1.31.2012

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The Gross

Liam Neeson’s dances-around-wolves thriller set in the Alaskan wilderness notched first place this weekend in theaters. Underworld Awakening, with Kate Beckinsale reprising her kickass role as vampire huntress Selene, slipped to second. And Red Tails continues to show strength in theaters, placing strongly in the top five — and probably in a great position to find a new audience, and repeat business, with the start of Black History Month on Wednesday.
Source: Rentrak Corporation. The Grey logo: © 2012 Icon Films

1.29.2012

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Chemicals and reaction

The Chemical Brothers performed a triumphal concert one night at last year’s Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. Director Adam Smith was there to commit a movie. The result is what some critics have suggested is one of the best concert films ever made. Don’t Think (screening in select theaters worldwide starting Wednesday, in the UK on Friday) works because of its fan-centric perspective.



Kia Makarechi of The Huffington Post says it “bravely faces the challenges of translating a concert to the cinema without relying on an imposed narrative frame. Smith's ability to resist layering a hokey story on top of the concert experience is admirable …” It also works because of the sound; it’s being marketed as the first concert recorded in Dolby 7:1 surround sound. Want tickets? Here.
Photo: The Chemical Brothers/Adam Smith/Parlophone
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Strangeness in Seattle

The trailers have been trickling out since late October, and the word has been building on YouTube, Facebook and IMDb about Chronicle, Josh Trank’s much-anticipated horror film about three Seattle high-school students who acquire supernatural powers — and the discovery of their dark sides in a city whose Space Needle looks strangely outsized. Check the trailer, you be the judge. The 20th Century-Fox film opens Friday.

Poster: 20th Century-Fox

1.24.2012

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Hugo sets the Oscar pace

Martin Scorsese’s fanciful 3-D paean to Georges Méliès and the history of filmmaking leads the field with 11 nominations. The Artist, a tribute to the movies of the silent era, follows with 10. Jonah Hill, Viola Davis, George Clooney and three (!) stars of The Help also won Oscar nods. Jen Chaney of The Washington Post surveys everything.
Poster: © 2012 Paramount PIctures

1.23.2012

1.20.2012

1.19.2012

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Sundance 2012: Action!

For Michael O’Hehir at Salon, the most recent iterations of Sundance — under new management — has meant a leaner, more muscular festival refocused on the work of film, something he expects to see again this year. See Movies

The Hollywood Reporter: Robert Redford kicks off a festival for "dark and grim" times
With a deep page of previews, trailers and interviews, The Hollywood Reporter has the festival’s anticipated big draws all buttoned up (enough to know that anything can happen).
Back for more: After a wild Sundance 2011, film buyers are returning with high hopes of making the next big indie discovery, despite buys last year that didn’t perform as well as expected. THR’s Jay A. Fernandez and Daniel Miller report. See Movies
Logos: © 2012 Sundance Institute; © 2012 The Hollywood Reporter
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Priceline Negotiator checks out

After 14 years, The Priceline.com pitchman (Wlliam Shatner) has made his last deal. As the travel services company begins a rebranding, travelers everywhere are said to be in deep mourning. Below, the details of his final earthly transaction (the ad begins airing on Monday). We’re betting he finds a great deal on a room ... at the Great Beyond Hotel.

YouTube
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140 to the Twitterverse

SPIN Magazine recently announced a bid to “reinvent the album review” as 140-character posts on Twitter, a move that’s aroused some outrage among music writers. NPR's Ann Powers and Jacob Ganz weigh in on SPIN’s move, with ideas on what could be said with a little more space. In Music
Logo: © 2012 National Pubic Radio

1.17.2012

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London: Hockney goes big

Spanning past work in conventional media (watercolors and outdoor oils) and more adventurous creations (big-canvas oils and drawings done on an iPad), moving from expansive views of the Grand Canyon and the Hollywood Hills to studies of the Yorkshire countryside, the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London is a marvel. For Martin Gayford, “the boldness and panache of the total ensemble” makes for an “exhilarating” experience. See Art
Winter Timber (2009) by David Hockney (detail); photo by Jonathan Wilkinson/Royal Academy via Bloomberg

1.16.2012

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Hollywood’s Asian whitewash

Two of Japanese popular culture’s biggest exports to the United States, manga and anime, have brought that culture to a much wider audience. But when those art forms make the leap to the major motion picture, Asian American actors are strangely in short supply. Stephanie Siek of CNN reports on how Asian pop culture without Asians is, to quote one scholar, “an affront to their identity.” See Movies
Cover: VIZ Media LLC 

1.09.2012

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Brazil: Diplo on tecno brega

With the World Cup coming in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016, Brazil is about to blow up in a big way. The nation of 203 million people is in the midst of reinvention – some of it in a bubbling, vibrant music scene. Writing for Vanity Fair, the musicologist and electronica artist Diplo surveys the emerging tecno brega sound (“industrial reggaeton on crystal meth”) as distilled in the music of the group Banda UO. See the slideshow
Photo: Candy Mel by Shane McCauley for Vanity Fair
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Derring-do in World War II

It’s been years in the making, but Red Tails, George Lucas’ long-planned story of the Tuskegee fighter pilots in World War II, is finally leaving the hangar. The film stars Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Bryan Cranston and Ne-Yo, and was written by John Ridley (Three Kings) and Aaron McGruder, creator of The Boondocks. It lands in theaters Jan. 20. Give the trailer a test flight:

Red Tails logo: © 2012 Twentieth Century Fox/Lucasfilm Ltd.
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China turns off the TV

The country with the most television viewers in the world – about 1.2 billion people – has officially cut broadcast of entertainment content by about two-thirds, in accordance with a government campaign meant to reduce the impact of “vulgar” reality shows and programming of “low taste.” BBC News reports. See Television
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Guessing the Grammys

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 2012 Grammy Awards early last month. The actual presentation of the awards goes down early next month (Feb. 12, to be exact). To give Grammy handicappers something to do the rest of this month, PopMatters offers early predictions of who'll walk away with the golden gramophone.
Image: © 2012 National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

1.03.2012

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Jesmyn Ward: The next Toni Morrison?

With her second and highly personal novel (Salvage the Bones), the 34-year-old author has won the National Book Award, and the attention of a literary world more accustomed to successful authors of majority culture. The novelist talks with Keli Goff of Loop21 about her book, the future and issues with The Help. In Word
Photo: Via Loop21
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And still Sharpton rises

Four months after the launch of PoliticsNation on MSNBC, the Rev. Al Sharpton is helping the network solidify its progressive bona fides. In The Root, Michael E. Ross reports on how he also represents the emergence “of minority voices finally starting to achieve critical mass in the American commentariat.” In Television
Photo: MSNBC via The New York Times
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