Ryder Blue Cavazos shoots at ACL Fest as her father looks on.
Photo by David Brendan Hall
As an avid music fan, my love for concert photography should come as no surprise. Many of my fellow concert photographers can attest to the thrill of getting that one shot of that one band you love.
When my 7-year-old daughter, Ryder Blue Cavazos, began tinkering with my cameras at the age of 3, I was obviously a very happy dad. Just the interest in the tool itself was enough for me. As she got older, that interest grew more and more to the point where she was requesting her own camera.
Using a hand-me-down Canon 20D equipped with a 40mm pancake lens, Ryder set out to shoot a few acts during the second day of 2014’s Fun Fun Fun Fest. She had cut her live music chops by shooting Fitz and the Tantrums a month prior at ACL Fest. FFF Fest gave her an opportunity to join me in the pit and see how that process worked.
A year later, we were in contact with Echosmith about having Ryder shoot from side stage during weekend one of this year’s ACL Fest. This was especially meaningful to her since the Chino, California quartet is one of her favorite bands. The gallery above features some of Ryder's favorite shots from the shoot.
White supremacy has long been a stand-in for evil in movies, with the correlation easy to make with through well-known archetypes like those of Nazi Germany. Whether a film puts forth white supremacists as its main characters or supporting ones, their usefulness in a story is as people who are easy to hate and that deserve to be held to some sort of justice.
While that idea holds true in the new film, The Order, the nature of the group featured is somewhat muddled. The central figure is FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law), who essentially sets up a one-man task force in the Pacific Northwest to track a group known as The Order. Husk is convinced that the group, which is an offshoot of a larger white supremacist organization, is behind a series of bank robberies to fund anti-government schemes.
Husk recruits local police officer Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan) to help follow the group, which is led by Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult). The two, joined occasionally by FBI agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), do their best to keep up with The Order’s increasingly bold crimes, which morphs from “just” bank robbery to murder.
Directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Zach Baylin, the film is at its best when it delves into the personalities of its characters. Husk’s monomaniacal nature is great for his job, but not so much for his family life. Bowen has a solid bond with his wife and kids, but his greenness in law enforcement leads to some questionable decision-making. Mathews, like many cult leaders, is a charismatic person with very misguided tendencies.
The filmmakers set up the plot (which is based on a real-life story) well, but the details get a little loose as the film goes along. While The Order has a hatred of Jews, a plot against radio personality Alan Berg (Marc Maron) doesn’t make much sense in the context of the film. The geography of the group’s operations is also confusing; they’re located in Washington, but they range out as far as Colorado and California to commit their crimes.
Still, the inherent appeal of good-vs-evil keeps the plot mechanics going, and the side stories of the main characters give them a depth that makes up for other faults. The filmmakers also make sure to demonstrate how the scourge of white supremacy has never been limited to one particular era, and continues to infect American society to this day.
Law commits fully to the lead role, giving a performance with a convincing American accent that is far from the suave British parts which have dominated his filmography. Hoult proves equally believable, giving his character a nuance that somehow makes him more detestable. Sheridan adds another interesting role to a career that would be enviable for any other young actor.
While The Order doesn’t rise to the level of an awards contender, its story is still relatively compelling with antagonists that, unfortunately, never go out of style. A great cast playing characters with engaging lives keeps the film watchable even when it goes into some odd detours.
