Oh Fauxchella, how do I count the ways? While most of the world waits diligently to attend something overly populated with clutter, annoyance, and unwelcoming weather, the locally abounding intellects know you will be there for us. Engrossed entirely inside night four of eight, you gave me Bat For Lashes. While there were about seventeen other shows that night, none were more sincere than this one. So much so I’m sure the Great Pumpkin would have agreed.
While I may not be comparing Natasha Khan to a pumpkin patch, in an utmost elegance, I must say: she squashed it.
Anthony Mackie, Mark Wahlberg and Duane Johnson in Pain & Gain
When you hear the phrase “Directed by Michael Bay,” you probably think of some if not all of the following things: giant robots, massive explosions, military hardware, unnecessarily scantily clad and impossibly thin women and an insane amount of quick edits. You probably don’t think “passion project.” But that’s what we get here. In order to say yes to directing Transformers 4 for Paramount, Bay insisted that he be given the opportunity to make this “small budget” film ($25 million) based on a series of articles from the Miami New Times that document the exploits of the so-called Sun Gym Gang. The real story is brutal, full of twists and turns, and more than a little weird. So how would this translate into a Michael Bay picture? Continue reading “Film Review: Pain & Gain”
Fauxchella is a brutal time for music fans. The night Metric played at The Fox, we also had to contend with like minded bands How To Destroy Angels and Savages playing across the bridge. It was a tough night of you enjoy powerful women fronting danceable rock bands. And, as much as I truly love this band, I was thinking hard about what I was missing. I didn’t want to feel buyers remorse. Deep down inside, I knew this was the right place to be. And the sold out crowd at The Fox tonight knew it, too.
When you possess the musical longevity of a band such as Sparks, the quirky, tongue-in-cheek, orchestral-pop-electronic-smorgasboard sensation that spawned forth from the creative minds of brothers Ron and Russell Mael, it’s best if the question of what to do after 40 years of work is “what next?”, as opposed to “is this over with yet?” The latter has been embraced by many an act of yesteryear, but the Los Angeles duo showed no signs of stopping as they plunged into the new millenium, and over a decade later, they are still going strong. With the first ten years of a new era behind them, it seemed thusly appropriate to try something new and unexpected (something which, of course, has never been something that Sparks has attempted — surely not), and for their 2012/2013 tour, the pair stripped down their act to the core essentials. Absent of a band, of backing vocalists, even of a drumkit, the live version of Sparks became a new animal in the form of the “Two Hands, One Mouth” tour, so named for its simplicity of performance: Ron at the keys, and Russell at the pipes. The result is a show that, on paper, seems simple and almost comical in scope, and in presentation is just as delightful as any of their records.
Oakland is a blessed city for music. We have some of the best venues and best crowds on Earth. For far too long we were treated as the ugly stepsister to San Francisco. However, San Francisco seems to do a great job of attracting the type of concert goer that attends because they feel obligated, and simply hangs on in the back of the room with their arms folded across their chest. In Oakland, the room explodes. Case in point: Vancouver, BC’s Japandroids played a sold out show at The Independent last year. It was shortly after the release of Celebration Rock, an album that hit with near universal acclaim. And, of course, the whole room stood still throughout the entire set. However, this warm Wednesday night in Oakland was a completely different story.
Oblivion is this year’s first “summer blockbuster”, a term coined for Jaws back in 1975 that gets attached to any commercially successful tentpole action-adventure film released by a major studio between the months of April and August. Oblivion fits nicely into the blockbuster mold; it features action, romance, a great soundtrack and a PG-13 rating. It also showcases an eye for a unique visual style that writer/director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) continues to demonstrate in his work. Although it doesn’t break any new ground, Oblivion has just enough complexity within its mash-up of original content and popular sci-fi references to be a thoroughly entertaining sci-fi adventure. Yet it’s the film’s abundance of visual artistry that is most memorable.
Imagine you enter a snow globe just after the spinning blizzard has settled. You discover you’ve been transported to a silent, starkly black and white Spain, sometime in the 1920’s. Welcome to this imaginative retelling of the classic Brothers Grimm folktale, Snow White—or known here as Blancanieves. Continue reading “Film Review: Blancanieves (Thoughts on the Continuing Potency of Silent Films)”
In 1947, the baseball world was introduced to the first black Major League player, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson. This momentous occasion in the history of our national pastime (and the world, quite arguably), was met with mixed feelings from all points of the sociopolitical spectrum. 42 aims to capture the tension and excitement that surrounded the breaking of the baseball color barrier, but a hokey script forces the emotion in this disappointing and awkward historical re-enactment.
