The irony, naturally, is that Wrath is the superior picture. Not only was it actually intended to be 3-D from the green light, but the script made more sense. With fewer titans clashing about, this follow-up is far easier to, well, follow. Perseus (Sam Worthington, Avatar, Texas Killing Fields) has chosen not to live as […]
review
Posted inArts & Culture
The Disco Exorcist
Opening with a disclaimer that the producers have no memory of making the motion picture, the indie feature obviously revels in that era of exploitation, immediately passing itself off as a ’70s no-budget, B-horror pic as authentically as it can: heavily embedded grain and scratches, a couple of “SHOT MISSING” frames, reel-to-reel tape decks, lava […]
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The FP
The credo of 248 leader JTRO (Jason Trost, who co-wrote and co-directed with his brother, Brandon) is “We roll together, we die together.” That’s tested when JTRO vows never to play again after BTRO dies during a rather heated Beat-off (go ahead, snicker) against 245 head L Dubba E (Lee Valmassy), and disappears. A year […]
Posted inMusic
Cusp — Nothing Proper
Cusp succeeds in the way that Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes do: creating songs that sound like concentrated moments of life rather than just pieces of art. There’s nothing artificial about Nothing Proper — only true beauty to relive in each passing song. Rapp studies vocal performance at ACM@UCO, and it shows. His […]
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Seeking Justice
Now that he’s made two movies that have skipped wide theatrical openings this year on a quick route to video, as Trespass and Seeking Justice have, perhaps it’s time for him to step back and make his next few choices really, really carefully. Here’s the irony: Seeking Justice is one of the better things he’s […]
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The Lowbrow Reader Reader
Thirteen years later, my zine became the victim of its own success: The process simply ceased to be fun for me, so after 37 issues — or was it 38? — an exhausted one-man publisher called it quits. I only tell you this because as I was wrapping up, a New York-based zine called The Lowbrow […]
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Don’t Go in the Woods
The first feature as director for longtime fine actor Vincent D’Onofrio (Kill the Irishman), Woods is as ambling as the five young musicians — one of whom is blind — who drive their van to a forest for a songwriting retreat, where the following things are not allowed: booze, drugs, girls, phones and common sense. That […]
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A Bag of Hammers
Jason Ritter (The Perfect Family) and co-writer Jake Sandvig (Easy A) star as best buds Ben and Alan, two con men who make money off a valet-parking scheme. But other than that, they’re really nice guys. The axis of their felonious world shifts when they meet a boy who moves into the neighborhood with his […]
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Sector 7
Also reminiscent of everything from James Cameron’s The Abyss to Stephen Sommers’ Deep Rising, but with multiple mentions of feng shui, the Korean sci-fi film takes place on a real-life ocean drilling rig, where work is on hold due to a stuck drill bit. Nevertheless, tough girl Ha Ji-won (Tidal Wave) is determined to find […]
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D.O.A.
Dennis Quaid stars as English professor Dexter Cornell, who somehow contracts a fatal toxin that glows Re-Animator green and gives him 24 hours to live. Rather than just bang one of his students — well, he does that, too — he sets out to find who’s slipped him one mammoth mickey. And in doing so, […]