MUSIC DOC
All I Can Say
The story of Blind Melon and Shannon Hoon is the story of rock music in the ’90s. They had a hit song in 1992 with "No Rain,” but their follow-up was a commercial disappointment. Hoon died in 1995 at just 28, leaving behind a trove of video he shot over the years. Danny Clinch, Taryn Gould and Colleen Hennessey piece it all together into this heartfelt documentary about a budding rock star who passed away too soon. Hoon suffered an overdose shortly before his wife had their baby, but he was no junkie. The film, which is unnarrated, mixes Hoon’s video footage and audio with MTV and concert clips (their Woodstock ’94 clip is a highlight with Hoon wearing a skirt) to great effect.
DRUGGY DRAMA
Bacurau
Juliano Dornelles and Kieber Mendonca Filho’s Brazilian action-adventure is hard to figure. A local community in the fictional rural town are besieged by white mercenaries bent on killing them. The confusing plot has a neo-Nazi played by Udo Kier in cahoots with the mayor who’s shut off water from a nearby damn. The colorful cast features Brazilian legend Sonia Braga as the town’s eccentric doctor. With the help of a psychotropic drug known as Brasol IV (it’s a green pill), the locals take on the well-armed invaders in hopes of returning to their quiet way of life.
DRUGGY DRAMA
Bad Boys for Life
“Bad Boys” Will Smith (Michael Lowrey) and Martin Lawrence (Marcus Burnett) team up as Miami detectives for the third time in Adil El Arbi & Bilail Flah’s high-octane sequel. It turns out Lowrey once worked for (and had a child with) Mexican drug kingpin and bruja Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo). Now that he’s with Miami’s anti-drug elite team AMMO, she (and their son) want to kill him. While Lowrey deals with the threat as well as personal issues, Burnett keeps things lively with clever one-liners. Smith and Lawrence’s yin and yang pays off in the end.
MUSIC DOC
Belushi
John Belushi, who died of a drug overdose in 1982, is the subject of this documentary by R.J. Cutler, who stitches together audio interviews with Belushi's closest friends and associates, including his wife Judy, brother Jim, comedy partner Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and more. The doc delves into the comedian’s drug problems, with Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels mentioning a show in 1979 when Belushi was in such bad shape he barely was able perform that night. His pivots into movies (Animal House) and then music (the Blues Brothers) finish off this lively film.
