My Dinner with Jimi

MY DINNER WITH JIMI is a glimpse at Howard Kaylan's giddy and vertiginous ride to fame with his 60's Folk-Rock band, The Turtles. The Turtles were kind of a 'second tier' act during the sixties, but the film clearly demonstrates that they could eat, drink, and party with the Titans of Hippie Culture. And, not only that, they had the musical chops to back it up. Many of the stellar acts of the era are seen as they interact with the band at work and at play. This provides my only complaint about the film. Almost from the beginning of the movie, one sees that it is nearly impossible to find actors who can convincingly impersonate such recognizable stars. Too often during the film, I felt that I was watching an engaging exhibition of phony wigs and mustaches. But, if you are a fan of the music of The Turtles, or The Swinging 60's, in general-this might be the film for you. And, don't forget to view The Extras. There is a very funny (and informative) bit by band members, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, about their disastrous experiences with managers and agents.

How sad that after being one of the better known groups of the time and having hits, the most interesting thing in your life was meeting other famous people.

Time has not been kind to the band. All the other bands in the film are well remembered, constantly played, numerous bios and documentaries, thought of as long lasting art. The Turtles get brief mentions, seem almost one hit wonders though they were not.

There were some amusing moments that are familiar from other films. The whole trope about young band overwhelmed by first taste of fame. But it's been done many times, and better.

I just saw the film at a film festival in Hollywood. I thought THE TURTLES made a great subject, the time period and other musicians of the era were well represented. The budget is low, but the director (Bill Fishman) did a great job incorporating stock footage, animation, and a limited production schedule. Overall, if you like the song HAPPY TOGETHER, you will be entertained learning more about this group.

Also, Justin Henry, the child actor from Kramer vs. Kramer, turns out a great believable performance. Watch it.

Here's an entertaining little film with one small point to make (maybe one and a half). But it does it in a pleasant way, evoking a nostalgic image of '60s hippies trying to make music, have fun and find a new way in the world. The acting is competent, directing likewise, script is middling but everyone does a good job with it. It's too bad the actors who could portray the '60s attitude are too old for the parts - there's a lot of stereotyping and far-out mugging in attempting to convey the mood of the time. It just doesn't work very well, in my opinion.

I had to go to a bit of trouble to find this on DVD, but finally managed to get it from Germany. If you have a collection of music films from or about the 1960s, this one should definitely be in your collection. If you stumble across a copy, by all means get it. If you're just casually interested, I am not sure a great effort will seem worthwhile, however.

The soundtrack is, of course, completely groovy!

"My Dinner With Jimi" (2003) is a great "snap shot" of counterculture times much better than other "portraits of the 60's."

The 60's (which actually took place roughly from 1964 through 1974) were interesting, hopeful times. You had to be there (and the screenplay writer, Howard Kaylan, was there) to understand it, why it was good, important, worth remembering.

And how it worked.

A lot of good things were done, and done because young people wanted to have fun with their adult lives after formal education, and not be chained, tethered to wage slavery or equivalent slavery always part of the "entrepreneur" life.

Most people face wage slavery or the entrepreneur's life, and that was true both before and after the 60's....

Almost nobody is a pure inheritor guaranteed big money, undisputed property ownership, and an important, interesting occupation until he dies, except maybe Prince Charles of England and a small number of people in his same situation.

The 60's suggested that other possibilities might happen in the lives of people who came of age back then, and that included entertainer people like Howard Kaylan of the TURTLES pop music group, and later part of the Frank Zappa band called THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION (for part of the 1970's).

The Howard Kaylan "voice over" actor states at the start of this movie..."When high school graduation came and went, I decided to put college on hold....and do something different!" (I paraphrase).

Many decided to "do something different" or at least try it, and many had good results and times as a result.....

MY DINNER WITH JIMI (2003) is all about that, and for all it's shortcomings, is precious because of that, and worth getting and screening often.

The 60's were different, hopeful, and are worth remembering the way Kaylan has remembered it.....for all the technical and artistic shortcomings of this movie, the overall message and mentality shines through in a way other "memoirs" of various types of the 60's counterculture times and people mostly have failed to do.

BTW, this movie portrays the lives of two members of the 1960's pop music group called the TURTLES....Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman.

Actual movie/video footage of these two gifted comedians and vocal musicians performing astonishingly can be seen in two other videos about and part of the 1960's era.

One is titled THE TRUE STORY OF 200 MOTELS (1984) documentary by Frank Zappa about the making of his 1971 feature avant Gard movie which stars both Kaylan and Volman (they are more prominently shown than Zappa himself is...Zappa was behind the scenes most of the time).

The other movie starring Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman shown in their middle 20's is the actual 200 MOTELS (1971) movie itself.

Get both in addition to MY DINNER WITH JIMI (2003) to have the best portrait of the two TURTLES stars, one of whom wrote the screenplay for MY DINNER WITH JIMI (2003).

Well..........

I got a MY DINNER WITH JIMI (2005) 60's pop music nostalgia movie yesterday, and watched part of it before bedtime.

It's a docudrama memoir acted by modern (recent younger) actors about famous pop singers meeting each other during the 60's done by Howard Kaylan who was part of the TURTLES and later joined Frank Zappa's MOTHERS OF INVENTION.

Howard Kaylan (1947 - ) wrote an autobiographical screenplay produced in 2003....done on no money, promoted at minor film festivals, never a mainstream movie......

I liked it.

Obviously a very cheaply done movie (younger actors especially weren't ideal, and the direction wasn't wonderful, either), but the movie made it's points, and it made me remember the good old days I enjoyed so much, now long gone.

One had to think of the movie as sort of a Greek masked stage drama where the actors were sort of gross symbols of the people they were portraying.

The older actors (not many, since it was a movie about the "youth culture" of the 60's) were very good, few of them as there were.....shows how many old actors are out there willing to be in cheap, "indy" movies.

The TURTLES wrote the song titled "You, Baby, Nobody But You" which I heard the Mamas and the Papas sing, and the song is featured in the movie.

I got the lyrics for the song, and played it on my always handy and available ukulele before going to bed. GREAT SONG!

"A little bit of sunshine! A little bit of soul! And just a touch of magic! "It's the greatest thing since Rock and Roll!"

Same mentality as THE LOVIN SPOONFUL and it's "Good Time Music" ("Do You Believe In Magic?" etc.) Terrific, light, fun....brought back the good times, loud colors, etc.

One big problem presenting a movie about famous music and musicians of the 1960's is that copyright laws and claims make it almost impossible to include any of the music famous in the 1960's and mentioned in MY DINNER WITH JIMI (2003). Only the TURTLES music and hit songs are played, and other music is not presented, though clever ways are found to suggest such music.....

Movie titles were in the gaudy, noisy Peter Maxx style, which was great. Authentic for the times and re-visiting it.

The movie shows the protagonists meeting up with other famous pop singer types at nighttime food and after-hours joints in L.A. and London! A lot of banter light, air-headed, and fun, fun, fun, which was the main point of the times!

You had to be there to understand how great the 60's were, and it's important not to be bitter about how it all ended, promise unfulfilled......

Howard Kaylan's movie isn't bitter...it's fun...and so were the 60's at their best.

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