Arts & Entertainment
Like Prozac for the audience
Though the world of feel-good movies is remarkably vast, one would think that there would be little room for a film whose title represents a particularly violent form of suicide.
'Lions,' and politics, and war - oh my!
Lions for Lambs tackles three intertwining stories that explore many of the harsher realities of our world today.
Drop dead, Fred
Fred Claus tries to tell an updated version of the Santa Claus story by bringing in Santa's relatives and adding some modern flourishes, but it ends up being a formulaic cash-in on the holidays that only those under the age of six will enjoy. In order to drive home an anti-corporate message, the film has Santa answering to a board of businessmen (the script never explains why Santa has to answer to a board) and an efficiency expert (Spacey), who wants to shut down the North Pole and outsource to the South Pole.
Get in touch with your roots
The Roots may well be Philadelphia's premiere hip-hop outfit. The Roots still defy convention by fusing soul, jazz, and funk, even 20 years and eight albums into the game.
let's freakout like crazy people
While the unlucky few stayed in with Mom and Pops last Saturday night, the love of thumping basslines, party anthems, and body shaking grooves brought Penn students and local dance freaks to St.
The Defibrillator
The first thing Charles "Black Francis" Thompson sings about on Doolittle is "slicing up eyeballs." Having previously fed myself a strict diet of lighthearted, whimsical, gloriously wussy indie pop, I was a little shocked.
In the lion's den
Early on in Robert Redford's interview, a reporter asks him a difficult question: What do you think your role is in repairing the world?
Backstreet boys Redux
The story of the Backstreet Boys is, at heart, the story of our childhood. And it all comes rushing back this week, when the erstwhile teen idols release their newest album, Unbreakable.
Defibrillator
Morrissey Viva Hate 1988 It was a sad day for witty, angst-filled teens everywhere when The Smiths called it quits in 1987.
99 Problems, but this film ain't one
If you haven't yet heard about American Gangster, you're probably living under a rock (or maybe just in Hill). The film's hype and star power (not to mention Jay-Z's decision to make a concept album based on it) set expectations high.
Bee-ing Jerry
Is there a particular message people will get out of this? There is a message that I tried to install in there, but I don't think people are getting it.
Extraplanetary parenting
Adapted from a novel by David Gerrold, Martian Child aims to please with its amiable eccentricity, but ultimately falls short due to the filmmakers' meddling with the original story. John Cusack plays David, a widowed science fiction writer who decides to adopt a young boy, Dennis (Bobby Coleman), who truly believes he is from Mars.
Buzzworthy
It's a little disconcerting to hear Jerry Seinfeld's voice coming out of an animated bee's mouth, but after a few minutes of Bee Movie, you'd swear you were watching Seinfeld.
Forever young
God bless Neil Young. At 62, he's as earnest as ever - supremely confident in his well-worn niche. In 2007, it takes some kind of self-assurance to sing, without a hint of irony: "I'm just a passenger / On this old freight train." For the last 40 years, Young has alternated with almost stunning regularity between country-inflected acoustic ballads and gritty electric numbers.
Out of the ivory tower
Robert Walter is reluctant to call himself a jazz musician. As a solo artist and member of the soul-jazz act Greyboy Allstars, the organist/keyboardist/pianist pits himself as on the cutting edge of the scene, fusing traditional jazz with funk, rock, and dance.
Defibrillator
With bombs falling in Iraq, tensions rising with Iran and Russia and the stock market at its shakiest in years, what would be a better album to bring back than Rage Against the Machine's controversial, self-titled debut album?
Real Good
This film - indie filmmaker Peter Hedges's follow up to Pieces of April - tells the story of Dan Burns (Carell), a widowed advice columnist having a tough time following his own advice.
Take 4
In the mood for mutilation this Halloween? Shaun of the Dead (2004) Though this is a parody from across the pond - think Dawn of the Dead meets Harold and Kumar - British comedians Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright know how to splatter their way into movie history.
London in shambles
Led by frontman and renowned narcotics addict Pete Doherty, Babyshambles' new record, Shotter's Nation, is pleasant enough, but ultimately forgettable.
