Artist: Fun. (feat. Janelle Monáe). Album: We Are Young (feat. Janelle Monáe) – Single.
They spun a whole cotton-candy show out of the sugary one-minute Pan Am-stewardess sequence from 2002's Catch Me If You Can. Enjoy the empty calories while they last.
Brad Bird's live-action inauguration is every bit as polished as his animated films—and considerably more cartoonish. The franchise stakes may be higher than ever but they've never carried less weight. Grade: B
With their lifeless eyes and voodoo limbs, the Muppets have always terrified me—so it's a testament to the ingratiating cheer of this musical outing that I was able to set aside my faux-bia long enough to enjoy them for a hundred minutes, even as I was left with the impression that this would-be Muppet revival is in fact a Muppet jazz funeral. Grade: B
Pacino to Sandler: "You, madame, are at your worst." Sandler to Pacino: "You, sir, are also at your worst." (I'm paraphrasing.) Grade: F
Walter Isaacson profiles the late Steve Jobs the way an iRobot vacuum cleaner navigates a room: he bounces off obstacles (usually his subject's intransigence); goes bounding in unpredictable directions (oscillating between chronological and thematic chapters); and covers some ground compulsively (Jobs' personal and emotional hygiene) while curiously sidestepping milestones (the ill-starred Apple III, the wirelessly networked iBook)—amounting to an authorized biography that doesn't always feel authoritative. A notable exception occurs near the end, during a pensive section where Jobs contemplates his own mortality, and the quiet enormity of an eventful life cut short finally speaks for itself.
Charming, albeit never fully disarming. Anna Kendrick is becoming deviously adept at elevating improbable characters with ingratiating performances. Grade: B
A little Jak and Daxter, a little Super Mario Galaxy, a whole lotta nostalgia.
Artist: Maya Von Doll. Album: Play My Way – Single.
A box of Cracker Jacks. Grade: B+
Artist: Viva Voce. Album: The Future Will Destroy You.
I don't know a whit about baseball. I enjoyed it anyway. Grade: B
Artist: Tift Merritt. Album: See You On the Moon.
Although it stands to reason that Ryan Gosling's current ubiquity will eventually backfire, he certainly doesn't wear out his welcome here. Grade: B+
If The Aviator was the Citizen Kane of movies about obsessive-compulsive disorder, Contagion is the, oh, I don't know … The Clockwork Orange of so on and so forth. Grade: OCD
Artist: Federico Aubele. Album: No One – EP.
Artist: Gomez. Album: Whatever's On Your Mind.
It's difficult, and possibly heartless, not to feel the emotional tug of this tale of women helping women overcome the inequities and indignities of the Jim Crow South. It's equally difficult, however, not to find fault with the Lifetime-movie tropes of this particular telling, with its cartoonish belles and telegraphed highs and lows, where every magnolia is stainless steel and no green tomato goes un-fried. Grade: B-
Artist: Voxhaul Broadcast. Album: Timing Is Everything.
Artist: Skrillex. Album: More Monsters and Sprites.
Artist: The Strokes. Album: Under Cover of Darkness – Single.
I'm leery of composite novels—their fits, their spurts, their stops and starts—but Jennifer Egan writes with a unifying vision and startling clarity. Even the fabled PowerPoint-presentation chapter transcends gimmickry and packs an emotional wallop. The only real misstep is the cyberpunk-lite epilogue, an overweening codicil where the author does far too much telling and not enough showing.
Artist: Arcade Fire. Album: The Suburbs.
Artist: Ellie Goulding. Album: Lights.
Artist: Amadou & Mariam. Album: Dimanche à Bamako.