« March 2009 | Main | May 2009 »

April 30, 2009

listening: some how

Artist: Downsyde. Album: All City.

April 28, 2009

listening: dream

Artist: Priscilla Ahn. Album: A Good Day.

saw: the soloist

Joe Wright's direction is as tasteful as his white man's burden. Susannah Grant's screenplay is spun from the finest recycled gossamer. The onscreen talent and production values are hopelessly carbon neutral. Grade: B

saw: adventureland

Unexpectedly sweet, authentic, romantic—with nary a fart joke to be heard. Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart's chemical romance is damaged, incendiary and pleasurable. Grade: B+

listening: magnificent

Artist: U2. Album: No Line on the Horizon.

April 22, 2009

saw: knowing

Director Alex Proyas mounts this apocalyptic New Age garbage with almost defiant handsomeness. The disaster-porn sequences are particularly striking, managing not only to seem fresh despite the preponderance of such scenes in blockbusters but also disturbingly visceral without veering into flamboyant gore. The same cannot be said of Nicolas Cage, who continues his transformation into an animatronic version of himself—a stuttering barrage of theatricality and tortured decibels. Grade: C+

April 21, 2009

saw: observe and report

Turns out uninspired sitcom gags are shitty no matter how "naturalistically" you shoot and edit them. Anna Faris is criminally underutilized. Grade: D

saw: duplicity

Tony Gilroy's corporate espionage caper has the infectious energy of Julia Roberts and Clive Owen on a romp—and unfortunately the tedium of being trapped with the stars on the transatlantic flight that's taking them there. Grade: B-

listening: soft shock

Artist: Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Album: It's Blitz!

April 07, 2009

listening: like a pen

Artist: The Knife. Album: Like a Pen.

April 05, 2009

watching: no. 1 ladies' detective agency

The pilot was the late Anthony Minghella's final big-hearted valentine to the world. May the series live up to it.