30 FILM: Summer Film Schedule Preview REVIEW: Saint Maud

HOODOO Ready for Live Music

BY B.J. HuCHTEMANN

Notable high-profile June shows include Cajun blues-rocker Tab Benoit at Slowdown Thursday, June 10, 8 p.m. Featured with Benoit is the Whiskey Bayou Revue with rising guitar star Alastair Greene. Greene has had stints with The Alan Parsons Live Project and recently as part of Sugaray Rayford’s band. Remaining general admission tickets will only be sold on the day of the show, according to Slowdown’s website. For more information, see theslowdown.com/tab-benoit.

Meanwhile, Omaha’s own Matt Cox is releasing his latest CD under the rebranded band name of Matt Cox & The Marauders. The band still features Colin Duck-

worth, Jarron Storm, Craig

Balderston and Kevin Lloyd. Let the Pigs Fly was recorded at Lincoln’s Fuse Recording studios with Charlie Johnson (of The Mezcal Brothers) at the soundboard. Cox plays Slowdown Friday, June 11, 8 p.m. for a CD release show with opening performances by Little Rooms and Midwest Dilemma. Slowdown is presenting music this summer during the College World Series. Free shows will be happening on their outdoor stage daily from Friday, June 18, through Saturday, June 26. Roots fans will want to note the double bill of Kris Lager Band and Héctor Anchondo Band Thursday, June 24, 5:30 p.m. Find the full band list and the daily show times at theslowdown.com. Slowdown was recently recognized by Pitchfork magazine as one of the 36 best independent music venues in the country.

BSO Presents on the Move:

The BSO Presents Thursday matinees are on the move and sometimes on hold to allow fans to support other shows happening in the metro, mentioned elsewhere in this column. Thursday, June 3, the music is at Stocks n Bonds with Ge-

rard Delafose & The Zydeco Ga-

tors, continuing the family zydeco tradition. Swampboy Blues Band opens at 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, June 17, 6-9 p.m., keyboard great Bruce Katz takes the stage at The Jewell. Katz is a goto keyboard player. In addition to his solo work, he’s toured and performed with Gregg Allman’s band and Butch Trucks’ and the Freight Train Band. Katz has garnered seven nominations for the Blues Music Awards’ Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year award, including in 2020 for his piano album Solo Ride. The Mezcal Brothers, a popular Lincoln rockabilly band and 2016 inductees into the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame, shake things up Thursday, July 1, 7-11 p.m. at the River City Star’s Dam Grill and Bar on the Star’s landing.

Soaring Wings Blues Fest,

Soaring Wings Winery, 17111 S. 138th St. near Springfield, brings in heavy-hitting Chicago blues guitarist and Alligator Records star Toronzo Cannon for their annual blues festival on June 5. Cannon performs at 8:30 p.m., Mississippi Heat plays at 7 p.m., Ninja Funk starts the show at 5:30 p.m. Adult admission is $30, ages 12-20 admission is $20, and tickets are available at etix.com and at the gate. See soaringwingswine.com.

Playing With Fire organizer Jeff Davis announced on May 6 that the Playing With Fire series for 2021 had to be cancelled “due to circumstances beyond our control.” Meanwhile, Davis is presenting several free shows at the River City Star’s Dam Grill and Bar space under the umbrella of Music for the City. The first free show is June 26 with headliner Indigenous, the Levi Platero Band and a solo opening set from Little Joe McCarthy. Watch for music start times and additional details, including the July 24 show featuring artists

Annika Chambers, Anne Harris

and Heather Newman, and the Aug. 21 date with Patrick Sweany Band, Terry Quiett Band and Hadden Sayers (solo) at musicforthecity.net and at facebook. com/playingwithfireomaha. Hot Notes

Powerhouse singer-songwriter-guitarist and Kansas City native Samantha Fish plugs in at The Waiting Room Tuesday, June 15, 8 p.m. An early warning for iconic roots-rockers Steve Earle & The Dukes at The Waiting Room Thursday, July 8, 8 p.m. See onepercentproductions.com for ticket info and details.

The Jewell has many other cool shows coming in June, including Stan & The Chain Gang Friday, June 11, and K.C. blues vocalist and keyboard player Kelley Hunt Saturday, June 12. Jazz is up with The Lao Tizer Quintet featuring Eric Marienthal, Friday June 18.

Big Wade & Black Swan Theory

present A Juneteenth Celebration Saturday, June 19. All these events offer early and late shows. See jewellomaha.com/shows.

The Rev. Horton Heat / Dale Watson show is at Lincoln’s Zoo Bar Tuesday, June 8, 6-9 p.m. and Wednesday, June 9, 8 p.m., at Barnato, 225 N. 170th St. Bruce Katz also plays the Zoo Bar Friday, June 18, 5-8 p.m.

Sunday Roadhouse concerts return with Taylor Scott Band scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 1, 5 p.m. at Reverb Lounge. See sundayroadhouse.com.

Héctor Anchondo is Back

After Héctor Anchondo won the career-making 2020 International Blues Challenge (IBC) in the Solo/ Duo category and took home the Memphis Cigar Box Guitar Award for Best Guitarist in the same category, the pandemic shut everything down. In our September issue, we interviewed Anchondo about 2020, from the awards to flooding at the Council Bluffs lofts where Anchondo and his young family lived. They were left trying to salvage their belongings while losing most everything to water and mold damage. Anchondo and his wife, Jessica, invested in a used RV and took to the road with their two young children. They spent the winter in the Bradenton, Florida, area, where Anchondo said in an email interview he was “able to make ends meet.”

April 2021 found both Anchondo and his wife not feeling well. It turned out that the RV had developed mold in the Florida humidity. On April 27, as they returned to Omaha, Jessica Anchondo posted to Facebook that Anchondo had “multiple blood clots in his lungs.” Via email, Héctor Anchondo said that he and his doctors believe the mold may have contributed to the issue, but the blood clots were likely the result of long hours of driving with no breaks coupled with stress and dehydration. Anchondo said a month later: “I’m feeling better than ever and taking my health back. I’m doing everything I can to get back to 100%. I will be able to keep touring but I need to change the way I have been doing it. I’ve always been extreme in my scheduling, because I’ve been doing it that way forever, but I’m realizing now that it’s not good to drive like that…I just wasn’t listening to my body…I was worried that my tour days are over but my tour days are just growing up.” The Anchondo family is now living in an apartment in Council Bluffs. “[We are] so happy to be back home and to see our friends. Friends and family are everything,” he said, adding, “I love my family and even during the hard times I want them to know that we can still enjoy life and the best times are yet to come…I believe the hard parts of life are just part of the journey and you learn so much from them.” Some of Anchondo’s recent high points include building up 17,000 followers on TikTok while playing both old blues and originals. That growth, he said, has helped increase his Spotify followers. Anchondo said he hopes fans will help him keep growing his TikTok, @HectorAnchondo. And he has a deal to release his upcoming acoustic CD, Let Loose Those Chains, on VizzTone Records, hoping for an August release. Keep up with the latest on the new record and performances at hectoranchondo.com and on social media, including TikTok.

Héctor AncHondo HAs survived tHe pAndemic wHile building up An impressive tiktok fAn bAse, reprioritizing His HeAltH And working on A new cd releAse. Photo by Arron V. At bunker bomb StudioS.

A R T very becomingvery becoming

Seven make good impreSSion in g1516’S firSt ‘emerging artiStS’ group exHibit

By Kent Behrens

Neil Griess BluRRed landscaPe, 2019

VIEWABLE IN PRINT ONLYHave you ever found yourself asking “What exactly is an emerging artist?” Is it as obvious as it sounds or is there more there than meets the eye?

Searching the term on the web only confounds the issue; it appears that arts writers and curators are in little agreement about this some- INTRIGUING, ISN’T IT? what new and seemingly overused label. What they do agree on, mostly, is these artists evolving presence and reputation.

One possible enlightenment is the recent collaboration of Omaha’s Gallery 1516 and the art center Amplify Arts which resulted in an exhibit, appropriately titled Emerging Artists, which opened Sept. 13 at the former’s location at 16th and Leavenworth. Amplify Arts’ Program Director Peter Fankhauser offered this as the venue’s definition: “Artists in the early stages of their creative development, with 2 to 10 years of generative experience, a focused direction and goals, a developing artistic “voice,” who have yet to be substantially celebrated within their field, the media, or funding circles.” The exhibit, which takes good advantage of G1516’s excellent space, features the work of seven local contemporary artists at varying levels of experience and renown. Gallery 1516’s Assistant Curator Suzi Eberly tapped into Amplify Arts extensive roster to serve as guide through the forest of those transpiring from unknown to known. Together, they assembled a group of local talent, as described in the show’s accompanying pamphlet, “that reexamines and rewrites traditional artistic narratives.” Gallery Director Pat Drickey said the show was “put together as a kind of precursor and complement to the upcoming Spring 2021 Biennial.” In addition, it satiates the recent virus-induced dearth of art

TalberT Reflection of PoweR, 2019

shows; group shows have always been a good way to show more work to more people.

Prior to the completion, Eberly moved away, but still consults with the gallery. Subsequent curation and installation was then taken up by the staff at 1516. This transient collaboration yielded a group of seven artists at different stages of their careers: Camille Hawbaker Voorhees, Shawnequa Linder, Jenna Johnson, Neil Griess, Tom White, Patty Talbert, and Anne Dovali. Depending on your frequency of gallery visits in the area, a few of these names may be new to you, and shawNequa lindeR scotch and soda, 2020

FILM Summer Movie Preview 2021

Get yourself vaxxed then Get yourself tickets for these movies

BY Ryan SyRek

The first-best reason to get vaccinated against COVID is a tie between “not dying” and “not causing other people to die.” The second-best reason is that you can then see a movie in a theater without fleeing in terror when the mouth-breathing wizard three rows back magically makes phlegm appear out of nowhere. With great antibodies comes greater entertainment options.

Yes, some of the films highlighted here will be streaming either simultaneously or shortly after their theatrical release. Who cares?! Did you hear the part about how you can now safely see a movie as God/Martin Scorsese intended? Local theaters need us to survive, HBO Max doesn’t. Here are the flicks I’m most excited to devour in an aspect ratio outside of “Zack Snyder’s creative vision.”

The Conjuring: The Devil

Made Me Do It (June 4)

Do you remember how it feels to see a spooky movie with strangers? Any one of them could secretly be a ghost or controlled by Satan, you can’t know! The third installment in the flagship horror franchise that has successfully launched at least one killer doll’s career is inspired by a real-life murderer who claimed he was demonically possessed, which is an excuse some politicians may deploy soon. In the Heights (June 11)

I have truly loved exactly zero movie musicals based on Broadway hits. I remain dangerously, pathologically obsessed with Hamilton. Something’s gotta give! Trailers suggest this adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s debut show actually does manage to reproduce the magic created by the stage version. Still, I’ll (gladly) be the judge of that when giant speakers blast my ears with non-stop talk-singing.

Siberia

(Limited release June 18)

Look, either you very badly want to see a movie from the guy who directed Bad Lieutenant in which Willem Dafoe dog-sleds to a cave and trips balls while contemplating life or you very much do not. There’s no middle ground here. Siberia has been described as both mystifying and “sometimes hilarious,” which sounds just perfect. I’ve watched a ton of arthouse movies at home this past year. I’m ready to watch one, you know, in an arthouse.

The Sparks Brothers

(Limited release June 18)

The tricks that director Edgar Wright used to make the fake-cool Baby Driver seem tailor-made for a documentary about the pop-rock duo Sparks. Described on the poster as a film about “your favorite band’s favorite band,” The Sparks Brothers is likely to be a nonstop montage of slightly-less-well-known

music played over hyper-edited visuals. You know, for a documentary, that sounds like it could be actual cool. F9 (June 25) Summer is about three things: increasing your odds of skin cancer, sweating in places you can’t sop up in public and watching Vin Diesel mouthFrom cuckoo and cool indie animation to Vin diesel getting really super close John cena’s Face, there will be cinema to satisFy eVery need this season. Photo credit: Magnolia Pictures. to barf an attempt at the word “family.” The Fast and Furious series started as a simple dudebro love story about cars and cops and is now launching wrestlers into space. It’s called progress.

I Carry You With Me

(Limited release June 25) The narrative feature debut from director Heidi Ewing, who made her name with a documentary that got a Christian summer camp closed, tells the story of a real-life undocumented gay Mexican couple in New York City. This tender bit of Fox News kryptonite appears to be the kind of legitimately moving endeavor we are legally allowed a maximum of one (1) of every year. Zola (June 30) Looking equal parts Spring Breakers and Hustlers, Zola is

based on a 148-tweet thread about a real-life pole-dancing road trip that got Florida-level insane. I never doubted that “a film based on a Twitter thread” would happen, I simply can’t believe how much I want to see it. At this point, it’s like A24 knows me better than I know myself…

Black Widow (July 9)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but can it make the least interesting Avenger more appealing? Adding both Florence Pugh and Rachel Weisz to the Marvelverse is a gift beyond that which we deserve. The word prequel phonetically has the word “reek” in the middle for a reason, but boy does cinematic comic book nonsense sound real, real good right now.

OLD (July 23)

Two options: M Night Shyamalan’s adaptation of a graphic novel about a mysterious island that rapidly ages people is somehow another twisty return to form or it is as truly embarrassing as the previews suggest. As someone who unabashedly defends Lost and considers The Happening to be one of the funniest movies ever made, I’m going to be happy no matter what.

The Green Knight

(July 30)

A24’s other summer release is a reimagining of a classic tale about one of King Arthur’s knights from director David Lowery, whose Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is one of my favorite films of all time. I made fun of people who got Apple logos tattooed on their person, but I’m ready for an A24 tramp stamp at this rate. The trailer gave me a shiver up my spine and put a smile on my face. I’m shiver-smiling, y’all!

The Suicide Squad

(August 6)

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad has one more “the” and one less Jared Leto than 2016’s Suicide Squad. The former may be irrelevant, but the latter is definitely addition by subtraction. Sylvester Stallone is a talking shark. Idris Elba does murders. John Cena wears a bucket on his head. Nathan Fillion plays Arms-Fall-OffBoy (for real). The villain is a kaiju starfish. I don’t know, I guess? Okay? Fine, let’s do it.

Cryptozoo

(Limited release August 20)

Seeing creepy-weird handdrawn animation on the big screen is like someone throwing wagyu beef in your mouth when you yawn: a surprisingly rare treat! The film is allegedly a condemnation of capitalism that follows zookeepers trying to capture a dream-eating creature and features the voices of Lake Bell and Michael Cera. Yeah, strap me in and throw that at my face. I’m not suggesting that Pixar better watch its back, only that the hopping lamp in their vanity card may soon be captured and put in a zoo.

Reminiscence

(August 20)

Writer/director Lisa Joy is a showrunner for HBO’s sometimes brilliant (sometimes the-opposite-of-brilliant) naughty robot show, Westworld. Her partner on that program is Jonathan Nolan, brother of Christopher Nolan. Joy’s big-screen debut, Reminiscence, sounds a lot like Christopher Nolan’s Inception, only with people mucking with memories instead of dreams. Listen, if this means we basically get a Christopher Nolan sci-fi epic in which women are not plot devices that only talk about love or babies, we could be onto something here.

Candyman (August 27)

A direct sequel to the 1992 film, this version of Candyman comes from director Nia DaCosta by way of a script by Jordan Peele. If that doesn’t jangle your bones, you must not understand this film’s potential. A horror film about gentrification that prominently features a dude who kills people with a giant hook and does creepy bee stuff is enough to make August feel like Halloween.

FILM Holy Crap!

Saint Maud mAkes reliGious delusions literAlly terrifyinG

bY Ryan SyRek

Saint Maud is what can be lovingly referred to as an “uh oh” movie. Unlike silly slasher flicks peppered with jump scares and obligatory loud noises, writer/director Rose Glass’s film quietly and relentlessly churns towards the “uh oh” waiting at the end of the story. Fittingly described as a “slow-burn,” this tale of demented piety is also a stark warning about those who actually walk among us doggedly convinced that only they are on the same wavelength as an invisible almighty creator, who may or may not speak fluent Welsh.

Maud (Morfydd Clark) is not actually Maud. She’s Katie, a nurse who did something real grosscreepy-bad to a patient at her last gig. With the power of what she thinks is Jesus and the protection of a changed name, she now cares for Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), a former dancer dying of a spinal tumor. As a person promised a slow, torturous death, Amanda has some not nice feelings about God that are in opposition to Maud’s very nice feelings about the holy trinity (wink, wink). Their inevitable collision aims the titular character squarely at the “uh oh” at the end of the upside-down rainbow.

As you’d imagine, the success of Saint Maud is highly dependent upon said Maud. Clark is next-level magnetic and impossibly good at being unspeakably bad. Under Glass’s careful direction, she is never laughably insane or obnoxiously over-thetop. Clark resists going “full Jared Leto” and manages to be oddly, almost disturbingly endearing. From the very first frame, Glass tells you unequivocally that Maud is bad, bad news. Yet, up until the final, much worse frame, you can’t help but root for her to snap out of it.

In the nicest way possible, Saint Maud seems like the type of movie that would have been lambasted and protested by conservative Christian critics in the past. This isn’t to say it gets into any long-winded condemnations of specific practices or beliefs. It just kinda, sorta frames Jesus Christ as something like the bogeyman. Although, to be fair, Glass explicitly reiterates that the evil is coming from inside the house, even confirming in interviews that the voice of “God” is just Clark’s pitched down.

“Is it scary?” is a question A24’s horror movies always seem to be saddled with answering. Like Ari Aster’s Hereditary and Midsommar or It Comes at Night, Saint Maud is more “upsetting” than frightening. Although, a repeated effect where Clark’s mouth seems to gape supernaturally wide that is either CGI or a crazy ability the actress possesses definitely brings the spooky. Still, any debate about whether this “belongs” in the horror genre would be so stupid that someone somewhere on the internet is almost certainly having it.

In some ways, Saint Maud feels like the movie everyone lied and said The VVItch was. It is a meticulously crafted, deliberately paced deconstruction of unholy things done in the name of the Lord. It is anchored by a powerful performance from a talented young actress. It is also a promise of incredible things to come from Glass, who has brought one of the best “uh ohs” in a long, long time.

Don’t let this image fool you, Saint Maud is less a “jump out anD say boo” horror movie anD more a “well, that’s upsetting” look at when religious Devotion gets scary. PHoTo CredIT: A24.

Grade = A-

OtheR CRitiCal VOiCeS tO COnSideR

Michelle Kisner at The Movie Sleuth says, “This type of religious character study is usually from a male point-of-view, and it’s refreshing to see a woman director tackle it, put her own spin on concept, and in the end ultimately subvert it.” the startling concepts feel destined for something bigger that we keep waiting for. It’s not bad filmmaking, it just feels incomplete.”

Alix Turner at Ready Steady Cut says, “Whether it is about mental illness, faith taken to an extreme, or simply a provocative character study (and it could be any or all three), I don’t care: the film is going to stay with me.”