Arts & Entertainment
Short Music Reviews
rich boy Rich Boy On his new album, Maurice Richards (under the moniker Rich Boy) attempts to establish his hometown of Mobile, Alabama as the new epicenter of Southern Rap hotness.
Podcasts killed the radio star
In the beginning there was Napster. And it was good. But one day the Recording Industry Association of America decided it didn't really appreciate people getting their product for, you know, free.
the boys from sudan
Darfur. We learn about the terrible situation every day. But how often do we hear the stories of individuals who have escaped the carnage of the Sudan? Narrated by Nicole Kidman, God Grew Tired Of Us reveals the plight of young Sudanese men growing up in a Kenyan refugee camp and then traveling more than a thousand miles to the U.S.
directing '300'
In the wake of such epics as Troy and Kingdom of Heaven, one imagines director Zack Snyder's 300, about the Roman Battle of Thermopylae, would have had little trouble getting picked up in Hollywood.
No sex in the bedroom, either
Chris Rock is growing up. In his new film, I Think I Love My Wife, he attempts to incorporate his inimitable shtick into a more traditionally respectable format than, say, Pootie Tang.
A Gay Affair
Gray Matters 2.5 Stars Directed by: Sue Kramer Starring: Heather Graham, Tom Cavanagh R, 96 min. It is not often that a first-time writer/director snags big name talent like Alan Cumming, Sissy Spacek and Heather Graham for an offbeat romantic comedy about coming out.
blinded by the light
Here is a preamble: The Arcade Fire is by far my favorite band of the 21st century. Their 2004 debut Funeral changed my life, and as a Montrealer, I have watched the band garner international success and their side projects, Final Fantasy and La Bell Orchestre, grow up with them.
son volt
Son Volt frontman Jay Farrar, whose pioneering work in Uncle Tupelo in the early 1990's (with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy) influenced a host of later artists, brushes his canvas with new colors on an impressive new effort, The Search.
indian summer
Kal Penn proves that he's capable of more than Van Wilder in The Namesake, an intimate portrait of a displaced Bengali immigrant couple forced to cope with isolation and culture shock while raising a son and daughter in Boston.
patriarch
Patriarch - of Palestinian blood, born in San Francisco - exists outside of both the floundering hyphy movement and the indie powder-rap scene of the Bay Area.
Classic case
Somewhere between dark and optimistic, Classic Case's latest album Losing at Life is a moody experiment, exploring the gray area between hard rock/grunge and alternative.
marty mcfly rolls in his grave
It's rare to be so entertained by one of the worst movies you'll ever see. In her latest time-travel disaster Premonition, Sandra Bullock awakes one day to find that her husband has been killed in a random car accident, but when she wakes up the next day, he is alive and well.
Starter Up
Starter for 10 2.5 stars Directed by: Tom Vaughan Starring: James McAvoy, Alice Eve PG-13, 96 min. A screenwriting professor at Penn used to say, "If you aim for The Godfather and come up short, you still have Goodfellas.
broken vista social subscene
In Apostle Of Hustle, Broken Social Scene's lead guitarist, Andrew Whiteman, has finally found the perfect outlet to sport his breathy vocals.
arithmetic for dummies
In The Number 23, Jim Carrey plays Walter Sparrow, an animal control official who becomes obsessed with a murder mystery novel (called The Number 23) which he believes to be based on his own life.
flyin' high
Inspiring movies come in all shapes and sizes. Case in point: The Astronaut Farmer. The absurd plot of a retired air-force-pilot-turned-family-ranch-hand (named Charles Farmer) who decides to build a space rocket in his barn seems too far-fetched for even Hollywood's tastes.
The Glory of War
With so many war movies made in Hollywood every year, often with interchangeably formulaic storylines, it would be easy to overlook or simply ignore the French film Days of Glory.
