It may not be a story as old as time, but the trope of Okies wandering to California in search of opportunity goes back at least to the Dust Bowl. And while the paucity of prospects may not have the same harrowing look it did in the 1920s, people still move from windy plains to […]
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Philomena
Since the Oscar nominations were announced last month, gold-derby prognosticators have referred to Philomena as “the ninth nominee” in the Best Picture field. Their implication is that among all those films up for Hollywood’s highest honor, the British dramedy is the one least likely to win and least deserving of being there. That’s insane, of […]
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Parker Millsap — Parker Millsap
Millsap uses that narrative but flips the script heading into his self-titled follow-up; while most sophomore records are stiffened-up and self-serious compared to their predecessors, Millsap untucks his shirt, kicks up his heels and celebrates a job well done with this relaxed but purposeful collection of songs. He shuffles poignant balladry (“The Villain,” “Forgive Me”) […]
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Haunter
Abigail Breslin (August: Osage County) stars as Lisa, a teen who’s the only one in her happy family of four to notice that for some reason, they’re re-living the same foggy Sunday in the ’80s over and over and over and over. Keeping her forever 15, it’s a cyclical grind of missing laundry, Atari Pac-Man, […]
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Blind Date
In his first movie role, Bruce Willis exhibits some of that easygoing charisma that then was serving him well as TV’s Moonlighting and, just one year later, rocketed him to the stratosphere in Die Hard. At the time hot off 9 1/2 Weeks, but not yet cast in Batman, future Oscar winner Kim Basinger also […]
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Escape Plan
The world of 2013, however, is a mighty different landscape; Escape Plan bombed. That’s too bad, because it’s pretty good for what it sets out to be: a big, dumb action movie, in the style of its stars’ big, dumb bread-and-butter recipe of yesteryear. Stallone’s Breslin works as a security expert hired to go undercover […]
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Gutter punks
Any self-respecting alt-teen in the early ’90s fell into one of two camps: the punks or the poseurs. The punks were, of course, the true rebels of the courtyard, dressed in torn denim vests adorned with homemade patches, trading bootleg tapes of Propaghandi, Anti-Flag and Guttermouth, ever so secure that punk would never die, man. […]
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PLSTKNOVA — Lights
His second EP, Lights, is an entrancing odyssey through the sleep cycle, pouring an ethereal dream-pop fog over mind-bending down-tempo bass grooves. Taking cues from Tycho, Baths and Four Tet, the seven-track effort focuses on aural world-building delicately built brick by brick. The adventurous but contained record is melodic and gripping all the same, its […]
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Wise guy
Photo: Samantha Lamb For all the talk of Oklahoma singer-songwriter Parker Millsap and his Pentecostal roots, there’s a point that gets glossed over along the way. People note that gruff howl of a voice rumbling out of his gut with a tent-revival vigor equal parts fire-and-brimstone and piss-and-vinegar. Millsap himself nods to those Sunday morning […]
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Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon
Therefore, no one blames Hark for wanting to mine Dee for franchise potential. Unfortunately, the result is the kind of unfocused, overindulgent mess that saw the shine wear off his reputation in the first place. With Mark Chao taking over the part, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon is a prequel concerning the […]