AKA DOC POMUS - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Save Your Last Dance, But Make Your First Movie Choice The Doc.

A nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn, struck down by polio at the age of six, turns to a radio for companionship and spends hours alone in his room, meticulously turning the dial until he discovers all the cool radio stations that "decent" kids weren't supposed to listen to.

This formerly athletic lad forgoes any dreams he harboured to follow such physical inclinations, but instead, connecting with glorious R&B tunes, he becomes a musically gifted Greenwich Village blues performer and eventually, is reinvented as the beloved go-to songwriter who almost single-handedly influenced each and every subsequent generation of popular American music makers. He was none other than Doc Pomus, the real King of rock n' roll! - G.K.

AKA DOC POMUS (2013) ****
Dir. Peter Miller, Will Hechter
Starring: Doc Pomus, Lou Reed,
Ben E. King, Joan Osborne,
Dion, B.B. King, Dr. John
Review By Greg Klymkiw

In 1973, songwriter Doc Pomus decided to attend the BMI Music Awards. He wasn't especially keen on attending as he found such affairs deathly dull, but he'd been out of the music industry spotlight for awhile and thought it would be a good idea to just get out there to be seen plus reacquaint himself with old pals and colleagues. The joint was hopping. With wall-to-wall people, Doc decided to just sit down at his table and wait for the awards to begin. One of the honourees of that evening's awards also considered skipping the event until he learned Doc Pomus was attending and agreed to show up. Moreover, he insisted he be seated next to Doc.

So Doc continued sitting at his table. By this point in his life, he was more morbidly obese than usual and needed to get around on his crutches or in a wheel chair because of the polio he'd contracted as a child. The last thing he needed to do was to try hobbling about in mingle-mode in a sardine-packed awards hall until a young man, the aforementioned honouree sat next to him, extended his hand and formally introduced himself as if Doc wouldn't know who he was. They had a great time together that evening. The young man, a living legend, told Doc what a huge influence his music had been upon him and as he was moving close to Doc's place, he gave his personal contact information to the remarkable old man who was, in his own right, a genuine living legend.

Doc Pomus and the young man in question, John Lennon, became friends, hanging out together in a nearby book store. Lennon would always be in disguise for these meetings so he could walk about freely without being mobbed by his adoring fans. And he and Doc, would sit together in that dusty old store and talk until the cows came home.

Sharyn Felder, Doc's daughter, was always spotting Lennon in places around the neighbourhood; in disguise, of course. Never wanting to intrude upon Lennon's privacy, she became increasingly anxious to meet him. She finally worked up enough nerve introduce herself as Doc Pomus's daughter in a local grocery store. Lennon's immediate response in this shop - crowded with customers - was to yell out Doc's name and then, sing, aloud, and a cappella, one of Doc's greatest songwriting achievements, the immortal "Save The Last Dance For Me".

These are but two of many extraordinary moments in AKA Doc Pomus that are so powerful and moving that I was compelled, for the umpteenth time whilst watching it to shudder like a sissy pants and release a deluge of tears.

For those who know a little, a lot, or nothing about the late, great music legend Doc Pomus, this is an extraordinarily uplifting tale about the human spirit and its link to the height of pure artistry in the form of a big, beautiful bear of a man who changed the face of rock and roll and touched everyone whose lives intersected directly (or from afar) with his genius and generosity. Directors Peter Miller and Will Hechter, editor Amy Linton and Sharyn Felder (not only Doc's daughter and a key interview subject, but the film's co-producer and originator of the entire project) get a cornucopia of enthusiastic doffs of the hat for bringing this great story to the screen.

It's a lovely, straightforward and beautifully crafted documentary portrait that charts the Great Man's life from childhood through to his tragic death from lung cancer - and beyond. Including wonderful interviews (new and archival), unprecedented access to film and photo footage, private archives and music - OH! THE MUSIC!!! - anyone who cares about or loves music will revel in the joy and occasional sadness of this great, great story so lovingly and skilfully told.

Actually, anyone who cares about the creative spirit will find great pleasure in the film.

No, better yet, anyone with any sense of humanity, will revel in the life of this great man.

Doc Pomus wrote over 1000 songs. He generated huge hits for the likes of Elvis Presley, Ben. E. King, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Dion and the Belmonts, Lou Reed, Andy Williams, Bob Dylan and . . . the list goes on. And on. And ever-on. Not only was he a major influence upon JOHN-LENNON-FOR-CHRIST'S-SAKE (!!!), but for a few generations of songwriters, performers and promoters of the best and brightest modern music has had to offer.

One of the most deeply moving sections of the film charts Doc's selfless generosity with his time and knowledge - mentoring young music artists, OLD music artists and giving FREE music lessons to anyone who needed them.

Though the movie doesn't go out of its way to do so, its superb rendering of Doc's life pretty much canonizes this sweet, brilliant little Jewish boy from Brooklyn who didn't let the pain of polio stop him from giving the world one of its greatest gifts - a wealth of music genius.

SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME
THIS MAGIC MOMENT
VIVA LAS VEGAS

. . . and on and on and on.

I reiterate: OVER 1000 SONGS.

Ladies and gentlemen: Give the MAN a hand (and the film of his life, too)!!!

Oh, and have I mentioned yet that the personal journals of Doc Pomus are exquisitely read aloud by none other than the late LOU REED? I haven't? Well, now I have. This alone is worth the price of admission.

"AKA DOC POMUS" is playing theatrically all across Canada.
It's a film and a story that DEMANDS you try to give it all the support you can -
ON THE BIG SCREEN.

Canadian Playdates include:

Toronto Openings

Friday November 29 |
Cineplex (Yonge & Dundas)

Friday December 6 |
Varsity VIP

Friday December 6 |
Empress Walk

Winnipeg Opening

Friday January 10 |
Winnipeg Film Group Cinematheque

Vancouver Opening

Monday January 20 |
VanCity Theater

More Canadian cities to follow.

JEWS AND BASEBALL: AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY - Review By Greg Klymkiw

Jews and Baseball - An American Love Story
(2010) dir. Peter Miller ***
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Based solely on the title I was so excited to see Jews and Baseball - An American Love Story even though I have never been - in any way, shape or form - an avid sports fan. In spite of this, there are certain sports I love. Sounds dichotomous? Well, if truth be told, it's the WORLD of certain sports that continue to have such a nostalgic hold on me and in the right context - usually a historical one - I get giddy over the very IDEA of sports pictures (fiction or documentary) that focus on certain aspects of atmosphere and theme. Baseball is one such sport, and the thesis implied in the title of this new documentary was immediately tantalizing.

I assumed the picture would touch upon Hank Greenberg who sat out the pennant race in 1934 to observe Yom Kippur, but since there already exists a truly great documentary, Aviva Kempner's The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg what I was really looking forward to was a fun grocery list of great Jews in baseball (from players to management to owners), references to all the great Jewish American writers who wrote so eloquently about baseball - my favourites baseball books penned by those of the Hebraic persuasion being Bernard Malamud's The Natural and Paul Auster's tremendous piece of detective pulp Squeeze Play (under the pseudonym Paul Benjamin) and most importantly, I predicted (wrongly and perhaps unfairly) that we'd be getting a cinematic baseball equivalent to Simcha Jacobovici's documentary rendering of Neal Gabler's Hollywoodism which explored how Jewish immigrants not only invented Hollywood, but through the medium of film, created the American Dream itself.

Here's the deal: We get the grocery list.

Can grocery lists be entertaining? Well, when it comes to the list director Peter Miller and his writer Ira Berkow provide, it's not without merit - the picture in this respect feels exhaustive and many of the subjects are definitely worth knowing about.

Is the movie boring? Never. It delivers up all the Jews in baseball we're ever likely to see assembled under one roof and the film is proficiently made in the eminently user-friendly and compelling way episodes of A&E Biography and other "informational" TV docs are.

Is it unique?

Special?

Ground-breaking?

Not especially.

It accomplishes four things very well.

First of all. Miller gives us a sense of what baseball WAS in terms of its romance as a sport, but most importantly, as a unique, magical, romantic world unto itself. This is, frankly, the one aspect of the film that feels personal and moves it a few notches above a typical TV-styled "informational" documentary. The film delivers an experience that explains WHY we all used to love baseball - it was never just the sport, it was the atmosphere: the whiff of hot dogs (mostly, if I'm correct - NOT Kosher nor, at the very least, all-beef), salted peanuts in the shell, the grass that inspired Joe to go shoeless and all those players of every shape and size dotting the fields like cows chewing their cuds but with dazzling bursts of action to rival those jack-hammered upon us by the Jerry Bruckheimers of the world.

Miller yields the magical bedrock upon which baseball rests itself upon and for that, I was truly delighted.

Secondly, while I'm not a sports nut, I understand - as a movie-nut - where this breed comes from. The thing itself is everything, but NOTHING without the minutiae and Miller delivers minutiae in spades. God bless him for this. So will sports fans.

Thirdly, all of the above is narrated by Dustin Hoffman - a great actor with a truly distinctive voice that is absolute perfection for the matter at hand.

Finally, though, what the movie does especially well, is inspire us to think about the much better movie it could have been - a movie that still needs to be made. And yes, this is seemingly unfair, but even the film's title conjures up something so much more interesting and potentially provocative than it delivers upon. Yes, we get (to coin the old MGM adage) more Jews who love baseball than all the Jews in Baseball Heaven, but other than the decent Hank Greenberg profile (a nice encapsulation by Miller that was, alas, already done nicely in the aforementioned Kempner documentary), the big question we're left with by the end is: How is this film a UNIQUE "American Love Story"?

Okay, with Hollywoodism, Jacobovici and Gabler were blessed with the clear and irrefutable and (at the time) not-fully-explored notion that Hollywood was invented by Jews who used cinema as an instrument to perpetuate the dreams of all those who fled their shtetls at the end of Russian Cossacks' sabres to seek a new life. The American Dream as created by Hollywood was, without question, an invention of the Jews - one that touched all Americans, even, I might add, boneheaded racists.

Baseball, on the other hand and as played in America was purely Goyische in its invention. Beyond the Greenberg section and the grocery list, I wanted more. I wanted an exploration of Jewish culture strictly with the domain of baseball. What is it to be a Jew in a sport dominated by Anti-Semitic Goyim? What was it like then? What is it like now? What is the history of Anti-Semitism in American baseball? What is it about baseball that causes a Jew to stay within such an Anti-Semitic environment (and let's also not forget, an anti-Black environment also)? Answers to these questions are not answered in any conclusive or compelling way.

And anti-Semitism aside - what is it about Jewish culture that created such a plethora of great ball players? How does a Jew love baseball? Why does a Jew love baseball? What is inherent in the Jewish culture that inspires this love?

On one hand, an answer to such questions might best be found in Shylock's speech where he asks: "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge?" And furthermore, to paraphrase: "Hath not a Jew the same love of baseball as a Christian?" Well, uh... yes, but the movie itself is called Jews and Baseball - An American Love Story and as such, there's the implication that we're going to get a deeper cultural exploration than the film delivers.

And how about all the Jewish writers, filmmakers, actors and artists who extolled the virtues and values of baseball through their creative work? How about all the Jewish academics and critics who wrote about this creative work? Why don't we hear more from these quarters?

All good questions, I think, and definitely worth exploring in much greater detail than Miller's documentary allows.

Until then, however, Miller's picture will do.

It's unquestionably entertaining, but you, like I, might want something more.

Something that breaks ground - kinda like baseball cleats.

"Jews and Baseball - An American Love Story" is available on DVD via VSC - Video Service Corp.