Movies tagged as "jazz music"

American Splendor [2003, USA ] starting from $1.99

Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.

Genres: Biography, Comedy, Drama Actors: Chris Ambrose, Joey Krajcar, Josh Hutcherson, Cameron Carter, Daniel Tay, Mary Faktor, Paul Giamatti, Harvey Pekar, Larry John Meyers, Vivienne Benesch, Barbara Brown, Earl Billings, Danny Hoch, James Urbaniak Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, Download: DVD   DivX   PDA   Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait. First published in 1976, the comic earns Harvey cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to the sardonic Joyce Barber, a partner in a Delaware comic book store who end ups being Harvey's true soul mate as they experience the bizarre byproducts of Harvey's cult celebrity stature.

Devil in a Blue Dress [1995, USA ] starting from $1.99

Private detective Easy Rawlins has been caught on the wrong side of the most dangerous secret in town.

Genres: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller Actors: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, Don Cheadle, Maury Chaykin, Terry Kinney, Mel Winkler, Albert Hall, Lisa Nicole Carson, Jernard Burks, David Wolos-Fonteno, John Roselius, Beau Starr, Steven Randazzo, Scott Lincoln, Directors: Carl Franklin Download: DVD   DivX   PDA   It is 1948 in LA and Ezikeal "Easy" Rawlins, an African-American World War II veteran, is looking for work. At his friend's bar, he is introduced to a white man, DeWitt Albright, who is looking for someone to help him find a missing white woman assumed to be hiding somewhere in LA's Black community. This woman, Daphane Monet, happens to be the fiancée of a wealthy "blue blood," Todd Carter, who is currently the favorite in the city's mayoralty race. Daphane Monet is known to frequent the Black jazz clubs in LA. Easy, innocently, accepts Albright's offer; however, he quickly finds himself amidst murder, crooked cops, ruthless politicians, and brutalizing hoodlums. This is a Chandler-esque "who-done-it" with an African-American theme.

Lady Sings the Blues [1972, USA ] starting from $1.99

Diana Ross IS Billie Holiday

Genres: Biography, Drama, Music Actors: Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan, Paul Hampton, Sid Melton, Virginia Capers, Yvonne Fair, Isabel Sanford, Tracee Lyles, Ned Glass, Milton Selzer, Norman Bartold, Clay Tanner, Jester Hairston, Directors: Sidney J. Furie Download: DVD   DivX   PDA   Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday. Her late childhood, stint as a prostitute, early tours, marriages and drug addiction are featured.

Mo' Better Blues [1990, USA ] starting from $1.99

A Spike Lee joint.

Genres: Drama, Music Actors: Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin Harris, Joie Lee, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Dick Anthony Williams, Cynda Williams, Nicholas Turturro, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonard L. Thomas, Charles Q. Murphy, Directors: Spike Lee Download: DVD   DivX   PDA   Opens with Bleek as a child learning to play the trumpet, his friends want him to come out and play but mother insists he finish his lessons. Bleek grows into adulthood and forms his own band - The Bleek Gilliam Quartet. The story of Bleek's and Shadow's friendly rivalry on stage which spills into their professional relationship and threatens to tear apart the quartet.

Sweet and Lowdown [1999, USA ] starting from $1.99

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Music Actors: Sean Penn, Samantha Morton, Uma Thurman, Brian Markinson, Anthony LaPaglia, James Urbaniak, Gretchen Mol, John Waters, Brad Garrett, Woody Allen, Ben Duncan, Daniel Okrent, Dan Moran, Tony Darrow Directors: Download: DVD   DivX   PDA   A comedic biopic focused on the life of fictional jazz guitarist Emmett Ray. Ray was an irresponsible, free-spending, arrogant, obnoxious, alcohol-abusing, miserable human being, who was also arguably the best guitarist in the world. We follow Ray's life: bouts of getting drunk, his bizzare hobbies of shooting rats and watching passing trains, his dreams of fame and fortune, his strange obsession with the better-known guitarist Django Reinhardt, and of course, playing his beautiful music.