Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano, Adam Beach, Sam Rockwell, Keith Carradine
written by: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
directed by: Jon Favreau
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of western and sci-fi action and violence, some partial nudity and a brief crude reference
Jen Schande is one of the Bay Area’s most tried-and-true indie workhorses. She’s been at it in one band or another for damn near two decades: she played pre-fame shows with bands ranging from No Doubt to The Gossip, released a long-sold-out split 7″ with The Cribs that commands quite a high asking price on eBay, and famously saw PJ Harvey at the Whiskey in 1992. In addition to her prolific DJ work, Jen has her namesake band, Schande, which she began focusing on exclusively after parting ways with Boyskout several years back.
Schande are playing at the Hemlock this Saturday, July 30, along with Bam!Bam! and Silent Pictures. And they have a new 7″ out on Future Farmer Recordings, titled Still Returning. Let’s have a listen, shall we?
When Mike Cahill and Zal Batmanglij were students at Georgetown, they co-directed a film and entered it in the campus film festival. The film won a prize, and they were invited onstage for a Q&A. From the stage, they noticed a “little waify blonde girl” jump up in the front row and start what became a full-audience standing ovation. “Who was that?” Batmanglij said to Cahill later. “There was something about her. Did you see her?” The young woman in question was Brit Marling, a fellow Georgetown student who was studying economics. She soon approached the student filmmakers and expressed her desire to collaborate with them. The trio began working on a series of shorts, and eventually moved to Los Angeles to live together while banging out scripts and hoping for the opportunity to show others their work.
Fast forward to January 2011: Cahill and Batmanglij have each directed a film, both co-written with and starring Marling, and both have been accepted to the Sundance Film Festival. Cahill’s film, Another Earth, premiered to a standing ovation, and went on to win the 2011 Alfred P. Sloan Prize for feature films focusing on science or technology. Another Earth and Batmanglij’s film, The Sound of My Voice, would both be picked up by Fox Searchlight. And now Cahill and Marling are touring the country speaking at their own Q&A’s to promote Another Earth, which opens on July 29. Spinning Platters recently jumped into this whirlwind of standing ovations and film festival prizes to speak individually with Marling and Cahill about the marvelous insanity of the last seven months.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interviews: Brit Marling and Mike Cahill on “Another Earth””
Bettye LaVette, the 65-year-old soul phenom who toiled in relative obscurity for over 40 years before exploding onto the buzz meters with her 2005 collection of female singer/songwriter covers, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, played to a overflowing, standing-room-only crowd at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Thursday evening. LaVette has a special attachment to the Bay Area, as her self-proclaimed “return from the crypt” was largely triggered when she was signed to the SF-based Rosebud Agency. And that gratitude was lovingly incorporated into her stunning 90-minute set of one explosive show-stopper after another.
Continue reading “Show Review: Bettye LaVette at Yoshi’s Oakland, 7/21/2011”
starring: Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis, Patricia Clarkson, Woody Harrelson, Richard Jenkins, Jenna Elfman, Nolan Gould, Bryan Greenberg, Andy Samberg, Emma Stone
written by: Keith Merryman, David A. Newman, Will Gluck, Harley Peyton
directed by: Will Gluck
MPAA: rated R for sexual content and language.
starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Rita Wilson, Wilmer Valderrama, George Takei, Pam Grier, Rob Riggle
written by: Tom Hanks and Nia Vardalos
directed by: Tom Hanks
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief strong language and some sexual content
starring: Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Jason Segel, Lucy Punch, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins, Thomas Lennon, Eric Stonestreet, Molly Shannon
written by: Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg
directed by: Jake Kasdan
MPAA: Rated R for sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use.
Keren Ann and opener Chris Garneau put on a dreamily beautiful, strikingly intimate show at Yoshi’s SF last night. Keren Ann is touring behind her latest album, 101, which finds the French chanteuse exploring electronic textures rather than the spare, heartrending acoustics with which she has become associated; the album, with its more aggressive tone and dashes of lyrical violence, inspired the New York Times to stupidly dub it “gangsta folk”. But don’t run for your ghetto blasters just yet, because if last night’s show was any indication, Keren Ann won’t be abandoning her chansons and acoustic guitar any time soon.
Continue reading “Show Review: Keren Ann with Chris Garneau at Yoshi’s SF, 6/21/2011”
starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett, Jay O. Sanders, Mark Strong
written by: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim & Michael Goldenberg
directed by: Martin Campbell
MPAA: Rated PG-13 For intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action.
starring: Maria Bello, Michael Sheen, Kyle Gallner, Alan Tudyk, Austin Nichols, Moon Bloodgood, Meat Loaf
written by: Michael Armbruster and Shawn Ku
directed by: Shawn Ku
MPAA: Rated R for some language and a scene of sexuality.