AltWeeklies Wire
The Beatles: I'm Looking Through Them
Rediscovering something that wasn't lost: A few words on the Beatles remasters.
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' Exhaustively Explores the Red Army Factionnew
Uli Edel's sober, clear-eyed view of the youthful and sexy yet arrogant and murderous, gun-toting radicals at the center of Baader-Meinhof's mythology -- a complex construct, indeed -- manages to do justice to the core of their sprawling chronology, while never overstating their narrative's obvious post-9/11 relevance.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
'Big Machine' is a Big, Mean Story by Victor LaVallenew
Far from a standard dry examination of doubt and faith, Lavalle's allegorical approach is sweeping and swashbuckling. Big Machine takes us from Ricky's idyllic childhood -- sweet as saccharine, with a black tar of burn -- to his romantic nadir, dying in a puddle of piss and shit in the basement of a house owned by a man named Murder.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
D. Scot Miller |
09-02-2009 |
Fiction
Robin Williams Does His Best Work in Years in 'World's Greatest Dad'new
It'd be somewhat inaccurate to call Bobcat Goldthwait's new movie a more mature effort than his earlier films, because it contains as much nastiness. But in some ways, it's more mature because it tackles some serious subject matter and actually provides Robin Williams with his best role in years.
San Diego CityBeat |
Anders Wright |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
High-Tech Still Thrives in Low-Key Boisenew
Why Boise still tops the list of places technological innovators do -- and should -- live.
Boise Weekly |
Amy Atkins |
09-02-2009 |
Tech
'O'Horten' Examines Life After Retirementnew
A story of lonely, passive people struggling with age, infirmity and boredom might sound like a subtitled snooze-fest, but director Hamer deftly infuses this work with wry humor and a subtle surrealism that arrests the audience's attention.
Boise Weekly |
Jeremiah Wierenga |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
'Still Walking' Observes a Family in Quiet Crisisnew
This is Kore-eda's most truly naturalistic, let alone Ozu-like film since his first -- the comparatively bleak 1995 Maborosi -- as well as a dysfunctional-family seriocomedy uncommonly beautiful inside and out. It's a quietly funny and insightful two hours capable of inducing one pretty ecstatic afterglow.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Still Walking, Hirokazu Kore-eda
Living With HPVnew
It's the STD that afflicts millions. And yet few have come forward to share their travails with this nightmarish virus. Now one woman is ready to tell her story.
Boston Phoenix |
Lisa Spinelli |
09-02-2009 |
Culture
As Virginia Jail Inmates Prepare for Release, Challenges Aboundnew
Of the roughly 4,800 men who are inmates each year at the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, 72 go through the eight-week Re-entry program. Who gets tapped is mainly a matter of scheduling, but once on the list, they're given a choice: Take the eight-week course, or lose as much as six months time off they've earned for good behavior.
C-Ville Weekly |
Erika Howsare |
09-02-2009 |
Crime & Justice
'Extract,' Like its Lead Character, is About Averagenew
As a sketch-like trifle built from well observed details, it pretty much splits the temperamental difference between Mike Judge's cartoons: subtler than Beavis and Butt-Head, but broader than King of the Hill.
C-Ville Weekly |
Jonathan Kiefer |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Extract, Mike Judge
Green Day Electrifies Musical Theater at the Berkeley Rep with 'American Idiot'new
The rock opera adaptation of Green Day's multiplatinum 2004 smash American Idiot is going to challenge the very definitions of punk, theater and musical.
East Bay Express |
David Downs |
09-02-2009 |
Theater
In 'The Sower,' Sex With a Certain Guy Can Cure Everythingnew
Kemble Scott considers his new novel, The Sower -- whose title alludes to the Bible's Parable of the Sower, because Bill broadcasts seed -- Sex and the City crossed with The Da Vinci Code.
East Bay Express |
Anneli Rufus |
09-02-2009 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Jucifer's Use of Extremes is Inherent to its Wholenew
Major stylistic shifts are abound in just about all of this two-piece act's recordings. The music suddenly shifts from the calm and free-flowing melody of shoegaze to the harsh brutality of noise or metal. But it always feels as if this dynamism has a rationale.
East Bay Express |
Nick Schwab |
09-02-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: L'autrichienne, Jucifer
How Jockey Agents Finesse Relationships Among Riders, Trainers and Horsesnew
At its most basic, an agent's job is to convince trainers that they want their best horses ridden by the agent's jockeys. An agent wants to put his riders on a mount in every race of every day and, if at all possible, on the favorite for each race. That means keeping on good terms with every trainer and every owner.
San Diego CityBeat |
Eric Wolff |
09-02-2009 |
Sports
Real (Scary) World: When Reality Shows Killnew
The tragic story of Ryan Jenkins allegedly murdering a swimsuit model named Jasmine Fiore would have been just another obscure, SoCal, TMZ footnote were it not for the fact that Jenkins was a rising star in the reality show world. That juicy tidbit is now shining an unwelcome light on the sleazy world of reality show one-upmanship.
Weekly Alibi |
Devin D. O'Leary |
09-01-2009 |
Movies
