Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen
To approach Jonathan Franzen in 2012 is, for the book reviewer (which almost invariably connotes an aspiring writer), a daunting task. read more
Found in: Books, ReviewsJust Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac
Tribute albums always sound a little better in theory—sometimes even that’s not the case—than they actually are once put into practice. read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsPure by Julianna Baggott
Dystopian fever grips our world. read more
Found in: Books, ReviewsFeatured Video: Alanis Morissette - "All I Really Want"
Watch Canadian pop star Alanis Morissette perform "All I Really Want" at the 1997 Bridge School Benefit. read more
Found in: Featured VideosDead Can Dance: Anastasis
“We are the children of the sun,” sings Brendan Perry, moaning like a half-drunk Vincent Price over a strangely unsettling orchestral trip-hop groove. “There is room for everyone / sunflowers in our hair.” But this sure ain’t no freaking summer of love. Anastasis, the first studio album in 16 years from Australian duo Dead Can Dance, harnesses the brooding, multi-culti sonic perfectionism you’d expect from these highly regarded veterans (singing multi-instrumentalists Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard), with loads of glowing bagpipes and Chinese hammer dulcimer and operatic chants and ominous synths. But Anastasis is also bloated and overly precious—even at... read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsGrimm Review: "Bad Teeth" (Episode 2.1)
The episode begins with the usual Grimm carnage, this time in the form of a blood-soaked shipping crate aboard a boat in Portland’s harbor. read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsCharlie Mars: Blackberry Light
Charlie Mars spent the better part of the last decade nestled in the comfy confines of Oxford, Miss. serenading swooning Ole Miss coeds with a winning smile and seductive pop songs. read more
Found in: Music, ReviewsRed Lights
Skepticism is championed until it’s suddenly and inexplicably not in Red Lights, Rodrigo Cortés’ muddled follow-up to Buried. Unlike that prior effort, an efficiently compact and constrained thriller about a man who awakens inside an interred coffin, Cortes’ latest is a sprawling mess both narratively and thematically. It takes as its focus two scientists, Margaret (Sigourney Weaver) and Tom (Cillian Murphy), whose careers are split between lecturing about the non-existence of paranormal activity and going out into the field to debunk charlatans who claim to hear voices and commune with the dead. Casting Weaver as a literal ghost buster is... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsUnion Square
A reunion of sisters leads to simmering tension, shocking revelations and cathartic healing and understanding of a pat sort in Union Square, a small-scale drama set largely in an apartment in Manhattan’s titular neighborhood. Nancy Savoca’s film wears its indie-ness on its sleeve, relegating itself to one primary location and a number of sequences shot on the streets of New York, a low-budget construction that concentrates squarely on the story’s two protagonists, Lucy (Mira Sorvino) and Jenny (Tammy Blanchard). Lucy is in town to meet up with a boyfriend, a plan that—involving going shopping for leopard-print dresses to impress her... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsBreaking Bad Review: "Dead Freight" (Episode 5.05)
“I’ve been around long enough to know there are two kinds of robberies: the ones that get away with it and the ones that leave witnesses.” This season of Breaking Bad keeps getting bigger and bolder to match the increasing ego of Walter White. When Mike said Walt was no Jesse James, who would have guessed that Walt would literally take that on as a challenge? “Dead Freight” deals with their methylamine problem, when Lydia suggests that they just directly take it by robbing the train that carries Madrigal’s chemical supplies. This would be a fool’s errand to any criminal... read more
Found in: TV, Reviews
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