Spinning Platters – Page 184 – Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds

Film Review: Fifty Shades of Grey

‘Fifty Shades’ is caught between a book and a hard place.

Must. Stare. To. Create. Intense. Chemistry!

I sort of feel sorry for Francine Maisler, the casting director of Fifty Shades of Grey. Francine was given an impossible task — to cast the role of Christian Grey with an actor whose every physical characteristic would accurately reflect the subjective sexual fantasies of millions of female (and male) readers. 100 million, to be more exact. Once a Grey was found, the rest should’ve fallen more easily into place. To the filmmakers credit, and to Maisler’s, the casting job is almost as good as it could’ve been. Jamie Dornan makes for a sexy steely-eyed (see what I did there?) Christian Grey and Dakota Johnson makes for a very strong pretty-yet-plain Anastasia Steele. Oh, but there’s one problem…they have to have great chemistry together in order to pull it off. Oops. Fifty Shades of Grey is not as bad as you may think or hope, and if you’re brave enough to refrain from poking fun of it to look cool, it’s not hard to notice some strong cinematic merits and a strong yet simply central plot with a lot of interesting potential. Sadly, the lack of actor chemistry and the screenwriter’s loyalty to the book’s popularity sours the overall impact of the film, which, despite its effectiveness in pushing the boundaries of sex in a rated R film, should’ve had a stronger impact.

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Sketchfest Review: Bring The Rock at Cobb’s, 2/7/15

Chris Hardwick, bringing the rock. Photo by Steve Agee

There are a few things that you can depend on with Sketchfest every year. We always get w0otstock. We always get a Nerdist Podcast. There is always something featuring a former member of The State. All of those things sell out. One show that they invite back every year that somehow never sells out is Bring The Rock. The premise is super simple- a comedian talks about music. Then Greg Behrendt’s surf rock band The Reigning Monarchs covers a song with the comic singing lead. On paper, this sounds amusing. In reality, it’s the perfect love letter to both humor and rock n roll.

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Sketchfest Review: The Hotwives Of Orlando at Verdi Club, 2/7/15

Panels for TV shows are an interesting thing. They can go in one of two ways: they can either be something educational, where you learn about how certain things work. Or it can a silly display of actors and writers getting together to have fun on stage outside the restrictions of the medium of television. Or, in the case of The Hotwives Of Orlando panel, it was a perfectly balanced version of the two.

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Sketchfest Review: Iron Comic with Nato Green and Moshe Kasher at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 2/8/15

Iron_Comic_289x300

The last night of SF Sketchfest is so bittersweet. This year I attended 9 shows in three weeks and they were all great, but a girl with a day job can get quite tired. But I powered through, hurrying from one event to another to end my Sketchfest experience with an excellent stand up show thanks to Iron Comic. This is my third time watching this show, and this year was the most enticing with some of my favorite comedians competing: Eddie Pepitone, Todd Barry, Emily Heller, Rory Scovel and Chris Garcia. It was going to be quite a competition. Continue reading “Sketchfest Review: Iron Comic with Nato Green and Moshe Kasher at Cobb’s Comedy Club, 2/8/15”

Show Review: Murder By Death with Rocky Votolato at The Independent, 2/5/2015

Trying to sell my friends on joining me for this show was not an easy feat, mostly because Murder By Death is a band that manages to keep themselves just out of bounds of many traditional descriptions of sound. They’re not quite indie, but they’re not quite rock or punk, either; they can’t really be called folk or country-western, but they also aren’t totally dark Americana rock; and they have many songs that could very well be old stomping drinking ballads, were it not for the frenetic guitar solos and furious cello picking in the middle of the verses. However, they are remarkable at incorporating all of these factors, as well as a host of neighbors, into their work, so a Murder By Death show is one part rock and roll, two parts bouncing and dancing, three parts passionate and furious rhythms and melodies; shake, strain, no chaser — unless you count a glass of bourbon. I had previously seen Murder By Death sandwiched in between a Christian death metal band and a thundering stoner-rock juggernaut, so it was quite a treat to see them take center stage for their 2015 tour promoting their latest work, Big Dark Love.

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Film Feature: Sundance Film Festival Spotlights #2

Sundance 2015 Spotlights: Six Feature Films

The Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT, closed last Sunday, February 1^st, and the award winners were announced that day; they can be found here.

Spinning Platters Sr. Film Reviewer Carrie Kahn continues her coverage of Festival films, so you can know what to look for in the coming year – and what to avoid – as many of these titles are purchased and widely distributed

As a reminder, we are using our patented Viewing Priority Level (VPL) Guide to advise you accordingly:

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Film Review: Seventh Son

Looked good on the drawing board; looks terrible up on the screen.

"Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!" - Jeff Bridges in Seventh Son — “Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!” – Jeff Bridges in Seventh Son

When a movie is supposed to be released in February, you worry a bit about the quality. The best movies don’t usually come out in the dumping grounds of January and February. When a movie is supposed to come out in February of 2013, but is finally released in February of 2015, that’s a big worry. The best movies usually don’t sit on the shelf for two years. But anyone seeing the trailer or the story of Seventh Son isn’t expecting much more than some tight world building, clever and maybe funny dialog, and some cool special effects set pieces. On those counts, how does Seventh Son deliver?

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Film Review: Jupiter Ascending

A Jupiter-sized mess (and Jupiter is big).

Channing Tatum "surfing" around shooting and being shot at. — Channing Tatum “surfing” around shooting and being shot at.

There’s a line in Jupiter Ascending where a former alien soldier stationed on Earth tells a newly-discovered woman of royalty, “Bees don’t lie.” With or without context, you should get a sense of how ridiculous this sounds, because it is. Completely. Ridiculous. Jupiter Ascending, from the Wachowskis, whose credibility is descending rapidly, is a silly overwrought mess. Too much is packed into too complex a premise. The tone shifts back and forth between silly and serious, imaginative and derivative, from The Fifth Element to Dune (minus the intelligence). When a movie gets pushed from a summer tentpole position (May-July) to the cinema graveyard shift (January-February), it’s obvious that something is wrong. In the case of Jupiter Ascending, it has all the makings of a sci fi summer blockbuster, but fails to execute on all fronts aside from some nifty special effects that look quite pretty.

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An Evening with Tony Lucca at Yoshi’s Oakland, 01/29/2015

Seeing Simons & Lucca together is always a treat.

Tony Lucca will always have a special place in my heart…and my career. I say that because it was just about this time four years ago that I wrote my first review for Spinning Platters. I had met editor Gordon Elgart not long prior and discussed writing for him, but it was completely spur of the moment when I invited him to join me to see Mr. Lucca at the Cafe du Nord and cover the show. He asked, instead, that I do it myself. I admit, having never written anything of the sort, I was intimidated. But I did it, and I suppose the rest is the proverbial history? Anyway, I digress. Suffice all this to say that I was happy to catch him last Thursday evening at Yoshi’s Oakland. Even better, he had recently added my beloved Keaton Simons to his band, and offered me a little pre-show time for a chat. Continue reading “An Evening with Tony Lucca at Yoshi’s Oakland, 01/29/2015”

Sketchfest Review: Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Taking Over SF Sketchfest with Dana Snyder and Dave Willis at Marines’ Memorial Theater, 1/31/15

Aqua Teen Hunger Force is one of those shows that has managed to stay pretty far under the radar. It’s heading into it’s 15th season on Adult Swim, making it the longest running show in Adult Swim history. I, personally, believe that it’s the most inventive of the adult cartoons. Tonight, we had the very rare opportunity to get to listen to the show’s creators, Dana Snyder and Dave Willis, talk about this long running program.

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