AndMoreAgain

2012-01-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

January
Reviews

These are
the reviews
and other
pieces I'm
working on
this month.

Amazon Theatrical: Angelina Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey, The Iron Lady (with Meryl Streep and Jim Broadbent), and Coriolanus (with director Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain).

Still playing (or yet to open): Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Trav-
els of a Tribe Called Quest, Bill Cunningham New York, Cave of For-
gotten Dreams, The Descendants, Drive, Hugo, Into the Abyss, Mel-
ancholia, A Separation, The Skin I Live In, and We Bought a Zoo.

Line Out: Another Reason to Love or Hate Bon Iver, My Fav-
orite Music of 2003, the Pack a.d. Announce Tour Dates, The
Fresh & Onlys: On the Move, Sweet on the Sweet, Something
about...Terry Malts, Memories of the Walkabouts, The Sound
of Brisbane Share Houses, La Sera Sees the Light, Rad Times
with Black Bananas, Belltown Gettin' Irie, Speaking of Jen-
nifer Herrema..., Cry Along with the Babies, Made in Shef-
field: Standard Fare, The Unthanks Sing Robert and An-
tony, Unknown Mortal Orchestra - "Thought Ballune,"
Terry Malts: No Plans for Heaven, The Pack a.d. at
the Tractor Tavern, Golden Calves: Collection,
Todd Terje Remixes Roxy Music, Bird House:
Limited-Edition Jad Fair EP, In Dust: Roll
the Dice, and more. Much, much more.

Video Librarian: Green Guys, Bad Actress, Becoming Chaz,
Pearl Jam Twenty, Trigger, Tyrannosaur, Twisted Sister - From
the Bars to the Stars [five-disc set], Usher OMG Tour - Live from
London [Blu-ray], The Women on the 6th Floor, Barbershop Punk,
Dish - Women, Waitressing and the Art of Service, Fingerplays!
Hands That Tell a Story, Going Blind, The Great Race, Made in
India, Mutantes, People in White, Ready, Set, Bag, The Sha-
man & Ayahuasca, The Fat Boy, Memphis - The Original
Broadway Production, Special Treatment, Thunder
Soul, Janie Jones, Jess + Moss, The Doors - Mr.
Mojo Risin’, and Queen - Days of Our Lives.

Endnote: Image from Artificial Eye.

2011-12-31T13:51:00.000-08:00

Movies
for Music
Lovers:
2011
Edition

Click here
for the
2010
edition

Some of these films premiered in the US in 2010, but didn't make
their way to Seattle until this year, in which case I deferred to lo-
cal release dates. Some missed the city altogether, in which case I
caught up via DVD, Blu-ray, or download. Altogether, I saw over
250 titles, and wrote about most of them for Amazon, Siffblog,
Line Out, and Video Librarian (the links lead to my reviews).

Just as my 2011 music list revolves around post-punk, a post-
punk vibe runs through many of these films. Animals also a-
bound, as do animalistic human beings, like Ryan Gosling's
Driver with his scorpion jacket (a clue to his true nature).

The Tops:
1. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)
2. Poetry (Lee Chang-dong)
3. Hugo (Martin Scorsese)
4. Le Havre (Aki Kaurismäki)
5. Jane Eyre (Cary Fukunaga)
6. Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
7. The Skin I Live In / La Piel Que Habito (Pedro Almodóvar)
8. Project Nim (James Marsh)
9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt)
10. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives /
Loong Boonmee Raleuk Chat (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

Runners-up:
1. The Descendants (Alexander Payne)
2. Attack the Block (Joe Cornish)
3. A Screaming Man / Un Homme
Qui Crie (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
4. The Help (Tate Taylor)
5. Beginners (Mike Mills)
6. Weekend (Alexander Haigh)
7. The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
8. Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino)
9. Martha Marcy May Marlene (Sean Durkin)
10. The Time That Remains (Elia Suleiman)

Note: I enjoyed The Help. I realize I'm supposed to hate it, but
I can't stand it when people do my thinking for me or assume that
I don't know anything about African or African American cinema.

I can like The Help and I can like A Screaming Man, too. The thing
is: Tate Taylor's mainstream movie got to me in a way Mahamat-Saleh
Haroun's art house entry didn't. Which doesn't make it the superior
picture; just one that had more personal resonance. I live for '50s-style
melodramas about ordinary women, especially those who triumph
over their small-minded oppressors, whether they're white, black, or
red-eyed space aliens. The critical opprobrium heaped on this film
carried a trace of misogyny that made me deeply uncomfortable.

Apparently, I'm not supposed to like The Artist either, in part because
Harvey Weinstein produced it. But he didn't direct it, and the story
centers on a man who refuses to compromise or to impose his will on
others--un-Harvey-like qualities. In the film, he triumphs over adver-
sity. In real life, it doesn't always work that way, but The Artist and
Hugo are movies about movies and their makers. Not their producers.

Second Runners-up:
1. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
2. Moneyball (Bennett Miller)
3. The Princess of Montpensier (Bertrand Tavernier)
4. Norwegian Wood (Tran Anh Hung)
5. Hanna (Joe Wright)
6. Melancholia (Lars Von Trier)
7. Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
8. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson)
9. The Yellow Sea (Na Hong-jin)
10. Winnie the Pooh (Don Hall and Stephen J. Anderson)

Openings: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy opens at the Metro Cinemas
(and other theaters) on 1/6 and A Separation on 2/3 (venue TBA).

Worthy of note: 50/50 (Jonathan Levine), The Arbor (Clio
Barnard), Aurora (Cristi Puiu), Bellflower (Evan Glodell), Car-
ancho (Pablo Trapero), Circumstance (Maryam Keshavarz),
Contagion (Steven Soderbergh), Curling (Denis Côté), Gods / Dioses (Josué Méndez), The Guard (John Michael McDonagh),
Henry's Crime (Malcolm Venville), The Girl / Flickan (Fredrik
Edfeldt), Hideaway / Le Refuge (François Ozon), The Ides of
March (George Clooney), Kaboom (Gregg Araki), The Piano in
a Factory (Zhang Meng), Putty Hill (Matt Porterfield), The Rum Diary (Bruce Robinson), Submarine (Richard Ayoade), Toast
(S.J. Clarkson), The Tree (Julie Bertuccelli), Vampire*, Vanishing
on 7th Street (Brad Anderson), The War Horse (Steven Spielberg), Warrior (Gavin O'Connor), Win Win (Tom McCarthy), X-Men: First Class (Matthew Vaughn), and Young Adult (Jason Reitman).

* I left out the director and don't want to reformat the whole paragraph. Vampire
is the first English-language effort from All About Lily Chou Chou's Shunji Iwai.

They've done better: A Dangerous Method (David Cron-
enberg), The Future (Miranda July), My Week with Marilyn
(Richard Curtis), The Sleeping Beauty (Catherine Breillat), Take
Shelter (Jeff Nichols), and The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick).

Top documentaries:
1. Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of
a Tribe Called Quest (Michael Rapaport)
2. How to Die in Oregon (Peter D. Richardson)
3. Tabloid (Errol Morris)
4. Page One: Inside the New York Times (Andrew Rossi)
5. Tie: Cave of Forgotten Dreams
and Into the Abyss (Werner Herzog)
6. The Woodmans (C. Scott Willis)
7. Ne Chien Range (Pedro Costa)
8. Nénette (Nicolas Philibert)
9. Public Speaking (Martin Scorsese)
10. Bobby Fischer Against the World (Liz Garbus)

Worthy of note: Bill Cunningham New York (Richard Press),
Broken Doors (Goro Toshima), Color Me Obsessed (Gorman Be-
chard), Crooked Beauty (Ken Paul Rosenthal), Girls on the Wall
(Heather Ross), (POM Wonderful Presents) The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (Morgan Spurlock), Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today (Stuart Schulberg), Pearl Jam Twenty (Cameron Crowe), Rachel
(Simone Bitton), Silver Girls / Frauenzimmer (Saara Alia Waas-
ner), Sin by Silence (Olivia Klaus), Still Bill (Damani Baker and
Alex Vlack), The Weird World of Blowfly (Jonathan Furmanski).

Reissues and Rediscoveries:
1. Kuroneko - The Criterion Collection (Kaneto Shindo)
2. Cronos - The Criterion Collection (Guillermo del Toro)
3. Videodrome - Criterion Collection (David Cronenberg)
4. Raging Bull - 30th Anniversary Edition (Martin Scorsese)
5. All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
6. Kes - The Criterion Collection (Ken Loach)
7. Prowler (Joseph Losey)
8. The Soft Skin (François Truffaut)
9. Four Nights with Anna (Jerzy Skolimowski)
10. Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories (David Kaplan)

Odds and Sods: Bal /Honey (Semih Kaplanoğlu), Boardwalk
Empire - The Complete First Season, The Double Life of Véron-
ique - The Criterion Collection (Krzysztof Kieslowski), Master-
piece Classic - Downton Abbey, Hamilton (Matt Porterfield),
The Hour, Season One, and Mildred Pierce (Todd Haynes).

Missed (or haven't seen yet): 13 Assassins (Takashi Miike), A
Brighter Summer Day / Gu Ling Jie Shao Nian Sha Ren Shi Jian
(Edward Yang), The Adventures of Tintin (Steven Spielberg), Cap-
tain America (Joe Johnston), Carnage (Roman Polanski), Cedar
Rapids (Miguel Arteta), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David
Fincher), Incendies (Denis Villeneuve), The Interrupters (Steve
James), J. Edgar (Clint Eastwood), Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan),
Margin Call (J.C. Chandor), The Muppets (James Frawley), Mys-
teries of Lisbon (Raul Ruiz), Nostalgia for the Light / Nostalgia de
la Luz (Patricio Guzmán), Shame (Steve McQueen), Source Code
(Duncan Jones), Sucker Punch (Zack Snyder), Terri (Azazel Jac-
obs), Tomboy (Céline Sciamma), The Trip (Michael Winterbot-
tom), and We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay).

Note: Tomboy, which played the 2011 Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, opens at SIFF Cinema on 1/6. Certified Copy, Nostalgia for the Light, and Of Gods and Men made my 2010 "missed" list...and I still haven't caught up with any of them yet. Looking forward to it.

Yes, I did see...Bridesmaids. And I sure didn't laugh much, but I'm glad that Jill Clayburgh, perfectly cast as Kristin Wiig's mother, went out with a hit. Clayburgh's daughter (with David Rabe), Lily Rabe, who also got her start on the stage, proves her own mettle in Christopher Munch's Letters from the Big Man, an animal-oriented film almost as strange as Uncle Boonmee.

A final thought: Shame on The New Yorker's David Denby
for breaking the review embargo regarding Fincher's The Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo--but more so for his spoiler regard-
ing The Skin I Live In. And shame on his colleague, Richard
Brody, for spreading the disease by quoting from Denby's Skin
review (though I still enjoyed Brody's comments about Tom
Cruise in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol). Critics!

Endnote: A work in progress. Drive image from Collider.

2011-12-31T09:55:00.000-08:00

Songs for Cineastes: 2011 Edition

Click here for the 2010 edition.

To clear up
any confu-
sion: This
isn't a list
of film
scores or
soundtracks. It's a list of music recommended for movie lovers
such as myself. Some independent film fans prefer mainstream
movie fare. Similarly, some art house aficionados prefer major-la-
bel music. There's nothing wrong with that; I just can't relate to it
(and try to avoid giving the Man my money whenever possible).

If you share my taste in movies, there's a good chance you might
share my taste in music. And to further clarify matters, I've drop-
ped Swingin' from the title of these posts, i.e. Songs for Swing-
in' Cineastes. I thought it was funny, and I can't resist a Frank
Sinatra reference, but I think I'm gonna make 2012 about par-
ing things down and eliminating some of the gobbledegook.

Links lead to my reviews for AndMoreAgain and Line Out.

The Tops:
1. Total Control - Henge Beat (Iron Lung)
2. Moon Duo - Mazes (Sacred Bones)
3. The Dirtbombs - Party Store (In the Red)
4. Shabazz Palaces - Black Up (Sub Pop)
5. Tie: Ty Segall - Goodbye Bread (Drag
City) and Singles 2007-2010 (Goner)
6. Soft Moon - Total Decay EP (Captured Tracks)
7. Psychic Ills - Hazed Dream (Sacred Bones)
8. Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls (Slumberland)
9. Widowspeak - Widowspeak (Captured Tracks)
10. Meg Baird - Seasons on Earth (Drag City)

Note: I review Total Control live here.

Runners-up:
1. Girls Names - Dead to Me (Tough Love/Slumberland)
2. La Sera - La Sera (Hardly Art)
3. Sonny & the Sunsets - Hit After Hit (Fat Possum)
4. AM & Shawn Lee - Celestial Electric
(Eighteenth Street Lounge/Fontana)
5. Keren Ann - 101 (Blue Note/EMI)
6. Still Corners - Creatures of an Hour (Sub Pop)
7. Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler/Dream (In the Red)
8. Swiftumz - Don't Trip (Holy Mountain)
9. Cave - Neverendless (Drag City)
10. The Caretaker - An Empty Bliss Beyond This
World (History Always Favours the Winners)

Note: listen to the entirety of An Empty Bliss here.

Worthy of note: Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams (Sub Pop),
the Fresh & Onlys - Secret Walls (Sacred Bones), Iceage - New
Brigade (What's Your Rupture), Jacuzzi Boys - Glazin' (Hardly
Art), Jeffrey Lewis - A Turn in the Dream-Songs (Rough Trade),
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (Sub Pop),
James Pants - self-titled (Stones Throw), The Strange Boys - Live Music (Rough Trade), Times New Viking - Dancer Equired (Merge),
Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring for My Halo (Matador), Vivian Girls -
Share the Joy (Polyvinyl Record Co.), Rusty Willoughby - Cobirds Unite (Local 638), and Wooden Shjips - West (Thrill Jockey).

Love what I heard (need to hear more): Alvarius B - Baroque Primitiva (Abduction), Charles Bradley - I Believe in Your Love (Daptone), Dirty Beaches - Badlands (Zoo Music), Kaleidoscope - self-titled (Shadoks), King Midas Sound - Without You (Hyperdub), The Men - Leave Home (Sacred Bones), Moon Wiring Club - A Spare Tabby at the Cat's Wedding (Gecophonic), Nouvelle Vague - Couleurs Sur Paris (Kwaidan), Peaking Lights - 936 (Not Not Fun), Roll the Dice - In Dust (Leaf), Sea Pinks - Dead Seas (CF/Recs), Various Artists - Those Shocking Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk 19-
70-1978 (Now-Again), Various Artists - Fac. Dance: Factory Records 12" Mixes & Rarities 1980-87 (Strut), and Various Ar-
tists - Wallahi Le Zein! Wezin Jakwar & Guitar (Latitudes).

Amazon.com Widgets

Top reissues:
1. El Rego - El Rego (Daptone)
2. Various Artists - C'est Chic: French
Girl Singers of the 1960s (Ace International)
3. The Fabulous Three - Best of... (Truth & Soul)
4. Melvin Davis - Detroit Soul Ambassador (Vampi Soul)
5. Index - Black Album + Red Album + Yesterday & Today (Lion)

On my list: Can - Tago Mago: 40th Anniversary (Mute), The
Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace: Omnibus Edition (Beggars Ban-
quet), Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - The 1st Album (Ana-
log Africa), Brenda Ray - Walatta (EM Japan), The Red Crayola -
God Bless the Red Krayola and Parable of Arable Land (Snapper-
Charly), ROB - Funky Rob Way (Analog Africa), Talk Talk -
Laughing Stock (Ba Da Bing), Vagrants - I Can't Make a Friend
(LitA), and Willie Wright - Telling the Truth (Numero Group).

Amazon.com Widgets

Top singles (I like pop, too):
1. Adele - "Rolling in the Deep" (Columbia)
2. Lady Gaga - "Born This Way" (Interscope)
3. James Blake - Tie: "A Limit to Your Love"
and "The Wilhelm Scream" (Atlas/A&M)
4. The Horrors - "Still Life" (XL Recordings)
5. TV on the Radio - "Caffeinated Consciousness" (Interscope)
6. Tie: Spoek Mathambo - "She's Lost Control" (Sub
Pop) and Luis & the Wildfires - "Digital" (Wild/Norton)
7. The Pack a.d. - "Haunt You" (Mint)
8. Radiohead - “Lotus Flower” (TBD)
9. Bill Callahan - "America" (Drag City)
10. Cate Le Bon - "It Puts Me to Work" (The Control Group)

Worthy of note: Black Bananas with Kurt Vile - "Before They
Make Me Run" (Drag City), Field Music - "(I Keep Thinking about)
A New Thing" (Memphis Industries), Lykke Li - "Youth Knows No
Pain" (Atlantic), Neverever - "Wedding Day" (Slumberland), and
Young Magic - Tie: "Sparkly" and "Slip Time" (Carpark Records).

Labels of the year: Sacred Bones, Slumberland, and Sub Pop.

Bonus: Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad (paperback edition). Some of the music biz details ring true, some don't, but Egan is a brilliant structuralist, who ties all the disparate stories and eras together in an ingenious manner.

Rest in peace: Trish Keenan of Broadcast. Too fucking soon.

Endnote: The usual disclaimer applies. This list doesn't represent
the best music of the year, but the best of the music I heard (I'm
primarily a film writer, and my movie list provides a more accur-
ate snapshot of my taste). Given unlimited time, financial resour-
ces, and industry connections--which I have in the smallest of
quantities--it might look different. Except for Henge Beat.

Image: My pic of Total Control's Dan Stewart at the Crocodile.

2011-12-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

December
Reviews

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.

Amazon DVDs: Griff the Invisible (with Ryan Kwanten), No Strings Attached (with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher),
and Wayne Wang's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan [Blu-ray].

Amazon Theatricals: Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo and
A Separation (from the director of Fireworks Wednesday).

Still playing (or yet to open): 50/50, Contagion, The Descendants,
Drive, The Help, Hugo, Into the Abyss, Melancholia, The Skin I Live In.

Armchair Commentary: Best Art House & International.

KCTS 9: on-line original interview ("Grunge: Mem-
ories of Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney").

Line Out: More Treasures from the Factory Archives,
This Is for Kelly O, California Dreamin' with Neverever,
Still Corners - "Into the Trees," Reading & Performance
with Bill See, Frankie Rose's Interstellar Overdrive, The
Fabric of Our Lives, Ain't Sweet No More: Remember-
ing Grunge, The Truth About Year-End Music Lists,
Too Sexy for Their Computers, Just in Time for the
Holidaze - More Merch, Riffing with David, Eugene,
and Chris, El Rego's Beautiful Life, Young Magic -
"Sparkly," Home Alive Documentary, The Men
Announce New Album, Top CD Stacks of 2011,
What I Didn't Get for Christmas, Cate Le Bon-
"Fold the Cloth," My Sunshine: A Segall Set.

Siffblog: Hipsters / Stilyagi (at the Egyptian).

Video Librarian: CD Highway [six-disc set], Eastern
Voices, I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive, The Piano in a Fac-
tory, Boardwalk Empire - The Complete First Season [5-
disc set], Mildred Pierce [two-disc set], Putty Hill - Col-
lector's Edition [two-disc set], When Strangers Click,
Placebo - We Come in Pieces [Blu-ray], God Bless
Ozzy Osbourne [Blu-ray], Daddy Longlegs, and
Deep Purple with Orchestra [Blu-ray].

Endnote: ACR image from Amazon/SoundUnwound.

2011-11-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

November
Reviews

These are
the reviews
and other
pieces I'm
working on
this month.

Amazon DVD: The Tree (with Charlotte Gainsbourg).

Amazon Theatricals: Werner Herzog's Into the Abyss,
Alexander Payne's The Descendants (with George Cloon-
ey), and Martin Scorsese's Hugo (with Asa Butterfield).

Still playing (or yet to open): 50/50, Contagion, Drive, The Help,
Melancholia, The Rum Diary, The Skin I Live In, and Weekend.

Line Out: Graveyard Smash: Thee Cormans - "Open
the Gates," The Darkest of Waves: Soft Moon - Total De-
cay, Fucked Forever: SpokAnarchy!, Back for the Attack
with Black Bananas, In the Blue TV Screen Light: James
Blake vs. Joni Mitchell, German-Engineered to Fit Your
Life: Rheingold, Tasseomancy - "Heavy Sleep," Hungry
Like the Wolf: Cate Le Bon, Turning on the Charm with
Brian and Bob, A New Thing from Field Music, Don't
Ever Fade Away, Exotic Sounds of Young Magic &
Martin Denny, Life Lessons with Mark E. Smith,
They've Lost Control, Music Films at the NWFF:
Winter 2011-12, Fleet Foxes - "Shrine / An Ar-
gument," Two Weeks Barbershop: They Cut
Heads, U Daft Piece of Slack Shit, Trish Kee-
nan Tribute Album, Blowfly's On-Screen
Freak Party, Air, Scorsese, Méliès, and
the Moon, Let's Get Small, Y'all, and
Total Control in Total Control.

SIFF: Love Crime and My Afternoons with Marguerite.

Video Librarian: From Trash to Tunes, Girls on the Wall, Pink
Saris, Queen of the Sun - What Are the Bees Telling Us?, Riot Acts -
Flaunting Gender Deviance in Music Performance, Silver Girls,
Women in the Dirt, Yogiños - Yoga for Youth: Vishnu's OHMazing
Journeys, Fambul Tok, Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power Live,
Mr. Nice, Out Late, A Passionate Woman [2-disc set], The Tree.

Endnote: Image from Wikipedia (screen grab from
video taken at the Soft Moon show on Feb. 6th, 2011).

2011-10-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

October Reviews

These are
the reviews
and other
pieces I'm
working on
this month.

Amazon DVD: Smurfs Holiday Celebration, Bedlam - Sea-
son 1 [two-disc set], and Whitechapel - The Ripper Returns.

Amazon Theatricals: Lars Von Trier's Melancholia (with
Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg), Pedro Almodóvar's
The Skin I Live In, and The Rum Diary (with Johnny Depp).

Still playing (or yet to open): 50/50, Contagion,
Drive, The Help, Sarah's Key, Warrior, and Weekend.

Line Out: Les Bonnes Femmes - C'est Chic: French Girl Singers
of the 1960s (including Anna Karina), Cats & Dogs - Jacuzzi Boys vs. Superchunk, Why Bowie Is the Best, Running up That Hill: Kathryn Calder - Bright and Vivid, No Escaping the Seeds of Cabaret Voltaire, Cult Boyfriend: Jeffrey Lewis - A Turn in the Dream-Songs, Licensed to Ill: Psychic Ills - Hazed Dream, Her Name Is Earl: Shelby Earl - Burn the Boats, Wayne Coyne's Christmas Tip, Havin' a Ball with Marie Osmond, Pictures at an Exhibition, She Hit Me and I Was Glad: Anika Live, Nice and Sleazy: The Strange Boys - Live Music, New Sounds & Visions
from AM & Lee, Wade in the Water: Seattle Music on PBS, Shit
Hits the Fans in New Replacements Doc, We Are (Not) Invisible: Mannequin Men - Mannequin Men, They Hang Brightly...Again, Change Nothing II: Earshot Jazz, and The Pack a.d. - "Haunt You."

Video Librarian: Desperate Housewives - The Complete
Seventh Season [five-disc set], Bal, Carmel, Dum Maaro Dum,
Happy Endings - The Complete First Season [2-disc set], Grey's
Anatomy - The Complete Seventh Season [six-disc set], Little
Sparrows, Raising Hope - Season One [three-disc set], Rejoice
& Shout, Sleeping Beauty, Taylor Swift - Journey to Fearless.

Endnote: Image (Karina in 1967's Anna) from Fouchtra!

2011-09-30T23:41:00.000-07:00

Movie of
the Month:
Part 31

I recently
reviewed
the follow-
ing DVD
for Video Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.

BAL (HONEY) [***1/2]
(Semih Kaplanoğlu, Turkey, 2010, 103 mins.)

In the conclusion to Semih Kaplanoğlu's Yusuf Trilogy (Yum-
urta and Süt), a farming family faces the end of their way of life.

Bal centers on future poet Yusuf Özbek (Bora Altas, excellent),
a diminutive six-year-old with a stammer and a jingling, Charlie
Chaplin-like walk who lives in a mountain village in northern Tur-
key where he enjoys a close relationship with his beekeeper fath-
er, Yakup (Erdal Besikçioglu), who teaches him about the region-
al flora, and a perfunctory one with his mother, Zehra (Tülin Öz-
en), who does more care-taking and housekeeping than socializ-
ing and teaching (the tinkling comes from the bells he wears).

Kaplanoğlu proceeds through Yusuf's days at school, where he
doesn't quite fit in, and at home, where he helps Yakup to collect
honey from the tall trees. Once, according to his father, Yusuf ate
too much at one time, and it made him dizzy. The writer/direct-
or divulges such details slowly and organically, concentrating
on quiet moments rather than exposition-heavy sequences.

Through this patient technique, he reveals that Yusuf has trouble
reading, that Yakup is an epileptic, and that the family is Muslim.

As the honey supply diminishes, Yakup has to travel farther
away, on his own, to collect the substance that provides for his
family, leaving his anxious wife and son to fend for themselv-
es. This dilemma fuels the film's primary source of tension.

Throughout, Kaplanoglu exhibits an excellent eye for com-
position, and Baris Özbicer’s cinematography brings out the
rich greens and browns of Yusuf’s surroundings. The scene
in which the moon's reflection pulsates in a bucket of water
is particularly magical. Bal won the top prize, the Golden
Bear, at 2010's Berlin Film Festival. Highly recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 30: Dioses

Endnote: Slightly revised from the origin-
al text. Image of Bora Altas from indieWIRE.

2011-08-31T08:57:00.000-07:00

September
Reviews

These are
the reviews
and other
pieces I'm
working on
this month.

Amazon DVDs: Bill Cunningham New York, The 5th Quar-
ter (with Aidan Quinn), Henry's Crime (with Keanu Reeves),
The Hour (with Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai, and Dominic
West) [two-disc set], Secret Diary of a Call Girl - The Final
Season, and Parenthood - Season Two [five-disc set].

Amazon Theatricals: Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (with Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law) and Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive (with Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan).

Still playing (or yet to open): 50/50, Cave of Forgotten
Dreams, Circumstance, The Help, Sarah's Key, Warrior, Week-
end, Winnie the Pooh, X-Men - 1st Class, and The Yellow Sea.

Line Out: Queen - Sheer Heart Attack, the Fabulous
Three - The Best of the Fabulous Three, Gathering No Moss -
Merry Clayton, the Jacuzzi Boys - Glazin', I Thought I Heard
Her Calling My Name, Ty Segall Week, Northern Soul Man -
Melvin Davis, Paris - The Devil Made Me Do It, Totally
Wired, the Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams, Meg Baird -
Seasons on Earth, Pedro Costa & Jeanne Balibar, Thee
Oh Sees + David Shrigley = $$$, Sky Saxon Meets
Fred Flintstone, Dum Dum Girls - "Bedroom
Eyes," and Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls.

Siffblog: Brigitte et Brigette, Cold Souls, A Colt Is My Passport,
Deep End, The Gang's All Here, Love Streams, The Pornograph-
ers, Tonite Let's All Make Love in London, and interviews with
Alan Ball and Keith Fulton (posts I'm in the process of updating).

Video Librarian: The Arbor, Me Too, Parenthood - Season
Two [five-disc set], Running Wilde - Season One [two-disc set],
True Adolescents, Accidental Icon - The Real Gidget Story, A
Cinderella Story - Once upon a Song, Cougar Town - The Com-
plete Second Season [five-disc set], Gossip Girl - The Complete
Fourth Season [5-disc set], Ne Chien Range, Hung - The Com-
plete Second Season [two-disc set], and Life, Above All.

Amazon.com Widgets

Endnote: Queen image from 8notes.com.

2011-08-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

Movie of the Month: Part 30

I recently reviewed the
following DVD for Video
Librarian, and thought the
results were worth sharing.

GODS / Dioses [***]
(Josué Méndez, Peru, 2008, 91 mins.)

Gods presents a side of Peru not often seen in the United Stat-
es: the lives of the country's super-rich. The story starts off with
two seemingly unrelated narratives: a wary brother looks after
his flirtatious sister at a nightclub, while a lower-class woman so-
cializes with her upper-class fiancé's friends at a dinner party.

Mr. Augustín (Edgar Saba), as it transpires, is the father of Die-
go (Sergio Gjurinovic), a college student, and Andrea, a part-time
model. At one point, Augustín tells his son, "A woman who thinks
is a man." If his unsophisticated fiancée, Elisa (Maricielo Effio),
who shares their oceanfront compound just outside Lima, seems
nice enough, the kids are spoiled brats, and Diego also expresses
an unhealthy interest in Andrea, who finds out she's pregnant, but
has no idea who the father might be (suffice to say, it isn't Diego).

By the time she tells her father, it's too late for an abortion, so he
comes up with a plan designed to save the family's reputation.

Meanwhile, Elisa hangs out around the house, reading and talk-
ing to the help, whom most everyone else ignores unless some-
thing goes wrong or unless one of Diego's drunken friends is feel-
ing frisky (she also appears to come from a family of domestics).

If Elisa enjoys spending Augustín's money, she has little inter-
est in his shallow social circle, in which the men talk business
(and hot babes) and the women babble about more superficial
matters, not counting their hypocritical Bible study sessions.

Taking on the rich and clueless is like shooting fish in a barrel,
but director Josué Méndez isn't heartless, and it's hard not
to feel something for each of these characters. Plus, he incor-
porates a few maids in the action, including the patient Inés
(Magaly Solier), who serve as a sort of Greek chorus, rein-
forcing the Rules of the Game impression. Recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 29: Little Red Riding Hood

Endnote: Slightly revised from the original text. (I didn't
select a movie for July.) Image from Global Film Initiative.

2011-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

August
Reviews

These are
the reviews
and other
pieces I'm
working on
this month.

Amazon DVDs: Cougar Town - The Complete Second Season [three-disc set] Ken Loach's Kes - The Criterion Collection, and Broken Hill (with Timothy Hutton, Luke Arnold, & Alexa Vega).

Amazon Theatricals: The Devil's Double (with Dominic
Cooper and Ludivine Sagnier), Oliver Schmitz's Life, Above All,
The Help (with Emma Stone, Viola Davis, & Octavia Spencer),
50/50 (Jonathan Levine directs Joseph Gordon-Levitt and
Seth Rogen), and Warrior (with Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte).

Still playing (or yet to open): Beats, Rhymes & Life - The Trav-
els of a Tribe Called Quest, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Sarah's Key,
Weekend, Winnie the Pooh, X-Men - First Class, and The Yellow Sea.

Siffblog: When the site transitioned from Moveable Type to
Blogspot, all the images disappeared, so I've been slowly, but
surely re-adding them, re-formatting text, and fixing diacriti-
cal marks. The latest batch: Baby Doll and The Bridesmaid.

Still playing: Beginners, Page One - Inside NY Times, and Tabloid.

Line Out: AM & Shawn Lee's Celestial Electric, Widowspeak's
Widowspeak, Blank City, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, Salesmanship in Rock, Loney Dear's Hall Music, Jack Ob-
livian's Rat City, and Keeping up with the Joneses (via Fiennes).

Video Librarian: Dear Lemon Lima, Deep Purple - Phoenix Ris-
ing [Blu-ray], Eastbound & Down - The Complete Second Sea-
son [two-disc set], The Names of Love, Riverdance - Live from
Beijing, Johnny Winter - Live at Rockpalast, Coexist, Crooked
Beauty, Eine Kleine Käserei (A Little Cheese Factory), Free-
dom Flyers of Tuskegee, The Invisible Frame, Miss Rep-
resentation, On the Edge, Louis Prima in Person - His
Wildest Performances, Sperm Donor X - A Differ-
ent Conception, Thy Will Be Done - A Tran-
sexual Woman's Journey through Fami-
ly and Faith, I Will Follow, and Lou.

Endnote: Image from Interview Magazine.

2011-07-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Transcendent Panache
Ty Segall,
Goodbye
Bread,
Drag City

Some
music
heavily
indebted
to rock's past transcends its historical baggage with more panache than others.
--Dave Segal, The Stranger ("Platform Boots on the Beach")

If I say I love Goodbye Bread, and I do, then I'll give the
impression I think it's great, when it's closer to very good.

If I had never heard Melted, my favorite record of 2010, I
would probably be more forgiving, but Segall's previous effort
was such a thoroughly transcendent guitar-rock extravaganza
that there's no way he could possibly top it. And so he hasn't,
but it's still a Ty Segall production through and through.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Click here for my review of Melted.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

I fell for the Bay Area musician's signature sound on Melt-
ed, follow-up to 2009's Lemons, and it permeates Good-
bye Bread, starting with that Barrett meets Bolan voice.

If anything, he gives his finest vocal performance to date on the
title track, which combines a gentle croon with a lovely falsetto,
and yet he never recalls one of those super-sensitive indie-rock
guys like Iron & Wine's Sam Beam or Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.

Not that those gentleman "can't" sing, but Segall is coming from a
more ragged, raw-boned perspective; it's a whole different thing.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

She said she wants to buy a couch...she wants a comfortable home.
-- "Comfortable Home (A True Story)"

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

And it has nothing to do with a lack of sensitivity on his part. Rath-
er, navel-gazing isn't part of Segall's arsenal, and that can lead to
a somewhat messier state of affairs. If Goodbye Bread packs
as much punch as Melted (I haven't heard Lemons), the hooks
aren't as sticky. And if Segall isn't in love, he's certainly got ro-
mance on his mind, which means it's also more introspective.

As noted in this post, I also hadn't noticed until Segall's latest
album and tour: at times, he looks and sounds a lot like Kurt
Cobain (and there's always been a John Lennon strain run-
ning through his music). Take "Comfortable Home," for in-
stance, which plays like a companion to Nirvana's "Breed,"
i.e. "We don't have to breed. We can plant a house, we can
build a tree. I don't even care. We could have all three."

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

You could go and meet my Mom. We could sit there all day long.
-- "You Make the Sun Fry"

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Just as Cobain dreamed about a cozy domestic situation, Se-
gall does the same. (May he have better luck in that regard.)

Some of the other lyrics can be pretty facile and/or nonsen-
sical, i.e. "We could eat the tasty pieces of the peaches on the
beaches"--been listening to the Stranglers much?--and "See
you next time on the Reading Rainbow," but what the heck.

Ty Segall isn't here to teach you how to live your life; he's
here to entertain. At that: He succeeds spectacularly.

Amazon.com Widgets

Endnote: Ty Segall plays the Crocodile tonight, 7/29/11,
with Idle Times. Doors open at 8pm. Image from L.A. Record.

2011-07-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

Celestial Eclectic

AM & Shawn Lee, Celestial
Electric, Eighteenth Street
Lounge/Fontana [8/30/11]

Los Angeles-based vocalist AM and
London producer/beat-maker Shawn
Lee offer bossa nova-infused dance-
pop with bleeps, bloops, and airy synths. On the aptly titled
Celestial Electric, man meets machine on the dance floor, like
Eric Carmen (the Raspberries) fronting Kraftwerk in São Paulo.

At first, I wasn't feeling it, but the more I listened, the more I
found myself falling for this dexterous duo. Collectively, they've
worked and/or toured with Air, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Caeta-
no Veloso, St. Etienne, Money Mark, Phoenix, and Sigur Ros.

If you always wished that Melbourne's Cut Copy would funk
things up more, AM & Shawn Lee have fulfilled your desire.

Made with "cheapo Casio and Yamaha synthesizers," their de-
but includes a tribute to Dirty Harry ("Callahan") and a fuzz bass-
driven cover of 1974's "Jackie Blue," while Finders Keepers hon-
cho Andy Votel provided the liner notes and cover design.

AM & Shawn Lee - Jackie Blue by AMSOUNDS

AM & Shawn Lee play live on KEXP at 9:30am on 9/13 prior to
their gig at the Sunset Tavern. Click here for my Line-Out review.

Amazon.com Widgets

Strong Killings, self-titled, Don't Stop Believin' Records

Well, I'm all messed up, and I'm losing my shit,
Got a pounding in my head, and it just won't quit.
-- Strong Killings, "Licked, Nicked"

Like a collaboration between Frank Zappa and Suicidal Ten-
dencies, Seattle trio Strong Killings offer smart-ass hard
rock with fast-paced instrumental passages punctuated by ad-
enoidal vocals and hip-hop touches. I like some of those styles
separately, but I'm less enthusiastic when they come together.

So, their first record may not be to my taste, but I admire the
striking packaging--detailed illustrations and hand-written lyr-
ics--plus it also features a guest vocal from Pearl "Dragon"
Nelson (Champagne Champagne) on "The Basement."

Tasseomancy, Ulalume, Out of this Spark [8/30/11]

I'm not normally into dramatic, drone-oriented folk, but
Tasseomancy are adept at what they do, and what might
not be for me, could be for you. I certainly respect their craft,
which revolves around close harmonies from sisters Sari (man-
dolin) and Romi Lightman (guitar) that dance atop delicate lay-
ers of organ, lap steel, autoharp, harpsichord, and french horn.

Soft Feet (Heidi Mortenson's Gentle Dane Remüx)

Formerly known as Ghost Bees, Tasseomancy's second rec-
ord comes on like a cross between the Incredible String Band
(or latter-period Nurse with Wound) and Joanna Newsom--
but without the sharp edges (the press notes also cite Popol
Vuh and Julee Cruise). Bonus points for the abalone imagery
on the cover along with a foldout poster of a floral collage.

Click here for "Healthy Hands."

Endnote: For more information about AM & Shawn
Lee, please click here; for Strong Killings, here; and
for Tasseomancy, here. AM image from Austin2011.

2011-07-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

Clear Some
Space Out

Shabazz
Palaces,
Black Up,
Sub Pop

Clear some space out, so we can space out.
-- "Recollections of the Wraith"

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

After two well received EPs, Seattle duo Shabazz Palaces re-
lease their first full-length on Sub Pop. It was worth the wait: a
coup for the label, city, band, and genre. After all, the Northwest
wasn't really known for hip-hop until Sir Mix-a-Lot came along.

Then later: Common Market, Blue Scholars, They Live, and Mash
Hall (among others), but none of them has broken out like NYC's
De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, or Digable Planets (Ishmael
Butler's previous act). Shabazz has the means to do just that.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

I'm dressing like I was at the Ali-Frazier fight.
-- "Recollections of the Wraith"

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

And by break out, I'm not referring to commercial success, but
cultural impact. Shabazz deserve to make a living at their craft,
but they push the envelope too far to conquer Top 40, where
Mix-a-Lot made his mark, yet I can see them winning over new
audiences if a forward-thinking crew like Outkast were to take
them on tour, so I hope André and Big Boi make that happen.

I'm not suggesting that Shabazz are sui generis; they didn't spring
from out of nowhere. They have roots and influences. And they're
part of a community that includes Champagne Champagne and
THEESatisfaction, the duo who lend their voices to a few cuts.

But Black Up is spacier and more experimental than most
hip-hop albums--most albums, period. The Other Music de-
scription, which references sax player Albert Ayler and rap-
per Divine Styler (Marc Richardson) isn't off the mark (and
maybe they'll inspire more people to rediscover the latter).

Further, they don't hesitate to use the "n" word, though they
don't use it often. Does that make them less progressive than
many critics have claimed? Well, they're certainly musically
adventurous, but if they spent much time listening to 1970s
Miles Davis in their younger days, and I suspect they did,
then they're probably more comfortable with the word than
their white fans--and Shabazz listeners appear to span the
spectrum in terms of race, age, gender, and sexual orien-
tation (the ladies in THEESatisfaction are openly gay).

So, I choose not to take them to task when I'd rather see them be
true to themselves than anything else. And it's their refusal to off-
er any easy hooks, choruses, or lyrical concepts that makes Black
Up work as well as it does. And yet it isn't a schizophrenic mess.

That's a hard trick to pull off, and I'm not exactly the biggest fan
of avant garde music, but their pop instincts emerge from time to
time, which serves as a sort of anchoring device. This record does-
n't float off into the air; it has some weight, some ballast. I love it.

Amazon.com Widgets

Endnote: Ishmael Butler / Palaceer Lazaro image from Analog Giant.

2011-07-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

From 638 to Slumberland

Visqueen, Message to Garcia, Local 638 Records

"Three parts punk attitude, two parts pop hookiness, and one part '70s rock swagger."
-- Mark Deming, All Music Guide

I was a big fan of the first Visqueen album, 2003's King Me, and
remain convinced that guitarist/front woman Rachel Flotard,
who runs Local 638 Records, is Robin Zander's long-lost cousin
(I wasn't as crazy about 2004 successor Sunset on Dateland).

Like Cheap Trick's Zander, she has the definitive power-
pop voice. Flotard can scream, shout, and work it on out, but
there's a certain non-saccharine sweetness she just can't lose.

She's the yang to friend Neko Case's yin, and even sounds a lit-
tle like her redheaded doppelgänger on the country-oriented
"Beautiful Amnesia" (Case adds vocals to five of the 11 songs).

Message to Garcia isn't just a fine showcase for the skills
of Flotard and drummer Ben Hooker, but offers the kind of
wide-ranging pop-rock--a little bit country, a little bit rock
and roll--I wish Cheap Trick was still making. If you're just
as nostalgic for the halcyon days of "Surrender" and "I Want
You to Want Me," Visqueen's third has your name all over it.

Click here for my AMG bio.

Amazon.com Widgets

Brilliant Colors, Again and Again, Slumberland Records

On their follow-up to 2009's Introducing, Brilliant Colors con-
jure up a familiar brand of jangle-pop, which does little for me, but
your mileage may vary, especially if you're into Seattle's Seapony
or Brooklyn-based label mates Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

As Margaret Reges has written, "At their weakest, they are oddly
forgettable; there really isn't one memorable track on Introduc-
ing, and it's puzzling." I feel the same about Again and Again.

When it comes to Slumberland, I prefer Belfast's Girls Names, who
pursue a darker muse than their other acts. That said, I give this
Bay Area trio credit for playing engagements with the inimitable
Swiftumz, who has a forthcoming full-length on Holy Mountain.

Star Anna & the Laughing Dogs, Alone in
This Together, Local 638 Records [7/12/11]

Click here for "Alone
in This Together."

Seattle's Star Anna of-
fers full-throated, heart-
on-sleeve alt-country.

Her third record is in
the torchy vein of Ne-
ko Case, but without
the noir overtones.

Pearl Jam guitarist
Mike McCready plays
on "Time," "Wolves in
Disguises," and the an-
themic title track.

9/1/11 update: Star Anna plays Summer Concert at Hia-
wath in West Seattle on 9/1 and the Triple Door on 9/8.

Street Eaters, Rusty Eyes and Hydro-
carbons, Bakery Outlet Records [8/2/11]

Click here for "Nation Builder."

I listened to Rusty Eyes once, and couldn't think of anything to
say, so I listened several times more. There's nothing particular-
ly off-putting or incompetent about Bay Area duo Megan March
(drums, vocals) and John No (bass vocals). I just can't connect
with some acts no matter how hard I try. All originals, except
for a punk-pop take on Jefferson Airplane's "Two Heads."

Rusty Willoughby, Cobirds Unite, Local 638 Records

Former Pure Joy and Flop leader Rusty Willoughby takes a
gentler tack on Cobirds Unite, a baroque-folk enterprise. The
Seattle singer/songwriter's warm, conversational tone hasn't
changed over the years, and remains his strongest suit (in the
credits, he also assumes authorship of "presumptousness").

"Find a Way Home," which combines reverb, hand claps, and
harmony vocals from Visqueen's Rachel Flotard, represents
the highlight of this solid 12-song set, which includes tasteful
covers of Dan Penn and Chips Moman's "Do Right Woman
(Do Right Man)" and Bobby Bare's "Streets of Baltimore."

Endnote: For more information about Vis-
queen, please click here; for Street Eaters, here.
Flotard and Hooker image from Land's End Canvas.

2011-07-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

July
Reviews

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.

Amazon DVDs: Burn Notice - Season Four [4-disc set], Who
Took the Bomp? Le Tigre on Tour, and Gregg Araki's Kaboom.

Amazon Theatricals: Sarah's Key (with Kristin Scott Thomas),
Winnie the Pooh (featuring the voices of Craig Ferguson and John
Cleese), and Michael Rapaport's Beats, Rhymes & Life - The Trav-
els of a Tribe Called Quest, which opens at Pacific Place on 7/29.

Still playing (or yet to open): Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Jane Eyre, Miral, Water for Elephants, Weekend, X-Men: FC, and The Yellow Sea.

The Stranger: Line-Out reviews of Ty Segall at the Croc-
odile and Blank City (featuring John and Evan Lurie).
Also, check this shout-out from editor Grant Brissey.

[Blank City review didn't actually appear until August.]

Siffblog (still playing): Beginners and Page One - Inside the NY Times.

Video Librarian: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Forks Over
Knives, Bordertown [three-disc set], Land Girls [two-disc set],
Lebanon, PA, Orgasm, Inc., The Sentiment of the Flesh, Spec-
tacle - Elvis Costello with... Season 2 [two-disc set], Vic-
torious - Season One, Volume One [two-disc set],
Bride Flight, Brave New Voices 2010, Gods,
Hey, Boo - Harper Lee and To Kill a
Mockingbird, and Viva Riva!.

Amazon.com Widgets

Endnote: Click here for an update on Lurie by Rick Moody.
Lounge Lizards image from DIA (photo by Marcia Resnick).

2011-06-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

Movie of
the Month:
Part 29

I recently
reviewed
the follow-
ing DVD
for Video Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.

Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories [***]
(David Kaplan, 1992-1997, US, 12+ mins.)

Bettelheim suggested that traditional fairy tales, with the darkness of
abandonment, death, witches, and injuries, allowed children to grapple
with their fears in remote, symbolic terms. If they could read and inter-
pret these fairy tales in their own way, he believed, they would get a
greater sense of meaning and purpose. Bettelheim thought that by en-
gaging with these socially-evolved stories, children would go through
emotional growth that would better prepare them for their own futures.
--Wikipedia entry on Bruno Bettelheim

This unique release offers three short literary adaptations from
1992-1997. Christina Ricci stars in the first as a less-than-
innocent Little Red Riding Hood. In adapting "Conte de la Mére
Grande," director David Kaplan (Year of the Fish) eschews
dialogue and shoots in Expressionist B&W. As in the famous
fairy tale, Red meets Wolf (Timour Bourtasenkov), an androg-
ynous dancer in stylized garb, en route to Granny's house.

Once she arrives, Red finds meat and wine on the table, and digs
in, even though the talking cat (a puppet) explains their grim
provenance. After that, Wolf asks her to disrobe and climb into
bed, which she does before taking a break (for "pee-pee" as nar-
rator Quentin Crisp puts it). It isn't clear if Wolf means to
seduce or to kill her, but her final act clarifies the matter.

Billed as a "cautionary tale," Heinrich Hoffman's Little Suck-a-
Thumb revolves around a boy (an adult Cork Hubbert) with poor
impulse control. This time, Kaplan films with color and sound. Af-
ter tucking him into bed, his mother (Evelyn Solann) warns that
he'll lose his thumbs if he sucks them, but he can't resist, and a
pale tailor (Jim Hilbert) with scissors pays a late-night visit.

Kaplan returns to silent-film mode with the Brothers Grimm's The
Frog King, which relays the tale of a girl (Eden Riegel) and a par-
ticularly grotesque frog (another puppet) who retrieves her lost
doll from a well in hopes that she'll sleep with him. (Their conver-
sation plays out though a series of title cards in which the words
"in your bed" get bigger and bigger.) When the girl reneges, the
frog follows her home to ensure that she honors her promise.

This set includes commentary on all three films from folklore
scholar Jack Zipes and Kaplan, who cites artist/filmmaker Jean
Cocteau (La Belle et la Bête, Orphée) and author/child psycho-
logist Bruno Bettelheim (The Uses of Enchantment) as influen-
ces. Fans of Terry Gilliam, the Brothers Quay, and Guy Maddin,
and will surely find this collection of interest. Recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 28: Carancho

Endnote: Click here for my review of Penelope, a post-mil-
lennial fairy tale with Christina Ricci and James McAvoy.
Slightly revised from the original text. Image from MUBI.

2011-06-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

Sassy Sings

I named my tiny cat Lola after the
gender-bending Kinks classic, but if I
had to do it all over again, I'd credit
"Whatever Lola Wants, " the slinky
number from 1955's Damn Yankees
(Richard Adler and Jerry Ross), be-
cause I find her as "irresistible" as the
lady in question, the devil's assistant.

Whatever the sleek, grey Lola wants--food, water, a rub on the
tummy--she gets. It doesn't matter what I'm doing at the time.
She looks up at me with those pleading eyes, and I'm a goner.

Vaughan and Ray Davies offer but two examples; Lola appears in
various guises throughout entertainment history, like the cabaret
entertainer Marlene Dietrich plays in von Sternberg's The Blue An-
gel (Der Blaue Engel) or the central figure in Barry Manilow's 19-
78 hit "Copacabana" ("Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl...").

As a rule, she's a femme fatale; lovely to look at, but hardly trust-
worthy, i.e. "You can't win" against one. Sounds like a cat to me!

And here's another one of my favorite performances from the Div-
ine One (1924-1990), who was at her best in noir mode. Plenty of
other ladies have tackled this 1948 Sonny Burke and Paul Francis
Webster composition, but Vaughan trumps them all (dig the way
the burst of brass at the end adds a caffeine-like kick). According
to Wikipedia, she "charted with this song in 1949 on Columbia."
I also enjoy the smokey renditions by Peggy Lee and k.d. lang.

Endnote: Image from the PBS site for Jazz: A Film
by Ken Burns (courtesy of Frank Driggs Collection).

2011-06-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

June Reviews

These are the reviews
and other pieces I'm
working on this month.

Amazon DVDs: Shadow
& Lies (with James Franco), Hawthorne - The Complete Second Season [three-disc set], Leverage - The Third Season [four-disc set], and Lifetime's Taken from Me - The Tiffany Rubin Story.

Amazon Theatricals: X-Men: First Class (with James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence),
Andrew Haigh's Weekend, and Na Hong-Jin's The Yellow Sea.

Armchair Commentary: Peter Falk obituary.

Still playing (or yet to open): Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Cir-
cumstance, The Conspirator, Forks over Knives, The Greatest Mo-
vie Ever Sold, I Am, Jane Eyre , Water for Elephants, and Win Win.

Siffblog: SIFF Dispatch #4, SIFF Dispatch #5, and Cracks
(Jordan Scott's debut with Eva Green and Juno Temple).

Video Librarian: Fest Selects: Best Lesbian Shorts, Vol.
1, Black Death, Broken Hill, Hobo with a Shotgun, Under the
Hammer [2-disc set], The Other Woman, Brain Freeze, Brok-
en Doors, Life Without - Youth with Incarcerated Parents Tell
Their Own Stories, Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories
(with Christina Ricci and Quentin Crisp), Minds on the Edge -
Facing Mental Illness, Sex in an Epidemic, The Storytel-
ling Class, These Are Our Children, Trust - Second Ac-
ts in Young Lives, Women of Faith - Women of the
Catholic Church Speak, Born Innocent (with Lin-
da Blair), Night After Night (1979 Catherine
Breillat film with Joe Dallesandro), Sis-
ters of War, Summer Eleven, and
Vanishing on 7th Street

Endnote: Image of X-Men: First Class's Magneto
(Michael Fassbender) from © Twentieth Century Fox.

2011-05-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

Curiouser and Curiouser

Broadcast, Tender
Buttons, Warp Records

"Tender Buttons' simplicity makes it more demanding than Broadcast's other work; it requires more than just a few listens to sink in.
-- Heather Phares, AMG

I didn't give Tender But-
tons the chance it deserv-
ed upon its 2005 release. I
heard "America's Boy" and
"Black Cat" on KEXP, and they sounded fine, but more convention-
ally structured than before. It wasn't that Broadcast had sold out or gone pop, but that those two tracks weren't as strange or oth-
erworldly as the material with which I had first fallen in love.

Then they joined forces with the Focus Group for 2009's In-
vestigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, and I got all the
strange, otherworldliness I could desire, so much in fact that I
wasn't sure what to think at first, but it grew on me in a big way,
and that convinced me to re-evaluate Tender Buttons. After
all, I had enjoyed everything else with which Trish and James
had been involved, including B-sides and other ephemera.

Now that Trish Keenan is no longer with us (she passed away
in January), I wish I'd taken time to explore this record while she
was still around, because it's hardly the misstep I feared. On the
contrary, it marks another triumph for the Birmingham duo.

Aside from the singles, other highlights include the swirling "Tears
in the Typing Pool," which features Keenan's most enchanting vo-
cal; the buzzing, crackling "Corporeal," which seems even sadder
in light of her premature passing ("Do that to me, do that to my
anatomy"); and the skeletal, bass-driven instrumental "Bit 35,"
which plays like a tribute to the great Young Marble Giants.

With most groups, it's usually best to start with their first re-
cord before exploring the rest of the catalog, but in the case of
Broadcast, you could start with Tender Buttons and get a
taste of the band at their best and most distinctive. A beauti-
ful way to say goodbye--even if that wasn't the intention.

Click here for a disquisition on black cats in the media.

Amazon.com Widgets

Endnote: Image from Warp Records.

2011-05-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

The Doors of Perception

Moon
Duo,
Mazes,
Sacred
Bones
Records

"It feels as
if the doors
have been
flung wide
open."
--Zach
Kelly,
Pitchfork

I expected good things from Moon Duo's first full-length bas-
ed on previous EPs and this year's outstanding single "When
You Cut," but the new album has surpassed my expectations.

Though their influences have always been fairly obvious, Mazes
reveals more of their own unique personality. Their inspirations
haven't changed, but they bring a greater degree of warmth than
before. There's something surprisingly organic about these mot-
orik rhythms, even if "motorik" usually implies coldness (now
based in Colorado, they recorded in the Bay Area and Berlin).

I think it's partly that Ripley's vocals, though low in the mix, aren't
robotic or machine-like. Nor does he sound as agitated as Alan Ve-
ga or Sonic Boom, yet Moon Duo avoid the hippie-dippy trap of
sounding like '60s (or '70s) throwbacks. There's a freshness here.

As for influences, Ripley Johnson (guitar, vocals) and Sanae Ya-
mada (keyboards) may look to artists other than Neu!, Suicide,
Spacemen 3, Loop, etc., but those are the acts they bring to mind.

They may have a different set of influences, or no specific in-
fluences at all, but anyone who enjoys the spacier end of the
rock spectrum will surely find Mazes of interest, especially
those who appreciate song craft, because they have a grasp
on melody that some other outer-space travelers lack.

There's nothing wrong with a time-expanding jam here and
there, but that sort of thing bores me after awhile. I say it all
the time, but I need songs. Verse, chorus, verse. The whole bit.

"When You Cut" and "Run Around" are so upbeat they transcend
the Krautrock tag; the first by using dance beats, the second by a-
dopting a rockabilly rhythm, indicating that Moon Duo's influenc-
es are probably more diverse than a cursory listen would suggest.

I particularly like the way the record starts in semi-dark mode,
with "Seer," before lighting off, as it were, into brighter territory,
ending with "Goners," which is hardly as morose as it sounds. In
"Cut," Ripley sings, "I feel the walls closing in one me." It doesn't
sound like an ideal situation, but there's the sense that he wel-
comes it in some way. A little darkness never hurt anyone.

Amazon.com Widgets

Endnote: Image from Covert Curiosity.

2011-05-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Movie of
the Month:
Part 28

I recently
reviewed the
following DVD
for Video Librarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.

CARANCHO [***]
(Pablo Trapero, Argentina, 2010, 107 mins.)

"Engaging nihilistic neo-noir from Argentine New Waver
about ambulance chasing lawyer trying to escape the per-
ils of his profession. Car accidents and bloody bruisings
galore. I can already see the Soderbergh remake."
--Anthony Kaufman, indieWIRE

According to Pablo Trapero's gritty thriller, Argentina has so
many traffic accidents that "the compensation market is boom-
ing" (an opening intertitle notes 22 per day, 8,000 per year).

Ricardo Darín (El Aura, The Secret in Their Eyes) plays Héctor
Sosa, a low-rent lawyer who meets Olivera Luján (Martina Gus-
man, Trapero's Lion's Den), a medic, at the site of one. They en-
joy an instant rapport, though she refers to him as a "vulture"
in conversation with her partner, because he trolls crash sites
for cases. Worse yet, he stages accidents with accomplices.

As Trapero follows his protagonists along on their rounds, it be-
comes clear that their lives revolve around work, that they're wil-
ling to do whatever it takes to keep going, and that they're more
than a little lonely. In best noir style, Sosa has reached the end
of his tether and is ready to move on. He knows Lujan looks
down on him, so he tries to earn her respect. He succeeds un-
til she glimpses the depths to which he'll sink, and backs off.

After one of his staged events goes wrong, Sosa leaves the sleazy
firm for which he's been toiling, considers his next move, and reig-
nites their thwarted relationship, but becoming an independent a-
gent after years of dirty doings turns out to be difficult at best.

If the pace is more relaxed, until the pulse-pounding conclusion,
Carancho's movie sometimes recalls Martin Scorsese's underrat-
ed Bringing out the Dead, which documented the unraveling of a
burnt-out EMT (Nicolas Cage) in New York's Hell's Kitchen. Both
pictures take place primarily at night when people are exhausted,
vulnerable--and liable to make critical mistakes. Recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part 27: The Girl

Endnote: Slightly revised from the original text. Im-
age from indieWIRE (via the Cannes Film Festival).

2011-05-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

Siouxsie's Soul Sister

"Husik's music is clear-
ly the sum of her inspi-
rations: '60s psychede-
lia, '70s sci-fi movies,
and '90s indie-rock."
-- Keith Moerer, Salon

Bozo (1991), the full-
length debut from multi-instrumentalist Lida Hu-
sik, marks one of my fav-
orite records of the 1990s.
Here are two videos feat-
uring her haunting vocals combined with two of her finer melodies.

The first features a still of the creepy-cool photo on the cover. The second is where things get even more interesting with grainy, black-and-white images that capture the spooky beauty of Husik's music.

According to her notes, Shimmy Disc founder and Bongwater mem-
ber Kramer produced both. She writes, "Kramer's impromptu method and big echo sound influenced a lot of my future output. I wanted an otherworldly and remote mood." They succeeded spectacularly.

Husik has roots in New York and Washington DC, where she record-
ed as Red Emma, but has called Silverlake, CA home for the past few
years. Her website also says that "Lida will begin recording her 10th
record in August 2010 at the Little Golden Book Studio in Portland."

They ate all our candy.

"This video was shot at various locations around San Francisco in 19-
92 by Shane Francis. We filmed at Yosemite, at the airport, and on the
streets. Those were the days when you could walk into an airport and
just start filming an indie-rock video. In Golden Gate Park, we hap-
pened upon a clown who graciously allowed me to dance with her."

Click links for my AMG reviews of Bozo and Your Bag.

Endnote: Image from Salon. For more infor-
mation about Lida Husik, please click here.

2011-05-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

May Reviews

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.

Amazon DVDs: Mercy - The Complete Series [five-disc set], The Other Woman (Don Roos directs Natalie Portman), and HBO's five-part Mildred Pierce (Todd Haynes directs Kate Winslet).

Amazon Theatricals: Circumstance and Forks over Knives.

Still playing (or yet to open): (Pom Wonderful Presents) The Great-
est Movie Ever Sold, Meek's Cutoff, Miral, and Water for Elephants.

Flavorwire: I get a mention in this piece by Jason Gross.

Though we salute a good number of writers here, this list is obvious-
ly incomplete. There are great writers who are no longer with us (Pen-
ny Valentine), who aren’t writing about music now (Barbara Flaska,
Stacy McArdle), who write occasionally now (Carla DeSantis, Caro-
la Dibbell, Deborah Frost, Amy Schroeder), who currently cover
other parts of the pop spectrum (Kathy Fennessy, Joy Press, Tri-
cia Romano) or whose current music scribing status is unclear...

Parallax View: Interview with Mike Mills (Beginners).

5/24 update: Unfortunately, I didn't get to interview Mr. Mills.

SIFF: Crying Out (À L'Origine d'un Cri), Donor, The Empire
of Mid-South (L'Empire du Milieu du Sud), Jucy, Lesson Plan -
The Story of the Third Wave, Love Crime (Crime d'Amour), A
Matter of Taste - Serving Up Paul Liebrandt, My Afternoons
with Margueritte (La Tête en Friche), Oliver Sherman, On
Tour (Tournée), Three (Drei), and Winds of Heaven.

Siffblog: Dispatch #1, Dispatch #2, and Dispatch #3.

Video Librarian: Behind the Burly Q, Day-
dream Nation, Forgiveness, Jolene [Blu-ray], Bed-
ways, Biebermania!, From Prada to Nada, Guy
and Madeline on a Park Bench, and Miral.

Endnote: Cosmo the dog from Beginners.

2011-04-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

Echo and Chime

Girls
Names,
Dead
to Me,
Slum-
ber-
land
[4/26/11]

"An old-fashioned style pop album, albeit one with a perverse haunted feel."
-- press note description

I've given Crystal Stilts and Pains of Being Pure at Heart a try,
but I can't quite get with their program, though I can under-
stand the attraction. I love echo and chime, so you figure I'd
be all over those NYC outfits, but taste is a mercurial thing.

After one listen to Belfast's Girls Names, which shares a label
with the latter, I encountered the same exact ingredients, and
yet they appeal to me in a way their better known peers don't.

Click here for the "Bury Me" video.

While listening to Dead to Me, I've tried to pinpoint the differ-
ence, but I don't think it has anything to do with superior music-
ianship. If anything, the drumming seems a bit sluggish. It's part-
ly that they remind me of understated, dark-tinged UK guitar
groups like Felt. Their bio also cites the Walker Brothers, Oran-
ge Juice, Black Tambourine, and the Sound of Young Scotland.

It isn't goth or Joy Division-style post-punk, but there's a melan-
choly air to this material, starting with vocals mixed so low they
melt into the music, much like another instrument, rather than
the focal point of the enterprise. They're just loud enough that you
can hear some, but not all of the lyrics. The advantage to this ap-
proach is that one listen doesn't reveal everything. You have to
pay closer attention...assuming you're sufficiently intrigued.

Click here for "Séance on a Wet Afternoon."

The closing track, "Séance on a Wet Afternoon," marks the first
Girls Names song I ever heard. I don't know whether they took
the title from the book or the movie, but it's a great choice either
way, and aptly encapsulates the rainy-day mood of their debut.

Amazon.com Widgets

Endnote: For more information, please click here. First im-
age from Your Music Today, second: Béla Tarr's Sátántangó.

2011-04-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

Movie of
the Month:
Part 27

I recently
reviewed
the follow-
ing DVD for
Video Lib-
rarian, and thought the results were worth sharing.

THE GIRL [***1/2]
(Fredrik Edfeldt, Sweden, 2009, 95 mins.)

An unnamed Swedish nine-year-old (the remarkable Blanca Engström) gets left behind for the summer when her aid-worker parents travel to Africa in 1981. They want to bring her with them, but the agency deems her too young, so they entrust the girl to her aunt, Anna (Tova Magnusson-Norling), a single woman who doesn't appear to have much experience with children.

For the next few days, the slight redhead attends a swimming school, while Anna drinks, smokes, plays records, and throws raucous parties. The girl and her friend Ola (Vidar Fors), a shy farmer's son, find Anna's antics amusing, but then she goes off on an extended holiday with an old boyfriend, leaving the kid to fend for herself--a development our heroine actually sets into motion.

The girl lies to Ola and to her hard-drinking neighbor, Gunnar
(Leif Andrée), about Anna’s whereabouts, giving her license to
do whatever she wants, like pursuing a fleeting friendship with
Gunnar's boy-crazy teenage daughter, Tina (Emma Wigfelt),
and her more sophisticated friend, Gisela (Michelle Vistam),
who like to pretend they're the female members of ABBA.

The girl, who spends more time watching than speaking, doesn't
know how to cook, but she attempts to keep the house clean (and
to raise a tadpole). Mostly, she observes the teens and the adults
around her behaving more badly than the kids. The story is ab-
sorbing enough as it tracks her movements, but then something
happens, which isn't her fault, though she's present at the time.

Afterward, she isolates even more, almost as if she were go-
ing through a sort of premature mid-life crisis. Even so, Fred-
rik Edfeldt's film is hardly depressing, even if tragedy lurks a-
round every corner. Shot with care by Hoyte Van Hoytema
(Let the Right One In), it offers the same suspenseful ap-
peal as Hirokazu Kore-Eda's No One Knows, which also
featured children left on their own. Recommended.

Click here for Movie of the Month, Part
26: Fish Tank - The Criterion Collection

Endnote: Slightly revised from the origin-
al text. Film still from Time Out New York.