn a lot of film-goers off -- an artist and experimental filmmaker.
But there: I said it. Now deal with it.

What we get in this diverse, alternately fast-moving and draggy program (at times I wanted to call out, "Mommy -- is it almost over?") runs the gamut from seemingly irony-free (and therefore quite ironic) humor in the initial section to a short dissertation with visuals on New York's most popular tree, the Ailanthus, complete with a history of the tree, where it comes from (China's involved, as well its silkworms and silk). This section is simply terrific. From there we see a bit of ladder climbing, watch some very odd round objects perched precariously on a window ledge which are later used as billiard balls, try stepping into a pair of rubber go-aheads, hear a song about shoes and clover, and get a rather bizarre visual treatise on plants and florescent lighting.

Because the earliest of these works date back nearly forty years, that grey/blond hair we see at top was brunette at the time (see the photo above) and Andrea herself was an attractive young woman who seems prone to try just about anything -- if only to discover what might come of it.

The enjoyment of all this is a matter of personal taste -- and to mine, some stuff works a lot better than others. Toward the end Callard gives us two very different short programs, each, I think, worth the entire, larger program. In one of these she assembles a slide show of photos (see above, and the two below) taken in various countries, each slide captioned rather oddly. After we see this once, the artist repeats this slide show a second time, and whether or not it is slightly speeded up, I am not sure, but this time, I realized that those "captions" actually work together to make a statement of sorts. But then Callard shows us this a third time, which for me was once too many.

The final piece is the deal-maker, however: the history of and then a simple tour of (via some excellent photos taken at the time) of the now-legendary exhibition called The Time Square Show, organized by Callard, in which a raft of artists, from Jean-Michel Basquiat to Keith Haring, displayed their work in what had recently been a multi-floor massage parlor. This is indeed something to see, and I should think lovers of modern art will go ape-shit at the unique opportunity the filmmaker provides. As Callard tells us quietly at the finale, this is not everything from that exhibition, "But we're working on it."

Talking Landscape opens this Monday, February 13, for a week's run at the Maysles Cinema, as part of the cinema's bi-monthly series known as Documentary in Bloom. Click here to learn more about the Maysles Cinema and here to purchase tickets for this interesting "one-woman film show."