My Kid Could Paint That
My Kid Could Paint That Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Rated: PG-13 Cast: Anthony Brunelli, Stuart Simpson Director: Amir Bar-Lev WorkNameSort: My Kid Could Paint That Our Rating: 4.00 My Kid Could Paint That is about a lot of things – least of all the astonishing story of Marla Olmstead, a 4-year-old abstract painter from Binghamton,…
Sleuth
Sleuth Studio: Sony Pictures Classics Rated: R Cast: Michael Caine, Jude Law Director: Kenneth Branagh WorkNameSort: Sleuth Our Rating: 0.50 During a recent screening of the remake of Sleuth, numerous viewers were left laughing at more than one scene. Ultimately, this writer realized they, like him, were laughing not at the movie’s attempts at humor,…
Red Carpet Massacre
Red Carpet Massacre Label: Epic Length: LP Rated: NONE Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Red Carpet Massacre “These are days of hit and run,” croons Simon LeBon as he slams his way into what may be the most important record of Duran Duran’s nearly 30-year career with album opener “The Valley.” It’s that sort of…
Dusker
Dusker Label: Ghostly International Length: LP Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Dusker Any point of entry on Kiln’s Dusker will garner the same deeply intoxicating effect. The order of tracks in this collection of sparkling instrumental works has little effect on how the compositions will play out, either in headphones (recommended) or on a living-room…
Hoarse Lords
Hoarse Lords Label: Lovepump United Length: LP Rated: NONE Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Hoarse Lords From the defaced ’70s stag-mag pinups pleasuring themselves on the packaging, to the hieroglyphic-lookin’ liner-note type, to the psych-jams-to-nowhere-in-particular, Hoarse Lords aims to disorient. Ample bass lines jut and wiggle; exploding guitars expel gallons of soaking foam; dim-scum keyboards…
Anna Ternheim EP
Anna Ternheim EP Label: Decca Length: EP Rated: NONE Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Anna Ternheim EP Every photo of Anna Ternheim finds her bowing her head like a kid scolded for thieving liquor (see this EP, Girl Lying Down, Separation Road, Somebody Outside), and she barely explains it. On the self-titled first U.S. release…
FOUR-STAR GENERALES
Mexican dining a notch above the rest
Fred Claus
Fred Claus Studio: Warner Bros Rated: PG Cast: Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti Director: David Dobkin WorkNameSort: Fred Claus Our Rating: 1.50 Fred Claus is the perfect example of how a great idea can be ruined by the most competent filmmakers. Let’s start with the idea: Santa has an estranged, underachieving older brother named Fred who…
Lions for Lambs
Lions for Lambs Studio: MGM Rated: R Cast: Robert Redford, Tom Cruise Director: Robert Redford WorkNameSort: Lions for Lambs Our Rating: 3.50 For a film boasting three of the biggest matinee icons of all time, Lions for Lambs is a surprisingly small film. It’s about an hour and a half long and is composed of…
BLISTER
Are we living in a world where sex and horror are the new gods? No, it’s just Halloween. “I’m a bumblebee on my period,” Savannah buzzes in from the ignominy that is a Church Street costume party. “I need you to get over here and lick my blood honey.” “Eww,” I shift on my couch,…
SAVAGE LOVE
I came out after years of “playing straight.” I had two long-term monogamous gay relationships, then converted a friend into a boyfriend. We bought a house, got a dog and live in the burbs. Supposedly, life is good. I’m a fairly athletic guy. My partner isn’t athletic. He likes to stay home, watch movies, cook…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES (March 21-April 19) Read these lines by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, translated by Chana Block and Stephen Mitchell: “A flock of sheep near the airport or a high voltage generator beside the orchard: these combinations open up my life like a wound, but they also heal it. That’s why my feelings always come in…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
OK, coping with a certain degree of concert-going apathy from you guys is part of my job. But if the turning of the weather doesn’t make you stir, you’re just hopeless, baby. The beat I musta looked like the Ms. Pac-Man chase scene to drinkers on Orange Avenue Oct. 28, but I was ping-ponging between…
EATING HER WORDS
Chocolate & Zucchini, Clotilde Dusoulier’s food blog about daily life and cooking in Paris (www.chocolateandzucchini.com), has wrapped millions of Internet foodies in her charming writing and honest recipes, and her new cookbook is certain to enrapture both her loyal readers and new converts. With accompanying wine selections for each recipe by wine writer Lenn Thompson…
HAPPYTOWN
Hey, we’ve got a race for the mayor’s seat! Yippee! As a public service, Happytown™ is here to introduce you to the candidates and gauge their chances of winning for you. You’re welcome. Tim Adams: Twenty-four years after his first run for the brass ring (he ran in both the 1984 and 1988 races, losing…
POLICE BEAT
OCT. 8, 12:39 A.M.: All was relaxed inside one very fluorescent convenience store in the 4300 block of Silver Star Road this early morning. This midnight calm, however, was about to be broken. A pudgy dude walked inside with a black T-shirt wrapped around his head. He had a handgun and demanded dough – and…
MAIL SACK
What’s up with Ric? U.S. Rep. Ric Keller should be ashamed of himself `Happytown™, Nov. 1`. Standing with President Bush in denying poor children access to basic health care is the best example of what “leadership” is not about, and calls into question Keller’s own leadership skills. Obviously, Keller is made to follow and not…
TEGAN AND SARA VERSUS ALY & AJ
Talk about weird cultural doppelgängers: The last couple of months have seen the release of CDs by two sibling acts in an accidental double-niche-genre face-off: The Con by fashionista hipster lesbian twins Tegan and Sara and Insomniatic by Christian teen-pop queens Aly & AJ, 18-year-old Alyson Michalka and her two-year-younger sis, Amanda Joy. Both are…
THREE STRIKES – AND IT SCORES
In October 2005, in a preview of the inaugural edition of the Anti-Pop Music Festival, I wrote, “Welcome to the beginning of something big,” and opined that this new entity would be giving “Orlando the independent music festival it needs.” Two years later, both of those statements turned out to be true; the latter somewhat…
FREE FOR ALL
Are you ready for the sequel? Last year, the Orlando Film Festival made a modest debut with a program of a half-dozen feature-length films and a bunch of shorts. When the smoke had cleared, the event had racked up between 800 and 1,000 admissions – maybe not great but, all things considered, not so bad, either.…
CHALLENGE THIS GUY!
At 12:01 p.m. on Nov. 16, the deadline for candidates to register for Orlando’s Jan. 29 election will have passed. As of this writing, three people have stepped up to take on Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer: Tim Adams, Nick Egoroff and Ken Mulvaney. It’s grand that someone has finally decided to challenge Dyer, because as…
Sentinel circ only drops by 0.4 percent; paper proud of self
It’s always a little amusing to watch newspapers write about themselves. But this Sentinel headline is pretty over-the-top: “Circulation dips at many Florida newspapers; Sentinel bucks trend.” Oh really? From the story itself: ” Circulation at the Orlando Sentinel was nearly unchanged, down 0.4 percent to 213,406 weekdays … .” Keeping your head above water…
George W. Bush, now the least popular president ever
This from USA Today: “Meanwhile, Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they ‘strongly disapprove’ of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in…
