You couldn’t walk into a bar around the turn of the millennium without hearing a song from Moby’s multiplatinum-selling album
Play. Whether it was the transfixing repetition of “Honey” or the wistful piano of “Porcelain,” Moby was seemingly everywhere, bringing his brand of dance music to an international audience and becoming a superstar in the process.
And yet, at the height of his fame and success, he was at his most depressed and self-destructive. This paradox isn’t exactly unusual in celebrities in general and artists in particular, an often needy and emotionally damaged lot. But what is novel is the way the documentary “Moby Doc” explores both his childhood trauma and his adult torture. With its surrealist tones, striking visuals, and self-referential asides, director Rob Gordon Bralver establishes a delicate balance between the playful and the tragic that’s constantly alive and surprising.
Moby Doc Review: Moby s Trippy, More-Conventional-Than-It-Looks Self-Portrait Moby Doc Review: Moby s Trippy, More-Conventional-Than-It-Looks Self-Portrait
At once confessional and guarded, Moby tells the unlikely tale of how he became the avatar of EDM.
Owen Gleiberman, provided by
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Director: Rob Gordon Bralver
With: Moby, David Lynch, Julie Mintz, Gary Baseman, Laura Dawn, Apollo Jane, Mindy Jones, Daniel Ahearn, Daron Murphy, Eric Harle.
Sometimes, you remember just where you were when you connected with a piece of music so powerful it erupted in your head. In the summer of 2000, I rushed in late to a packed all-media screening of “Gone in 60 Seconds.” I’d had a vexing day at the office, and was hoping the film would revive me. It did, more quickly than I imagined. After a flurry of titles, the soundtrack was filled with slow rhythmic claps, and over that came American voices, ancient yet present, not so much singing as chanting:
(Courtesy of Little Llama Peruvian Tacos! )
Dine and Drink Deals
Here are a few options from restaurants and bars as we work our way back toward normal.
Casa Vega in Sherman Oaks teams with The Chainsmokers for two new menu items available through the end of May a sparkling grapefruit margarita with JaJa Reposado ($13) and a Crispy Papas Tacos entree ($16.50) with potatoes, spinach-jalapeño pesto and crema served with Spanish rice and refried beans
. Profits from these items, which will be sold through the month, benefit back-of-house restaurant workers through
Filipino restaurant Sisig opened last month in Westlake, offering lumpia, BBQ pork, crisp pata (pork skin attached to tender meat) and, of course, sisig a dish made from pig’s head and chicken liver.