Recordlection: It Still Moves
My Morning Jacket represented a salt of the earth, Kentucky distilled migration of unpretentious 1970s southern rock through a contemporary aughts filter. I felt it bubble in my veins.
Miss Hokusai
Hara’s film is an existential woodcarving of ideology and métier, and yet there is nothing really at stake. Nothing truly said. When something of note does transpire, the tonal shifts are more confused than confident.
Recordlection: I See A Darkness
“I See A Darkness” paints a bleak palette at its surface, yet for all of the ominous landscapes on display, there is a never ending sense of an appreciation/value for life itself.
10 Great Acting Performances
There are too many great performances to try and rank the ten best. Who is the best villain? The best hero? The best romantic lead? The best in a comedy role? Which actor made me cry the most or laugh the hardest?
Video Spotlight: “Ceremonies” by Strange Relations
Ever since our favorite blog, The Grey Estates, introduced us to the Minneapolis-based band Strange Relations, we’ve been stuck in a wormhole of Siouxsie Sioux-like shadows and the ethereal, fluttering ashes of long evenings and neon tinged bars.
Soft Lions: XOXO
The band – Megan Liscomb, vocals and guitar; Ana Ramundo, keys and vocals; Jon Bonser, drums – get lost in a parallel universe of broken pastels, syrupy lamentations, tonal juxtapositions, and visceral expressions of rage.
Nicolas Winding Refn’s Inkjet Universe
Director Nicolas Winding Refn is obsessed with pulsating colors and lithe silhouettes. A menagerie of vacuously buoyant electronica and cobalt eyes. Seedy provisions through the pastoral scope of ambiance and bloodless fatigue.
Hacksaw Ridge
About this point in the movie, it dawned on me that as an 18 year-old, my Dad served in the Battle of Okinawa. Like plenty of U.S. soldiers, he was wounded in the engagement. Some brave medic carried my father to safety back in 1945, so the film resonates with me.
Happy Hallofiend: A Spooky Playlist
By now, you’ve probably had a shot glass thumping party where you dressed up as Kate Beckinsale from Underworld 18. There was probably some Cramps playing. Maybe some Suicide.
Girl Asleep
The broken crayon aesthetic of director Rosemary Myers’ “Girl Asleep” leaves plumes of primary colors in its deadpan wake. The film bubbles around Greta Driscoll (Bethany Whitmore), an emotionally withdrawn and socially adrift 14-year-old on the precipice of her 15th birthday.
