SNAPPY COMEBACK
Movie: Birth
Review – Contours
Artist: Sam Rivers
BAD COMPANIES
Movie: The Corporation
Review – Double Vision Presents
Artist: Cabaret Voltaire
Movie: Around the Bend
Our Rating: 2.50 Just when you had ghettoized Christopher Walken as reliable comic relief in middling pictures like Envy, along comes an Around the Bend to prove that he can still bring dramatic credibility to middling pictures, too. As an absentee father attempting a belated reconciliation with his son (Josh Lucas) and grandson (Jonah Bobo),…
A TASTE OF THEIR OWN
On our way to Oviedo for some culinary adventuring, we drove down roads forged through what was formerly a canopy of pine trees. Instead of our usual downtown Thai favorites, we were headed to a different neighborhood to give Thai Basil a try. Imagine our shock when we walked in the door and found a…
Movie: Saw
Our Rating: 4.50 Not only is James Wan’s stunning, terrifying directorial debut, Saw, the first post-Bush horror film, it’s the one the administration deserves. There’s no subtext – the movie wears its themes of racism, social Darwinism and even healthcare outrage on its bloody sleeve. As the film opens, two guys – a wealthy doctor…
SNAPPY COMEBACK
Movie: Birth
Review – Revolver
Artist: The Haunted
BAD COMPANIES
Movie: The Corporation
Review – Contours
Artist: Sam Rivers
Movie: Around the Bend
Our Rating: 2.50 Just when you had ghettoized Christopher Walken as reliable comic relief in middling pictures like Envy, along comes an Around the Bend to prove that he can still bring dramatic credibility to middling pictures, too. As an absentee father attempting a belated reconciliation with his son (Josh Lucas) and grandson (Jonah Bobo),…
Review – Double Vision Presents
Artist: Cabaret Voltaire
Movie: Saw
Our Rating: 4.50 Not only is James Wan’s stunning, terrifying directorial debut, Saw, the first post-Bush horror film, it’s the one the administration deserves. There’s no subtext – the movie wears its themes of racism, social Darwinism and even healthcare outrage on its bloody sleeve. As the film opens, two guys – a wealthy doctor…
SNAPPY COMEBACK
Movie: Birth
BAD COMPANIES
Movie: The Corporation
Movie: Around the Bend
Around the Bend Length: 1 hour, 40 minutes Studio: Warner Independent Pictures Website: http://wip.warnerbros.com/aroundthebend/ Release Date: 2004-10-29 Cast: Michael Caine, Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas, Glenne Headly, Jonah Bobo Director: Jordan Roberts Screenwriter: Jordan Roberts Music Score: David Baerwald WorkNameSort: Around the Bend Our Rating: 2.50 Just when you had ghettoized Christopher Walken as reliable comic…
SNAPPY COMEBACK
Movie: Birth
BAD COMPANIES
Movie: The Corporation
Review – Revolver
Artist: The Haunted
Movie: Around the Bend
Our Rating: 2.50 Just when you had ghettoized Christopher Walken as reliable comic relief in middling pictures like Envy, along comes an Around the Bend to prove that he can still bring dramatic credibility to middling pictures, too. As an absentee father attempting a belated reconciliation with his son (Josh Lucas) and grandson (Jonah Bobo),…
Review – Contours
Artist: Sam Rivers
Movie: Saw
Our Rating: 4.50 Not only is James Wan’s stunning, terrifying directorial debut, Saw, the first post-Bush horror film, it’s the one the administration deserves. There’s no subtext – the movie wears its themes of racism, social Darwinism and even healthcare outrage on its bloody sleeve. As the film opens, two guys – a wealthy doctor…
Review – Double Vision Presents
Artist: Cabaret Voltaire
Review – Revolver
Artist: The Haunted
ONE STEP FURTER
Purists may squirm and new-comers will be delighted, but either way this multimedia adaptation of the venerable The Rocky Horror Show will enthrall all aficionados of late-night sexually oriented silliness. For the five or so people out there unaware of the plot of the cult play turned film (now back in the theater), dorkish Brad…
CANDY WITH A CAUSE
For the third year running the Orlando International Fringe Festival is raising operational funds by presenting an evening of 10-minute plays staged by hometown directors. This year’s program has an extra twist: For the first time, all of the pieces were written by local playwrights. As befits the 2004 event’s Halloween theme, some of the…
DEAD MAN TALKING
Archie Mann, the entertaining and agitated solo character in So, I Killed a Few People, embodies a sobering reality about capital punishment. A 30-something Southerner, Archie is running short on life: His death in Florida’s electric chair is imminent, the punishment for a lifelong preoccupation with serial murder (including a young woman in Tallahassee, whom…
THE POLITICS OF BUFFY
From 1997 to 2003, TV viewers were blessed with a big fat exception to the designed vapidity of American mass entertainment. Week in, week out, a flavorsome blend of high wit and kitchen-sink operatics seduced audiences into reconsidering the dangers of corporate/political corruption, class war, homophobia and hypermilitarism – all on Rupert Murdoch’s dime, yet.…
BARELY KERRY
Editor’s note: This is the last article in a weekly series of polling updates on the Nov. 2 presidential election. The presidential race is incredibly close, with Kerry leading by 58 electoral votes – and the crucial states of Florida and Ohio (47 votes) barely in the Kerry column. On Oct. 25, the latest nonpartisan…
ONE STRIKE AND YOU’RE OUT
For many people, having relatives stay with you over the Christmas holiday is fairly routine. For Christine Franqui, it proved ruinous. On April 4, Franqui’s landlord asked the circuit court for permission to evict her, charging that she hadn’t paid her $1,250 rent that month. Indeed, the landlord hadn’t gotten the rent. But that wasn’t…
ELECTION POP QUIZ
In just a few more days, we’ll have a much clearer picture of how our world will look for the next four years. We’ll know (barring some 2000-esque fiasco) if we’re going to be subject to four more years of a Bush presidency, for example. We’ll know if Tom DeLay clones will continue to rule…
Mates of State, Ministry, Sander Kleinenberg, Skinny Puppy and more
Thursday • 28 SKINNY PUPPY Oh, man are we stoked about this show. Not only because we’re getting to see Skinny Puppy nearly 10 years after the last time we witnessed their scary-ass live show, but also because the oh-so-amazing Otto Von Schirach is opening the show. Whereas Skinny Puppy was legendary in their heyday…
THREE-DAY-OLD FISH
Homeowners are often startled to find that, in many states, if they give someone permission to stay with them for a while, and that guest eventually overstays his welcome, the homeowner can no longer easily eject the guest. Nor can a sheriff do it, but rather the homeowner must go through formal and lengthy eviction…
ALTERED DESTINY
No one could accuse Philip Roth of having a lackluster fantasy life. In 1993, for example, Roth spun a big blowsy yarn about, well, himself –; sort of. The Philip Roth who narrates Operation Shylock worked in Athens as an Israeli spy and was fighting over his identity with an anti-Zionist doppelgänger in Jerusalem. “I’m…
E-NIGHT BOOZY CALLS
Hell-bent on watching the Nov. 2 election returns on TV, even if it turns into an all-nighter? Make a party of it and stock up on booze and friends – and Republicans, if you have a taste for blood. Here are a few appropriate and inappropriate drinks* to down like there’s no tomorrow. Burning Bush…
JELLYFISH KISSES
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about standing still, about dirt-rooted feet and blossoming hair resplendent with little bits of sweet fruit. Lounging lazily in thoughts of never moving again, it seems I’ve gone a little Eastern; some trendy reverse-pomo Kerouacian On the Couch, culling impulses and impulse buys from the universe of nerves within…
With ‘Eyes Wide Open’ we offer our political endorsements
This, gentle readers, is the last time we’ll be together before the Nov. 2 elections. And we know that there are dozens (OK, perhaps a baker’s half-dozen) of you who have been waiting for us to tell you who and what to vote for. You’re in luck, as Happytown™ is finally making its Official Political…
HOW DOES ANYONE SURVIVE
In the early 1990s, American Music Club was considered by many music critics to be the finest band in the country, their 1991 album Everclear topping many year-end polls and their singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel being named Songwriter of the Year by Rolling Stone’s Critics’ Poll. The San Franciscan quintet’s idiosyncratic mix of country pathos, folk-song…
THE WAY WE WERE
The persistent mythology that the ’80s were a vacuous decade of greed and cultural uselessness is a hard one to debate. But only the ’80s can lay claim to an outpouring of pop-culture compassion as impressive as Live Aid. The very idea that the stratosphere of pop stars would gather on two continents to create…
ANTI-FASCIST GROOVE THANGS
A couple of weeks ago, I hit the wall. While watching Greg Palast’s Bush Family Fortunes documentary, I realized it was impossible for me to hate George Bush’s presidency in any greater measure than I already do. I didn’t realize this was possible, but there I was, staring vacantly at the television, rambling off economic…
“Valet of the shadow”
With this being the last Dog Playing Poker column to see print before the big election, the onus is on your humble canine to rally the troops in some stirring, hopefully unique way. Early-voting initiatives notwithstanding, the experts all say that this race will be won by the team that produces the biggest turnout on…
