Emma Watson dances, but not as much as you want, in The Bling Ring.
The Bling Ring is Sofia Coppola’s fictionalized account of the real life Hollywood Hills burglaries of 2009, when a group of young Los Angelenos spent their nights breaking into the houses of celebrities to steal their high end clothes, purses and jewelry. While it’s technically based on a Vanity Fair article about the crimes, it draws a lot of inspiration from a reality show that starred one of the participants. How familiar you are with this show is going to determine your reaction to the film. That’s problematic. Continue reading “Film Review: The Bling Ring”
Thao Nguyen & Eleaner Friedberger All Photos by Michelle Viray
Radio Silence is a local based magazine that discusses pop culture, music and literature. Imagine if Paste and The New Yorker fused together into one megamagazine. This magazine is so cool that Neko Case even serves on the board of directors! They also occasionally book live events, and as a special treat for Father’s Day, we were treated to an evening in tribute to Buddy Holly. The guests that they invited? Legendary music journalist Greil Marcus, as well as musicians Thao Nguyen, Eleanor Friedberger, and Van Pierszalowski. All to talk about one of the most influential musicians of the last 60 years.
They Might Be Giants have been playing together, in some shape, since 1982. Please, take a moment to let that sink in; this Brooklyn-based nerd-pop outfit has been churning out music for more than thirty years. This is a band that’s spanned five different presidents. A band that has witnessed countless similar acts form and breakup, reform and rebreakup. A band that has been making music for twice as long as Jaden Smith has been alive. A band with a legacy this long has two choices: They can become their own cover band, playing the hits that their audience crave, never growing, never changing. Or they can keep producing new music, evolving their sound, keeping their live-show fresh.
Fortunately for both the band and the fans, They Might Be Giants opted to take option B, and their set at the Warfield last Friday was all the better for it.
Superman turns 75 this year, and appears no worse for the wear in Man of Steel, director Zack Snyder’s serviceable, if somewhat dispassionate, reboot. Writers Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, who both penned recent Batman films, bring a similar dark, edgy, sensibility to the Kryptonian hero’s story, with mixed results. Continue reading “Film Review: Man of Steel”
Psst: He’s playing at Brick & Mortar Music Hal on Thursday. He’s not hiding out in Asia.
Not only do we have a ton of great shows, but if you look on Thursday, we also are giving away tickets to California Academy of Sciences’ Nightlife event this week!
“Closer than before / on the edge of being / the same fuck up as before / dying in a secret”, Mat Cothran (aka Coma Cinema) mumbles out on the opening track of his fourth full-length album, Posthumous Release. The South Carolina native spills out seemingly half-conscious lyrics throughout the twelve short tracks, as if he is reading scribbled notes directly out of a diary. The music does not stray far from Cothran’s melancholic roots, though this time recorded with a higher production value. The question is — how does the higher quality change the feel of Coma Cinema’s output, formerly lo-fi, that fans are accustomed to?
Akron/Family are a band that has alluded me for years. I’ve known the name, and nothing more. However, after hearing about their killer opening set for Two Gallants at The Fillmore a few months ago, I decided to explore them. I was expected something folk leaning based on the name, but found they were something much more. Much weirder. And way more electric. And decided that I needed to see them live.
Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker in Much Ado About Nothing
Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof, well known for their remarkable acting within the many works of storytelling mastermind Joss Whedon, take center stage in the director’s intimate retelling of Shakespeare’s classic tale Much Ado About Nothing. Playing the respective roles of Beatrice and Benedick, the pair move with an electrifying and gorgeous chemistry that helps to shape the world around them. We caught up with the duo after the premiere showing of the film at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and got some delightful insights into the creative process behind this moving, marvelously graceful and wonderfully funny film.
(NOTE: I worked at Google for a number of years. Let us just say that I may be slightly biased…but I can also shed some light on accuracies and inaccuracies depicted in The Internship about life at Google.)
In a performance review, The Internship would meet expectations. It is a silly film with a few laugh-out-loud moments and many more moments that miss the mark. We have seen this story before — a group of underdogs learn to work together and discover real value in themselves that helps them fight against the odds. It crosses every stereotype and dots every cliché. The Internship borrows elements from fish out of water stories, bromance plots, and sappy inspirational tales. Such a concoction of non-surprises fit into a one-note joke of a movie would be forgivable if it were actually hilarious. Unfortunately, it is not. However, if you are a fan of Vince Vaughn’s motor mouth, you will have a good time. If you work in the tech industry, you will find the film highly amusing. But most importantly, if you don’t expect much, you will be decently rewarded.
