// Category Archive for: Feminism

Blu-Ray Review: Chained

By Less Lee Moore

Chained is a gripping, grueling experience. I had originally seen Jennifer Lynch’s latest film in August in one of the Screaming Rooms at Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear, part of FanExpo Canada. This feeling was only exacerbated upon a second viewing of the film, this time on the newly released Blu-Ray from Anchor Bay.

Chained, despite the title and subject matter (a serial killer keeps a young boy prisoner), is not a straight up horror movie, but is far more horrific than the mainstream, high-budget horror movies that have glutted theaters over the last few years.

Vincent D’Onofrio plays Bob, a taxi driver who kidnaps women, brings them home, rapes and murders them, and forces his captive, Tim, to help him clean up the mess. It’s sordid, but to avoid the movie based on the synopsis would be a mistake.

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Blu-Ray Review: The Tall Man

By Less Lee Moore

If you’ve discussed horror films with me for more than five minutes, you likely know my feelings about French director Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs. It’s a film that infuriated me when I saw it, but not for the reasons that you might think. Yet the potential of Martyrs to be a truly great horror movie is what made me curious about Laugier’s most recent feature, The Tall Man, out on DVD and Blu-Ray September 25.

Those who loved Martyrs for its uncompromising violence may despise The Tall Man, feeling incredibly disappointed. Martyrs 2 it is not. If you are willing to put aside expectations and embrace a beautifully crafted, wonderfully acted, suspenseful, and thought-provoking film that is heavy on subtext and light on gore, than I urge you to check out The Tall Man.

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Music Review: Timi Yuro, The Complete Liberty Singles

By Emily Carney

American singer Timi Yuro was described as “the little girl with the big voice,” lending her legacy nicely to future blue-eyed soul singers such as the late Amy Winehouse, Duffy, and Adele. However, Yuro’s influence spread like tree roots on both sides of the ocean; artists as disparate as Elvis and Morrissey considered themselves Timi Yuro fans. Her voice was also heard all over Northern Soul dance floors during the 1970s. Her career ended in the late 1960s with her marriage, but she had some impressive celebrity fans. Excellence never goes away, though.

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Music Review: Gemma Ray, Island Fire

By Julie Finley

I stumbled upon Gemma Ray a few years ago by taking a listen to her album, Lights Out Zoltar!. It was actually her second full-length album, but the first I ever heard of her. That album was rock-solid, and mighty impressive.

So, its only natural that I’ve followed her career somewhat. I am no expert on Ms. Ray, but I do know this: She writes and performs her own music. She isn’t some pretty face template with a producer and bankroll. Granted, Gemma does have a pretty face, but there is clearly more going on with her creatively, compared to the many other current female performers she has been compared to. Her skills are even impressing fellow musicians who actually have some taste and skills themselves.

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Assemblog: September 14, 2012

You’re Next, 2011

New this week on Popshifter: Emily dares you to get “Les Sucettes” out of your head in her review of France Gall’s Made In France and John places Mary Edwards’s Eastern/Central & Mountain/Pacific in his Top Ten of 2012.

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Assemblog: August 31, 2012

Cruising, 1980

New this week on Popshifter: John talks about the secret handshake and Booker T. and the M.G.s’ Green Onions reissue on Stax; Melissa B. wonders if Harry Shearer’s Can’t Take A Hint is timely; guest blogger and author Alex Bledsoe gives the deets on Rafael Sabatini and pirates; Chelsea loves Micah Sheveloff’s Exhibitionist and the singer/songwiter’s “lived-in marvel of a voice”; I proclaim Big Black Delta’s Tour EP to be “diverse” and “thrilling”; and I share some photos from FanExpo Canada 2012.

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Assemblog: August 10, 2012

Kim Novak in Vertigo, 1958

New this week on Popshifter: Part Four in Paul’s album-by-album articles on THE BAND appraises Cahoots; my (sorta) objective, glowing review of Redd Kross’s first album in 15 years, Researching The Blues; Paul reviews Paul Thorn’s What The Hell Is Goin’ On? using the phrase “smo’ chicken”; Cait provides a brief history of The Tubes in her review of the reissues of their albums Young & Rich and Now; Chelsea wants to like Jezzy & The Belles’ Compasses & Maps but is unable to; and Lisa has mixed feelings about Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers on DVD.

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Great Scot (regardless of the critics): Why I’m Into Brave

By Maureen

Brave silkscreen print from Dark Ink
Comic-Con 2012 Exclusive

Here’s what I know: I saw Brave on its opening night and enjoyed the hell out of it. My boyfriend and I were in a theater full to the max with a good mix of children and their parents and groups of people both our age (27 and 29, respectively) and teenagers. We had a great time. Everyone was a-buzz leaving the theater, both about the film and about other Disney/Pixar endeavors.

Here’s what I don’t know: why everyone on the Internet suddenly seems to have issues with this adorable film. (more…)

Neneh Cherry & The Thing, The Cherry Thing

By Kai Shuart

Neneh Cherry debuts her collaboration with new band The Thing on the album The Cherry Thing. It is a testament to the adage that no matter what the genre, good music is good music.
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Gillian Welch: Dark Turn Of Mind

By Paul Casey

Out of hospital a few days. Nighttime seizures cause strange dreams. Out of place. A rare, complete family notion: Let’s rent a movie. A dividing line between a childish reality and a childish regression.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000

The Coen Brothers did it. O Brother, Where Art Thou? Sympathy for the American story. Great Plains or Skyscrapers; didn’t matter. If you had a touch for music in the 20th Century, pretensions of nonplussed rural plods struck as backwards affect. America was serious business. Real things happened there.

The soundtrack, produced by T-Bone Burnett—a sort who has been responsible for a whole lotta good “produced by” outings, and not too many originals—collected the Alan Lomax perspective with covers by those living. Gillian Welch was the one who took me at two moments. First, flight over fields in prison wear, with Alison Krauss. The Kossoy Sisters were used in the picture, but the soundtrack version stuck as definition.

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