Lush Life

"Lush Life" is a film that shows the world of jazz musicians with accuracy, something other films have tried, but failed to do. Thanks to director Michael Elias we are presented a realistic film with some of the best music heard in this type of movies. Mr. Elias must know this milieu well, judging what one sees in the picture.

The three principals, Jeff Goldblum, Kathy Baker and Forest Whitaker do good work together. Best of all, the characters they are playing appear to be real. We watch as these musicians struggle to make a living going from gig to gig in order to make ends meet. Their world is all about music and the pleasure they get from playing together. The surprise was Kathy Baker singing a jazz standard with great style and voice.

The story of Buddy's illness is not exploited to make the viewer feel sorry for the man. In fact, Buddy doesn't want anyone's pity as he faces a horrible end.

The supporting cast is excellent in conveying the atmosphere of the world of jazz in New York.

This is a real modern jazz movie; there are precious few of those, notwithstanding the efforts of those who have gone before or since. The "buddy" aspect, ala "Brian's Song" is well done, but for me, the energy is in the music, which is given as much rein as a drama from Hollywood permits.This music is mainstream hard bop, superbly performed by Chuck Findlay (trumpet) among others.I believed in the musicians' love of the music for its own sake.

I think it very strange that in the entire history of "modern" jazz, which for most musicologists occupies the period 1942-present, only "Round Midnight" and "Bird" and (maybe)"Giant Steps" address the music in a meaningful way on a par with this film, documentaries and concert films excluded.

One sees clearly that "Lush Life" is a labor born of love, destined to be a largely overlooked made for TV film.

One of the best movies about jazz musicians out there. And jazz musicians make a movie so good. Whitaker is a particular talent. The bromance was real fine. The relationship between the three of them was fine too. Bringing in real musicians toward the end made it live and breathe.

Problem: Can't get hold of the movie. Got a video tape after much searching. Where did you guys access it?

Lush Life is a fairly standard buddy movie (with Forest Whitaker and Jeff Goldblum), but this time the buddies are interesting people and have talent. There's also a slight "cherchez la femme" subplot, but it adds to the story instead of distracting from it. Kathy Baker does a wonderful job of proving her character's importance to the story without taking (too much) away from the interactions between Goldblum and Whitaker, two jazz musicians each facing their share of turning points in each of their lives.

The music is what kept me interested. Each of the principals has a big-name jazz stand-in, and the voice and virtuoso playing of the stand-ins practically steal the movie. I love classic jazz; if you do, too, see -- and, more important, listen to -- Lush Life.

P.S. If anyone knows whether a soundtrack album exists, or even a few CDs where I can find the tunes, please let me know.

My brother turned me on to this movie and I've about worn out my VHS copy of it. A lot of jazz movies suffer from "short attention span camera syndrome"... i.e., once the music starts, after a bit, the camera wanders away and busies itself with some irrelevant bit of drama or dialog. "Lush Life" suffers from this problem only slightly, I'm happy to say. I was particularly impressed with how believable the actors look when they're playing their instruments. I do have one criticism of this movie, however, and it's a doze as far as I'm concerned: why, why, why, didn't they release a soundtrack album? I would have bought it in a heartbeat and I'll bet most of the other people who saw this movie would have, too. In an age when the soundtrack album is all but ubiquitous, to have a movie that does not have one -- when the movie is ABOUT MUSIC -- is beyond understanding.