I have taken some time getting to know Shostakovitch and, on the whole, I have found him a little underwhelming, I guess because of his allegiance to the past. And I know I am coming at his symphonies backwards, by listening to the second last one first, but…
Month: November 2014
Prisoners (2013, Denis Villeneuve)
This is a mostly excellent kidnapping thriller driven by two absolutely excellent performances and an all-around great supporting cast. The film is so close to being amazing that I was actually quite disappointed that it wasn’t.
Room 237 (2012, Rodney Ascher)
This is a fascinating and alternatively infuriating and hilarious film – depending on your mood, I would think. It’s a film that exposes the problems with the “Close Reading” of texts (books, film, other forms of art) without directly telling you that it’s problematic. (This is, in my mind, one of the film’s virtues). The …
TV on the Radio Live at the Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto November 12, 2014
Natasha Kmeto was the opener. A singer with a laptop and a small keyboard, she initially appeared to actually be more of a DJ, but that turned out to be just an extended intro to her first song. She piled various different beats and loops on top of each other, with the odd melody line …
Zero Dark Thirty (2012, Kathryn Bigelow)
Much like Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, this is a film that, at least in part, seems to aim to tell the “human” story – or the “ground truth” – of a particular conflict the US is involved in. In this case though, it’s obviously something of a little more import.
Snowpiercer (2013, Joon-ho Bong)
It’s great when genre flicks get celebrated and take on a life of their own. And I’m glad that a reasonably smart one such as this has become such a big thing (at least online). But while Snowpiercer is highly entertaining, like so many “high concept” action films, it’s flawed and it’s also kind of long …
The Essential Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1995) edited by Leonard Wolf
This is an immense edition of what is otherwise a pretty short novella. It is nice that a story like this would get this kind of treatment, but it’s kind of over the top. For example, the novella itself is rather over-annotated. How is that possible, you ask? Well, even one of the footnotes has …
Ives: Four Sonatas (2012) by Hilary Hahn, Valentina Lisitsa
This is an excellent set of Ives’ violin sonatas. The pieces are a little more accessible than some of Ives’ more orchestrated pieces, in part I guess because of the nature of the violin. But the music is still characteristic Ives: challenging yet appealing. And the performances sound great to my ears, though like always …