If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. That’s the belief punk rock band Alkaline Trio has held steadfast in since forming in the mid-1990s, and nearly two decades later, it’s one that has paid dividends. While most of the outfit’s contemporaries have long since burnt out, Alkaline Trio is playing to the same devout fans […]
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Que sera, Sera
Photo: Hilary Harris Famed label Sub Pop is best known for its roster of alternative rock acts, ranging from classic grunge acts like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney to new hipster favorites like Obits, Mogwai and Dum Dum Girls, so it’s strange to see a folk/country act in their roster. Sera Cahoone takes total pride in […]
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My Name Is Nobody
A half-decade later, Fonda re-teamed with Leone, who this time served as producer for My Name Is Nobody. Although a far less serious film, it’s arguably more entertaining — a pure delight. See if you don’t agree, now that the 1973 film gallops out of the sunrise and onto Blu-ray. Fonda’s Jack Beauregard is an […]
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This Is the End
Playing exaggerated versions of themselves, Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel go to a party at the house of James Franco. Surrounded by all of their Judd Apatow bros, including Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Craig Robinson (star of the similar, simultaneous Rapture-Palooza) — all playing even more greatly exaggerated versions of themselves — they party it […]
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This Is Martin Bonner
Not for nothing does This Is Martin Bonner carry that matter-of-fact, take-it-or-leave-it title. The film is a temporary glimpse into an ordinary man’s conventional life yet is told unconventionally, in that it doesn’t offer the regular beats to which moviegoers are accustomed (if not numbed). We swoop in, we observe its subject for a while, […]
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Plan of action
Crowds at a Dillinger Escape Plan show can expect to hear booming drums, roaring vocals and heavy guitar played at breakneck speed. And maybe, if you’re lucky, the cruel snap of bones. “A Dillinger show is always unpredictable … and always full of bumps and bruises,” said guitarist Ben Weinman, who is wrapping up rehab […]
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Sweet slumber
Adam Miller, the brains behind the Oklahoma City-based project This Is Sleep, doesn’t just embrace the oncedormant science of computer-based production; he revels in it. “There is a magic, no doubt, that comes with bands,” Miller said. “But as technology rises, the evolution of music and new kinds of music go along with that, it’s […]
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This Is the End
I wasted so much of my 20s hanging out with these 420-types, sitting bored in their thrift-store-furnished living rooms, desperately looking at my watch while the person who was usually my ride sank deeper and deeper into the couch as the thick whiffs of chronic sunk deeper and deeper into their lungs. They were all […]
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Love Is All You Need
Luckily, the film is smarter than the average adult-oriented romantic dramedy, and not just because it speaks in three tongues. The main reason for its ultimate (if unspectacular) success is its director and co-writer, Susanne Bier, who won an Academy Award for the Danish drama In a Better World, deservedly named 2010’s Best Foreign Language […]
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This Girl Is Badass
But how much more badass might she be if her stunts were rooted in reality? For example, Jackie Chan can do — or could do — most of the things we saw him do in his movies; the blooper-ridden end credits attest to that. But from the start, Jukkalan’s tricks are aided by, well, tricks […]