Movies: Ten To Watch In 2013

By Less Lee Moore

Passion

I still haven’t seen all the 2012 films that I wanted to and I’m already thinking about what 2013 has in store. Those who complain that there aren’t any good movies anymore are just not paying enough attention. It was tough to pick from the three Ryan Gosling films scheduled for this year and I guess I cheated a little by including two Noomi Rapace flicks on this list, but I will not apologize. I also didn’t include the requisite blockbusters like Star Trek: Into Darkness, Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, Thor: The Dark World, and Iron Man 3 because that’s just too easy (plus, I’ll likely see them all anyway). If Terence Malick’s Knight of Cups comes out this year, go ahead and pencil that in at #11.

Here are ten films that I do not want to miss in a theatrical setting this year.

1. Dead Man Down (March 8, US)
Noomi Rapace teams up with Colin Farrell and his real Irish accent. Farrell is New York hitman Victor who has been blackmailed by his new neighbor Beatrice (Rapace) into killing his crime lord boss, played by Terrence Howard, the man who brutalized her and left permanent scars on her face. Dominic Cooper and Isabelle Huppert also star. As much as Fincher’s version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was visually superior to Oplev’s, consider those films were made for TV and at a fraction of the budget for the big screen adaptation. They’re still excellent movies, anyway, and with a cast like this, I can’t be anything but excited. (trailer)

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New Atoms For Peace single/video: “Judge Jury and Executioner”

By J Howell

The new Atoms For Peace single, “Judge Jury and Executioner” isn’t a radical departure for Thom Yorke—think three-quarters of the way between the mostly-electronica of The Eraser and the partial electronica of recent-vintage Radiohead. Recognizable as the work of Yorke and longtime producer Nigel Godrich within seconds, “Judge Jury and Executioner” is hypnotic, somewhat cold and compelling. The track may not surprise longtime fans, but it is likely to please. Yorke’s voice, layered and reverberated as a background instrument itself throughout, is simultaneously familiar and slightly unsettling.

“Judge Jury and Executioner” is available for download now at the Atoms For Peace website and iTunes, and a 12” single with the non-album B-side “S.A.D.” is available for pre-order as well, to be released March 19. Atoms For Peace’s debut album, Amok, is available February 26.

Assemblog: January 11, 2013

Mads Mikkelsen in NBC’s Hannibal

New this week on Popshifter:
Chelsea profiles Boston band The Grownup Noise; Danny reveals his choice for best turntable; Lisa picks 13 genre films to see this year; Paul tackles wrasslin’ and the potential of a new Prince album in 2013; Cait shares the good news about the upcoming David Bowie album; Julie likes the new Crime & the City Solution compilation A History of Crime; Brad has good things to say about the Blu-Ray for Sleep Tight; Elizabeth is back with a new installment of “TV Is Dead, Long Live TV” with her picks for this new year; I recommend Lost Girl for fans of good television; and give some background on the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, which starts January 17.

The only concession I will make to the 2013 Oscars is that they exist. It’s become a ridiculous wankfest and one to which I do not wish to contribute. So I guess you could say that my Oscar snub is to snub the Oscars. Ha!

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TV Is Dead, Long Live TV: Five Things to Watch in 2013

By Elizabeth Keathley

The Venture Bros., image courtesy of Jackson Publick

So much good television is on offer for 2013. Given that I didn’t write an arbitrary best-of list for 2012, I thought I’d start out this year with an arbitrary list of things I’m really looking forward to watching in the next year. In no particular order, here are five things to get excited about for 2013 on your screen, be it television or computer or tablet.

1. Hemlock Grove. While the trailer is a little cheesy, the cast and concept are sound. Masks, hidden things, and danger lurking underneath ordinary faces? I’m in. I’ve also been waiting to see Aaron Douglas again since his role on Battlestar Galactica ended. No one can play crazy waiting to burst through a placid exterior like Aaron Douglas. I keep waiting for the role that will let him rip someone’s head off. I hope this show gathers loads of momentum from Netflix watchers, but I’m worried that actual ratings (measured by clicks and views on Netflix) will look small when compared to the made-up Nielsen ratings we’re used to as a metric. Here’s hoping Hemlock Grove delivers the horror and fandom goods and thrives as a show independent of any network.

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Sundance 2013: What’s It All About?

By Less Lee Moore

Although the Sundance Film Festival has only been around since 1978, it’s become synonymous with both indie filmmaking and “the next big thing.” Originally it was called the Utah/US Film Festival; the awkward title reveals the festival’s initial goal: to bring more filmmakers to the US; show older, well-regarded American films; and provide a place for filmmakers operating outside of the Hollywood system to screen their films.

Initially held in Salt Lake City, the festival moved to Park City in the hopes of attracting more people. Who wouldn’t want to spend a few days at a ski resort in January watching good movies, right? Despite the festival’s popularity and success over the next few years, it remained in an astonishing amount of debt. Thus in 1985, Robert Redford’s still-newbie Sundance Institute took over sponsorship and financial backing and the awkward name was scuttled in favor of what we all know now as the Sundance Film Festival. (At one point it was known as the even-more-awkward title of The US Film and Video Festival.)

Sundance has premiered an incredibly diverse selection of independent films throughout its 35 years. If there’s an indie film you know and love from the past three decades, chances are it has premiered at Sundance: sex, lies, and videotape; Reservoir Dogs; El Mariachi; Clerks; The Blair Witch Project; and documentaries like Hoop Dreams, Super Size Me, and Man On Wire all premiered at Sundance and went on to critical acclaim, massive financial success, or both.

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Willing and Able: Prince Hints At Giving a Shit

By Paul Casey

Prince last released an album in 2010 called 20Ten. It was possibly the best thing he has released in the last decade. Super tight, and containing at least three possible hits—“Sticky Like Glue,” “Future Soul Song,” “Laydown”—20Ten was given away free with newspapers in Europe and did not see any kind of release in America. For such a quality album this remains a great shame and is unfortunately indicative of the way Prince has treated his best material after leaving the mainstream in the mid 1990s.

A few days ago, through a typically obtuse delivery method, Prince released some new music. Four videos were uploaded by a YouTube user called 3rdEyeGirl, including one previously unheard track called “Same Page, Different Book.” An extended version of the brilliant “Laydown” was also included, as well as another remix of “Rock and Roll Love Affair.” More importantly, though, a live rehearsal of the 1979 deviant rocker “Bambi” made an appearance, a song that is generally considered to be a remnant of the old Prince.

All four tracks have now been taken down from YouTube, replete with the obligatory copyright claim. Given that Prince proxy Dr. Funkenberry publicized these tracks, as well as the problems inherent in one inside of Prince’s organization surreptitiously releasing this material, it seems that this is the kind of multiple persona game that pleases the Purple One.

This is fairly close to how Prince was operating in the mid 1990s, before he left Warner Brothers Records. One of his first ideas to get around the restrictions placed on him by WB—which limited the amount of new material they would tolerate—was to play new material live and inform those in attendance to record it. This may be a similar attempt to create excitement by limiting the time this music is available. It also seems like a gentle mea culpa to those fans who suffered his increasingly disproportionate reactions to his likeness appearing on fan sites and of course, the use of his music in any context.

As for the content of the tracks, “Bambi” stands as the most exciting, but that is to be expected. A return of the transgressive Prince holds far more promise than anything else. The new song has a laid back funk charm to it, and hopefully along with the excellent “Rock and Roll Love Affair” is further evidence that 2013 is going to bring us a new Prince album. Hopefully this time he will fully commit to giving the music its due by giving it a worldwide release, not just the ones where papers will give him mon mons.

Blu-Ray Review: Sleep Tight

By Brad Henderson

Jaume Balagueró has given us many great films both in his solo career and with his partner in crime, Paco Plaza. They are the ones responsible for the [REC] series and many other horror favorites. Balaguero’s solo films include Fragile, Darkness, The Nameless, and To Let. Now we have Sleep Tight, which is probably his greatest accomplishment to date. Balagueró is a director to keep an eye on.

Sleep Tight premiered at Fantastic Fest 2011. After the film was over, I looked around and saw smiles on everyone’s faces. It was a hit and was loved by many . . . including me. With its glamorous cinematography and quick dialogue, this film is tightly crafted. In Balagueró’s past films we were trapped with nowhere to go, and we find ourselves once again in this situation. He puts us in tight corners and small spaces, and we get a little claustrophobic.

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Music Review: Crime & the City Solution, A History of Crime – Berlin 1987-1991: An Introduction to Crime & the City Solution

By Julie Finley

Being a longtime fan of Crime & the City Solution, I was already familiar with all of the tracks on A History of Crime. However, the albums in their discography aren’t easy to find, and are more than likely out of print, so if anyone ever had a fleeting interest in this band, but can’t get their hands on their albums, this release bridges that gap. A History of Crime is a grand collection of Crime & the City Solution’s works, and doesn’t disappoint. However, the one major flaw is that it only includes music created between 1987-1991. I mention this because the pre-1987 output contains some of my favorite songs.

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A Man Lost In Time: Bowie Returns With New Single, Album

By Cait Brennan

It came like a bolt of lightning in the dead of night: news of a new David Bowie album, his first in a decade, announced with no advance notice in the wee hours of his 66th birthday. The Next Day, Bowie’s 30th studio album, produced by Tony Visconti (!), will be released March 8 in Australia, March 11 in most of the rest of the world and March 12th in the US, with a new single, “Where Are We Now?” available on iTunes now.

Watch the full video on Vimeo.

After health issues sidelined Bowie in 2004, fans have been hoping against hope that the singular rock and roll icon would one day return to music, but there was scant evidence it would ever happen. His suitably theatrical return sent social media into a frenzy, putting him atop Twitter’s trending topics within minutes. Radio stations around the world scrambled to play the track first, with BBC 6Music earning honors as the World Premiere play, edging BBC Radio 2 by a few short minutes.

“Where Are We Now?” is a meditative ballad of “a man lost in time, walking the dead,” recalling in both lyrical geography and atmosphere his Berlin trilogy, coupled with a sound reminiscent of his most recent albums Reality and Heathen. The track is accompanied by a hearteningly weird video filled with expressionist imagery and the Thin White Duke himself transformed into a tiny malformed creature with two heads, one of which is a girl.

Henceforth, Christmas is officially moved to January 8.

The album is available for pre-order via iTunes in both standard and deluxe editions (the latter featuring three bonus tracks). Visit davidbowie.com/the-next-day for the latest.

Blu-Ray Review: Lost Girl, Season 2

By Less Lee Moore

As much as I love genre fiction, I’ll admit that most mainstream genre movies and TV shows are fairly sexist. Even if they don’t obviously reinforce stereotypes or display misogynist behavior, the violence enacted against women is often in higher proportion to what their male counterparts must endure. Enter Lost Girl, a Canadian-produced TV show whose title might seem to indicate more of the same, but which is a delightful and welcome entry into the world of genre television.

Lost Girl was created by a woman (Michelle Lovretta) and many of the episodes are written and directed by women. In addition, the gender makeup of the principal cast is half female and half male. The main character, Bo (Anna Silk) is a succubus who is trying to find her way in the world of the Fae (also known as fairy folk) while not committing to either the Light Fae or Dark Fae.

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