"In films murders are always very clean. I show how difficult it is and what a messy thing it is to kill....." Alfred HitchcockThings to rot and expand your brain by. Reviews of movies, books, music and anything else we plug into.
_______________________________________________
June 22, 2010 - 3:51 pm - MOVIE REVIEW
Pretty Persuasion
Directed by Marcus Siega
Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Ron Livingston, and Jane Krakowski
Rated R for Language, Sexual Situations, Drug/Alcohol Use all involving teens.
Pretty Persuasion (click the link) is for people with an Assumed sense of humor. It is dark, twisted, and extremely funny. I mean funny in that all-encompassing "not only was I laughing my tail off, but the surface-level social commentary and the underlying themes of racism, negligent parents, and the politics of teenage sex, all worked together to form a thick ironic foundation of hilarity." The brilliant Evan Rachel Wood stars as Kimberly, a 15-year-old high school student in a posh Beverly Hills neighborhood where she is tasked with showing the ropes to a new Muslim student, Randa, played excellently by Adi Schnall. This scene lays the groundwork for the film, it is a finely tuned piece of story that highlights the film's sense of humor as Kimberly tells her newly-adopted Muslim friend- "I have respect for all races, but I'm very glad that I was born white. As a woman, it's the best race to be. Especially if you want to become an actress, like I do. If I wasn't white, then the next thing I would wanna be is Asian because a lot of men like Asian girls because they think they are docile and subservient and sweet which I don't really think is true because I once met this Asian girl at summer camp one time and she was a real bitch. If I couldn't be white and I also couldn't be Asian, then my third choice would be African-American because I've always wanted to be a gospel singer and also, black men are more forgiving if your butt gets big. Except I'd definitely want light skin and Caucasian features like..Vanessa Williams or Halle Berry. And finally, you know, no offense or anything Randa, but my very last choice would be Arab. I mean, truth be told you're not in a very enviable position. There's a lot of resentment in this country toward the Middle East and there's a lot of stereotypes floating around which I don't think are true because in the short amount of time I've known you, you haven't tried to bomb anybody and you currently smell okay to me."
Satire this thick is often handled too loosely, but Wood's portrayal of a manipulative, scheming, and star-hungry high school girl who will stop at nothing to complete her agenda is pitch-perfect . There is a moment in the movie, where chaos surrounds Kimberly on her birthday, when Wood shows us a side of the character less seen. She sits at the dinner table with her father and his new 20-something wife, caught in the middle of her dad's (James Woods) extremely racist monologue and his wife's constant prodding for acceptance. The phone rings, and her absent mother is on the line to wish her a happy birthday, "Yeah, I got your card. It was great... except my name doesn't have an 'E' after the 'L...' And my dog's name is Bobo, not Bubbles... And I actually turned 15. No, it's okay, it's an understandable error. I'm precocious." Woods hits this scene like a pro, stammering on her words just enough to let us see the very soul of the character.
4.5 out of 5 Stars (by toomb)
June 18, 2010 - 11:38 pm - MUSIC REVIEW
Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots
Atlantic 2010
It was 1992, the Seattle scene was in full swing, and I was a pimple-faced sophomore at Sprague High School, and I was 15. After my life hand been changed by a little ditty about teen spirit, all the teenage angst and broken-home deep-seeded emotional problems made me a "no cuss" candidate for grunge, heavy metal, punk, industrial, Primus (cause there's really no category), and everything else that drove parents crazy.
Plush
Stone Temple Pilots | MySpace Music Videos
So along comes a song called Sex Type Thing by some band called STP. On one hand my best friend Pat is telling me it's crap and ripping off Eddie Vedder and we should just go get in to trouble, on the other I'm loving this song and I don't care. There was something about it that made me want to rock out and dance at the same time... like classic rockers doing their best post-80s-pop-grunge album.. and it worked. I picked up Core by Stone Temple Pilots as soon as it hit the shelf, and from start to finish I played that album to death over the next year until their sophomore release Purple. Their second album marked a sea-change for the band, breaking through the by then played-out grunge scene and presenting a more diverse mix of arena rock anthems, Bowiesque trip-riffs, and definitely more booty-shakin.
Then came the heroin and the bad press and the side-projects and the prison terms... and STP had problems of their own (rim shot please Danny). Seriously, front-man Scott Weiland has had his fair share of extra-curricular activities over the years, just Wikipedia the guy and there is pretty much no reason for him to still be alive. Thank god he's too arrogant to die, cause he has got some PIPES. and No. 5 were both great albums, with only a few bad songs in between them, but it was obvious that Scott's personal life was affecting his work. After some sobriety for everybody, and a truly mediocre Shangri-La-Di-Da, Stone Temple Pilots called it quits.
Down
Stone Temple Pilots | MySpace Music Videos
Scott Weiland refused to die. He fronted Velvet Revolver for two nearly perfect rock albums, got clean, got divorced, and started writing. 7 years later Stone Temple Pilots are back with their eponymous album, and in our opinion one of the greater comeback efforts of all time. I mean, there have been some great comebacks, Elvis in 1968, Bobby Brown in 2005, the British in 1812... but this album is just insane.
From the opening rock slap in the face of Between the Lines, Stone Temple Pilots just doesn't quit. There are so many different songs with the signature STP sound, from classic rock ballads like Dare if You Dare that lend a heavy hand to the Beatles, to pop-infused jingles like Cinnamon that keeps the mood of the album very high. It would seem after all these years Scott has swung back around to find some happiness in his life and it shows on this album. STP is quick to keep with current trends in popular music while staying true to their sound and their fans. It's a very up-beat and rockin album that is perfect for parties, bbqs, long drives, and dancin around the house with your honey. :) It's not anything groundbreaking, but it's a solid offering with a care-free attitude.
June 17, 2010 - 1:29 pm - MOVIE REVIEW
"House of the Devil"
Directed by Ti West
Starring Jocelin Donahue and Tom Noonan
Rated R for Some Bloody Violence
I want to start off bold because this movie got to me- This might be my new favorite horror film. I must also clear up the distinction between "scary movies" and "horror films." This is a fine example of the later. Aside from the PG-13 Prom Nights and Shutters as well as your typical R Saw, Hostel, and any other of the recent remakes of 80s flicks, sits a genre of film so close to my heart- horror. When I go to a scary movie I want to jump in my seat, I want to see awesome and gross special effects, I want to shove popcorn in my face. On the other hand, when I see a horror movie I'm signing up for something different. I want to be on the edge of my seat, I want to be disturbed, I want to feel the panic that characters feel, I want to be scared.
The House of the Devil does just that, and without any of the tricks and CGI that accompanies so many movies these days. Released in 2009 HOTD looks like it was shot in 1983- straight down to the grainy film stock and the huge cassette tape player with big black headphones. (Although, during the pizza place scene toward the beginning the sign in the background says "Margharita Pizza" on sale- did they have that in '83?) It is set sometime in the early 80s, and the detail is painstakingly dead-on. I literally could not tell that this movie was made a year ago, I was convinced it was some gem I'd never caught when I was a kid, and was blown away when I found out.
HOTD manages to pull off sheer terror with simplicity. A broke college girl takes a babysitting job in the middle of nowhere and, of course, at the wrong house. Turns out there aren't any kids, just the old lady sleeping in the upstairs room. I guess no one responds to "elderlysitter" anymore? Anyway, some time during the night the strange noises start coming from upstairs, while outside there is a full lunar eclipse. There are no quick-and-flashy edits here, no thundering sound effects to try to scare us, just a lot of long and stable camera work that follows the heroine around the house. There are a few instances where the camera lingers beyond the girl's frame of sight, revealing to the audience what the heroine doesn't know, and they are shocking and effective. Toward the end all hell breaks loose, literally, and where any other movie would spend the last half of the film with a never-ending chase scene, HOTD picks up fast, and leaves off just as quick. Once the blood begins to flow, the climax of the movie is upon us, and the burner gets cranked up to HI. All the while the subtle-yet-scary scraping of strings soundtrack slowly grates away at our ears... what else do you need in a horror movie?!
In my opinion, House of the Devil is one of the great horror films in the last few years. It's a horror film disguised as a scary movie from 1983. I strongly recommend it for any fans of suspense (there is little gore and only at the end) no matter if you are a horror buff or not. See this movie soon!!
THIS MOVIE IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN UNDER 14 AT LEAST (AND THOSE 14 YEAR OLDS WILL LOVE IT I'M SURE)
-toomb
5 out of 5 Stars (by toomb)
June 12, 2010 - 11:47 am
We live in a media dominated society, so do our kids. Common Sense Media is a non-partisan, not-for-profit site created to provide parents and kids with information, education and an independent voice to thrive in world of media and technology. Take a look at their site here, to see movie, game reviews and more.