To a degree, Jonze (Where the Wild Things Are) presents a vintage man vs. machine conflict, primarily in Theodore’s desire for connection, which is paired with and pitted against Samantha’s ability to emote and grow internally. What distinguishes their circumstance, however, is that it exists within the fragile confines of a relationship. Jonze illustrates this […]
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Lone Survivor
Based on a 2007 memoir by former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, Lone Survivor details the ill-fated Operation Red Wings. In that 2005 mission, Luttrell and three of his fellow SEALs were dispatched to assassinate a Taliban leader, Ahmad Shah, near Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush Mountains. After getting close to their target, the team was ambushed by […]
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Got that swing
After making a name for himself in the Oklahoma music scene as a solo act, Kyle Reid returns to the stage with a toe-tappin’, finger-snappin’ brass band. They have crowned themselves the Low Swingin’ Chariots, and it has become a project that Reid can’t believe took him so long to get to. “I saw a […]
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Straying from the norm
Photo: Doug Seymour Don’t bother asking The Stray Birds how they came up with their beautifully evocative name. Even they’ve forgotten by now. “We were trying to name the project and felt like we should be some kind of bird. Obviously, The Byrds is out,” said Oliver Craven, the band’s jack-of-alltrades. “We travel around a […]
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The Best Films of 2013
10. Instructions Not Included Popular Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez made his directorial debut with this heartwarming — and heartbreaking — Spanish-language comedy that became one of the biggest cinematic successes of 2013. Derbez is the womanizing Valentín who, after a baby is abandoned on his doorstep, mostly reforms into a near-perfect dad. The setup is […]
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Cassadaga
Until then, the scope shifts to focus on Lily (Kelen Coleman, TV’s The Newsroom), a pretty music teacher who happens to be deaf. (You wouldn’t know it from Coleman’s performance; although the appealing actress uses sign language, she also speaks at a perfectly normal pitch and volume at all times.) Grieving her dead sister, Lily […]
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The Wolverine / Prisoners
Based on a particularly well-received run of issues in the 1980s by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont, The Wolverine transports our indestructible, retractable-claw hero (Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables) back to Japan — “back” because he spent some time there as a P.O.W. during World War II, where he saved the life of an enemy soldier […]
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The Snake God
Directed by Django co-scripter Piero Vivarelli, the mostly plotless Italian film follows the beautiful Paola (Nadia Cassini, Starcrash) to the luscious Caribbean, where she makes a fast friend with Stella (Beryl Cunningham, The Weekend Murders), a local babe with membership in a voodoo cult. That’s where the title comes into play, as seemingly endless drum […]
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The Horror Show
Aliens‘ Lance Henriksen stars as Lucas McCarthy, a police detective tormented by the memory of sneering evil killer Max Jenke (Brion James, Blade Runner), whom he helped put in prison. Jenke is sentenced to death and bursts into flames in the electric chair. Somehow he busts out of the straps and walks across the room […]
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The Wolf of Wall Street
The rise-and-fall story of real-life former penny-stocks swindler Jordan Belfort exudes a definite vibe of Scorsese déjà vu, most notably Goodfellas and Casino, even if the characters here are entitled white dudes instead of Mafiosi. Like Belfort himself, Wolf is wild, vulgar and often a helluva lot of fun. But also like its antihero, the […]