Entertainment - Monday, December 1, 2008 7:02 - 0 Comments

Three Bands and Two-Thirds Charmed at Minsk/Coliseum/Baroness

Poor Coliseum. They gave a perfectly serviceable show: high energy, tight, loud as hell. The sound emanating from their Coliseum brand amps (the band’s namesake) was dutifully crusty, the EQ pushed to red. Their songs were short and catchy, in a post-hardcore-meets-Motörhead kind of way. But this Louisville, KY band, with their monotonous, genre-bound songs that meld into each other two minutes at a time like a formulaic beat poetry reading, had nothing on the bookends surrounding their set—bipolar acts who both sit at the very forefront of heavy music today. Continue…

Entertainment - Wednesday, November 12, 2008 14:45 - 0 Comments

Lifehouse Stay Comfortably Numb on the Intrepid

The most unique thing about Friday night’s Lifehouse show was the venue. Surrounded by back-lit globes and historic space vessels in a cavernous, warehouse-like chamber aboard the newly refurbished USS Intrepid, this understated AOR-radio band threatened to be upstaged by its surroundings.

Luckily, between the tepid sing-along singles and painfully earnest near-acoustic ballads, they occasionally let some surprising influences shine through, filling the makeshift auditorium with lengthy instrumental passages and washes of reverb-soaked distortion. These moments, accompanied by banging heads and stage acrobatics, showcased Lifehouse at their most absorbing—and demonstrated a rawer, jam-influenced side of their sound that’s rarely heard on their overproduced studio albums. Continue…

Entertainment - Tuesday, November 11, 2008 1:55 - 4 Comments

The Gutter Twins Darken Brooklyn for a Night

Twins in the Lemmon and Matthau sense, The Gutter Twins are longtime buddies Mark Lanegan (of  Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age fame) and Greg Dulli (of Afghan Whigs and The Twilight Singers).  ‘90s rock fans will eat this stuff up: an indie act with purebred Seattle grunge pedigree and an unlikely pairing that works because it operates in stark contrasts, rocking out with hard-hitting fuzz one moment, hushing down to ethereal shimmer the next.

Lanegan possesses the voice of God, if God chain smoked and had a penchant for single malts, and his gravelly, rumbling baritone—capable of dipping so low you can feel it in your chest—is The Gutter Twins’ single best asset.  But Dulli’s melancholic, chameleon-like vocals complicate the texture, frequently layering over his partner’s voice in thick harmony.  This complex sound—like a slab of dangerously black marble with a beautiful sheen—is what transforms this band’s otherwise pretty generic grunge rock songs into something special. Continue…

Entertainment - Wednesday, November 5, 2008 9:41 - 0 Comments

“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” Plays With Dirty Money

David Denby must be depressed. A year after the film critic spent 5,000 words in The New Yorker lamenting the dubious direction in which the many apostles of the Judd Apatow School of Lewdness are taking his beloved romantic comedy, here comes Zack and Miri Make a Porno adhering to Apatow’s formula with such obvious admiration that its creator might as well get on his knees and start fellating right now.

If this metaphor sounds lewd, it’s apt for this movie, which basks in every slimy four letter utterance. But lewdness does not equal freshness, and unfortunately there’s little fresh to be found in Zack and Miri. It’s that same hip combo of crude male-centric slapstick with a sensitive heart—of Seth Rogen as the doughy, ambitionless slacker growing up to snag the improbably gorgeous blonde, in this case the sharp-tongued yet lovely Elizabeth Banks.

The whole concept—Zack and Miri as grown-up childhood friends producing a porno to relieve their mounting debts—is a secondhand vehicle for the type of sex-inflected romantic comedy pioneered by Apatow and his buddies in movies like Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin. Continue…

Entertainment - Friday, October 31, 2008 11:18 - 0 Comments

“Speed-the-Plow” Preaches to the Anti-Hollywood Choir

The first thing I think of when I hear David Mamet’s name is Steve Martin in a black suit. Glengarry Glen-what? This should give you an idea of how much of a Mamet-phile I am. Funny, then, that the new revival of his 1988 play Speed-the-Plow turned out to be exactly what I expected: a brisk satire of Hollywood featuring a minuscule cast of characters shooting angry repartee at each other within confined settings.

This play’s first production in 1988 was completely overshadowed by the fact that Madonna starred as its leading lady. Now, in this first-ever Broadway revival, fans of cable TV drama have their day as the stars of Entourage, Mad Men and Pushing Daisies comprise the entire cast. Yes, that’s Jeremy Piven reprising his TV role as lovably abrasive Hollywood agent, Elizabeth Moss reprising hers as meek but quietly ambitious secretary, and Raul Esparza just being fucking angry all the time. Get that man some coffee, please. Continue…

Entertainment - Thursday, October 30, 2008 16:23 - 8 Comments

“Synecdoche, New York” Reviews Are As Confusing As the Movie Itself

I’d say I’m an average moviegoer. I’m no film student, but I know who Charlie Kaufman is and that I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (and not just because Jim Carrey and that guy who played Frodo are in it). So where do I turn to find out whether it’s worth blowing my twelve bucks on Synecdoche, New York, Charlie’s latest mindfuck of a movie and first voyage as captain of his own ship? Rotten Tomatoes, of course. But now things get really confusing, and the movie hasn’t even started yet.

Here’s Manohla Dargis, that trusted backbone of the New York Times movies section, claiming that “Synecdoche, New York is one of the best films of the year.” Great. Let’s see it. But wait—right next to her is Rex Reed of the New York Observer warning that “no matter how bad you think the worst movie ever made ever was, you have not seen Synecdoche, New York.” What the hell? Continue…