DVD Review: Violet & Daisy

By Less Lee Moore

With more than 300 films screening in a ten-day time period, the Toronto International Film Festival makes time management a challenge. Rumor has it that some film critics will leave a screening after ten minutes if they’re not fully engaged. I’m going to bet that there were quite a few who walked out on Violet & Daisy at TIFF 2011. That would have been a big mistake.

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Music Review: I Break Horses, Chiaroscuro

By Less Lee Moore

Chiaroscuro is defined as “the technique of using light and shade in pictorial representation.” It’s a ideal name for the second album from I Break Horses, the musical project from Swedish singer/songwriter Maria Lindén. Rather than a contrast between light and shade, however, the songs on Chiaroscuro are a study in the interplay between the retro synths of ’80s shoegaze and the more contemporary flavors of techno and EDM. In a way, Chiaroscuro reminds me a lot of School of Seven Bells’ Ghostory, but while that album was crystalline ice, these songs are like smoldering embers.

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DVD Review: Blue Caprice

By Less Lee Moore

Reviewing a narrative film based so closely on real-life tragedy is a challenge. If it were a documentary, it might be easier to analyze how the filmmaker’s possible agenda influences the way the events were presented and if the recounting of history was done responsibly.

Blue Caprice opens with what seems like a documentary cliché: a montage of news footage covering the Beltway Sniper attacks from 2002. Immediately, we feel a distance from the subject being addressed. Then, the film cuts to a series of scenes of a teenage boy in Antigua, trying to cope with his mother’s departure to find work in the United States. The visual dichotomy between grainy newsreels and the lushness of the Caribbean is as profound as the tonal one. There is no reporter documenting what we’re seeing so we’re forced to make sense of what’s going on.

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Movies: 20 To Watch In 2014 (So Far)

By Less Lee Moore

Under The Skin

This year looks to be a fantastic one for movies across multiple genres, and we’re only at the end of January. No doubt more will be added to this “must see” list within the next few months, especially when the Toronto International Film Festival announces its schedule. The films below are listed in order of release dates; where no release date is available, they are listed in alphabetical order.

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DVD Review: You’re Next

By Less Lee Moore

“Bidding war” are two words that filmmakers sometimes wait years to hear. In the case of You’re Next, though, it also meant that audiences would have to wait years to see the movie that caused the stir in the first place. If you saw You’re Next at TIFF’s Midnight Madness a few years back and wondered what happened to it, you’re in luck. It’s now out on DVD after a brief theatrical run at the end of last year.

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Music Review: Painted Palms, Forever

By Less Lee Moore

At the risk of dating this review, Painted Palms’ Forever is a beam of sunlight in the middle of an oppressive winter. It’s not like pulling up the shades at 7 a.m., though. The album’s delightful qualities creep up on you slowly but surely, until you’re singing along and humming the tunes later on.

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DVD Review: We Are What We Are

By Less Lee Moore

Having only recently seen Jorge Michel Grau’s Somos lo que hay, I was excited to see Stake Land director Jim Mickle’s reimagining of the story in his latest feature, We Are What We Are. I was not disappointed. It’s tempting to compare and contrast the two films, but that would be a disservice to both; while the core narrative is similar, each film explores the terrain of family and tradition in different ways, both culturally and tonally.

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DVD Review: Plus One

By Less Lee Moore

Admittedly, I haven’t been keeping up with teen movies lately, but Plus One is way better than the ones I remember from decades past.

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Sundance 2014: Top 14 Picks

By Less Lee Moore

Cooties

Another year, another great selection of films from Sundance. Here are my top choices.

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Best Of 2013: Less Lee Moore

My goal for 2013 was to see 100 new (to me) movies, listen to 100 new albums, and read 100 books. I had to find time to eat, sleep, and bathe, so some of these goals were not accomplished. (Hint: the latter two.) I also watched quite a bit of TV, but not all the shows that I loved so fiercely in 2012. Part of this was availability; part of it was time. Without cable or a DVR, I’m reliant upon Canadian network websites for new shows. I did, however, get into Mad Men and get back into Supernatural, thanks to Netflix Canada, which is the second best pop culture item on my 2013. The first is the TV show that dominated everything else in 2013: Hannibal.

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