During its two hours and 22 minutes, plenty of time existed for it to grab my attention. That moment never arrived. The major problems, as I see them: • It’s clearly overstuffed. Everyone complained when Batman and Spider-Man sequels stacked three villains against a single superhero. The Avengers gives us one main bad guy (albeit […]
torrent
Posted inArts & Culture
The Story of Rock ’n’ Roll Comics
The comics were “unauthorized and proud of it” biographies of famous bands, from KISS to New Kids on the Block, all printed by Todd Loren. They had their followers (Alice Cooper, Mojo Nixon, Cynthia Plaster Caster) and their detractors, resulting in plenty of legal issues (no pun intended). Was Loren, the film asks, a First […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The House Across the Street / Homicide
House is the better of the two, opening on the suburbian utopia of Hopkins Street on the morning of April 20. It’s a placid existence, complete with home delivery from the milkman. But when a phony postal worker knocks off a would-be trial witness on the watch of a rookie cop, there goes the neighborhood. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Madison County
• “What are the chances … we take it, then get completely lost?”• “You kids best be gettin’ out of here.”• “Hello? Anybody home?”• “Maybe we should just go back.” They don’t go back. But at least in this indie effort, they’re off to meet an author. In other slasher films, the main goal is […]
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Damsels in Distress
It’s a near-perfect work, but I recall being fazed by the biggest laugh it got in that night’s Lawrence, Kan., audience: a punch line hinging on the word “pejoratively.” Who uses $2 words to tell jokes? Even Stillman’s Oscar-nominated debut of four years prior, Metropolitan, didn’t strike me as so … well, Harvardissue thesaurus. Some […]
Posted inMusic
Admirals — Admirals
Seconds into “Sirens,” one can tell that Radiohead and Muse register high on the band’s radar, yet more bound by convention than either. If that reads as a dig, it’s not necessarily meant to be; as much as Admirals obviously lust after that huge, space-rock sound, it also strives to be catchy and accessible. It’s […]
Posted inMusic
All is ’bright
Singer-songwriter John Fullbright shares more in common with folk legend Woody Guthrie than their quaint hometown of Okemah. There’s a certain air of Oklahoma soul to everything they are and represent, whether voice, songs or presence. There’s a weight and understanding of not only life of an Oklahoman, but a human being. Fullbright didn’t set […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Theatre Bizarre
Six stories are introduced by Udo Kier (Melancholia) as a crusty-faced automaton who commands the stage of the title venue, with which a young, disturbed woman (Virginia Newcomb) living across the street is obsessed. Drawn there late one night, she takes a seat amid an audience empty except the occasional mannequins; Kier plays host with […]
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Let the Bullets Fly
Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there, as Bullets reveals itself not so much an action epic as it is a slapstick comedy in a story of political poseurs, full of elements that encounter difficulty in translation. I do, however, appreciate its odd sense of humor, which could be classified as gallows at times. Example: When […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Mother’s Day / 11-11-11
Produced in part by Brett Ratner and ostensibly a remake of a same-named piece of Troma trash from 1980, Mother’s Day is one of the better thrillers I’ve seen in recent memory, anchored by an honest-to-God great performance by Rebecca De Mornay as the mad matriarch of the title, as good as her celebrated comeback […]