A CRIMINAL OVERSIGHT
Rober Altman’s overlooked Thieves Like Us released on DVD
Avenue Montaigne
Avenue Montaigne Studio: ThinkFilm Rated: PG-13 Cast: Cecile de France, Claude Brasseur Director: Daniele Thompson WorkNameSort: Avenue Montaigne Our Rating: 2.50 Dumb people dismiss French movies as being too pretentious; pretentious people point to dumb movies like Avenue Montaigne as evidence to the contrary. In the case of this 2006 film, both groups would be…
Fracture
Fracture Studio: New Line Rated: R Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling Director: Gregory Hoblit WorkNameSort: Fracture Our Rating: 4.00 Fracture may be ‘justâ?� a courtroom thriller, but it’s surely the craftiest and most intelligent one in years. Ryan Gosling, continuing to top one exquisite performance with another, plays hotshot prosecutor Willy Beachum, who’s about to…
Hot Fuzz
Hot Fuzz Studio: Rogue Pictures Rated: R Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost Director: Edgar Wright WorkNameSort: Hot Fuzz Our Rating: 2.50 There isn’t a scene in Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz that’s as deliriously funny as his minute-long contribution to Grindhouse. Still, Wright affirms his ability to consume, regurgitate and mildly subvert lowbrow movies, just as…
In the Land of Women
In the Land of Women Studio: Warner Bros. Rated: PG-13 Cast: Adam Brody, Meg Ryan Director: Jon Kasdan WorkNameSort: In the Land of Women Our Rating: 3.50 Pegged as a throwaway chick flick, In the Land of Women turns out to be a cynical comedy about life and love. The dark story follows Carter Webb…
Jane Eyre / Anna Karenina
Jane Eyre / Anna Karenina Studio: 20th Century Fox WorkNameSort: Jane Eyre / Anna Karenina For an English-language film directed by a Frenchman and based on a Russian novel, Julien Duvivier’s 1948 adaptation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is a pleasing filmed book as compared to the dull production of Jane Eyre from 1944. Both are…
Jonestown
Jonestown Studio: PBS Home Video WorkNameSort: Jonestown If there’s anything creepier than Powers Boothe’s portrayal of Jim Jones in 1980’s made-for-TV Guyana Tragedy, it’s watching Jones himself maniacally sway the members of the Peoples Temple into doing his bidding. This ‘American Experienceâ?� documentary tells the story of Jonestown via interviews with the few remaining survivors…
Monsieur N.
Monsieur N. Studio: Empire Pictures/First Run Features WorkNameSort: Monsieur N. Unsure whether it wants to be a piece of revisionist history or a period-piece romance, Monsieur N. nonetheless poses an interesting question: What if Napoleon had escaped from his exile in St. Helena? Intrigue swirls furiously around Monsieur N., but the glassy glare of actor…
DIGITAL DINING
Nile serves finger-lickin’ Ethiopian delicacies
SLY GETS WHAT HE DESERVES
Seven discs of not-so-simple songs
Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea: A Michael Penn Collection
Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea: A Michael Penn Collection Label: Legacy Length: LP Format: Album WorkNameSort: Palms and Runes, Tarot and Tea: A Michael Penn Collection Eighteen years ago, the future looked (and sounded) grand for Michael Penn: A pseudo-heartthrob turn in the video for the top-30 hit ‘No Mythâ?� was a potential step…
Woke on a Whaleheart
Woke on a Whaleheart Label: Drag City Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Woke on a Whaleheart Bill Callahan doesn’t sing with emotion. On occasion he reaches for notes. Sometimes he raises his voice. Sometimes he seems to chuckle. He sounds like someone’s dad trying his hand at country music (‘The Wheelâ?�), but would…
Ola Podrida
Ola Podrida Label: Plug Research Length: LP Rated: NONE Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Ola Podrida For his Plug Research outing, Brooklyn’s David Wingo abandoned his presumably noisy digs, opting instead to communicate lush, loosely flowing desert hymns as Ola Podrida. Wingo hails originally from Austin, Texas, and has film score credits to his name,…
Secretary Bird
Secretary Bird Label: In De Goot Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Secretary Bird With this remarkably realized debut, L.A. musician Mike Semple steps out from behind his various collaborations (Friends of Dean Martinez, Campfire Girls and Giant Sand) in convincing stride. Awash in texture and mood, the album blends the earthy melodicism of…
A RACIAL DEVELOPMENT
Cameron Kuhn is the city-anointed person charged with reviving downtown. He recently snapped up the struggling Church Street Station entertainment complex for $34 million and everyone is waiting to see what he plans for it. His Premiere Trade Plaza, in what used to be called the Jaymont block, is nearing completion. Orlando is a very…
BLISTER
;I thought all Fridays were ;good. ;;”Wait a minute!” I slam my head against my steering wheel. “Isn’t Good Friday the day that scraggle-hunk Willem Dafoe was nine-inch-nailed to the cross? Is the Lord Jesus Christ — my personal savior in disturbing, morning-after toilet endeavors — dead?” ;;”I don’t know,” Eddie smears cocoa butter on…
SAVAGE LOVE
I am a 26-year-old straight man interested in ball-busting. At a party, I met a lesbian who goes by “Buck.” She’s 20, dresses like a boy, and made it clear that she hates males and their anatomy. Before agreeing to play Truth or Dare, she specified that she would not “do anything” with a boy.…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
;ARIES “I was the wife of Vlajko Stojiljkovic, deceased, who was indicted at the Hague War Crimes Tribunal. I assure you that the indictment was politically motivated and utterly without merit. I need to transfer our vast fortune out of the country. The funds are in excess of 64 million U.S. dollars. Can you help?…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Christ on a bike! My dance card has been stacked all friggin’ week. Not hatin’, just statin’. But of all the big events that transpired recently, one of the most compelling was a very small gathering. By all outward appearance, it was an intimate house party of about 40 or so guests. Only this get-together…
I LOVE TELEVISION
;Today we’re going to talk about Smallville, and … OH, STOP GROANING. You know as well as I do that Smallville — the CW soap documenting the adventures of Superboy — is one of the few teen dramas left on TV. And that’s a goddamn SHAME, if you ask me! My last remaining joy in…
ARTS & CULTURE TO GO
Grandma Party Bazaar First of all, we need to make a correction to our April 12 Selection about the Grandma Party Bazaar. No sooner had the issue hit the streets than we heard from the organizers via Emily Ruff that there were indeed “real grannies” involved, despite our report that the progressive community arts and…
HAPPYTOWN
So, you’ve lived your whole gay life thinking that God hates you. You’ve suffered through no small amount of self-contempt, self-flagellation and self-denial because you are a homo. You’ve stayed away from church because every televangelist on earth raises millions of dollars based on the fact that God hates you, and why subject yourself to…
POLICE BEAT
;APRIL 5, 7:12 A.M.: Some burglars sure know how to piss kids off.; ;Early this morning, the 40-year-old principal of an elementary school in the 5600 block of Harcourt Avenue was shocked by the remnants of late-night thievery. Portable No. 62 was the unlucky crime spot, where officers recovered “a 2-by-4 piece of wood, roughly…
LETTERS
Fred is a hero If you were diligent in your investigative work you would have discovered that commissioner `Fred` Brummer should be praised instead of vilified for his positions on the septic tank issue `”Everybody hates Fred,” March 29`. I know this is a fact because I was one of the individuals that, upon learning…
TAKE THE KEYS
LYNX spokesman Matthew Friedman has a blunt assessment of Central Florida’s attitude toward mass transit: “They hate it.” A more complex analysis goes like this: No one chooses to ride the bus. Almost universally, LYNX riders have no choice in the matter. They don’t have a car or they don’t have a license and they…
PACK UP THESE TITLES …
;One of my recurring dreams involves selling all my possessions, shutting down my cell phone and e-mail and setting off around the country — and then the world — by train with a small suitcase full of great books. If I ever did this, I’d take things I had already read. And if I had…
