Songs for Cineastes: 2012 Edition

Cate Le Bon (The Control Group)Click here for the 2011 edition. Rather than a list of film scores or soundtracks, the following represents an assortment of music recommended for movie lovers such as myself. Some independent film fans prefer mainstream movie fare. Similarly, some art house aficionados prefer major-label music. There's nothing wrong with that; I just can't relate to it (and try to avoid giving the Man my money whenever possible). If you share my taste in movies, there's a good chance you might share my taste in music. Links lead to reviews and previews for Line Out. The Tops:1. Cate Le Bon - CYRK (The Control Group)2. Julia Holter

Read more »

Movies for Music Lovers: 2012 EditionClick here for the 2011 edition. Some of these films premiered in the US in 2011, but didn't arrive in Seattle until 2012, in which case I deferred to local release dates. Some missed the city altogether, in which case I caught up via DVD. I wrote about many for Amazon, Line Out, The Seattle International Film Festival, SIFFBlog, and Video Librarian (the links lead to reviews, though Rust and Bone and Amour haven't been posted yet, since they don't open here until January).  The Tops: 1. Patience (After Sebald) (Grant Gee)In his haunting profile of an author's defining novel, Gee created a true work of art.2.

Read more »

December Reviews

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month. Amazon DVDs: Psych - The Complete Sixth Season [four-disc set], Call the Midwife - Season One [two-disc set], and Eastbound & Down - The Complete Third Season [two-disc set].Amazon Theatricals:  Playing for Keeps (withGerard Butler and Jessica Biel), Rust and Bone (Jac-ques Audiard directs Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts), and The Guilt Trip (with Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand).Line Out: Mikal Cronin Signs to Merge Records, METZ Digital Single: "Dirty Shirt," Vex Ruffin: Getting Wiggy in Chino, The Haunting Sounds of Holly Herndon, Django Django: Video, Remix, an

Read more »

November Reviews

Technological remnant of the 1980sThese are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month. Amazon DVDs: Parenthood - The Complete 3rd Season [five-disc set], Last of the Summer Wine - Vintage 1995 Sum-mer Reserve [two-disc set], Upstairs Downstairs - Season 2 [two-disc set], and Ancient Aliens - Season 4 [two-Blu-ray set]Amazon Theatricals: Ang Lee's Life of Pi, Joe Wright's Anna Karenina, and Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (with Daniel Day-Lewis).Line Out: Matmos Gets Literal in New Video, Dual Form, Cyclist, and Cassette Culture, There Are Still Careers in Combat, My Son, Remixing Neneh Cherry and The Thing, Big Star and the Ballad of the

Read more »

Sic Alps photo by David WaldmanOctober ReviewsThese are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.Amazon DVDs: Burn Notice - Season Five [four-disc set],  Kingdom - Season One (with Stephen Fry) [two-disc set], and  The Ice House (with Daniel Craig and Corin Redgrave).Amazon Theatrical: Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights.Line Out: Niobe's Close Call, What Goes On with Sic Alps, Robust Worlds - "Best Wishes," Chrome Canyon's Elemental Themes, Six Organs of Admittance at the Crocodile, Generationals - "Sale City," Throbbing Gristle, Genesis, and Nico, Martin Eden's Dedicate(d) Function, Rangda's Desert Trip, Field Music Play(s) the

Read more »

September Reviews

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.Amazon DVDs: Leverage - The 4th Season [4-disc set]. Amazon Theatricals: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paron-naud's Chicken with Plums (with Mathieu Amalric), Liberal Arts (with Elizabeth Olsen), and P.T. Anderson's The Master (with Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams).   Still playing (or yet to open): For a Good Time, Call..., Hello I MustBe Going, The Hunger Games, Old Goats, Sparkle, and The Words.    Amazon.com Widgets Line Out: Apocalypse - A Bill Callahan Tour Film, Norwood Fisher at the NWFF, Inside Melody's Echo Chamber,

Read more »

August Reviews

These are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.Amazon DVDs: Going for the Gold - The '48 Games, Misfits - Season One [two-disc set], Mighty Morphin Powers Rangers - Season 1, Vol. 1 [three-disc set], and Judge John Deed - Season Six [two-disc set].  Amazon Theatricals: Old Goats, The Words (with BradleyCooper and Zoë Saldana), and Sparkle (with Whitney Houston).  Still playing (or yet to open): For a Good Time Call..., Hello I Must Be Going, The Hunger Games, Neil Young Journeys, and To Rome with Love. Line Out: Frankie Rose Takes a Trip to the 1980s, Psychic Ills-Moon Duo Split Single, Redd Kross's Welcome

Read more »

July ReviewsThese are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.Amazon DVDs: Super WHY!: Around the World Adventure, Art: 21 - Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season Six, Birdsong, Great Expectations, and Secrets of the Manor House.Amazon Theatricals: Jonathan Demme's Neil Young Journeys and  For a Good Time, Call...  Still playing (or yet to open): 21 Jump Street, Hello I Must Be Going, The Hunger Games, The Lucky One, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, The Three Stooges, To Rome with Love. Line Out: YouTube to Upgrade Comment System, Blues Control's Valley Tangents, Deep Time Album Teaser and Stream, ESG and the Factory

Read more »

Abbott and Lynskey in Hello I Must Be GoingJune ReviewsThese are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month Amazon DVDs: Albert Nobbs [Blu-ray] and Emmanuelle.Amazon Theatricals: Hello I Must Be Going (withMelanie Lynskey) and Woody Allen's To Rome with Love.Still playing (or yet to open): 21 Jump Street, The Hunger Games,  The Lucky One, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, and The Three Stooges. KCTS 9: Speaker at this month's History Café on Seattle Rock.   Line Out: The Womack - on the Screen and in the Studio, JuliaHolter, Naomi Yang, and Sigur Ros, Lee Hazlewood and Martin Newell, Blues Control -

Read more »

May ReviewsThese are the reviews and other pieces I'm working on this month.Amazon DVD: Weeds - Season Seven [three-disc set] (click here for six).  Amazon Theatricals:  Sound of My Voice (withAnother Earth writer-actress Brit Marling). Still playing (or yet to open): 21 Jump Street, The Hunger Games, The Lucky One, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, and The Three Stooges. Line Out: Seun Kuti - From Africa with Fury, Prins Thomas Remixes Dent May, Happy Trails with MV and EE, Willis EarlBeal - One-Man Band at Barboza, Ty Segall and White Fence at Chop Suey, Beak > Returns to Bedevil Your Text, Melody's Echo Chamber - "Crystallized," Live Music

Read more »