Documentary about Cream drummer Ginger Baker (1:32). Not rated: Language, drug references. Film Forum.
We all know that genius and generosity do not always go hand-in-hand. Revered drummer Ginger Baker alienated his friends and disappointed his family, but like so many greats before him, he had an excuse: an excess of talent.
The expressions of frustrated wives and the sighs of former Cream bandmate Eric Clapton suggest that Baker has never played well with others. The only place he seems capable of functioning properly is in front of a drum kit, where he’s instinctively and repeatedly rewritten the rules.
Reporter Jay Bulger treks down to South Africa to find this gifted misanthropist, who hates his fellow human beings as much as he loves his art. The feeling seems mutual. His kids have nothing nice to say about him, his collaborators shake their heads, and Bulger himself is kicked out of the Baker compound with what appears to be a broken nose.
But miserable individuals do tend to make for interesting subject matter, and this would be far more of a dry biography without its willfully eccentric lead. Plus, if the crankiness gets to you, tune it out and focus on the music. That’s what Clapton did.
CALIFORNIA SOLO — 3 stars
A retired musician faces a midlife crisis (1:34). Not rated: Language, alcohol abuse. Quad.
There was a period in the late ’90s when Robert Carlyle seemed to turn up everywhere, delivering fury (“Trainspotting”) and fun (“The Full Monty”) with equal ease. He’s been busy on the small screen (“SGU Stargate Universe”) lately, and we haven’t seen as much of him in movies. So fans can be forgiven for offering this predictable indie some excess generosity, simply because writer-director Marshall Lewy had the good sense to build a movie around such a versatile lead.
Carlyle plays Lachlan MacAldonich, a former Britpop star who’s hiding from his demons while working on a farm outside of L.A. His past catches up to him after a DUI arrest, which could send him back to England. Only a reunion with the daughter he never knew can, possibly, save him.
Lewy could have used some outside input to expand his clichéd script and pedestrian direction. (The current dramedy “This Must Be the Place,” starring Sean Penn, tackles the same subject of a middle-aged rock star in infinitely more interesting fashion.) But Carlyle commits 100%, making Lachlan a guy worth watching, even when we know exactly where he’s going.
EX-GIRLFRIENDS — 2 stars
Romantic comedy about aimless New Yorkers (1:12). Not rated: Language. Cinema Village.
At some point in our teens or 20s, we are gripped by the belief that our own observations on life and love are unbearably profound. Alexander Poe has taken this experience one step further, by sharing them with us as writer, director and star of this brazenly navel-gazing rom-com.
When compared with the multi-level complexity of Lena Dunham’s similarly themed “Girls,” Poe’s adolescent ramblings about twentysomething romance seem particularly shallow. But even taken on its own, this story of Graham (Poe), a single New Yorker feeling his way toward adulthood, feels like a promising college project that wasn’t ready for the real world.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/movie-reviews-beware-mr-baker-california-solo-ex-girlfriends-article-1.1210350#ixzz2DfqfykEc
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