Magic realism wrapped in gritty vérité. Brutal and big-hearted. A bouquet of fresh faces. Grade: B+
Artist: The Verve. Album: Forth.
Artist: Kanye West. Album: 808s & Heartbreak.
Artist: Guns N' Roses. Album: Chinese Democracy.
Artist: Katie Herzig. Album: Apple Tree.
Artist: The Knife. Album: Deep Cuts.
Marc Forster, some of whose previous movies I've seen but am presently at a loss to recall the contents of, is clearly uncomfortable with the demands of kitchen-sink action overdrive—executing early set pieces with a visual robo-stutter that squanders every expensive shot and renders the lavish devastation skullfuckingly painful to watch. He seems to calm down somewhat in the later going, or the second unit becomes more assertive, and the movie settles into a crashsploitative rhythm while sporadically attempting to recover the plot—but unfortunately not before a sequence wherein … erm, "operatic" violence is … staged around and intercut with scenes from … an actual opera. Daniel Craig glares, Judi Dench glowers, Mathieu Amalric goggles, Jeffrey Wright grimaces, Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton ARE REALLY HOT RIGHT NOW and … roll credits (no fatties). Grade: C+
Artist: The Essex Green. Album: Cannibal Sea.
Artist: Micah P. Hinson. Album: The Baby & The Satellite.
Artist: Dear Euphoria. Album: Dear Euphoria.
Artist: Fredrik. Album: Na Na Ni.
Director Clint Eastwood brings his trademark "spare" (gloomy) style to a period melodrama that, superficial similarities to the likes of L.A. Confidential aside, actually has more in common in its execution with supernatural horror than deco noir. The almost unspeakably gruesome crime spree that haunts the film also threatens, at times, to derail it—but a strong supporting cast keeps the proceedings rooted in the human dimension. In the lead role Angelina Jolie certainly looks the part: a doe-eyed, cloche-hatted Edward Hopper subject sprung lusciously to life; and the actress does what she emotionally can with the material; but it's a curiously subdued embodiment, dramatized along the periphery of major events—the character floating diffusely through the admittedly convoluted, if gripping, story—reacting here or there but never quite seeming fully motivated, realized or alive. The apparition at the center of Changeling may be a missing child, or his doppelgänger, but it's the heroine who's the ghost. And maybe that's the idea. Grade: B
Artist: Correatown. Album: Echoes – EP.
Another entrant in the emerging globular-physics-erector-set genre of games that, in its Wii incarnation, plays to that console's specific strengths and limitations—presenting immaculate storybook motifs and amuse-bouche-proportioned levels perfect for procrastinatory grazing and casual consumption.