Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Having released four records in six years, including Music for Listening to Music to earlier this year, La Sera have been here before. Queens is a bonus in that sense, delivering five tracks, including a Led Zeppelin cover. Continue reading “Album Review: La Sera, Queens EP”
The phrase “heartwarming family film” has been overused so much that it’s become a meaningless cliché, but when is the last time you saw a live action picture that legitimately fit that description? A few Pixar movies aside, the cinematic offerings that truly appeal to parents and kids alike have been pretty paltry lately. Disney competently rectifies that situation today with Queen of Katwe, a well made, well acted, inspirational-without-being-cloying film that tells the true story of a poor girl from the poverty-stricken town of Katwe, Uganda, who becomes a national and international chess champion.
Continue reading “Film Review: Queen of Katwe“
Kicks starts off with Brandon, our lead character, introducing us to his wishes of being in space, where he no longer gets chased around the neighborhood and can live in perfect quiet. His dreams are accompanied by visions of a man (or woman) in a space suit, and this astronaut makes many appearances throughout the movie during critical moments. It’s weird and otherworldly, and does momentarily elevate this movie into the stratosphere, but the reality keeps dragging us down.
No discussion of Sully, director Clint Eastwood’s new film about East Bay hero Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the commercial airline pilot who, in January, 2009, successfully landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the frigid Hudson River after its engines failed, can begin without first acknowledging that casting Tom Hanks as Sully is a perfect marriage of actor and role. Tom Hanks, the Jimmy Stewart of our day, embodies competence, integrity, and innate decency in a way that makes him a natural fit to play the heroic pilot of the so-called Miracle on the Hudson, in which all 155 people on board survived the emergency water landing. Imagining another actor in the role is almost impossible, and Hanks’s dependable Everyman persona is a large reason Eastwood’s dramatization of the real life event works so well.
Continue reading “Film Review: Sully“
To say that Boris’ performance at the Fillmore was good is an understatement of the highest degree. Though they are Japanese, they came to San Francisco like Romans. They saw, and they conquered. Playing the Japanese track list release of their seminal 2006 album ‘Pink’ they completely owned the stage. Woe to she/he who was not wearing ear plugs because this band plays LOUD.
First of all: Anyone who says women can’t play guitar can get back on the Misogyny Train with a one way ticket to “Fuckoff Town,” because Wata destroys the guitar. Does she explode around the stage like your most punk/metal/rock/insertsomethingovercompensatingHERE person? No. But that couldn’t possibly matter because her absolute control over her instrument and her ability with it shine spectacularly.
But let’s backtrack a little bit. Tour mate’s and opening act, Earth, got the crowd started with their unique western styled sludge metal. They played 5 songs in their 45 minute set, all of which drew in attention like the white flash of a nuclear blast. Clad in white cowboy hats, the guitar players clearly needed no bass (especially with a beautiful moog pedal to replace it) and were in their grandest element before a packed house. I kept seeing images from Sergio Leone westerns over their music which was, in my mind, a worthy replacement of the already wonderful Ennio Morricone scores.
If you think playing the drums FAST is hard. Imagine playing them slowly. There is nothing harder than to play slowly (as far as I am concerned) but Adrienne Davis is 100% unperturbed by downbeat half-time tempos and wrecks on the drums in a way that is utterly fascinating to watch.
Throughout the night, all I could say was “What a fucking show.” That is what was delivered. Whether you like their music or not, you got a memorable performance. One for the books; not to be forgotten, etc. etc. etc. Between Takeshi’s masterful double neck Bass/Guitar (just look at the god damn pictures), Wata’s shredding leads, and Atsuo, the hype master’s, precision drumming (complete with gong bashing insanity), you could not ask for a better show.
And just when I thought, “How can they top anything that I just saw?” Instead of an encore set of anything recent, they brought Earth back on stage (completely) and played an epic sludgey jam to close the night. How often do you get to see 2 drummers and 4 guitarists (one who can switch from bass to guitar at will) just rock the fuck out together for 8 minutes? The answer is not very often. If only you could have been there!
They’ll be in Los Angeles tonight and continuing the rest of their US tour throughout the next month or so and they are NOT to be missed.
Earth Setlist: Introduction/Coda Maestoso in F (Flat) Minor | Even Hell Has Its Heroes | The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull | Torn by the Fox of the Crescent Moon | Old Black | High Command.
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/earth/2016/the-fillmore-san-francisco-ca-33fc1415.html
Boris Setlist: Blackout | Pink | Woman on the Screen | Nothing Special | N.F. Sorrow | Pseudo-Bread | Afternburner | Six, Three Times | Talisman | Are You Ready | Electric | My Machine | Just Abandoned Myself | Farewell | (Encore) Ouroboros Is Broken (Earth cover w/Earth)
Setlist based on Previous and Following concerts dates where the setlist was identical.
*More photos will be added at a later date.
The economy of war and the audacity of youth brilliantly collide in writer/director Todd Phillips’s new picture War Dogs. A heavily fictionalized dramatization of Guy Lawson’s 2011 Rolling Stone article (and later book), the film details the spectacular rise and fall of two 20-something young men from Miami Beach who became major international arms dealers during the heart of the Iraq War.
Continue reading “Film Review: War Dogs“
I’ve never seen stop-motion animation as inventively crafted or as embedded in the storytelling as I saw in Kubo and the Two Strings. Laika, the animation studio behind Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls, releases their most ambitious film yet with Kubo. Part parable and part fantasy epic, Kubo has a bit of everything, and though it gets a little over-indulgent in the final ten minutes, the film never feels overcrowded. Credit is due to first time director Travis Knight (son of Phil Knight, of Nike), who does a solid job of executing on an intelligent script by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler. The filmmakers infuse Kubo with unique action sequences, family-friendly humor, some nightmarish chills, and strong emotional themes. When these aspects are woven together with solid voice acting and stunning visuals, Kubo becomes a memorable cinematic tapestry.
Actor turned screenwriter Taylor Sheridan proved he had a knack for conveying the rhythms and feeling of the American southwest with his award-nominated debut feature screenplay for last year’s gritty drug smuggling crime drama Sicario. The success of that debut was no fluke, as we see here in Hell or High Water, Sheridan’s new, follow up screenplay. A similarly southwest-set blend of western and crime drama, the picture rivals the Coen Brothers’ Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men as a modern day, quintessentially American morality tale.
Continue reading “Film Review: Hell or High Water“
Imagine if Toy Story was written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and then sprinkled with a dash of Caligula. Even that probably doesn’t quite capture just how far Sausage Party goes in terms of it’s R-related language and content (supposedly it came close to an NC-17 rating, until they toned it down — yes, toned it down!). As advertised, the cast and creators of This is the End are back, this time to infuse their stoner, ultra-sexualized, black comedy into an animated feature. Sausage Party goes a step beyond just shock-value to deliver its laughs, serving a healthy does of side-splitting puns, curse-words, pop culture references, and hilarious characters. But Sausage Party is also an incredibly clever film. It disguises it’s more contemplative themes of divinity, the existence of an afterlife, and the triviality of religious tensions within the entertaining muck of a hilariously perverse one-note culinary joke — that anthropomorphic foods discover that they’re all doomed to be devoured by humans.
For those who remember the 1977 Disney classic, Pete’s Dragon, you may wonder why an obscure title such as that one would need a remake. To be honest, the remake doesn’t answer that question. But nevertheless, the new Pete’s Dragon is a very charming family film. Pete’s Dragon has an old school magical feel to it, with similar familial themes to classic 1970s Disney films such as The Apple Dumpling Gang, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Escape to Witch Mountain, and the original of the same name. Aside from the less-than-ideal usage of country-tinged pop songs to convey the right emotions we should be feeling, and the absence of musical numbers, Pete’s Dragon is a solidly executed and delightful adventure.