I’d like to believe that all my favourite funny things – Python, Kids In The Hall, Mr. Show, and numerous others – transcend time and place, and are objectively funny. I know that’s not true, as tons of people don’t like Python, for example. But I’d like to believe. And I’d like to believe it …
Cloud Atlas (2012, directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski)
Some novels are just plain unfilmable, and sometimes you wonder why people try. But watching this, and not knowing the novel, I’m not sure this one is such an unfilmable novel. (Maybe I’m wrong.)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011, David Fincher)
Aside from the bizarre, music video opening – which also features a terrible cover of “Immigrant Song” – and the bizarre “Swedish” accents of all the Swedish characters (a huge pet peeve of mine in any English language film set in a foreign country), I think this is probably superior, as a film, to the …
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011, Tomas Alfredson)
For a while I have wanted to watch first the original version of this and then this remake. However, I lost my American netflix awhile ago and haven’t yet got it back. And I stupidly gave in and watched the remake first. I say ‘stupidly’ because this is an idiosyncratic thriller and I may have …
Solomon (1984, 2006) by Georg Friedrich Handel, performed by Watkinson, Argenta, Hendricks, Rolfe Johnson, Montverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
This is a pretty magnificent oratorio that might best be described by the word sumptuous. Though only a small part of it was semi-familiar to me before hearing it, I think this is probably the greatest thing of Handel’s I have encountered to date. It certainly feels much more musically complex than most of his …
Messiah (2011) by Georg Friedrich Handel, performed by Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Choir, directed by Ivars Taurins
For something so unbelievably famous, I am shocked at how little of this (I believe) I have heard over the years. Pretty much just the “Hallelujah” chorus is all I recognize.
Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont (2010) by Joseph Boyden
At first, I found the style fairly jarring. This was not what I was expecting. And I am not sure it’s entirely appropriate, certainly if you are looking for a rigourous historical study. But, as I read it, I found it worked well enough. Well enough that it triggered my own creative ambitions, much like …
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013, Martin Scorsese)
This is basically the Goodfellas of stockbroker films. It’s got so many things in common with his earlier masterpiece that I don’t really want to go into it. (I feel like going into it would take too long and, frankly, I am worried I wouldn’t do the most complete job.) Scorsese has created another brilliant …
Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013, Frank Pavich)
This is a fascinating movie about one of the most important films to never get made. (If you think that’s hyperbole, you learn at the end that it probably isn’t.)
Total Recall (2012, Len Wiseman)
Let’s get the good of this totally unnecessary remake out of the way: The production design is fantastic, worthy of Blade Runner – which it is (very) heavily inspired by – the Fifth Element, Minority Report and the equal of respected modern sci fi epics like Pacific Rim. It’s better than the original, I would …
The Sopranos (1999)
The Sopranos has been seen by many many people at this point and so the fact that this review may include some mild spoilers should surprise no one.
Serial (2014)
I have never been a big podcast person. In fact, I think it was only in 2014 when I regularly started listening to them – I know, I missed the bus – and then, mostly just the Lowe Post. But Serial has changed all that. Moderate spoilers follow.
Uncoupling (1986) by Diane Vaughan
I interrupted my normal reading schedule to read this book specifically because I was going through a breakup – a relationship of nearly five years, the longest romantic relationship of my life, had ended. I chose Uncoupling of the books recommended to me because I found it the easiest but also because it appeared to …
Bands and Artists I Couldn’t Even Listen to in 2014
A few years ago I gave up listening to Exclaim!’s album previews both as part of my boycott of the magazine and also because I felt like so much of the music was so very similar. I have tried to replace that listening habit with NPR’s “First Listen“, but I have not been wholly successful …
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014, Ken Burns)
This is a very detailed and in depth documentary that attempts to link Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt not so much as a political dynasty but as men bent on the same mission.
Now is the Winter of My Discontent
On October 23, 2015 the longest romantic relationship of my life ended. When I say the longest, I also mean the only serious one, the only one that was ever successful. And, at least for me, it felt like it was the only thing in my life that was permanent, that would never change. We …
Symphony No. 14 (2013) by Dmitry Shostakovitch, performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Vasily Petrenko, with Gal James and Alexander Vinogradov
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…
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 …
Please, everyone, just calm down
Please, everyone, let’s just calm down a little. Let’s try to have a sense of perspective. Let’s try to think about the big picture. I know that’s very difficult when someone you never met dies, but let’s try to be bigger than knee-jerk reactions this one time.
With a Little Help from My Fwends (2014) by the Flaming Lips et al.
I avoided the Lips’ cover of The Dark Side of the Moon like the plague, figuring that was an album that absolutely did not have to be covered and also because I’ve been finding the Lips’ willful weirdness to be increasingly maddening and hard to follow. (I have no idea if I’m going to like …
Seven Words; Silenzio; In croce (1995) by Sofia Gubaidulina, performed by Maria Kliegel, Elsbeth Moser et al.
This is just an awesome set of really challenging modern chamber music, sort of smaller versions of what Penderecki was up to, I guess. The set contains three works by Gubaidulina centered around the cello and the bayan, a Russian version of the accordion.
Tokarev aka Rage (2014, Paco Cabezas)
Somewhere in this movie is an interesting comment on these mindless revenge thrillers starring middle aged men rampaging through American or European cities, usually because a child was killed or abducted. I can see the germ of that idea. And it’s an idea I love. I want to see that movie.
Grieg: Songs (1993) by Anne Sofie von Otter; Bengt Forsberg
This is a collection of Grieg’s songs that includes both Haugtussa and other songs from his numerous sets, picked, I guess, arbitrarily. Haugtussa is the highlight for me and a reason to rate this set higher than just an arbitrary collection of a composer’s songs should be rated.
Grieg: Piano Concerto; Holberg Suite (1988) by Various Artists
This is one of those extremely annoying compilations where there is virtually no information: we know the performers of the pieces but not when or where. Labels like Quintessence get their hands on recordings that don’t have copyright protection in North America and release these recordings to unsuspecting consumers such as libraries, which is how …