AltWeeklies Wire
The Vignettes in 'Act of God' are a Random as Lightning Bolts Themselvesnew
Jennifer Baichwal skips from Canada to France to Mexico, never explaining who her subjects are or arguing why their near-death experiences should be linked. It's just a haphazard travelogue of terror, like 33 Short Films About Glenn Gould Being Struck by Lightning.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
11-02-2009 |
Reviews
The Cave Singers Craft Songs Underground, After Cereal, in Seattlenew
"Living together makes it so we can play music together more than most people in bands probably do," says guitarist Derek Fudesco. That sense of ease and unhurriedness is the glue that holds the Cave Singers together as a band, and can be heard on their latest record, Welcome Joy.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian J. Barr |
10-19-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Welcome Joy, Cave Singers
'Black Dynamite': Like 'Shaft' Played for Laughsnew
Thoroughly silly and enjoyable for film geeks who know the old '70s blaxploitation canon, Black Dynamite suffers from the Grindhouse paradox: As Quentin Tarantino discovered, not everyone outside his immediate circle of friends actually cares that much about lovingly reviving cinematic curios of the past.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
10-19-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Black Dynamite, Scott Sanders
'The Boys Are Back': Clive Owen Learns to Cook and Nurturenew
In the Oscar derby for Best Actor, is it better to die or to grieve? Clive Owen opts for the latter in this strained, sentimental adaptation of a memoir by widowed English journalist Simon Carr.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
10-05-2009 |
Reviews
'No Impact Man': What’s the Big To-Do About Doing With Less?new
Is No Impact Man a landmark documentary? Is the book a Walden for our time? Not really. Both, in a modest, agreeable fashion, tell us what we already know: We buy too much, we waste too much, and we're using up resources disproportionate to our presence on the planet.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
09-28-2009 |
Reviews
Sub Pop Offshoot Hardly Art is Hardly Starvingnew
Like the now-defunct Sub Pop offshoot label Die Young Stay Pretty, Hardly Art receives financial backing from Sub Pop. But unlike DYSP, Hardly Art is determined to live to see middle age on its own dime.
Seattle Weekly |
Sara Brickner |
09-21-2009 |
Music
Despite Seattle's Battle Against Some Seedy Motels, Their Regulars Remain Undauntednew
After years of complaints from neighborhood residents and hundreds of calls to the police for service, the city has declared war on the seedy motels of Aurora Avenue North -- five of them, anyway.
Seattle Weekly |
Vernal Coleman |
09-14-2009 |
Culture
Seattle Rapper D. Black Trades Rhymes for Religionnew
Most musicians with a brand new album would probably spend a Friday night at clubs or music venues, either playing a show or promoting their record. But Black isn't interested in any of that. In fact, he's ready to give up rap entirely.
Seattle Weekly |
Jonathan Cunningham |
09-14-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Are Gays Too Late to Destroy Marriage?new
Could it be that traditional marriage, like communism, is an outmoded social contract straining under the weight of its own inflexibility? In the final analysis, it may not be same-sex marriage, but a simple insistence to self-determine, that's causing brittle institutions of church and state to crack.
Seattle Weekly |
Kevin Phinney |
08-31-2009 |
LGBT
The Director of 'It Might Get Loud' Talks Guitar Heroesnew
With an Oscar on the mantel for producing and directing An Inconvenient Truth, Davis Guggenheim decided to take a break from politics. So why not sit back, relax, and turn the stereo up to 11?
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
08-31-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
The 9th Circuit's Lion of Liberalism is Having the Last Laughnew
Betty Fletcher, 86, is a liberal icon and the most powerful woman in Seattle you've never heard of. Sadly for conservatives, she just won't stop working.
Seattle Weekly |
Nina Shapiro |
08-24-2009 |
Politics
'Cold Souls' Has a Charlie Kaufman Premise, but it's Not a Charlie Kaufman Movienew
Sophie Barthes is a French writer-director, and this is her first feature. And it's no great criticism to say that her ideas, well, they get away from her.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
08-24-2009 |
Reviews
'Art & Copy': How to Sell Soap and Sex and VWsnew
However stirring these vintage campaigns and their graying creators may be for ad junkies like me, Doug Pray fails at analysis. His film is simply a tribute. And linking the ad biz to cave art -- well, that's just idiotic.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
08-24-2009 |
Reviews
Does Seattle Have Too Many 'Advisors'?new
They've grown in number under Mayor Greg Nickels, and that's become a campaign issue -- even outside the mayor's race.
Seattle Weekly |
Laura Onstot |
08-17-2009 |
Politics
Washington State's Prison System Starts Shrinkagenew
The main factors driving the projected drop in inmates are bills that will put offenders in home detention and drug-treatment programs rather than prison, and offer them housing vouchers as part of an approved release plan that will allow them to leave prison before their maximum sentence is served.
Seattle Weekly |
Nina Shapiro |
08-17-2009 |
Crime & Justice
