Evening
Evening Studio: Focus Rated: PG-13 Cast: Claire Danes, Vanessa Redgrave Director: Lajos Koltai WorkNameSort: Evening Our Rating: 4.50 Cannily marketed as a tender-hearted klatch of ‘the greatest actresses of our time,â?� Evening promises misty-eyed remembrances of loves long past, mistakes made, secrets kept and lots of happy, kissing people. In reality, however, the Susan Minot…
Live Free or Die Hard
Live Free or Die Hard Studio: 20th Century Fox Rated: PG-13 Cast: Bruce Willis, Justin Long Director: Len Wiseman WorkNameSort: Live Free or Die Hard Our Rating: 3.00 For the record, Live Free or Die Hard is positively entertaining. Director Len Wiseman (the Underworld series) enthusiastically adheres to the series formula while updating the constant…
Once
Once Studio: Fox Searchlight Rated: R Cast: Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova Director: John Carney WorkNameSort: Once Our Rating: 5.00 Irish writer/director John Carney’s new musical, Once, tells his semi-autobiographical story of two broken hearts in search of repair. Glen Hansard, bandmate of Carney (both were members of Irish band the Frames) plays the lead as…
Ratatouille
Ratatouille Studio: Disney/Pixar Rated: G Cast: Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garofalo Director: Brad Bird WorkNameSort: Ratatouille Our Rating: 2.50 If your kids like to watch the Food Network or have a thing for the pudgy neighbor from The King of Queens, then Ratatouille may be right up their alley. Otherwise, the previously winning Pixar calculus of…
Sicko
Sicko Studio: The Weinstein Co. Rated: PG-13 Director: Michael Moore WorkNameSort: Sicko Our Rating: 4.00 Michael Moore’s previous Barnum-esque combination of near-genius editing of news footage and self-righteous ego-tripping takes a backseat in Sicko, his examination of the American health-care industry. As Moore’s voice-over clarifies in the opening moments, the film is not about the…
The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair
The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair Studio: Magnolia WorkNameSort: Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair, The This documentary’s Strangelovian title is intriguing but, as we learn, sarcastic. The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair is one of many personal stories to emerge from the fiasco…
Big Easy to Big Empty
Big Easy to Big Empty Studio: Disinformation WorkNameSort: Big Easy to Big Empty Subtitled ‘A Greg Palast Investigation,â?� Big Easy to Big Empty is a whole lot of the titular reporter’s floppy hat and accusatory sensationalism and not much else. Filmed a year after Katrina, this skimpy half-hour piece projects much of its ire at…
The Bow
The Bow Studio: Tartan WorkNameSort: Bow , The Critics ravaged this movie when it played at Cannes, so much so that it never received proper stateside distribution. For most of us, this Tartan release is the first we’ll see of The Bow, South Korean director Ki-Duk Kim’s follow-up to 2004’s astounding metaphysical experience, 3-Iron. The…
Build A Nation
Build A Nation Label: Megaforce Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Build A Nation It’s been more than a decade since Bad Brains last ‘reunitedâ?� for a studio album; that disc, God of Love, failed to burnish the punk titans’ legacy and was further evidence of the creative drain that started with 1989’s metal-tinged…
Peace Is Burning Like A River
Peace Is Burning Like A River Label: High Two Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Peace Is Burning Like A River Aside from his day gig as a producer, Brian McTear has performed as Bitter Bitter Weeks for years. On this third, louder album, McTear opens his smart songwriting up to full-band arrangements. So…
Oh Perilous World
Oh Perilous World Label: Filthy Bonnet Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Oh Perilous World Sounding less like the corseted vampires that have been invoked by their previous releases, Rasputina emerges on their first independently released studio album sounding like a cross between Sleater-Kinney, the White Stripes and, well, corseted vampires. The most jarring…
Sweet Warrior
Sweet Warrior Label: Shout! Factory Length: LP Rated: NONE Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Sweet Warrior Richard Thompson’s catalog includes devastating songwriting and jaw-dropping lead guitar work, cataclysmic rockers and poignant ballads. So the bar is set impossibly high. And with each successive release of new material, the breakdown usually works out to a handful…
Tuned to Love
Tuned to Love Label: Graveface Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Tuned to Love Ian McCutcheon’s grim news about Mojave 3 nixing future recording sessions comes from the source; he was their drummer when he founded the Loose Salute. Tuned to Love draws from the same floppy-haired ’60s popsters that Mojave 3 evidently basked…
JUICED
Citrus is sweet, but not quite ripe
BLISTER
As we are on most Thursday nights of hapless downtown drunkitude, Tony and I are squinting at the walls in search of a sign to tell us just when we are. Fortunately, on this occasion there’s a poster. “You see us as you want to see us … in the simplest of terms, in the…
SAVAGE LOVE
;I would love your advice on ;how to deal with some news I got recently. At my most recent gyno visit, I found out I have two vaginas. I’d had a number of routine pelvic exams with my old doctor, but she never discovered it. During my first visit with my new doctor, however, she…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Welcome to the second half of 2007. We’re checking up on how you’re progressing with the long-term tasks you were assigned six months ago. By now you’re seeing how much you have to learn. This has been and will continue to be an ideal time to act like a student in…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
;This ain’t the Complaints Department but I’m gonna solve a couple gripes I often hear, because fixin’ shit and makin’ things happen is what I do.;; ;A downtown ;alternative ;Oh, the times I’ve heard people complain about the lack of anything fresh to do downtown. Well, if you belong to this tribe, be prepared to…
I LOVE TELEVISION
Happy Princess Diana Week, everybody! As you may have already heard — from the plethora of TV ads and magazine articles — Princess Diana is DEAD. And she remains dead, even after 10 years. Now, before you jump down my throat for daring to insult “England’s Rose,” I have no problem with Princess Diana being…
CULTURE TO GO
Hate Mail delivers thanks to comic chops Trying to extract satisfaction, or even sanity, from a customer-service representative is a Sisyphean task; ask anyone who’s tried to cancel their AOL account. So it’s not surprising that the attempt to return a broken Times Square souvenir transforms Preston Dennis Jr. (David Almeida) from buttoned-down fussbudget into…
HAPPYTOWN
Dear John, It’s not you. It’s us. First, you are very cute, and we’re not sure when or if we’re ever going to find another buff, well-adjusted, dreamy politico to wake up next to and catbutt. However, it’s just not working anymore. We were going to say something back in March, but then we heard…
POLICE BEAT
JUNE 13, 3:50 A.M.: Addiction swayed one burglar to do naughty things at a local grocery store in the 1400 block of South Hiawassee Road this early morning. Our suspect slapped on suave duds — a white long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, a pair of tennis shoes, gray gloves and a mask to conceal his mug…
MAIL SACK
True haters I’m just writing to express that whoever wrote the article on R. Kelly is a true hater `”Sane man,” June 21`. Whether you like it or not, he’s the king of R&B. Obviously whoever wrote this article is not an R&B fan. For us true hip-hop and R&B fans, we all had things…
AN OLD SOUL
Soul singer Marc Broussard, son of Louisiana Hall of Fame and Boogie Kings guitarist Ted Broussard, does it the old-fashioned way. His latest album, S.O.S.: Save Our Soul, a collection of R&B classics, from Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues,” Al Green’s “Love and Happiness” and Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” to more…
HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Like most gamers, I’m used to viewing the mix of gaming and politics the same way I’d look at a filet mignon drenched in peanut butter, or Larry the Cable Guy in a documentary film project. Politicians may be a source of endless entertainment — check out the user-submitted campaign song videos on Hillary Clinton’s…
COLD BEER!
It’s officially summer, which means it’s hellishly hot outside. You could try to reduce your core temperature with a trip to the beach, you could pack your skivvies with ice, you could have someone hose you off, you could jump a plane to Reykjavík … or you could do what sensible people do: drink lots…
WHAT’S IN A NAMESAKE?
In 1894, local lore has it, Philip Phillips arrived in Central Florida determined to make it as a cattle rancher. But that wasn’t to be his fate. Instead, by his death in 1959, Phillips had become a citrus magnate. His innovative pasteurization methods and shrewd eye for advertising vastly expanded his empire, and in the…
THE GREAT SPECIAL EDITION SWINDLE
;Look. God knows, I’m not much for righting wrongs – or even quelling minor annoyances – via the ol’ “brute-strength” method. I generally lack the disposition (and, in my present, pudgy-pacifist state, a not-insignificant portion of the ammo, as well).; ;That aside: This weak crap keeps up, someone’s gonna get a spirited kick to the…
