Smokin’ hot blues, so sweet to hear. Wipes all the McMusic you have to slog through these days right off the map (along with practically everything else). True jams.
Category: Reviews
Some quick comments on enjoyable indulgences from the media firehose.
9.5 Cashback
“Every minute counts.” This film is “stop and smell the roses” taken to a literal level. The characters are great – like in Extract, normal folks blown up just a little bit, each one given enough depth so you can warm up to them. You’ll have to be able to tolerate a fairly pervasive nudity theme – at one point I was wondering “Am I watching Choke”? – but the protagonist, as well as the film, has a heart of gold. And a beautiful unique style. I won’t say any more, check it out.
Another (non-)romantic comedy worth mentioning is “(500) Days of Summer” and of course you should see it, it’s mostly the camera fawning over Zooey Daschanel, what is not to love? What a guilty pleasure. But don’t bother with the Coen Brothers’ latest, A Serious Man – seriously, guys? Cut the art house b.s. and get on with excelling again.
9.0 Extract
Jason Bateman stars, so I love it. But beyond that, Mike Judge has this great ability to create characters similar to people you know, at the edges, and blow them up, but just a little, maybe 10 or 20 percent. So they flavor the movie without sidetracking it. There are about a dozen good ones in this sleeper.
8.5 David Sedaris – When You Are Engulfed In Flames
A Kurt Vonnegut for the short-attention-span generation. He always writes about the most dysfunctional details of the members of his family, I would hate to be one of them – but sometimes I feel like maybe I am. :P And he started off skewering me with horror stories of my most extreme phobia… I’ll leave it for you to discover.
9.5 Julian Casablancas – Phrazes for the Young
I’ve always enjoyed bands that obviously put their time in composing their music. It’s especially fun when the sound can be converted to something that sounds more live. Bands like The Strokes and Collective Soul and The The sound like guitar bands, but they are so tight and orchestrated that you know there’s more going on below the surface. These guys can handle sequencers as well as Mark Mothersbaugh.
Here, Julian skips the conversion of his compositions to shiny homogenized guitar strumming, and this time it’s all the better for it. All kinds of sonic textures to enjoy.
9.0 LCD Soundsystem – North American Scum
These guys have that great slightly-polished-chaos sound of bands like the Dandy Warhols and the White Stripes. Rock on!
8.0 Outsourced
At times too close to reality for comfort, the laughter in this one was a bit strained. But that’s its charm, too. Globalization here we come! A nice easy primer on Indian culture that turns into a romantic comedy. And there’s music and dancing, too, of course. One thing’s for sure – I am heading to Udipi for lunch this week!
9.5 RockNRolla
1080p lookin’ good. Guy Ritchie has never failed me (sorry Madonna). Not sure where he finds his motley crew of supporting actors but I bet his house parties rival his best scenes. Our favorite part is that he focuses on the wit and leaves most of the gratuitousness for other ‘hot’ directors to use as a crutch to keep up with him. Win.
9.5 Watchmen
1080p is a beautiful thing. This was an interesting character study with an action movie injected in bits into the middle. As in the-director-of-300 beautiful-physics-in-slomo action. I didn’t follow the original, and I’m not burned out on the ‘conflicted hero’ theme – ergo, I loved it. I really really loved it.
9.5 Owl City – Ocean Eyes
This beautiful atmospheric pop is lifting me up during my job search. It’s like Death Cab For Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard’s optimistic younger brother discovered a magic electronics studio. It’s really polished, as in Top 40, computer-stabilized-vocals polished, but it is so well crafted that it works out. Good fun!