Reviews

THUNDERFROG

Bring It Back

For almost a decade, Murfreesboro-area’s civic-minded artist/wall infl uencer Ryan Frizzell, a.k.a. The Rhinovirus, has canvassed (and dressed) a plethora of formerly drab local establishments around Murfreesboro proper (usually along with powermuralist-partner-not-in-crime Meagan Armes). The Rhinovirus’ permitted street graffi ti murals incorporate stenciling, pasting and sharply sprayed Rhinovirus or pop-culture characters over cityscapes and pop-psychedelia motifs, aesthetic pleasantries that continue to steadily pop up in our paths.

Seamlessly swapping artsy “a.k.a.’s” however, Frizzell lets The Rhinovirus walls dry while he picks up his axe to become frontman of rock trio Thunderfrog, who in October 2020 released the lo-fi , six-song, indie-produced and released Bring it Back, recorded live at Shelbyville’s Bring It Back Games. He kept Armes around for the musical endeavor.

Thunderfrog—Frizzell on lead vocals and guitar, Meagan Armes metal-punk thumping the bass and John Miller holding down drums and backing vocals— blasts sounds reminiscent of the two thousand aught’s after-school, MTV rock scene. Frizzell nails an A. Jay Popoff (of Lit) vocal style on the original tune “Live Wire,” driving its Baby, I’m your man dive-bar blues lyrics to a Lit-ish, alt-rock, pop-punk jam.

The trio tosses in a couple of covers on the release with Weezer’s “The World Has Turned (And Left Me Here),” Frizzell adding a hint of Pee Wee Herman to the Popoff vocality during stressed notes, but not during a near-perfect replication of Rivers’ solo from the original Weezer version; and Green Day’s “Coming Clean” explodes out of the gate, where Miller shows off his timely Tre Cool chops.

Thunderfrog’s roadhouse romance “Clementine” sounds like an ’80s Van Halen punk-fuzzed a Southern highway blues number with Frizzell’s growling vocals. I can imagine it blasting from distant open garage doors late at night. Frizzell seems outside of his body, having a ball playing “How Was I to Know,” containing proper usage of the fl oor tom, a nicely placed Tom Morello-esque guitar solo and solid outro.

Armes’ bass’ metal-punk duality paired with Frizzell’s grunge guitar and fi nding his own voice make the arena metal, punch-rock, fi ght anthem original “Batefoot” a locally tapped source of adrenaline nary harvested since Ghostfi nger’s “Love My Head.”

The release is truly Thunderfrog rocking a game and toy shop.

Thunderfrog’s Bring It Back (Live EP) can be found on Bandcamp at thunderfrog.bandcamp.com, where they’re “playing on the slickest of Tennessee twang for a 2-piece ’n’ a biscuit that you’ve ever heard!” — BRYCE HARMON

THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD

DIRECTOR Taylor Sheridan STARRING Angelina Jolie,

Nicholas Hoult, Finn Little

RATED R

The clumsily titled Those Who Wish Me Dead feels like a place-fi ller in HBO’s deal with Warner Bros. to release a movie a month on its streaming service and in theaters simultaneously. Despite starring Jolie, featuring a supporting cast of ubiquitous faces, and being directed and co-written by a once-promising name, the thriller set against a raging wildfi re left this reviewer feeling lukewarm.

Jolie stars as Hannah, a smoke-jumper who suffered a traumatic experience fi ghting a wildfi re, leaving her slightly suicidal and severely sullen. While stationed at a fi re watchtower, Hannah encounters a lone boy wandering the woods (Finn Little as Connor) and soon becomes embroiled in a MacGuffi n conspiracy uncovered by the boy’s father resulting in them both being the targets of two professional assassins (Hoult and Game of Throne’s Aidan Gillen). Throw in Medina Senghore as a pregnant survivalist instructor and Jon Bernthal as her cop husband, and you have all the ingredients of a Cliffhanger-esque survival thriller that swaps snowy mountains for the fl aming wilds of Montana.

What we get instead is fi lm that is neither excellent nor terrible, neither exciting nor boring. It just . . . is. It’s the fl avorless rice-cakes of fi lm. Hannah being a smoke-jumper never comes into play plot-wise. The wildfi re the poster promises is only a threat in the fi nal 20 minutes. The conspiracy (i.e. what’s at stake) that Connor’s father uncovers is never revealed (I know, it’s a MacGuffi n, but still). The most fl eshed-out relationship is between the two assassins, yet it’s unclear whether they’re brothers, work partners, more? It’s hard to describe how a movie can be this not bad/ not good. Often, the word used is “forgettable” but how do you forget something that can’t leave an impression in the fi rst place? There is but one good scene in the movie where Hannah and Connor are trading traumas over a campfi re at night, a single moment of levity born of pain that, like an ember, threatens to set the rest of the fi lm alight in a confl agration of charm and adventure but instead safely fi zzles out. Threat averted.

According to IMDB, Taylor Sheridan was brought in to do rewrites but ended up taking over directing duties when the previous director dropped out. Having written Sicario, Hell or High Water and Wind River, Sheridan had the neo-Western writing bona fi des. But, Those Who Wish Me Dead makes one wonder whether Sheridan’s work shines best through the lens of a director other than himself. Wind River, Sheridan’s second feature and fi rst time directing his own script, felt like Fincher-lite. Now, with TWWMD, his direction feels like the anonymous work of someone fi lming a Ford truck commercial, empty calories with an undercurrent of Americana machismo. Though some blame might be placed on the source material—the movie is based on a book by author Michael Koryta, who co-wrote the script—Sheridan’s bland take on an already boilerplate thriller could be a sign that his rising star might be fl aming out. — JAY SPIGHT