AltWeeklies Wire
'The Wackness' Captures 1994's Halcyon Hustlenew
Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) may not be as brainy and broken as Holden Caulfield or as mortality-fixated and mundane as Andrew Largeman of Garden State, but Peck hits the right notes of cringe-inducing yet pungent realism required to turn this potential cipher into a full-fledged character.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
07-10-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: The Wackness, Jonathan Levine
Roman Polanski Finally Gets His Due in This Penetrating Documentarynew
Polanski, in life, has been as fascinatingly enigmatic as his films, with a personal back-story capable of trumping even his most bizarre fictions, and now it's all dredged up in Marina Zenovich’s HBO documentary.
New York Press |
Felicia Feaster |
07-10-2008 |
TV
Brendan Fraser Gets in Your Face in 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'new
While the actual meat of the film features at least one spectacular sequence involving a chasm and floating magnetic rocks, the rest is marred by badly conceived 3-D effects.
New York Press |
Mark Peikert |
07-10-2008 |
Reviews
One of the D.C. Police Dept's Top Informants Talks About a Decade on the Streetsnew
How to buy drugs without blowing your cover. How to gain the trust of old heads. And an insider's look at the carnage of D.C.'s Trinidad neighborhood.
Washington City Paper |
As told to Jason Cherkis |
07-10-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Guillermo Del Toro's 'Hellboy II' is All About Rock-hard, Right-handed Self-pleasurenew
The movie is lax on personal expression, simply a spook-the-kids, psyche-the-hipsters carnival.
New York Press |
Armond White |
07-10-2008 |
Reviews
'The Exiles' Presents a Regrettably Ignored View of L.A. Life and American Historynew
Mackenzie's sparkling, moody black-and-white images of what might be called the Native American Diaspora (following a generation of Indians who moved off the reservation and migrated to post-war Los Angeles), depict a classic American story of aspiration and tragedy. It is beautiful and devastating.
New York Press |
Armond White |
07-10-2008 |
Reviews
Big Oil in Little Richmondnew
Back in 2004, the Chevron Corporation proposed a billion dollar "Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project" at its 2,900-acre Richmond, Calif., refinery. Critics worry that the renovations will end up fouling the air in the already-blighted Richmond neighborhoods downwind of the refinery, and have taken up arms to halt the project's progress.
East Bay Express |
Anna McCarthy |
07-10-2008 |
Business & Labor
Socio-Economic Anxiety Never Rocked as Hard as it Does on the Hold Steady's Latestnew
Though the Hold Steady's musical style has always been of the lunchpail-swingin' bar-rock variety, Craig Finn's lyrics have usually been less about the rundown poor than the burned-out party kids. That changes on Stay Positive: Finn more directly addresses working-class themes, spinning tales of slightly older characters who are actually sweating their way through the drudgery.
Washington City Paper |
David Dunlap Jr. |
07-10-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: The Hold Steady, Stay Positive
A Friend's Death and a Cop's Support Spawn a Go-Go Bandnew
Highly Respected wanted enough money to buy a headstone for a murdered friend. Enter Mitch Credle.
Washington City Paper |
Angela Valdez |
07-10-2008 |
Music
History Will Not Absolve Jesse Helmsnew
Those who fought for progressive causes during the 40 years or so of Helms' public life have their own recollections of him. While some nod their heads in respect for his passing, they also mourn the impact of his political influence on the state, the nation and the world. We offer their voices, here, as a counterpoint and a remembrance.
Ready for '90s Nostalgia? 'The Wackness' is Ill to the Corenew
Writer-director Jonathan Levine's ingratiatingly funny comedy does more than just riff on a time and place -- it belongs to that great fraternity of novice-and-mentor films, a la Cinema Paradiso, in which an inexperienced person comes of age with the help of a kindly and more worldly friend.
East Bay Express |
Kelly Vance |
07-10-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: The Wackness, Jonathan Levine
The Bayliens Are Comingnew
The stalwart indie rap trio invades the world of "Bubblegum" pop.
East Bay Express |
Rachel Swan |
07-10-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: The Bayliens
Mobile Home Park Residents Caught in Catch-22new
Since the Homestead Village case began, some residents and affordable housing advocates have begun to ask whether the old park could be fixed up and restored as a place where people of modest means can continue to live, if not in grand style, then at least in very comfortable surroundings. Depending on the Raleigh City Council's decision, Homestead Village could add to the junk pile, or it could turn out to be a preservation success story.
INDY Week |
Bob Geary |
07-10-2008 |
Housing & Development
Death of 17-Year-Old Pregnant Farm Worker Incites Campaign Against Trader Joe'snew
The California Division of Industrial Relations has opened an investigation of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez's death and her employer, Merced Farm Labor. But activists connected to the case want to send the message even further, to stores like Trader Joe's that market products made with cheap or exploited agricultural labor.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Amanda Witherell |
07-10-2008 |
Business & Labor
Ta-Nehisi Coates Charts a 'Beautiful Struggle'new
To read this memoir about growing up in black in Baltimore is to catch a glimpse of the profound legacy and letdown of a generation raised to rebel but forced instead to fight disappointment, imprisonment, and despair.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
D. Scot Miller |
07-10-2008 |
Nonfiction
