Representation Matters in Christmas With You Starring Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr.
Costume director Carisa Kelly deserves a raise… and whoever scouted that piano. Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr. as Angelina and Miguel. Photo courtesy of Netflix (2022).
About ten years ago, a friend of mine said, “They never make movies about people like us unless it’s about our trauma or a white person growing. Why can’t we have happy endings, too?”
It was true; all my favorite movies were helmed by white people, and the few that weren’t were about trauma. The rest of the time, we were in supporting roles as best friends, maids, taxi drivers, gangsters, or terrorists. Sometimes the story was about us, but it wasn’t really about us; it was about the white teacher who changes our lives, the white writer who is inspired by us to tell our stories for us. It still centered on a white person’s journey of growth.Continue reading “Film Review: “Christmas With You””
Aspiring actress Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) meets Manny Torres (Diego Calva) at a wild party.
Babylon, this season’s third (yes, third!) movie about the movies is by far the worst of the trio. While TheFabelmans and Empire of Light have a few pluses, Babylon is too bloated and draggy to recommend. Writer/director Damien Chazelle (La La Land; First Man; Whiplash) clearly loves the movies, but with Babylon, he’s made one that might actually steer his audience away from the form instead of toward it.
Issac Brock and crew sauntered out to fervent fans in Oakland Wednesday night. The 25th-anniversary tour for The Lonesome Crowded West has twenty-one scheduled tour dates full of 90s gems that soundtracked college dorms through the early 2000s. This one was sold out, with fans of all ages and all eras of the band attending. Beanie-topped tidy grunge folks in the teeming audience at the Fox howled when the first licks of “Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine” began. The setlist continued down a nostalgic path stirring ephemeral eddies of light-push-moshing. “Doin’ The Cockroach” is their disco grind dance number. The crowd obliged. Continue reading “Show Review: Modest Mouse at The Fox Theater, 11/30/22”
TEKE::TEKE are a psychedelic rock band from Montreal that perform in Japanese. And by psych rock, I mean they are absolutely genre-bonkers. They bring together elements of Eleki, Punk, Spaghetti Western Score, Classic Rock, and Funk and blend them into something that makes Mr. Bungle sound like Celine Dion. I chatted with guitarist Serge Nakauchi Pelletier and vocalist Maya Kuroki about the band’s origins as a Takeshi Terauchi cover band and how they morphed into the beauty of what they are now.
TEKE::TEKE are wrapping up a West Coast tour now, but promised me they’d be back soon. If you are free tomorrow, you can catch them at Bandcamp HQ in Oakland doing a live interview and performance. Their brilliant debut record, Shirushi, is out now on Kill Rock Stars.
Bright spots transcend cliched moments in new Mendes picture
Hilary (Olivia Colman) works the ticket booth at the Empire Cinema.
Hollywood loves to make movies about itself. My last review was on The Fablemans, a movie about the magic of movies. This review is about Empire of Light, a movie about the healing power of movies. And my next review will be about Babylon, a movie about, you guessed it, the good and bad of the movie industry. If Hollywood wants to get folks back into theaters, maybe making a bunch of narcissistic films about itself isn’t the best way, but nevertheless, here we are, with three releases within a month that basically say, “Movies are awesome! Go to the movies!!” This week’s offering makes its case mightily, and somewhat succeeds in spite of the pervasive layer of schmaltz that covers the picture.
I have never seen Veronica Mars. I barely know the premise. But from the minor key muted strum opening this track, I’ve never been more intrigued by a TV show that I missed nearly 20 years ago. The song actually places me in My So-Called Life territory, the greatest TV show ever. This song is a fuzzy, emotive burner and my only complaint is that it’s too short. And I’ve NEVER said that about a song before.
“Veronica Mars” is available in all the usual places. She’s touring with Suki Waterhouse and, yes, I’m sad that there is no Bay Area date, too.
Thank You Come Again do not have my favorite band name. I spent time actively avoiding them due to this. However, they are literally friends with everyone in the Bay Area, they are worth the benefit of the doubt. Then this positively face melting track, “Bite The Hand,” landed in my eardrums. So loud. So heavy. An air guitar masterpiecce.
Today is Bandcamp Friday, so feel free to hope over to their Bandcamp page and buy this track and some others! They will be getting us a full length in the near future, so keep an eye out there and here.
1997 was the year I graduated high school. It was also the year I started college. I was awfully intimidated by college… I went from being a relatively well-liked and popular kid (Yeah. I know. I’ll stop gloating.) to an awkward kid that didn’t know how to make friends. In fact, I moved between classes, work, my dorm room, the computer lab, and the Taco Bell inside Mary Park Hall at San Francisco State University.
At the Taco Bell was a lovely human that the good folks of SFSU dubbed “Taco Bell Rob.” He was pretty much the only employee- at least, he was the only one there whenever I was. He lovingly prepared fast faux-Mexican fare for tired and hungry students who missed getting to the dorm cafeteria. I was a little, angry punker that thought music had to be fast. The faster, the better. I’ve never met someone more excited about music than Rob. And whenever I walked in, he made sure to challenge this notion in the most loving and wonderful way. He introduced me to Built To Spill. I think he introduced me to Elliot Smith and The Aislers Set. And he was the first person to play The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse for me.
I’ve since lost contact with Rob. The last time I saw him, he gave me a ride home from The Aislers Set reunion show at The Chapel in 2014. I don’t know if he’s going to be at The Fox tomorrow night to see Modest Mouse play The Lonesome Crowded West in its entirety, but for those of you that are, be sure to send a thank you to the person in your life that showed you something new, something that opened your mind and eyes to new sounds. That person is more important than you think.
BTW- here’s his band from the 00’s. They were fantastic.
Portrait of the filmmaker as a young man: Spielberg’s autobiographical drama fails to charm
Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) is an aspiring filmmaker.
“Movies are dreams that you never forget,” Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams) tells her young son Sammy (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord) en route to taking him to see his first film, 1952’s The Greatest Show on Earth. Had they seen The Fabelmans instead, however, perhaps Mitzi might have thought twice about her proclamation. With The Fabelmans, writer/director Steven Spielbergwants to create a nostalgic love letter to cinema, but the picture is too bogged down with the weight of Spielberg’s autobiographical angst to become something unforgettable.
