The Messenger
Release Date: Nov. 13 Director: Oren Moverman Writers: Moverman and Alessandro Camon Cinematographer: Bobby Bukowski Starring: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Jena Malone, Samantha Morton Studio/Run Time: Oscilloscope Laboratories, 105 mins. War film well acted and fittingly bleak It’s unfortunate for this film that we’re experiencing a collective case of war-movie fatigue; when we’re still dealing with these wars on television and in our own communities, it’s hard to drag ourselves to the movies to be reminded of how awful it all is. The Messenger starts with an interesting premise: A war hero (Ben Foster) sent home to recuperate from injuries... read more
Half-Handed Cloud: Cut Me Down & Count My Rings
Song-a-minute songwriter digs into his archive, unearths some gems As a songwriter who made his name constructing grand song puzzles out of miniature interlocking pieces, John Ringhofer is the master of intricately fragmented art pop, with four full-length releases so tightly constructed that individual moments can hardly be extracted without compromising their elaborate song-suite structures. That his short-attention-span musical theater works just as well when pulled out from under the canopy of album-long arcs comes as a revelation on Cut Me Down & Count My Rings, a dazzling 46-song collection drawn from previously released EPs, compilations, cassette singles and vinyl... read more
Dave Rawlings Machine: A Friend of a Friend
Longtime sideman takes the lead with first solo album It’s hard to believe A Friend of a Friend is David Rawlings’ first album under his own name. For more than 12 years, the Nashville-based musician has toured, written and recorded with Gillian Welch, exploring the well-worn byways of country, bluegrass and stringband music while making the old-timey sound new. As a hired gun, he’s played sideman to artists following in Welch’s wake or creating their own: Sara Watkins, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes, Guy Clark, Mark Knopfler and Jay Farrar, among others. So his debut as Dave Rawlings Machine is either... read more
V Review, "There is No Normal Anymore" (Episode 1.2)
I was really looking forward to the new V series. In my teens, I was a fan of the original two miniseries and even the failed regular series. While my fondness for the franchise may stem from a lack of teenage discernment (especially when it came to sci-fi) and the rosy tint of nostalgia, Battlestar Galactica showed that even the lamest and cheesiest of shows could be reimagined by brilliant minds into something spectacular. Sadly, those minds were not at work on the new V series.... read more
Kanye West: Through the Wire
A humbling reminder of his rights and wrongs With illustrations and commentary explaining 12 of his most well-known songs, Kanye West’s Through the Wire takes on both the title and overall sentiment of his breakout single: “I’m a champion, so I turned tragedy to triumph.” But the book is about more than his near-fatal car accident. Instead, West devotes nearly equal time to explaining his pop culture references and admitting his wrongs, with “Touch the Sky” revealed as an apology letter to the girl he left behind to make music.... read more
Molina & Johnson: Molina & Johnson
Indie rock vets struggle to pump life into their off-the-cuff collaboration Between them, Will Johnson (Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel) and Jason Molina (Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co.) have spent the last 15 years filling in the empty spaces on the continuum stretching between Neil Young and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, maintaining a prolific pace that both insures a sprawling catalog and indicates a general hesitance to spend too much time dwelling on any one project. That makes them a suitable pair, and Johnson & Molina—the result of a laidback 10-day recording session in Johnson’s home studio in Denton, Texas—sounds pretty much... read more
Wings of Desire (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Release Date: Nov. 3 Director: Wim Wenders Writers: Wenders, Peter Handke Cinematographer: Henri Alekan Starring: Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander, Peter Falk, Solveig Dommartin Studio/Run Time: Criterion, 127 mins. Wim Wenders’ masterpiece illuminates the sublime in everyday existence In this 1987 Wim Wenders classic (finally getting the Criterion treatment this month), two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, watch over a divided Berlin. Sometimes they observe from lofty perches, but mostly they move freely through the ordinary lives of the city’s inhabitants, observing and documenting what they see. Occasionally, an angel will put an intangible arm around someone to offer subtle comfort.... read more
Say Anything (20th Anniversary Edition)
DVD Release Date: Nov. 3 Director/Writer: Cameron Crowe Cinematographer: László Kovács Starring: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney Studio/Run Time: Twentieth Century Fox, 100 mins. To know this movie is to love it Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything hearkens to that bygone age of teen movies when depictions of first love didn’t need a veneer of detached self-awareness. Underachiever and all-around nice guy Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) genuinely loves the brainy and beautiful Diane Court (Ione Skye). And, though Diane’s academic ambitions and overprotective father (John Mahoney) threaten to derail the budding romance, Lloyd doggedly pursues his paramour, pitting his pluck... read more
Hem: Twelfth Night
Lilting, lovely soundtrack from this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park production Each summer, a star-studded cast in conjunction with the Public Theater mounts a Shakespeare play in Central Park, for which people wait in the ticket line for hours. Brooklyn band Hem worked closely with Daniel Sullivan, the director of this year’s critically acclaimed Twelfth Night (starring Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald, David Pittu, Jon Patrick Walker, and Raul Esparza), to create a soundtrack for the production, which has now been recorded and released.... read more
House Review: "Known Unknown" (Episode 6.6)
On tonight’s episode, there are new developments in the relationship cloyingly referred to as “Huddy.”... read more
The Box
Release Date: Nov. 6 Director: Richard Kelly Writer: Richard Kelly (based on a short story by Richard Matheson) Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella Cinematographer: Steven B. Poster Studio/Run Time: Warner Bros., 115 mins. What’s in the Box? A flawed but fascinating film... read more
"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic
Would it be apropos to write a parody review of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s new greatest-hits compilation? No... read more
30 Rock Review: "Audition Day" (Episode 4.4)
You know how sometimes a song can be well-written, the lyrics literate and its singer passionate, but you still think "meh" about it? That's kind of what this episode of 30 Rock was like for me. It had a good premise that had been set up for episodes and the usual manic comedy that the show thrives on, but I wasn't really feeling the whole thing. ... read more
Weezer: Raditude
This Rivers is all dried up Weezer fans often cry that haters should quit comparing the band’s later work to Pinkerton and the blue album. That’s fair—bands change, and music evolves. Thing is, even without hope for a return to form, we’re still left sifting through dribble that barely passes as All-American Rejects’ rejects. Had the classics never existed, there’d be little reason to care about Weezer at all.... read more
Community Review: "Home Economics" (Episode 1.8)
Community for the most part plays like a traditional sitcom, but there's one primary aspect that keeps it away from being another exmaple of the old genre: continuity. Due primarily, I would guess, to the way syndication works, sitcoms just don't have a background where what happens in one episode stays relevant in the next. The most important sitcom of my generation, The Simpsons, will make jokes about past episodes but would never base a plotline around it. The two-part "Who Shot Mr. Burns" episodes were noteworthy because things didn't resolve in a quick 22-minutes.... read more
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Nintendo DS)
Developer: AlphaDream Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo DS Get further inside the Mushroom Kingdom than ever before At this point, new Mario games are excuses for Nintendo to poke mild fun at itself, in that secretly flattering way only unimpeachable powerhouses can pull off. The company’s 28-year-old mascot has hopped through every genre under the sun, including, in the Mario and Luigi series, action role-playing. The third entry, Bowser’s Inside Story, feels like a long-running sitcom, where every character entrance enjoys great fanfare, and all the gags wink knowingly at prior gags. Nintendo could coast on nostalgia alone, but to their... read more
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Release Date: Nov. 6 Director: Lee Daniels Writer: Geoffrey Fletcher, (based on a novel by Sapphire) Starring: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd Cinematographer: Andrew Dunn Studio/Run Time: Lionsgate, 110 mins. Precious offers a strong performance in a familiar tale... read more
Monsoon Wedding DVD Review
Famed Indian director Mira Nair returns to her roots and strikes a colorful balance read more
Robert Mattheu: The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated Story
Could use more raw power If the snarling Iggy Pop of 1969 knew his Stooges would be coffee table book fodder, he would’ve scoffed. But here we are, 40 years later, with The Stooges: The Authorized and Illustrated Story. The title tells all: unreleased photos, band testimonials and album reviews. But while rock’n’roll platitudes flourish in books about, say, The Beatles, here the fawning feels awkward. CREEM photographer Robert Mattheu’s stilted writing never dives deeper than anecdotes and base descriptions. We learn Ron Ashton’s apartment, when he hosted Elektra Record executives in 1971, was “too horrible to describe.” The execs... read more
Nirvana: Live at Reading
In an age where Twitter feeds, YouTube footage and Brooklyn Vegan-esque blogs guarantee over-documentation of any concert mere moments after the lights go up... read more
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