The best Van Dyke Parks’s movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Van Dyke Parks’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Van Dyke Parks.
Popeye
5.4/10
Popeye is a super-strong, spinach-scarfing sailor man who's searching for his father. During a storm that wrecks his ship, Popeye washes ashore and winds up rooming at the Oyl household, where he meets Olive. Before he can win her heart, he must first contend with Olive's fiancé, Bluto.
Vibes
5.7/10
Medium Sylvia Pickel and psychometrist Nick Deezy meet at a psychic research facility in New York. Not long after, they're contacted by Harry Buscafusco, who offers them $50,000 to find his lost son in South America, in the heart of Incan territory where they discover an ancient mystical secret, and each other.
Loose Shoes
4.6/10
Broad satire and buffoonery presented as a series of movie trailers. Among the titles and subjects are: "The Howard Huge Story", "Skate-boarders from Hell", "The Invasion of the Penis Snatchers", Woody Allen (pre-Mia), movie trailer come-ons, Charlie Chaplin, war movies, Billy Jack. The source of the title is presented about an hour into the film.
The Swan
6.4/10
Princess Beatrice's days of enjoying the regal life are numbered unless her only daughter, Princess Alexandra, makes a good impression on a distant cousin when he pays a surprise visit to their palace. Prince Albert has searched all over Europe for a bride and he's bored by the whole courtship routine. He is more interested in the estate's dairy than Alexandra's rose garden. And then he starts playing football with the tutor and Alexandra's brothers. Invite the tutor to the ball that night and watch how gracefully Alexandra dances with him.
Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)
7.6/10
The documentary explores the enigmatic life and music of Harry Nilsson in an attempt to answer the question, "Who is Harry Nilsson?" The film includes new and archive audio and film including interviews with Robin Williams, Yoko Ono, Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Ray Cooper, the Smothers Brothers, and Micky Dolenz. "Who is Harry Nilsson?" uses promotional films, music videos, and home movies; segments from the unreleased documentary made during the recording of Son of Schmilsson (Did Somebody Drop His Mouse?); and excerpts from Nilsson's rare TV appearances in his BBC specials, the "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour", "Playboy After Dark", and in an episode of "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir".
No Smoking
7.1/10
A documentary about Haruomi Hosono, a musician respected around the world and the music composer of Cannes Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters. The footage traces his encounter with music in early childhood to his days in bands Happy End and YMO to his solo activities. It also includes in-depth coverage from recent years of his first overseas performances in London, New York and Los Angeles. In London, he was joined by Yukihiro Takahashi, and when Ryuichi Sakamoto made a surprise appearance onstage, the YMO members were reunited for the first time in five years, a must-see spectacle captured on film. Written by Nikkatsu
Mother Goose Rock 'N Rhyme
7.4/10
Set in the mythical world of Rhymeland, Gorden Goose returns home to discover that his mom has mysteriously vanished. Now the characters of Rhymeland are in danger of disappearing unless Mother Goose returns.
The Tale of the Frog Prince
7.5/10
A spoiled, selfish princess's fate becomes entwined with a zany and witty frog with a secret past.
The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations Tour
7.7/10
Originally aired as an television special, this concert film includes interview segments, comedy sketches, and concert footage from Brian Wilson's 1976 return to the concert stage.
A World Without Beethoven?
6.4/10
"What would the world be like without Beethoven?" That’s the provocative question posed by this music documentary from Deutsche Welle. To answer it, the film explores how Ludwig van Beethoven's innovations continue to have an impact far beyond the boundaries of classical music, 250 years after his birth.
Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile
7.9/10
This film tells (using modern day interviews and archival footage and sound tapes) the story of how in 1967, while his band The Beach Boys triumphantly toured abroad, Brian Wilson was trying to push the boundaries of conventional pop music with a new follow-up to the Beach Boys' cutting-edge mega-hit, Pet Sounds. The new album was to be called "SMiLE". SMiLE pushed the envelope both musically and lyrically, and was supposed to out-do the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper record. But Brian wasn't able to sell the project to his band-mates when they returned. The project was shelved and Wilson's well-documented decline into depression, drug abuse, recluseness, and obesity had begun. Thirty-odd years later, Wilson announced that in 2004, SMiLE would be performed live in its entirety in London. This film tells the story of a damaged but healing artist bringing his greatest work to light.
The Beach Boys: Endless Harmony
7.8/10
These archetypal Southern Californians, who transmuted their experiences growing up in suburban Hawthorne into a potent teen iconography orbiting surfing, cars, and girls, tackle the underlying personal and cultural upheavals beneath their discography. Intelligently assembled with over 40 songs dispersed throughout, ENDLESS HARMONY works not just as a rockumentary but as an important historical document of American music.
Ry Cooder: How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
An introduction to the world of Ry Cooder and his debut album on Warner Bros. Records. Cooder talks about old movies, trailers and the lay of the land. And most of all about the inspiration from Blind Alfred Reed's song "How can a poor man stand such times and live?"
Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let's Have a Ball
8.1/10
Following a brief statement by Ry Cooder on his thoughts about performing - and improvising - on stage, this concert film depicts Cooder's 1987 live show in Santa Cruz, California, which was part of his "Get Rhythm" world tour.
Crime in the Streets
5.3/10
Frankie Dane is the leader of a teenage gang, the Hornets. The gang makes trouble for people in the neighborhood, but Frankie carries a darker nature, one so filled with anger that murder is not beyond him. Ben Wagner, a social worker, tries to help the boys see the possibilities of a better life, but the task seems futile. When a neighborhood man turns one of the gang into the police, Frankie decides to kill him. Ben learns of the plot from Frankie's kid brother and hopes to stop it before Frankie ruins his life forever.
Silverchair: Making of Young Modern
Documentary depicting the recording of Silverchair's 2007 album Young Modern, included as a bonus DVD with the deluxe edition.
Feats First: The Life and Music of Lowell George
7.5/10
This film, the first ever to chronicle Lowell George's life, music and career, uses archive footage and interviews of and with Lowell and Little Feat, plus contributions from many of those who knew him best, to visually recount the sometimes ecstatic, other times tragic life and times of this maverick genius.
