January 2014 Reviews

Tahar Rahim, Bérénice Bejo, and Ali Mosaffa in The Past

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.






Amazon Theatricals: Ralph Fiennes' The Invisible Woman 

(with Fiennes and Felicity Jones) and Asghar Farhadi's The Past.

Line Out: After Two Years in Berlin, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Unveil Wig Out at Jagbags, Morgan Delt's Kaleidoscopic "Obstacle Eyes," That Time Morvern Callar Author Alan Warner Wrote About Can's 1971 Album Tago Mago, What Happens When the Black Lips Get the Blues (and Break Out the Leather and Chains), Protomartyr's "Scum, Rise!" Revives the Scuzzy Noise Rock of the Reagan Era, Angel Olsen Revs Up Her Sound on New Record, Web of Sunsets Herald Their Debut on End of Time Records with a Lovely New Song, Ben Chasny and Donovan Quinn Celebrate Old Drunk America on First Full-Length, Forget the Title: Boston Trio Quilt's "Tired & Buttered" Is One of Their Finest Songs to Date, The Coathangers Throw Things, Deface Record Covers, Release a New Song, and Hit the Road, Neneh Cherry's Genre-Defying "Everything," and Jobriath A.D.

Video Librarian: Old Dogs & New Tricks - Complete Seasons 1 & 2, Cliff Richard - Still Reelin’ and A-Rockin': Live in Sydney [Blu-ray], George Thorogood & the Destroyers: Live at Montreux [Blu-ray], Consumed - Identity and Anxiety, Follow Me Down - Portraits of Louisiana Prison Musicians, The Lower 9 - A Story of  Home, They Think I'm Chinese, Sample This - The Birth of Hip-Hop, Sister (with Léa Seydoux), and Tiger Eyes.

The Past image from Sony Pictures Classics.  

December 2013 Reviews

These are the 
reviews and 
other pieces 
I'm working 
on this month.













Amazon Theatrical: August: Osage County. 

Line Out: No Chance of Smog: Mick Turner and Bill Callahan at
Neumos, Mutual Benefit's Debut Album, Love's Crushing Dia-
mond, Is a Low-Key Gem, The New La Luz Video for "Big Big Blood" Has Creepy Fun with Horror Movies, Step into the Static with TV Ghost, Seattle Musicians and Authors Pay Tribute to Lou Reed and Sub Pop on Two Separate Evenings, Jack Name Takes His Glam Rock to Outer Space, Bay Area Trio Terry Malts Go Minimalist in the Stark, Black & White Video for "I Was Not There," Mutual Benefit's New Video Takes Inspiration from Danish Bad-News Classic The Celebration, Magik Markers Invite You to Surrender to the Fantasy, The Gourds: A Film, a Song, and a Few Thoughts, Burger Records' (Mostly) Painless Holiday Mix, One-Man Band Morgan Delt Brings Undiluted Psychedelia to His Debut, Nasimiyu Murumba Lights Up the "Dark," and Spartan Poster of the Week Contender.

Video Librarian: Black Label Society - Unblackened [Blu], It's
a Girl, Trash Dance, James Morrison - The Wizard from Oz, Anti-
gone 34 [three-disc set], Move Me Brightly, Springsteen & I [Blu], Buying Sex, All the Labor, Dream Theater - Live at Luna Park.
 
Image from Other Music Recording Co.

November 2013 Reviews

Adèle Exarchopoulos in Blue Is the Warmest Color

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.

Amazon Theatricals: Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is the Warm-
est Color (with Léa Seydoux), Alex Gibney's The Armstrong Lie, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (with Jennifer Lawrence).

Still playing (or yet to open): Blue Jasmine, The Mortal Instru-
ments - City of Bones, The Way, Way Back, and We're the Millers.
 
Line Out: Doc Pomus: Writer, Raconteur, Humanitarian, The Great Cate (Le Bon) Abandons Wales, Embraces the U.S., and Falls in with a Bunch of Yanks, Morgan Delt's Album Preview, "Beneath the Black and Purple," Will Take Your Mind for a Ride, Wot's Up with Mike Donovan's Debut, A Transformative Night at the Northwest Film Forum in Tribute to Loud Reed, Quilt Gets Back to Nature in "Arctic Shark" Video, Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me Is a Heartbreaker, Hear Mmoss's David Tuttle Get His Neil Young On, Barbara Trentalange's "Same Illusion" Is a Moody Thing (with a Haunting Video), Limiñanas' Irresistible Costa Blanca, and RSD's Black Friday Includes T-Shirts, Too, Like This Big Star Model. 

Seattle Film Blog: Claire Denis's Bastards.

Video Librarian: The Mortal Instruments - City of Bones, On the Riviera, Alfredo's Fire, The Genius of Marian, Here One Day, The 
Hill, More Than Honey, The Price of Sand, Caro Emerald in Con-
cert [Blu-ray], Drug War [Blu-ray], Stuck in Love, and Kindred -
The Embraced: The Complete Vampire Collection [three-disc set].

Blue Is the Warmest Color image from IFC.  

October 2013 Reviews

Claudia Lennear (Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour)

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.

Amazon 
Theat-
ricals: Haute Cuisine (with Catherine Frot) and Romeo & Juliet (with Douglas Booth).

Still playing (or yet to open): Blue Jasmine, Jobs, The Mortal Instruments -
City of Bones, The Spectacular Now, The Way, Way Back, and We're the Millers.  

Easy Street Blog: Line Out review of the new Dirtbombs.

 

Line Out: Bill Callahan, Circuit des Yeux's Haley Fohr, and
the Art of Selecting an Opening Act, The New Limiñanas Song,
"My Black Sabbath," Recreates the World of the Swinging Sixties Jetsetter, David Novick's Lovely, Hazy "Undo the Knot," Jacco Gardner Releases a New Song and Video ("The End of August") and Hits the Road, Claudia Lennear's Lone Solo Record, Phew!, Rocks Hard, Defies Expectations, New Quilt Song: Anything but Cold or Dangerous, Jacco Gardner: Bringer of Grace and Charm, Dirty Three Guitarist Mick Turner's New Bag of Tricks Includes a Veteran Australian Vocalist, Alex Cuervo Trades the Garage for More Treacherous Spaces on Spooky New Project, Jason Pierce Returns to Spacemen 3 Roots on Reworking of Cut Copy's "Free Your Mind," Cate Le Bon Guests on Kevin Morby Song, Bella Musica from Italian Duo Satelliti, Boardwalk's Debut: A Mixed Success, Grass Widow Bassist Hannah Lew Is Cold Beat,
and Tim Presley's White Fence Gets "Filthy" for a Friend. 

Video Librarian: Where Heaven Meets Hell, Santana & Mc-
Laughlin – Invitation to Illumination: Live at Montreux 2011 [Blu-ray], Willy DeVille - Live in the Lowlands [Blu], Portnoy Sheehan Macalpine Sherinian - Live in Tokyo [Blu], UB40 - Live at Montreux 2002 [Blu], Bob and the Monster, Awkward - Seasons 1 & 2 [four-disc set], Stuck in Love, and Big Star - Nothing Can Hurt Me.  

Claudia Lennear image from tour photographer Linda Wolf.  

September 2013 Reviews

These are the reviews 
and other pieces I'm 
working on this month.

Amazon 
DVDs and
Theatricals:
None. 

Still playing (or yet 
to open): Before Midnight, Blue Jasmine, Jobs, The Mortal Instruments - City
of Bones, The Spectacular Now, Turbo, The Way, Way Back, We're the Millers.

Line Out: His Electro Blue Voice: These Italians Do It Better--and a Lot Louder, Tough Age's New Single Will Wake the Dead, MORE from Alexis Georgopoulos's Arp, The Dirtbombs Recreate the Bubblegum Era with Ooey Gooey Chewy Ka-Blooey!, Sun Getting You Down? Unlikely, but Just in Case: The New HSY EP Will Cure What Ails You, The Julie Ruin: A Super-Sized Sundae with Chocolate Sauce, Brazilian Quartet Boogarins Release Summery, Sunlit Video for "Lucifernandis," On Nobody knows., Willis Earl Beal Trades the Studio Apartment for the Recording Studio, Photographer Jamel Shabazz Captures (and Continues to Capture) New York Cool, "Living for the Future," the Spooky New Video from One-Man Factory Revival Band Vex Ruffin, In the First Single off Their New Album, Tim Heidecker and Davin Wood Ask, "What Else Is New?," CAVE's Ghostly "Shikaakwa" Video In-
tegrates Vector Rescanning and Raster Manipulation.  

Video Librarian: Shameless - Seasons 1 & 2 [four-disc set], 
Ain't In It for My Health - A Film About Levon Helm, Change,  
Carbon for Water, Ethiopia Dances for Joy!, How to Lose Your Virginity, Love Hate Love, Our Fires Still Burn - The Native Am-
erican Experience, Price of Gold, Enlightened - The Complete 
Second Season [two-disc set], Grey’s Anatomy - The Complete 
Ninth Season [six-disc set], and The Idolmaker [Blu-ray].  

Arp image from Smalltown Supersound.

August 2013 Reviews

These are the 
reviews and 
other pieces 
I'm working 
on this 
month.





Amazon Theatricals: Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen directs
Cate Blanchett), We're the Millers (with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis), Jobs (with Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs), and The Mortal Instruments - City of Bones (with Lily Collins).  

Still playing (or yet to open): The Bling Ring, Girl Most Likely, Much 
 Ado About Nothing, The Spectacular Now, Turbo, and The Way, Way Back.  

Line Out: Boogarins' Decidedly Undemonic "Luficernandis,"
Mike Donovan Ends Sic Alps, Releases New Single, and Hits the Road with Ty Segall, On Ty Segall's New Project, Fuzz, and the Unrelenting Pace of His Production, Gap Dream's Goofy Video for "Chill Spot," Lonnie Holley: In the Studio and On Tour with Bradford Cox, Cole Alexander, and Bill Callahan, The Blow Returns with "Make It Up," As Enchanting as Ever: Juana Molina's "Eras," Vex Ruffin's New "No Escape" EP Is Pretty Great and Totally Free, Scout Niblett Dresses Like Snow White to Spread the Joy of "Gun," Scout Niblett at Barboza: Short Report, Cass McCombs, Karen Black, and His New Album, Cate Le Bon + Perfume Genius = A Lovely Duet, and The Growlers' B-Movie Video for "One Million Lovers" Is a Black & White Delight.

Pitch Perfect PR quotes me in the one-sheet for the new RocketNumberNine video: 

"An album that makes me want to dance, to get to work, 

and to read the novels of Philip K. Dick."--The Stranger
 
Video Librarian: Boardwalk Empire - The Complete Third Season [five-disc set], Boy, Cloudburst, Dio - Finding the Sacred Heart: Live in Philly 1986 [Blu-ray], Garbage - One Mile High...Live [Blu-ray], Bob Milne in Concert - Volume 1, Solomon Burke - Live at Montreux 2006, The LA Complex - The Complete Series [three-disc set], Saige Paints the Sky, I Killed My Mother, Violeta Went to Heaven, The Wall, and Aerosmith - Rock for the Rising Sun [Blu-ray].

Cate Blanchett image from Sony Pictures Classics. 

July 2013 Reviews

Heliotropes - A Constant Sea

These are the reviews and other 
pieces I'm working on this month.

Amazon DVDs: None.  

Amazon Theatricals: Turbo (animated feature with the voices of Paul Giamatti and Ryan Reynolds) and Girl Most Likely (with Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening).

Still playing (or yet to open): Before Midnight, The Bling Ring, Much 
Ado About Nothing, The Spectacular Now, and The Way, Way Back.  

Hot Splice: Family History or Why I Support the NWFF. 

Line Out: Sic Alps: Three Videos for Three Songs, Having a Sab-
bath with Heliotropes, Hannah Lew Directs the Mantles' "Hello" Video, Pony Time In-Store at Everyday Music, Reading and Dreaming with Bitchin Bajas, New Terry Malts Music: Fun with Negative Nouns, KCMU 40th Anniversary Party at the Sunset, King Tuff and More at the Jubilee, Shintaro Sakamoto's Skeleton-Dancing Video, "From the Dead," The Psychedelic Tears of Jacco Gardner, Food Pyramid's Music from Other Worlds, Wayne Coyne to Introduce Flaming Lips Documentary at the Northwest Film Forum, Arp's 1970s-Saturated "High-Heeled Clouds," Wayne Coyne: Fearless Freak on Film, Assessment of Venom P. Stinger. 

Seattle Film Blog: Berberian Sound Studio.  

Video Librarian: A Portrait of James Dean - Joshua Tree 
1951, Dirt Road to Psychedelia: Austin, Texas During the 
1960s, Flower in Otomi, La Source, Nova Rex - Ain't Easy 
Being Cheesy, Of Two Minds, The Paper Mirror, Frank Zappa - 
A Token of His Extreme, Call the Midwife - Season Two  
[three-disc set], Neil Cowley Trio - Live at Montreux  
[Blu-ray], Drop Dead Diva - The Complete Fourth 
Season [three-disc set], and Ring of Fire.

Cover art image from Manimal Vinyl.