// Category Archive for: Movies

DVD Review: Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

By Less Lee Moore

There’s no question that Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is a visually stunning movie. Though set in Texas during the 1970s, it was filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana. Cinematographer Bradford Young takes full advantage of the natural landscape and his exceptional ability to capture light in a shot is impressive. The performances from the entire cast—Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, and Keith Carradine—are outstanding. Writer and director David Lowery certainly has a way with creating a mood. Unfortunately, all of the characters are such slippery fish, that it’s sometimes hard to connect with any of them.

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Best Of 2013: Chris Butler of The Waitresses

Photo © Marianne P. Smith

Music: The Front Bottoms, Talon of the Hawk on Bar-None. I used to hope that if was young and in an indie band, that I/we would be like The Replacements. Now, I hope I’d be like these guys. Smart, fast, funny, real.

Food: Jose’s Real Cuban, Bradenton FL. My brother saw a segment on this place on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives. Too few seats, too many flies for the germophobes. . . order the picadillo and shut up, Clean Freak. 8799 Cortez Rd W, Bradenton, FL 34210, (941) 795-4898

Worst Food: I’m avoiding the Cult of Kale. I don’t care if it’s good for me; it tastes like old socks.

Best Ironic “I Am Old” Moment: The closing block party for Maxwell’s in Hoboken. End of an era, so many good times, blah blah blah, getting old sucks. http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2013/07/maxwells_goes_out_with_a_block_party_bash.html

Personal Magical On-Stage Moment: Winning the Rosendale, NY Gong Show by playing spoons to an a capella version of “My Generation.” Really. I got a trophy and everything.

Movies: 20 Feet From Stardom. Everything else was shit. I had to take my son to so he could keep up with his peers.

Gear: Fender Squier “J. Mascis” Jazzmaster. First new guitar I’ve ever bought. Got it for a trip to London for a one-off gig, thinking if it got smashed by the airline I wouldn’t mind. If this had happened, I would have bawled like a bee-stung baby. A great guitar.

Best Found YouTube Clip: The Kinks in Paris 1965. Wonderful fuckin’ band. Watch before it gets pulled.

Best Roadside Attraction Discovery: The Museum of Jurassic Technology (thank you, Elaine Sokoloff). Key to my heart? Nothing beats a joke idea taken too far. 9341 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232 (310) 836-6131.

Best Live Show: 15-60-75 (The Numbers Band) record release party and reunion show, The Kent Stage, 11/9/13. Still the baddest band in the land.

Just Desserts: The Complete Waitresses was released by Omnivore Recordings on September 24.

Best of 2013: Jazz Guitarist Nir Felder

Photo © Phil Knott

Best meal: A toss up between Battersby in Brooklyn and Cal Pep in Barcelona.

Best coffee: Also a toss up: Courier Coffee or Barista, both in Portland, OR.

Best wine: A 1998 St. Emilion that Eric Harland brought to his birthday show at the Blue Note.

Best gig: Montreal Jazz Festival with Aaron Parks, Orlando LeFleming, and Mark Guiliana.

Best concert: Tie between St. Vincent and David Byrne at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA and a traditional flamenco group at Villa Rosa in Madrid.

Best album: Midlake’s Antiphon.

Best movie: I’m hooked on Michael Apted’s original English Up series.

Best purchase: A 1966 Fender Electric XII!

Best drive: After a gig in Vicksburg, MS I took a couple of days to drive up the old “Blues Highway” from Mississippi to Memphis, passing by Dockery Plantation, the legendary “Crossroads, and many of the unmarked places where the blues was born.

Best achievement: Finally finished reading Infinite Jest, which I started sometime in 2012. . .

Best opera: I had a blast playing with the NYC Opera in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole, in what ended up being NYC Opera’s final performance. A sad and moving occasion.

Best city: Athens, Greece. You can take a boat to any thousands of beautiful islands, you can study amazing ancient ruins, or you can just hang out and eat Greek food all day. I love it.

Nir Felder‘s next release, Golden Age, will be out on January 21, 2014 via OKeh.

The Five Movies of 2013 I Did Not Expect to Like and Ended Up Loving

By Jeffery X Martin

Of course, as a professional guy who writes about popular culture, I try to go into a movie with as little expectation as possible. Keep an open mind. This isn’t always easy for me, because I’m kind of a dick. I like what I like and I don’t give a damn who knows it. I’m not going to watch a Tyler Perry movie. I’m not going to watch a James Cameron movie. It’s not my thing.

This doesn’t mean I can’t get surprised once in a while, as the following list, which is in no particular order, proves.

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Assemblog: December 13, 2013

Out of the Furnace

New this week on Popshifter: Brad was less than impressed with Paradise, but excited about Streets Of Fire; I explore the unexpected gravitas of The Wolverine and pay my respects to the new Melvins album Tres Cabrones; LabSplice shows how Arrow fights crime the Bill Gates way through product placement; Jeff waxes nostalgic about holiday tunes; and we’ve got Best Of 2013 lists for you from David Barras (Electric Man), singer/songwriter Willie Nile, our own Danny R. Phillips and Jeffery X Martin.

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Blu-Ray Review: Streets Of Fire

By Brad Henderson

I believe Streets Of Fire is a film that has to grow on you. I don’t mean that in a negative way but unless you like complete cheese, you may just think Streets Of Fire is at most, OK. My best friend introduced me to this movie for the first time a couple years ago. I enjoyed the film but it didn’t hit me hard like I thought it would. I didn’t yearn to watch it again although the music did stay with me. This past year I saw the film for a second time at the theater with some hardcore fans in the beauty of 35mm. Then it hit me. Seeing this film presented to me in that format made me feel differently.

So when I heard Second Sight Films was putting out a Blu-Ray my interest was piqued and I got excited . . . really excited.

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Blu-Ray Review: The Wolverine

By Less Lee Moore

Although Batman, Superman, and even Spider-Man get a lot of attention, it’s worth noting that Hugh Jackman has now portrayed Wolverine six times on the big screen. Unlike Supes and Spidey, Logan didn’t ask for his powers and unlike Bruce Wayne, he doesn’t necessarily want to vanquish the bad guys. This makes Wolverine one of the more compelling and consistent characters in cinematic superhero history. The Wolverine explores why.

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Best of 2013: Writer/Director David Barras (Electric Man)

Let me start by saying that this list is not exhaustive. These are choices made from the films I’ve seen this year. I have a few catch-up films to watch like Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, which from what I hear (I’m a fan), would probably have made the list, had I seen it. So, of the films I’ve seen and in no particular order, here are my faves from the past 12 months.

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Best Of 2013: Danny R. Phillips

This is the best/worst time of the year for me. I love year-end lists but I hate compiling them. It is a masochist thing for me: I stress on it, torture myself, then as soon as it is done, I want to change it. I’m never satisfied. For the record, all included here may or not be from 2013. My list contains things I’ve re-discovered throughout the year. It happens. Enough of the bullshit: here it is in no particular order (with exceptions for favorites).

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Blu-Ray Review: Paradise

By Brad Henderson

Diablo Cody hit it big a few years ago with Juno and everyone and their mother flocked over to her fan club. I watched Juno and admit I enjoyed it, but it was so filled with pop culture one-liners that it became boring. People said it was fresh and new but to me it was someone just trying way too hard. After that, Cody wrote Jennifer’s Body, which I was a fan of because of the silliness and how the film actually presented itself. Of course, people didn’t like this one and it was easily dismissed by critics. Cody wrote another “hit” called Young Adult which was just OK by me and many others.

Recently a new film called Paradise has surfaced that Cody wrote and directed. This is actually her directorial debut and the project she decided to helm first. First off, let me say this film feels like a total passion project for Diablo Cody. I could be wrong, of course, but Paradise falls flat and is so boring it doesn’t feel right.

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