Inspired by an actual event in which fish and birds inexplicably turned up dead in mass quantities, the movie takes place in Claridge, Md., as the Chesapeake Bay celebrates Independence Day in 2009. Much of the footage we see comes courtesy of TV news intern Donna Thompson (Kether Donohue, Pitch Perfect) via a WikiLeaks-esque site, […]
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The Factory
Skipping theaters and debuting on DVD free of digital bells and whistles, the Dark Castle Entertainment thriller exactly lacking in famous faces, with John Cusack and Jennifer Carpenter in the leads as partnering police detectives in snowy Buffalo, N.Y. Mike Fletcher (Cusack, The Raven) is an 18-year veteran of the force obsessed with a longtime […]
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Black Canyon — Black Canyon
Now, with Morisse joined by Riley Jantzen (ex-Mayola), Tyler Hopkins (The Nghiems) and Kurt Freudenberger (The Pretty Black Chains), a much louder Black Canyon comes across more like an Oklahoma-bred Gaslight Anthem. It’s a whiskey-chugging, cow-tipping rock record that wears its heart on its tattoo sleeve, and it’s a damn good one at that. Morisse’s […]
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Dollar for the Dead
Estevez is a cowboy everyone refers to as Cowboy — a deliberate nod to Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name of Sergio Leone’s beloved Dollars trilogy. The rootin’-tootin’ sharpshooter partners with greasy Confederate soldier Dooley (William Forsythe, The Rig), who possesses one-fourth of a map that will lead them to treasure. Only former NFL star/Radio […]
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Myke Brown — Don’t Forget the Y
He has contributed smart, quick and nimble rhymes on local hip-hop releases for everyone from Josh Sallee to Purple Mouth Bandits. Last year, Brown’s Survival of the Fittest and Summer Daze mixtapes let Oklahoma’s greatest guest spotter shine on his own, but he’s never shined brighter than he does here. In a city surprisingly flushed […]
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Still swinging, swinging
Tyson Ritter Ten years ago, The All-American Rejects were wide-eyed kids fresh out of Stillwater, just inking a deal to rerelease their self-titled debut album with DreamWorks Records after a limited release through an indie label. The humble pop-rock act had a standout single in “Swing, Swing” on its hands, and the rest is history. […]
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Toby Keith — Hope on the Rocks
For many years, on my late, lamented Colorado-based radio show, Damaged Hearing, whenever I felt like especially annoying the decidedly unpatriotic community-radio audience, I would sing along, loud and proud, to Oklahoma-born Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.” Of course, the more I would sing along to the song, the more I […]
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Future’s so bright
Imagine for a moment that you’re perched atop a pristine body of water. As you gaze downward, ripples contort the natural world, and all of your tangible surroundings seem strangely elusive and engulfed in fantasy. The other side of that reflection? The world in which Future Islands live. Appearing tonight at Opolis, the Baltimore trio […]
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Rudyard Kipling’s Mark of the Beast
Not only is the title superimposed over an image from the indie effort, but two clickable options, two URLs and four review blurbs, as if to convince you upfront that you are about to witness brilliance. To further complicate the eyesore, the blurbs are not presented in consistent typeface, color or size. In other words, […]
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The Campaign
After helming two fact-based political dramas for HBO in Recount and Game Change, director Jay Roach must have found the opportunity to poke fun at the circus irresistible. I’m glad he did. In North Carolina’s 14th congressional district, the four-time incumbent is Cam Brady (Will Ferrell, Casa de Mi Padre), a shoo-in for a fifth […]