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(03/29/13 1:16am)
“Spring Breakers” is an unusual film, but less ambitious and more mainstream than director and eccentric Harmony Korine’s previous outings. But Korine’s latest will still frustrate audiences—and it’s probably the better for it. The film focuses on four college students who rob a diner to fund their spring break trip, ultimately falling in with a gangster named Alien (James Franco). Repetitive dialogue and a disgusting frequency of sunset imagery might seem, frankly, bad, but that’s the point—Korine soaks the audience in a youthful generation both attempting to find itself and committed to its own pleasure, and unsure about the difference between the two. Korine is just too earnest to make fun and too purposeful to entertain more than he needs to. The film is shot beautifully by Benoit Debie ("Enter the Void") and one can decide how silly the constant partying (and James Franco’s grill) seem. To me, it seems ridiculous, but totally truthful at the same time.
(11/15/12 10:59am)
If you’re looking for a morality piece on cheating, then you should know that I find morals as boring as ethics, which are as boring as laws, which are as boring as anything that takes itself too seriously and pretends to be concrete.
(10/07/12 6:10pm)
Flying Lotus’ latest album is a jumbled experience, and fans of his 2010 near-masterpiece "Cosmogramma" might be initially disappointed. But “Until the Quiet” plays its own soupy game, one possibly more akin to the artist’s debut, "1983." The album’s heavily textured beginning gives way to a dueling, harmonized synthesizer line on "All The Secrets," a short-lived shift that has the weight of a dubstep bass drop, given its similarly toned-down context. The following track, "Sultan’s Request," is the collection’s heart, a much-needed hip-hop beat that falls into the album’s jazzy-backdrifts. These parts can seem slow, but they reveal layers with repeated listens. No one in electronic music uses a jazz bassline as effectively as Flying Lotus. Nor would any producer insert a vocal part by Thom Yorke as naturally — while the Radiohead singer’s contribution to "Cosmogramma" revealed an eventual emotional weight reminiscent of his regular band, Yorke’s part on “Until the Quiet” is a tense contrast of sound and words, as he repeats the mantra "Say my name" over a backing track too grim for even Radiohead (not to mention Destiny’s Child). This all makes for a persistently interesting listen, and one that might seem better than interesting—even eminently enjoyable—for those with an open mind.
(04/19/12 9:02am)
Best way to be your own Indiana Jones:
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
April 27
6:00–9:30 p.m.
Gallery309
309 Cherry St.
The Toynbee Tiles are a remarkable phenomenon, particularly within Philadelphia. The tiles are usually found embedded in streets and on the pavement, and they're often inscribed with a bizarre reference to resurrecting the dead on the planet Jupiter. Though the origin of the tiles remains a modern mystery, filmmaker Jon Foy set out to unravel their story in his 2011 documentary, Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. Foy focuses on the research of Justin Duerr, a Philadelphia native, musician and visual artist who has searched for an explanation of the Toynbee Tiles for years.
The cast and crew of the film are heading to Gallery309 later this month for a screening and discussion, though tickets are limited. Prior to the show, you can also check out Stranger Things Have Never Happened, Duerr’s installation in the gallery. Resurrect Dead was a hit on the festival circuit, and a film that touches so close to home should have you on the lookout for these strange tiles next time you’re wandering about town.
Best Way to Appreciate What's Going on in Film Right Now: The Future and Beginners: The Artist as Filmmaker
July 11
7:30 p.m.
401 S. Broad St
The Philadelphia Film Society is a fairly reliable cultural aggregator, and though being a member has its benefits (free sneak previews of Pirates: Band of Misfits!), many of its events are also open to the public. On July 11, the PFS will screen two films at the Gershman YMCA, artist/fiction–writer/filmmaker Miranda July’s latest, The Future, and her husband Mike Mills’s enthusiastically–received Beginners. Both were released in the last couple of years and (as the program's title implies) were made by directors who ventured from the visual arts into movie–making. The fact that July and Mills are married is, well, incidental, but the screening itself forms part of a monthly series celebrating the confluence of film and other art forms. Tickets are free for students.
Best way to be surprised by movies again:Secret Cinema Blind Date: 35mm Archival Surprises
May 11
7:00 p.m.
3701 Chestnut St
Still on campus in mid–May? Because the International House is showing something you definitely haven’t seen before, art snob. “Secret Cinema Blind Date” celebrates 35mm film — the toast of every cinema purist — which will be discontinued as a format for new movies in 2013. Having recently obtained a 35mm projector, I–House will play all of the reels they’ve collected throughout the years, none of which they’ve ever seen. The nature of these mystery clips is eclectic: trailers, short films, company videos and more. What binds them all is I–House’s supposed knack for collection, but you can be the judge of that. Tickets are $8 for students and the screening will take place in the Ibrahim Theater.
Worst way to appreciate your city: The Awfully Nice Tour of Rocky
Rocky helped define Sylvester Stallone’s career, but it also added a certain (further) rough–and–tumble flavor to our dear Philadelphia, city of the underdog. This summer, make the movie a reality with the Awfully Nice Tour of Rocky and Rocky Balboa’s filming locales, from the Italian Market to the PMA steps. Wait, on second thought, don’t. While the concept itself is a fantastic idea, Awfully Nice Tours is charging over a $100 per person (discounts on group rates!) for this adventure, something you could easily organize yourself.
Ditch the grotesque commercialization on this one and just take yourself on your own montage — run up the PMA steps, browse the Italian Market, jog along the Schuylkill, digest the American dream at Pat’s and explore City Hall. For a full list of walkable locations, just watch Rocky. Or Google it. But don’t surrender yourself to this exploitative drek; live Rocky with some friends, not strangers and tour guides.
(03/29/12 9:37am)
The Good Remake: True Grit (2010)
(02/09/12 10:58am)
1) The Pearl Theatre at Avenue North, 1600 N. Broad St.
(02/02/12 10:53am)
Street: What originally got you interested in film?
Christopher Donovan: I can’t recall not being interested in film. My favorite childhood memory is being maybe five or so, and my father acting out the last half–hour of Jaws with my Fisher Price deep–sea explorer set, with a cute rubber dolphin contributing an impressive change–of–pace performance as the killer shark.
(02/02/12 10:32am)
Twenty–nine Pictures Like That: The Elvis Movie (A Talk with David E. James)
February 3, Fisher–Bennett 231, 3340 Walnut St, 5:00 p.m.
The King is alive and quite well. Or at least in the mind of David E. James, who arrives at Penn on Friday to discuss the film career of the great Elvis Presley. James, a professor at the University of Southern California, has been published extensively and has had his own films shown at the Whitney in New York. Among other subjects, his academic work has shined a light on the connection between film and music, so the talk should be well–informed. And for those of you who don’t care about rock 'n' roll before the hippie generation, James will focus on the films Elvis created after serving in the military in the early 1960s, when The Beatles were lighting up Hamburg and Dylan was just another folkie in Greenwich Village.
(01/26/12 10:38am)
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(01/19/12 10:49am)
David Cronenberg’s “adaptation” of Naked Lunch, the 1959 novel by William Burroughs, is less a cinematic retelling than a complete immersion in the mind and mythology of Burroughs himself. At its surface, the story follows author, wife–killer and drug addict William Lee as he traverses the fictional North African states of Interzone and Annexia. Most essentially a work of science fiction — though it’s as confusing and genre–bending as Burroughs’s original novel — the film takes the extraterrestrial conventions of commercial science fiction (notably Star Wars), and casts them in a strange new light, where everything has a homosexual undertone and typewriters can speak. It adds up, somehow, to an experience that is as compelling today as it must have been groundbreaking in 1991.
(07/21/11 9:11pm)
You may have heard of Kurt Vile — his presence on the Philadelphia music scene (he’s a native) is undeniably significant, and his woozy folk–rock jams have made him a mainstay in the indie scene at large. We caught up with Vile after his show at Pitchfork, where he opened up about rebellion, Jim Jarmusch, and his excellent 2010 album, Smoke Ring For My Halo.
(06/09/11 9:23pm)
Despite its eclectic appropriation of sounds, Fucked Up is most basically a hardcore punk band. The band’s latest, David Comes to Life, makes this jarringly evident: throughout the album’s 78 minutes, there are few moments when the listener isn’t literally pummeled with sound.
(04/18/11 7:53pm)
1. Dosage Was a Surprise, And a Pleasant One, Too
When the DP published a cover story on SPEC’s inability to peg down a fourth artist for Spring Fling, it was hard not to feel a bit disappointed. Many, including your friendly music editors, were searching for a performer with more artistic pedigree. Probably a larger contingent was hoping for a headliner with a bigger headlining name. Dosage—the Philadelphia rapper of little fame who has toured with Lupe Fiasco in the past—filled neither of these needs. But what he did do is arguably more important: he added a degree of serendipity and randomness to the most regimented brand of live music.
(04/14/11 7:13am)
We all know the guy at the concert who knows everything about everything — and we all know that we can’t be him all the time. But for Fling (when we should abandon most conventions, anyway) you can be a regular music snob! Just follow our handy guide, as we take you through several of the less obvious cuts that this year’s performers might sneak into their setlists.
(04/14/11 6:28am)
Now a cult favorite in his own right, the monumental Person Pitch elevated Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) from being just another Animal in the Collective. Tomboy, Lennox’s long–awaited follow–up, does what any over–hyped album should do: it keeps the most basic working components intact while spinning everything else in a (darker) new direction.
(04/07/11 7:26am)
Best Introduction to a Feature in the Music Section
In the spirit of this issue, we've compiled a list of the memorable music happenings so far this year, from Penn to the the wider world. Read on for our picks:
(03/31/11 7:00am)
The release of Submarine, a teen angst dramedy, and its soundtrack (written by the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner) got us thinking about how soundtracks can interact with movies, and how some soundtracks can even stand alone, outlasting the films themselves. Here’s a brief, curated (and by no means exhaustive) tour of some notable soundtracks that have influenced the genre.
(03/31/11 6:00am)
Aside from the mild hysteria surrounding the Spring Fling artist announcement (and the inevitable disappointment), most Penn students remain unaware of a generally brilliant crop of indie and hip–hop shows put on by SPEC each year.
(02/24/11 8:02am)
Radiohead has a hard time staying still. Throughout the band’s eight studio albums, aesthetic focuses are short–lived, rendered as spastic and inscrutable as the consumer technology they regularly lampoon. Commercially, the band peaked on 1997’s OK Computer — spawning imitators as pathetic as Coldplay and Muse — but since then they have found new life as mainstream poster boys for the avant–garde underground.
(02/17/11 8:11am)
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