Pop Culture Beast

TV Trailer: The Legend of Korra

2012-02-24T15:55:00.001-08:00

More The Last Airbender: Legend of Korra Videos

I am really excited for this but I really miss the original show. I hope they do something more with the original characters eventually. No idea when Korra will hit the air but I hope it is soon.

Win Tickets To L'Arc en Ciel's Madison Square Garden Show!

2012-02-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Want to win tickets to the upcoming L'Arc~en~Ciel show ((March 25, 2012 @ Madison Square Garden) in New York City?

Well it's easy.

Send an email to contest@popculturebeast.com and tell us your favorite L'arc song!

We'll choose a winner at random to win a pair of tickets to the show!

Contest ends on 2/29 so get your entries in ASAP.

Good luck!

Www.LArc-en-Ciel.com

PS AIRFARE/LODGING NOT INCLUDED.

Martha Marcy May Marlene DVD Review

2012-02-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

Martha Marcy May Marlene is the best film that I saw in 2011, and it is now being released on DVD. This drama succeeds at doing what most horror films attempt and fail to do: it creates a tension in the viewer that never abates from the opening frames right to the end. From its opening static shots of people going about their work on the farm, this film is tense. The first shot with any camera movement is the first shot of Martha, which is interesting for it is she who will soon flee the cult.

But though she leaves, she never really gets away. For her mental state is completely affected by her time there. And while her body may be in one place, her mind is still trapped in another, as demonstrated by the film's cutting back and forth between her sister's house and the farm where the cult members live. Though the farm scenes are mostly flashbacks, they don't feel that way because it's all happening simultaneously to Martha. There is no progression or track of time for her. As on the farm, there are no clocks. I love how in several scenes it takes us a moment to figure out which location Martha is in - just as it seems she herself often forgets.

Her sister's house is in Connecticut, three hours from where she picked Martha up. As soon as you learn this, you can't help but think what Martha is probably herself thinking: Not far enough. And the girl is so traumatized and disengaged from what most of us consider reality that she can't even communicate the danger to her sister. Which makes it all the more intense.

Part of this film's power and emotional impact comes from its silences. It doesn't hit us over the head with some overwrought score, highlighting each emotional high point. It allows a heavy silence to speak and draw the viewer further in.

For those who have read up on Charles Manson, a lot of this film's elements will be familiar. When the movie was released, I attended a Q&A with the writer/director and the producers. At the Q&A, Sean Durkin said that the Manson story was his starting point in researching cults. After the Q&A, I talked with him further about that, and he told me what he learned was that all cults follow that same pattern, implementing the same tactics. Tactics like a change of names (thus the film's title), little food, early wake-up calls, lack of clocks, communal clothing, and so on.

One of the scariest scenes is when Martha "handles" a new female recruit, Sarah. She is so indoctrinated that she in fact indoctrinates someone else, telling Sarah the same things that were said to her when she arrived.

This film has some astounding performances, particularly by Elizabeth Olsen as Martha Marcy May Marlene and John Hawkes as Patrick, the cult's leader. I also love the look of the film. The shots are so thoughtfully and carefully composed.

When you watch this film, do not allow yourself any distractions. Turn the phone off. If you have children, put them to bed.

The DVD special features include the short film Mary Last Seen, which is a sort of companion piece to the film, depicting the arrival of a girl named Mary. Before the short film begins, cards tell us a bit about the short, including that its budget was a mere five hundred dollars. Incredible.

Martha Marcy May Marlene was written and directed by Sean Durkin. It is being released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 21, 2012.

FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF Reviewed by Marques Wayne

2012-02-19T20:04:00.000-08:00

The seven actresses that bring to life the stories of the “Colored Girls” are the where the real magic lies in this powerful and touching piece by Ntozake Shange. They aren’t able to rely on sophisticated set design, costumes and wigs because there are none. The stage is small and sparsely decorated with five, lightly painted, pillars and a small fence behind which a multi-instrumentalist (Derf Reklaw) provides musical accompaniment. For much of the show, each actress is dressed simply in black with a bright scarf at her waist in the color that she represents; red, purple, yellow, orange, blue, green and brown.

Between them they portray an array of characters, some funny, others intense, that represent the broad spectrum of experiences women of color face in America. The play was written in the 1970’s but the images and themes are timeless. In the 2010 film version, For Colored Girls, adapted and directed by Tyler Perry, each character had a singular storyline throughout and they were connected by either their work or the apartment building that many of them lived in. Here, however, each story has its own set of emotional and social complications and the glue that binds them together is each woman’s search for her own peace, love and humanity.

The performers selected for each of the colors represented were chosen well. Standouts were Mystie Galloway, Nia Witts and Yvette Saunders. Galloway, the lady in yellow, brought a lively, focused charm to her monologues, most clearly evidenced in the first, where she brings to life a coquettish young virgin ready to take the plunge into womanhood. Witts, the lady in brown, exercised her range throughout the production and really shined in a monologue about a preteen in love with the ghost of a long-dead Haitian revolutionary. Yvette Saunders, the lady in blue, was also wonderful in multiple roles and glided with a grace and ease that made the stage seem to dance with her. These actresses brought nuance and depth to their multiple roles, but also were supported solidly by the other four performers, and every one of them shined in their final monologues where the intensity was heightened to a fever pitch.

The director (J.C. Gafford) and choreographer (Fernando Christopher) are to be commended for staging such a powerful piece on the limited budget of a small playhouse, and my one note would be that as much as dance is referenced in the verse, I expected to see even more and I think that more music could have been used in some of the transitions to make them smoother and accentuate the mood. All in all, with seven bright stars at the center, it’s hard not to be moved by the message of the playwright’s honest and universal piece. This production proves that in the right hands, the material can speak for itself.

The show will be playing until March 17, 2012. Tickets are available on their website ($20) : http://lyrictheatrela.com/

DVD Review - Drive (2011)

2012-02-14T19:43:00.001-08:00

Any astrological chart will tell you, don't fuck with a Scorpio. They're intensely loyal, equally vengeful, contemplative and mysterious, and they set personal goals which they go after with unyielding verve. They are deeply sensitive, jealous and obsessive, and they carry a mean self-destructive streak. It seems to be no accident then that the hero in Drive wears a golden scorpion emblazoned across his jacket as he calmly engages in cold acts of sacrificial, calculated violence to protect and avenge the woman he loves. He is Scorpio personified, and woe to anyone who pisses him off.

I bring this up because Nicolas Winding Refn's 2011 film Drive is, above all else, a character study. Yes, there's a brutal story here involving the mafia and criminal exploits and romantic longing, and the film has atmosphere and style to spare, but the element that drives it all forward is Ryan Gosling's mysterious, detached Scorpio.

He is so cool and mysterious, in fact, that we never learn his name. He is Driver and when he's not brooding with his hands in his pockets or chomping on a toothpick he's fixing up cars or speeding around the race track. He also drives getaway for hire, offering his Scorpio tenacity and loyalty to criminals for a fixed rate. In this element, Driver is his own boss, laying out the rules with inflexible conditions and guarantees. Yet he also works for Shannon (Bryan Cranston), both as a mechanic in Shannon's garage and as a Hollywood stunt driver.

If Driver hardly says a word, Shannon can't shut up, and of course this later gets the two of them in big trouble. Shannon manages Driver's stunt gigs while he tries to land Driver a racing career with a fixer-up stock car. Unfortunately, this requires a tricky loan with the local crime boss Bernie (Albert Brooks) and his mad dog of a partner Nino (Ron Perlman).

Meanwhile, Driver catches the eye of his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a waitress with a young son and a husband in jail. Driver and Irene spark a romantic friendship full of unspoken passion and buried intensity. He might not show it, but he falls for her hard. And once he does his fate is sealed because he'll do everything he has to to keep her safe when things start to go wrong.

And wrong they go! The deeper Driver gets the more blood he spills. First in self defense and then in defense of Irene. Don't fuck with a Scorpio, indeed.

While the cast is fantastic and the characters riveting, Refn also makes something of a character out of the city itself. Not since Michael Mann's Collateral (2004) has Los Angeles been featured so extensively as a central character in a movie. From the LA River to MacArthur Park, from the Valley to the beach, Los Angeles takes something of a scene stealing role that can't be ignored.

Nicolas Winding Refn (and art director Christopher Tandon) strengthens the movie with the use of a calculated color scheme. Essentially, the entire film plays out within the extremes of cool and calm blues, and warm and passionate reds. Every element of the film (from the sets to the props to the wardrobe to the lighting) is awash in varying shades of these two colors. When Driver is at his most deliberate and calculated he is completely bathed in blue light and as his feelings for Irene deepen he is lit more and more with warm shades of red. Irene wears red to work and on their date, and the supporting cast is almost always wearing one color or the other. (Interestingly, the unpredictable Nino wears purple.) The garage, apartments, hotel rooms and restaurants featured in the movie are all red or blue or both. Even the stock car is red and blue. In this way Refn telegraphs the internal moods that Driver otherwise withholds. As film devices go it works beautifully.

When Driver kisses Irene in the elevator (red) it's as if he knows this is the last moment they have together and he (and the audience) wants to savor it. Moments later, everything changes and when Irene backs away from Driver she does so into a cold, dark parking garage (blue). The elevator scene is probably my single favorite sequence from any movie in 2011.

In fact, Drive is easily one of the best films of the year. Peter Travers named it his #1 movie of 2011 and I'm not sure I disagree.

Refn's deliberate approach to direction is complimented by the pulsating synth score by Cliff Martinez. That score (and the hot pink credits font) caused many a viewer to call this an 80s throwback, but make no mistake, this movie is pure 70s - uncompromising, original, smart, emotional and violent.

The DVD hit shelves January 31st and includes four behind the scenes featurettes and an interview documentary on director Nicolas Winding Refn titled 'Drive Without a Driver'. The Blu-ray also includes UltraViolet, enabling downloading and streaming capability.

9/10