I know exactly what a Besson production will mean: high-concept action rendered as a high-octane cartoon in live-action, with a severe chance for martial arts. The French filmmaker’s name equals a style equals a brand. His aesthetic appears even when he doesn’t direct. His creative stamp supersedes all. And so it is again with Lockout, […]
review
Posted inArts & Culture
Some Guy Who Kills People
Corrigan often plays losers and underdogs, but rarely as the lead. Here, he’s ice cream parlor worker Kenny Boyd, sometimes further humiliated by having to don a costume as a mint chocolate chip cone at kids’ birthday parties. But, hey, it beats the loony bin, from which he’s newly sprung. Bullied and tormented since his […]
Posted inArts & Culture
ATM / Brake
I’m beginning to think Chris Sparling is trying to carve a screenwriting career as the Tight, Enclosed Spaces Guy. First, he put Ryan Reynolds in a coffin for the entirety of Buried. Now, he’s trapped three young co-workers (played by Men in Black 3‘s Alice Eve, The Hurt Locker‘s Brian Geraghty and The Wackness‘ Josh […]
Posted inMusic
News ease
America has embraced many bands and musicians over the years, but only a few dozen have wrapped themselves into the fabric of the country’s pop culture like Huey Lewis and the News. A massive presence in the formative days of MTV, the blues-influenced pop rockers unleashed a string of feel-good, smash-hit singles, including “The Heart […]
Posted inMusic
Childish melodies
Surprise: The guys behind power-pop outfit Forever the Sickest Kids never wanted to grow up. Playing a brand of music popular mainly with the Clearasil set, the Dallas-based outfit hasn’t overhauled its sound dramatically since its 2008 debut, Underdog Alma Mater, even as its four members approach their 30s. Their friends and ex-bandmates are getting […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dead zone
Photo: Ande Spenser Lensed locally, Time Expired is a terminal-illness comedy — strange as that may sound — written by Oklahoma native Rachel Tucker. The film is focused on Randall, played by Eric Starkey (Bringing Up Bobby), who discovers that he is dying. Rather than visiting the Grand Canyon or bungee-jumping off a bridge, all […]
Posted inArts & Culture
I Wish
In the Japanese-language film I Wish, two brothers are coping as best they can with their parents’ separation and impending divorce. Twelve-year-old Koichi (Koki Maeda) is pensive and anxious, not cripplingly so, but enough for him to worry — not without some justification — why no one in his town seems alarmed about living in […]
Posted inMusic
Jon Lyle Williams and the Bravest Retreat — Jon Lyle Williams and the Bravest Retreat
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal;mso-outline-level:1″><span style=" Times New Roman” ,”serif”;mso-fareast-times=”” new=”” roman”;=”” mso-font-kerning:18.0pt;mso-fareast-language:es-bo”=””> I assume Jon Lyle Williams and the Bravest Retreat miss it, too, because their self-titled album seems like an ode to the decade with a certain affection for their Oklahoma roots thrown in for good measure. Williams’ voice is a husky and powerful […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fore your eyes only
When the summer sun gets too hot to hit the links, enjoy the leisure sport via your eyeballs at The Art of Golf, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s newest exhibition, opening Thursday. Organized by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the National Galleries of Scotland, it is the first exhibition devoted to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Endeavour
Set in 1965, the Masterpiece Mystery telefilm finds young Detective Constable Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans, Being Julia) at a career crossroads, thinking of quitting the force when a big case diverts his attention: the disappearance — and subsequent murder — of a poetry-loving student. Needless to say, it’s not the only corpse that will show […]