Archive: January, 2010
Last year it was Muriel. This year, piggybacking on the State of the Union address and the unveiling of the iPad (always our intention), the House is doubly rewarded.
First, columnist and blogger Roy Edroso profiles our site in the Village Voice feature "I Blog New York." Click here; the text is at the bottom of the page (7) and continues onto the next (8). Special congrats to "Turkish correspondent" Ali Arikan (a well-deserved mention, my friend).
Second, MovieMaker Magazine, under the stewardship of Jennifer M. Wood, has named us one of the "50 Best Blogs for Moviemakers." This link will take you to the list. There is reportedly a longer article on the chosen blogs in the print issue (soon-to-be/currently on stands).
This wouldn't have come about without the writers (past, present, and future) who contribute to the site and the readers who visit us. My deepest thanks to you all for your dedication and support. I promise you, there's lots more to come.
Tags: 50 Best Blogs for Moviemakers, I Blog New York, MovieMaker Magazine, Roy Edroso, Village Voice
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by Vadim Rizov on January 28th, 2010 at 12:20 am in Music
[Click here to read the previous installment of this feature]
70. RJD2, "Ghostwriter" (Deadringer, 2002)
The third (and last, thank God) song on this list mostly for using an unlikely sample in a hip-hop context. On "Devil's Pie," Mark Ronson makes a big, showy spectacle out of sampling the unsample-able—which is fun and all, but RJD2 simply speeds up and pitchshifts the unlikely vocal and flawlessly sneaks it into the song otherwise intact. Anyone who didn't know the source wouldn't find it the least bit incongruous, and I tend to favor understatement anyway. The song is Elliott Smith's "I Didn't Understand"—not just his usual fragile and decidedly unfunky song, but an a cappella one to boot. All that's really being sampled is the first 8 seconds or so, and they come in slowly, answering a humming soul voice (Betty Wright, Wikipedia tells me); an unlikely but flawless union. The entire intro vocal is finally used before launching into the final brass riff, and it somehow makes sense.
RJD2 eventually went in some poorly-reviewed direction or other I didn't follow; apparently things got a lot whiter and clumsier. But for a bit, RJD2 was sort of roughly splashing around in the same kiddie pool—hip-hop beats for white kids who only listened "for the beats" anyway—as DJ Shadow, who'd been MIA for a while. At least that's how it played in high school (though that's certainly not what Shadow or RJD2 were going for). I presume there were indie rock kids somewhere who were equally comfortable bumping radio rap and Spoon with equal frequency in 2002, but I didn't know any (and maybe that's because Pitchfork simply wasn't reviewing it yet; who knows). In an interview I can't find online anymore, RJD2 talked about how he generally tried to avoid dragging his indie rock collection into his hip-hop work but couldn't resist this once; that attitude doesn't help anyone, but I understand exactly where his unease is coming from. "Ghostwriter" is an excellent song, but it's also a tense reminder of the automatic suspicion I used to approach all things hip-hop with. Smith's presence on "Ghostwriter" automatically validated the song for me faster than anything else on the album. That kind of thinking just makes me kind of uncomfortable now. Continue Reading »
Tags: Best of the Aughts, Bloc Party, Cassie, Lil' Flip, Papas Fritas, Portastatic, RJD2, Sondre Lerche, Stars, T.I., The Stills
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A moment of silence, to start, for Howard Zinn, who died yesterday at age 87. He inspired all number of people, most notably, to my mind, filmmaker and teacher John Gianvito whose film Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind was inspired by Zinn's book A People's History of the United States.
Next, a belated link to Lucas McNelly's site 100 films, where he announces his Pittsburgh-based film series, "Indies for Indies" (tentative start date: the last week of February).
This other thing was announced yesterday. Some cross between a computer and a maxi pad, I think?
Ah, Christwire.org! Ryland Walker Knight sends us this recent post from the "are you serious?" website dedicated to all things unsaved. Their target of ire: four ladies in Miami!
Links for the Day: A collection of links to items that we hope will spark discussion. We encourage our readers to submit candidates for consideration to keithuhlich@gmail.com and to converse in the comments section.
Tags: A People's History of the United States, Christwire.org, Howard Zinn, Indies for Indies, iPad, John Gianvito, Profit motive and the whispering wind, The Golden Girls
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Christoph Waltz's lip-licking good show as the smartest Basterd in the Gestapo has so thoroughly run the table with guilds', critics', and humanitarian awards that it's left the remainder of the category's contenders cowering in his shadow. It's so dark back there, in fact, it's hard to even know who else is vying for one of the other four slots, widely accepted to be superfluous at this point given that no one has amassed a sweep this powerful since Martin Landau's Bela Lugosi in 1994. (Even that invincible perfect storm that was Heath Ledger's Joker managed to miss a few key trial heats; both the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics opted to sidestep posthumous laurels.) Waltz's biggest miss to date: losing the National Board of Review citation to Woody Harrelson's tough, empathetic, emotionally wounded war vet in The Messenger. (The Board was blind to Landau too, instead opting for Gary Sinese's tough, empathetic, physically wounded war vet in Forrest Gump.) Continue Reading »
Tags: Academy Awards, Alden Ehrenreich, Christian McKay, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Michael Fassbender, Robert Duvall, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson
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by Jonathan Keefe on January 27th, 2010 at 11:30 am in Music
Country music and Broadway tend to have very little in common: Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 musical and Reba McEntire's lauded star turn in Annie Get Your Gun are perhaps the highest profile crossovers between the two disparate worlds in recent memory—not counting Randy Travis's gay panic when confronted with Adam Lambert's WTF cover of "Ring of Fire" on American Idol. Enter Kentucky native Laura Bell Bundy, whose film credits include "That girl who grows up to be Bonnie Hunt in Jumanji" but who is better known for her stage work, having played Amber in Hairspray and having originated the role of Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde musical. If Bundy learned anything from her years on stage, it's how to make an entrance, because her debut single and video, "Giddy on Up," are hands-down the most fascinating opening salvos to come out of Nashville in years. Granted, "fascinating" doesn't necessarily equate to "good," but Bundy actually wants her audience to have a strong opinion, and that's a risk worth talking about. Which brings the conversation to this: Continue Reading »
Tags: Bitch Slap, Giddy on Up, Grindhouse, Hairspray, Kristin Chenoweth, Laura Bell Bundy, Legally Blonde, Single Review
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by Vadim Rizov on January 27th, 2010 at 12:30 am in Music
[Click here to read the previous installment of this feature.]
80. Tapes 'N Tapes, "Hang Them All" (Walk It Off, 2008)
Textbook blog-hype band: first album praised beyond (but only a little beyond) its merits by the blog cognoscenti, automatically slammed by same for their follow-up. I don't wish to hate upon the undeniably enthusiastic voluntary sifters of new music or accuse anyone I don't know of insincerity, but to a certain extent it seems like it didn't matter at all what the quality of Tapes 'N Tapes's follow-up would be. Like the British music press but faster and more aggressive, the blogosphere frowns upon bands who have the nerve to stick around after they've been sufficiently praised. Walk It Off's back half is pretty weak, but the first half-hour is as good as (or better) than The Loon; it must've been the heavy-gloss Dave Fridmann production that annoyed some knee-jerk types. This is simply one of the smartest indie-rock songs of 2008, with every possible harmonic and rhythmic crack filled in; the main riff is two super-aggressive leaps (a 10th and an octave, one nestled inside the other), the guitars work in near-schematic rhythmic and harmonic counterpoint, and it never lets up. The chorus is as disciplinedly fierce as possible. That said, did hearing this at Urban Outfitters kill me a little and/or make me question whether my standards for aughts rockin' are aggro enough? Yes. Even I'm not immune. Continue Reading »
Tags: Best of the Aughts, Bright Eyes, Junior Boys, Ms. John Soda, Of Montreal, Rhymefest, Sex In Dallas, Tapes ‘N Tapes, The Decemberists, Weezer, Young Buck ft. Bun B; 8 Ball & MJG
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by Ed Howard on January 26th, 2010 at 11:00 pm in Film
The title characters of Eric Rohmer's 4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle can be seen as Rohmer's incarnation of his New Wave contemporary Rivette's Celine and Julie. Reinette (Joëlle Miguel) and Mirabelle (Jessica Forde) are, in fact, the Celine and Julie of the mundane. Their "adventures," divided into four segments as the title suggests, are not fantastical or magical, as in Rivette's film, but prosaic. If Rivette's film is all about wonder and fiction, about playing games and going to the cinema to experience (and manipulate) stories, Rohmer's film is about the more ordinary adventure of forming and keeping friendships. In the first of the film's four segments, Reinette, a painter living alone in the country for the summer, first meets Mirabelle, a student from the city whose bike has a flat. Reinette repairs the flat and the two girls slowly become friends as they spend the next several days at Reinette's rustic home. While there, Mirabelle learns about farming and country living, and the girls try to wake up just in time for the so-called "blue hour," the single moment every morning when there is total silence. This conceit, in which the natural world provides nearly spiritual catharsis, is reminiscent of the driving force behind The Green Ray, in which the heroine's romantic quest is symbolized by the desire to glimpse a fleeting phenomenon that sometimes occurs just at sunset.
To read the rest of the article at Only the Cinema, click here.
Tags: 4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle, Celine and Julie Go Boating, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Jessica Forde, Joëlle Miguel
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by Huw Jones on January 26th, 2010 at 11:44 am in Music
A year ago, while remaining tight-lipped on details of a sequel to the rousing funk of 2005's Demon Days, Gorillaz mouthpiece Damon Albarn expressed his wish to work with "an incredibly eclectic, surprising cast of people" for their next project. That project, which has since been christened Plastic Beach as a nod to Albarn's seaside retreat, addresses such desires with spellbinding aplomb. The album's lead single, "Stylo," is released today, though it leaked weeks ago and has since been available via more disreputable means than iTunes. It features fêted Brooklyn emcee Mos Def, fresh from his reputation-saving The Ecstatic and a scene-stealing turn on Blakroc, and blues legend Bobby Womack, who was reportedly convinced to appear on the record only after assurances from his daughter. Continue Reading »
Tags: Bobby Womack, Damon Albarn, Demon Days, Gorillaz, Mos Def, Pastic Beach, Single Review, Stylo
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by Odienator on January 26th, 2010 at 6:00 am in Film
The second day of Noir City featured four wildly different films, each in service to noir in its own way. The matinee double feature, a tribute to director Robert Siodmak, combined two of the more unusual noirs I've seen; the night duo, both by screenwriter William Bowers and director Robert Parrish, continued this year's penchant for merging dark action with sharp, funny dialogue. None of the films are currently on DVD.
Matinee #1: A Doctor, a Dame, and The Kitchen Sink
1942's Fly-By-Night is an everything-including-the-kitchen-sink brew of romantic comedy, espionage, Keystone Kop-style shenanigans, screwball dialogue, medical mystery and Hitchcock's favorite theme of the wrongly accused man. Even the Noir City program notes are hard pressed to truly classify this as noir, but at least it has a tough talking dame and a man with a gun. The latter is Richard Carlson, star of Creature from the Black Lagoon; the former is Nancy Kelly, Oscar nominee for whipping Patty McCormack's ass at the end of The Bad Seed. The words are by four screenwriters, including Oscar winner turned smut scribe Sidney Sheldon. Unlike most Hollywood fare written by multiple people, this one stays stitched together no matter how crazy its plot becomes, a testament to Siodmak's direction.
Fly-By-Night begins as a prison break movie and ends as a romantic comedy. A seemingly deranged man escapes on a rainy night from a sanitarium. He carjacks Dr. Burton (Carlson) and forces him to drive him to a safe hotel room. The escapee, Teisler, explains to Burton that he is sane, that he is the assistant to a famous biochemist, and that he is the victim of a conspiracy that found him unjustly institutionalized. Teisler shows Burton the bullet hole in his hat, along with a baggage claim check that holds the secret to "G32." Of course, before Teisler can spill the beans on G32, he's murdered while Burton is distracted. Since apparently only he and Burton were in the hotel suite, and Teisler was killed with one of Burton's scalpels, the cops think Burton is the who in whodunit. Burton escapes onto the ledge after a hilarious misstep by the cops, and climbs into a neighboring apartment occupied by a nightgown-clad Pat Lindsey (Nancy Kelly). Continue Reading »
Tags: 8th Noir City Festival, Cry Danger, Deported, Fly-By-Night (1942), Robert Parrish, Robert Siodmak, The Mob (1951)
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by Vadim Rizov on January 26th, 2010 at 12:30 am in Music
[Click here to read the previous installment of this feature.]
90. Department of Eagles, "Floating On The Lehigh" (In Ear Park, 2008)
Arguably, the aughts traveled through three or four distinct phases of journalistically notable indie rock trends (read: space-filling pseudo-movements rooted in some truth, but basically the creation of lazy critics). There was the ridiculously clustered-together "garage rock revival" post-millennial phase (something so poorly and simplistically defined that, for a while, people thought maybe The Fiery Furnaces ought to be grouped next to the White Stripes, since they were both [faux-]brother/sister duos). There was the ugly middle period defined by (depending on where your head was at) either DFA and its disco-punk ilk and/or the notion that large groups of people standing around on stage constituted an automatically laudable, Gen-X-cynicism-repudiating ethos of "community," "togetherness" et al. (Douglas Coupland would be so proud we snapped out of it!). The endgame (now over, apparently) was in thrall to the idea that Sonic Youth should be everyone's favorite band of all time. There will be much more to say about these dismal mini-zeitgeists on another occasion.
At this particular moment, though, it seems like Grizzly Bear have a chance of making really ornate, multi-harmony vocals that resist automatic Beach Boys sugar very popular and generally The Next Big Thing if anyone can figure out how to rip them off. They're very sui generis, but I prefer side project Department of Eagles, which concedes just enough to the kind of stuff I already understand; Yellow House aside, Grizzly Bear often stretches beyond what I'm comfortable with in their longeurs. Like Rufus Wainwright at his most Romantic, "Floating On The Lehigh" meanders through six minutes of woodwinds, the occasional operatic swell and non-urgent detours without ever seeming too tenuous. There's real excitement to be found in music that can sprawl for a long time without losing you when it stops to breathe, which is pretty much always in this case. Downright post-coital. Continue Reading »
Tags: Ada, Best of the Aughts, Department of Eagles, Franz Ferdinand, Girl Talk, Josh Rouse, Killer Mike, Los Campesinos!, Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, The Streets, Vampire Weekend
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by Vadim Rizov on January 25th, 2010 at 12:30 am in Music
Hello, and welcome to my much-delayed project to annotate my top 100 songs of our not-so-dearly-departed decade. This is going to be long enough as it is, so a few brief notes: This list is super-homogeneous, mainly focusing on the wussier strands of indie rock and commercial hip-hop, so if that's not your thing, turn back now. Some of this stuff vaguely qualifies as "criticism"; some borders on solipsism. Nonetheless, I've been working on this since July and it's finally in a form I can stand, so let's run with it. I've included YouTube embeds where I can and streaming links where I couldn't.
100. J-Kwon, "Tipsy" (Hood Hop, 2004)
J-Kwon should get major credit for his exuberant opening taunt, the perfect compromise between label-ordained responsibility and blunt reality: "Teen drinking is very bad. Yo, I got a fake ID though." Otherwise he was a one-hit wonder the same way as Hurricane Chris ("Ay Bay Bay") and Yung Joc ("It's Goin' Down"), dominating a whole summer with a hook and a beat rather than with anything to say. There's lots of lines like "here comes the 3 to the 2 to the 1" just to get to the next rhyme—but the slippery beat makes that irrelevant. At a moment when the Neptunes could still do no wrong—before the oddness of N.E.R.D. and the commercially alienating exercises of Clipse—everyone wanted to rip them off, which meant a wealth of inventively minimalist beats in unlikely places. This welcome trend was quickly wiped off the face of the earth by a) crunk, which more or less justified itself b) the maddeningly monochromatic bullshit of G-Unit, which didn't. In retrospect, "Tipsy" seems like a dispatch from a kinder, gentler age, when one super-dominant song was enough to guarantee even the lamest rapper a gold album. The Neptunes' greatest contribution may have been inspiring producers to single-handedly elevate non-entity rappers to moments of true glory. This was one of the most pleasurably content-devoid songs of 2004; you can keep "Since U Been Gone," even if that is slightly more fun to karaoke. Continue Reading »
Tags: Baby Teeth, Badly Drawn Boy, Bentley feat. Pimp C & Lil Wayne, Best of the Aughts, Carlos Adolfo Dominguez, Clipse ft. Ab-Liva, J-Kwon, Jarvis Cocker, Peter Bjorn and John, Rachel's, The Cardigans
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by Dan Callahan on January 23rd, 2010 at 11:23 pm in Film
There are actors who are said to be under-appreciated, or underrated, and this mainly has to do with a certain lack of flash, or a certain modesty, or just bad luck. So that in Richard Brooks's Elmer Gantry (1960), Burt Lancaster would win an Oscar for chewing the scenery to shreds as a false preacher, Shirley Jones would win a Supporting Actress Oscar for playing a ludicrously stereotyped hooker, and Jean Simmons wouldn't even be nominated, yet she's clearly the one to watch in that large, coarse movie; she subtly builds a faceted, worldly but self-deluding preacher, based on Aimee Semple McPherson, who will pay the price for hubris. Her Sharon Falconer is excited by her own power, and she's a bit of a huckster, but Simmons makes it clear that this woman does actually believe she was chosen by God to do his work; she's a natural mover and shaker, yet afraid of "city people." Simmons had a wonderful laugh, a kind of lusty giggle, and she uses it in Elmer Gantry to show Sharon's tough delight in her own sexuality. Maybe she's so good in that movie because she fell in love on the set with its director; she later married him. The film doesn't deserve or even warrant her nuanced, thoughtful performance, but at least it was a part she could make a feast of; too often, she was stuck in dull movies of little distinction. Continue Reading »
Tags: Jean Simmons, R.I.P.
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by Odienator on January 23rd, 2010 at 5:25 pm in Film
The 8th Noir City Festival opened Friday in San Francisco, and by sheer good luck and careful client planning, I am in the City by the Bay to bear witness. The weather has been awful, with downpours laying waste to California with a vengeance to rival The Great Flood. The rain may be inappropriate for Southern California, but it's perfect for the opening night of a festival showcasing the darkest material Hollywood had to offer in its heyday. For the next 9 days, I will be amongst the raucous crowd at the Castro Theatre, satiating my jones for all things noir. Several of the features are not on DVD, and despite listing film noir as my favorite genre of film, I've never even heard of half the films in this year's program.
So while some of my colleagues freeze their asses off dealing with amoral people at Sundance, I will be basking in the glory of amoral people from the safe, warm confines of a glowing screen. Occasionally, I'll chime in with reports from the festival whose celebration of Lust and Larceny exists only in its cinematic content.
For those unfamiliar with Noir City, its programmers run double bills every day, and matinees and night programs on the weekend. The fest kicked off with a fantastic montage of noir scenes patched together on a Mac by a 20-year-old California woman whom the MPAA is probably hunting right now. We were then treated to a brief history lesson by the Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller. Muller pointed out that this year's fest focused on two of the things that have led many a person, real and fictitious, to their doom. The packed house was more than enthusiastic, and as the lights went down, I settled into my role as one of "those wonderful people out there in the dark." Continue Reading »
Tags: 8th Noir City Festival, André De Toth, Castro Theater, Dan Duryea, Eddie Muller, George Sherman, Larceny (1948), Pitfall (1948), Raymond Burr, Shelley Winters
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While some felt that Battlestar Galactica's finale repudiated much that came before it, both thematically and in its execution, others (like myself) felt the story had come to an emotionally satisfying conclusion. Either way, disgruntled or devoted fans of the show—and even those who've never seen it—will find its new soapy spinoff, Caprica, of interest. Like its predecessor, which was couched in Bush-era "War on Terror" parallels, the show alludes to present day tensions stemming from Obama's promise of change, something I discussed at length in a piece I wrote back in April after watching an early DVD release of the pilot.
"Caprica: 58 Years Before the Fall" reads the opening title card to the two-hour debut. The Fall refers to humanity's near extinction at the hands of their robotic Cylon creations in BSG's premiere. This prequel explores the fateful forces which led to their creation and rise to prominence. It begins with two young girls perishing in a terrorist attack orchestrated by a monotheistic cult known as the Soldiers of the One (the seed for the Cylon belief in one God; contrarian in the polytheistic society of Caprica). The girls' respective fathers—Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), a Bill Gates/Steve Jobs-like billionaire genius looking for the missing link in his robotics research, and Joseph Adams (Esai Morales), a Michael Corleone-type attorney reluctant to join the family (as in Family) business—are our portals into this show's world.
Graystone and Adams also serve as doubles tied together by their very different reactions to the possibility that their daughters can be resurrected. Graystone sees it as a matter of science and intellect. If he can bring his daughter Zoe (Alessandra Torresani) back to life by imprinting her personality into a machine prototype he's created, then why not? Ironically, it is his overwhelming emotional regret that blinds this intellectual to the unpredictable repercussions that shall ultimately play out. The earthier and more instinctual Adams comes to grasp the moral implications of trying to revive his own dead daughter. Paradoxically, it is his pragmatism that allows him to step back and view the situation dispassionately. Continue Reading »
Tags: Alessandra Torresani, Barack Obama, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Cylon, Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, George W. Bush, Pilot, TV Recap, Zooey Deschanel
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