2001/2006 This lightweight seriocomic crime story from the Pang Brothers was released a year before their international success with “The Eye.” In it, a low-rent drug dealer named Bank (Pawarith Monkolpisit) meets a young hooker named Som (Wanatchada Siwapornchai) on the streets of Bangkok. They fall in love and he recruits her to help with […]
OKG Archives
Posted inArts & Culture
Seven Samurai: Criterion Collection
1954/2006 The full-blooded epic “Seven Samurai” ignited the imaginations of a generation of filmmakers, causing Akira Kurosawa’s signature work to be endlessly recycled, riffed upon and revisited in countless movies around the globe. Viewing it again, in this age of bombastic Hollywood action spectacles that teem with CG excess, it stands even taller as a […]
Posted inMusic
Alan Jackson-Like Red on a Rose
Arista Nashville So melancholy and introspective as to be almost emotionally monochromatic, Alan Jackson’s brooding “Like Red on a Rose” is an impressive left turn for the neo-traditionalist Nashville veteran, dialing down the sunshine streaking hits like “Chattahoochee” and infusing his evocative baritone with an almost palpable sense of pain. Jackson’s secret weapon? Placing himself […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Notorious Bettie Page
2006 Nearly 50 years since her radiant smile and razor-sharp bangs last graced a girlie mag, Bettie Page still holds an inexorable mystique over popular culture. Her “naughty but nice” persona “? the Fifties pin”?up queen was as comfortable projecting sunny sexiness as she was posing in bondage garb “? is at the heart […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Maid
2005 Billed as Singapore’s first “homegrown” horror movie, “The Maid” is an intriguing blend of ghost movie staples with superior acting and a fascinating background which will be unknown to most Western viewers. A pretty Filipina (Alessandra de Rossi) arrives in Singapore on the first day of the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
ATL
2006 Amid the journey from rap and hip-hop to the red carpet and Hollywood, one of the more promising personalities to make the switch is Tip Harris, better known in music circles as T.I. The Atlanta rapper stars in “ATL,” an engaging coming-of-age picture that successfully manages to rejuvenate a shopworn formula. Harris plays […]
Posted inMusic
Thee Emergency-Can You Dig It?
Blue Disguise If high-octane garage rock mixed with R&B is your thing, Seattle’s Thee Emergency is a must-hear band. Unlike many post-punk bands, Thee Emergency’s latest, “Can You Dig It?,” is not filled with lyrically lacking tripe set to crunching guitars and infectious hooks. To be certain, the band knows how to rock out, […]
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John Mayer-Continuum
Columbia . Those who continue to dismiss John Mayer as an acoustic heartthrob are missing the bigger picture’ he’s still capable of penning a wrenching ballad, but his scope of vision encompasses so much more than making high school girls cry. “Continuum,” Mayer’s third and most accomplished effort to date, is a superb artistic statement […]
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Justin Timberlake-FutureSex/LoveSounds
Jive Few artists have invested more energy in freeing themselves from their past than Justin Timberlake; his fierce determination to demolish his pretty-boy pop image is, at times, awe-inspiring’ having successfully stepped out on his own with 2002’s “Justified,” Timberlake spent the intervening years jet-setting, holding court with Cameron Diaz and remaining one of the […]
Posted inMusic
Devo 2.0-Self Titled
Disney The signs were there when Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo began composing for children’s films like “The Rugrats Movie.” It should come as no surprise that something like “Devo 2.0” would eventually arise. Devo 2.0, a group of 10- to 13-year-olds, sings the Devo classics and a couple of new tracks by Mothersbaugh and fellow […]