1964/1965/2006 A jarring piece of docudrama filmmaking that retains its power to disturb more than 40 years later, Peter Watkins’ searing film about nuclear war and its terrifying aftermath in a typical English city was deemed too intense and violent to broadcast by the BBC in 1965, becoming a theatrical release instead. Deliberately low-budget […]
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Jay Bennett-The Magnificent Defeat
Rykodisc Jay Bennett is best known as that dude that got kicked out of Wilco in that film about Wilco. One could get booted from worse bands, but the whole debacle has haunted Bennett, who has released three albums that hint at his gifts but mainly underscore why he was an excellent sideman. Perhaps […]
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Crackjaw-Giants From the Stereo
I Scream Records Michigan’s Crackjaw is making pop-punk with metal sprinkled on top. This particular style is a big cash cow and Crackjaw could be the next Fall Out Boy’ if you dig those guys, run with the speed of a bullet to the local CD shop and get Crackjaw to go. “Giants from […]
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Clean, Shaven: Criterion Collection
1994/2006 “Clean, Shaven” is not a film easily forgotten “? a shattering, immersive experience in which viewers are thrown headlong into the abyss of mental illness, placed in the fractured, confused mind of a schizophrenic (the masterful Peter Greene) as he tries to track down his daughter following his release from an institution. A […]
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The Break-Up
2006 “The Break-Up” is a sour surprise for anyone expecting a fluffy date-night confection. Gleefully peeling back the facade of a typical, blandly predictable Hollywood rom-com and brazenly wading into a splintering couple’s neuroses, director Peyton Reed and stars Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston perform a risky high-wire act to impressive effect. By […]
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The Boris Karloff Collection
Various/2006 You would think that a review of this set would begin with the phrase “just in time for Halloween,” but the truth is that “The Boris Karloff Collection” contains mostly historical melodramas “? a genre Karloff loved “? and one oddball crime story (“Night Key”), so it isn’t particularly Halloween-y at all. It’s […]
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Lady Vengeance
2005 Park Chan Wook concludes his revenge trilogy with “Lady Vengeance,” a terrific black comedy about a young woman who spends 13 years in prison for a crime she confessed to but didn’t commit. When she’s released, she has a plan in place for vengeance against the true perpetrator. The remarkable Yeong-ae Lee stars as […]
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Beck-The Information
Interscope Beck’s ridden his muse like a teeter-totter for the last decade’ raunchy and raw, introspective and subdued’ yet the slacker musical fusionary rarely has allowed the two distinct sides of his outsized musical personality to meet until now. “The Information,” assembled piecemeal over the last three years with help from Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, […]
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Edmond
2005 Based on a lesser known, but by no means any less pungent David Mamet play, “Edmond” is perhaps as close-to-the-bone as the playwright can get. A deceptively simple tale of a man who decides to embark upon a life-altering odyssey of debauchery, murder and madness, “Edmond” fairly explodes off the screen, featuring William H. […]
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The Decemberists-The Crane Wife
Capitol There’s always an underlying current of anxiety when a beloved indie band makes the leap to the majors, particularly one with as precious and precise an aesthetic as practiced by The Decemberists. Rambling, fey epics about forbidden love in the 18th century, Colin Meloy’s bracingly literate pop songs are an anomaly on the modern […]