Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
starring: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Kevin Dunn
written by: Gavin O’Connor, Anthony Tambakis & Cliff Dorfman
directed by: Gavin O’Connor
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense mixed martial arts fighting, some language and thematic material
Guerilla Union’s annual traveling hip hop roadshow touched down in Mountain View recently, and it may have been the best one yet. It proved that Lauryn Hill can still play the big rooms. It proved that The Infamous Mobb Deep, Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday, Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star, and Illmatic by Nas are all classic records have stood the test of time. We saw that comedian Donald Glover’s alter ego Childish Gambino is doing some of the most inventive stuff in hip hop. We also learned that no matter how much critical acclaim you’ve got, you still have to contend with nature, causing east coast rappers Mac Miller and Doom to stay behind.
Without further adieu, here are the sites of Rock The Bells 2011:
Continue reading “Photo Journal: Rock The Bells at Shoreline Amphitheater, 8/27/11”
“This is challenging! This discourse is challenging! This is a campaign that is more rigorous than the Up in the Air Oscar campaign. Those questions were like, ‘What is it like to kiss George Clooney?'” But Vera Farmiga wouldn’t have it any other way. The Oscar-nominated actress, 38, is making her directorial debut with Higher Ground, adapted for the screen by Carolyn S. Briggs (and Tim Metcalfe) from her memoir, This Dark World. It is a finely observed, deeply felt spiritual character study about a woman named Corinne (Farmiga). Yes, this film dares to address religion, specifically evangelical Christianity. But it does so in a manner as completely disarming, sensitive, and uncompromising as Farmiga herself.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Vera Farmiga on “Higher Ground””
Happy Labor Day! Let’s appreciate the working men and women of American by going to an awesome show this week! What do you say?
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 9/1/11-9/7/11”
written by: Guillermo del Toro and Matthew Robbins
directed by: Troy Nixey
MPAA: Rated R for violence and terror
Continue reading “Film Review: “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark””
My cat keeps sitting on my hands, making it really hard to type something witty. So I’ll get her to talk to you instead:azMNBSAMBDS,MCDEHBJCD GQWCHVJEC VEN
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/25/11-8/31/11”
A little over two years ago, some friends and I went to see Tony Lucca at the Hotel Utah. He was playing with two dudes we’d never heard of before: Jay Nash and Matt Duke. Matt opened, and before he’d finished the first song all three of us were staring at him, transfixed (and okay, maybe a little surprised as well). Our reactions to Jay were similar, and of course we already knew we loved Tony’s music too. As the tour progressed, it didn’t take them long to realize that their fantastic chemistry shouldn’t go to waste. By the time they reached SPACE in Chicago, they were harmonizing their way through each other’s set lists, two of them flanking the third songwriter as he took center stage. They decided to record a 4-song EP, and somehow the whole project was dubbed “TFDI.” (More on that later.)
Continue reading “Show Review: TFDI with Riley Etheridge & Michael Kang at Cafe du Nord, 8/21/2011”
Stuffed and Unstrung is an improv show put on by the Henson Alternative using 80 Henson puppets and six performers. This sentence makes it sound good and intriguing, but actually watching it is like an explosion of joy in your brain. When I left the theater Thursday night, with tears in my eyes from laughter and an added spring in my step, I said to my friend “We should watch it again!” Continue reading “Theatre Review: Stuffed and Unstrung by Henson Alternative at Curran Theater, 8/18/11”
starring: Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin, Toni Collette, David Tennant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Imogen Poots, Dave Franco, Reid Ewing
written by: Marti Noxon
directed by: Craig Gillespie
MPAA: Rated R for bloody horror violence and language including some sexual references
starring: Jason Momoa, Stephen Lang, Rose McGowan, Rachel Nichols, Ron Perlman, Leo Howard
written by: Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer and Sean Hood
directed by: Marcus Nispel
MPAA: Rated R for strong bloody violence, some sexuality and nudity