Netflix Releases "House of Cards" Season 2 Trailer

Yesterday, Netflix released a trailer for Season Two of its award-winning political thriller, "House of Cards" The new season will be released in February 2014 and all episodes will likely be released at the same time, much like the first season.

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Golden Globe Nominations!

It's award show season, my favorite time of year!  Here are the nominees for this years Golden Globes.  Who do you think was snubbed?

No Oprah and what is Rush doing in these nominations?  That feels pretty out of left field.  No love for The Butler either.  Gonna be an interesting awards season!

Best Motion Picture – Drama
"12 Years A Slave"
"Captain Phillips"
"Gravity"
"Philomena"
"Rush"

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
"American Hustle"
"Her"
"Inside Llewyn Davis"
"Nebraska"
"The Wolf Of Wall Street"

Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years A Slave"
Idris Elba, "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom"
Tom Hanks, "Captain Phillips"
Matthew McConaughey, "Dallas Buyers Club"
Robert Redford, "All Is Lost"

Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Christian Bale, "American Hustle"
Bruce Dern, "Nebraska"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Oscar Isaac, "Inside Llewyn Davis"
Joaquin Phoenix, "Her"

Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine"
Sandra Bullock, "Gravity"
Judi Dench, "Philomena"
Emma Thompson, "Saving Mr. Banks"
Kate Winslet, "Labor Day"

Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Amy Adams, "American Hustle"
Julie Delpy, "Before Midnight"
Greta Gerwig, "Frances Ha"
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Enough Said"
Meryl Streep, "August: Osage County"

Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi, "Captain Phillips"
Daniel Bruhl, "Rush"
Bradley Cooper, "American Hustle"
Michael Fassbender, "12 Years A Slave"
Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins, "Blue Jasmine"
Jennifer Lawrence, "American Hustle"
Lupita Nyong'o, "12 Years A Slave"
Julia Roberts, "August: Osage County"
June Squibb, "Nebraska"

Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron, "Gravity"
Paul Greengrass, "Captain Phillips"
Steve McQueen, "12 Years A Slave"
Alexander Payne, "Nebraska"
David O. Russell, "American Hustle"

Best Screenplay
Spike Jonze, "Her"
Bob Nelson, "Nebraska"
Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan, "Philomena"
John Ridley, "12 Years A Slave"
Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell, "American Hustle"

Best Original Score
"All Is Lost"
"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"
"Gravity"
"The Book Thief"
"12 Years A Slave"

Best Original Song
"Atlas," Coldplay ("The Hunger Games: Catching Fire")
"Let It Go," Idina Menzel ("Frozen")
"Ordinary Love," U2 ("Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom")
"Please Mr. Kennedy," Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake and Adam Driver ("Inside Llewyn Davis")
"Sweet Than Fiction," Taylor Swift ("One Chance")

Best Foreign Language Film
"Blue is the Warmest Color"
"The Great Beauty"
"The Hunt"
"The Past"
"The Wind Rises"

Best Animated Feature Film
"The Croods"
"Despicable Me 2"
"Frozen"

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DVD Review: Mike Birbiglia: “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend” (2013)

Mike Birbiglia’s new comedy special, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, proves what an amazing talent he has as both a storyteller and a comedian. Here he tells a great story, with wonderful detours and side roads but always coming back to the main thread at just the right moment. He even allows serious and sweet moments into his routine. The main story is his relationship to Jenny and how that has changed him. But the road he takes to get there is truly hilarious and often touching.

He starts by talking about how a few years ago everyone he knew started getting married. He starts with a somewhat general statement that I can relate to: “Sometimes when I think I am right about something, it can be a real source of tension between me and the person I’m arguing with, and the reason it’s a source of tension is that I’m right.” He talks about how he thinks marriage is insane, and mentions how fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. He adds: “That’s just first marriages. Second marriages, sixty to sixty-two percent end in divorce. Third marriages, seventy to seventy-five percent end in divorce. That’s a learning curve.”

But don’t worry – he can be romantic, like when he says, “From the moment I met Jenny, I knew I wanted to sleep with her at least once.” And: “I remember the first time I fell in love. It was in high school, it was that first time where you fall in love and you’re just like, ‘This is it, I found her, I’m seventeen years old and I’m done.’”  I love his material about failed attempts at kisses, and about seeing people making out. “Making out is just sloppy. It’s like watching a dog eat spaghetti.” He also mentions how the way women argue can be maddening. “That’s how Jenny argues things sometimes. She’ll just say, ‘That’s how I feel.’ And I’ll say, ‘That’s not an argument.’”

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DVD Review: Jayne Mansfield’s Car

Jayne Mansfield’s Car is an interesting and engaging family drama set in the south in 1969, when a death brings two very different, though perhaps equally dysfunctional, families together. It boasts a fairly incredible ensemble cast including Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon, Robert Patrick, Ray Stevenson, Frances O’Connor, Ron White and Billy Bob Thornton, who also co-wrote and directed the film.

The film opens with a small anti-war demonstration in the town of Morrison, Alabama, while the two local cops look on. Meanwhile, the older folk are in a barber shop, discussing politics. Jim Caldwell (Robert Duvall) says, “You ought to have to be from here to run for office, the way I see it.” Another guy tells him, “Well, they’ve been here some forty-odd years, though, Jim.” Jim is then upset to learn that one of his sons, Carroll (Kevin Bacon) was the leader of the anti-war demonstration. He seems to be leaning pretty far to the right, so the sudden shot of Jim seated by a stream is completely welcome, for it makes us feel for him. It makes him more human.

This family has money. They live in a mansion. Skip (Billy Bob Thornton), one of the other sons, has a small collection of sports cars. But they are far from being trouble-free. Skip, though fifty years old, still lives at home. Jimbo (Robert Patrick), though married and with a son, also still lives at home. Jim lives partially in the past, harboring an anger, and also a morbid passion for car accidents. The family dynamic is almost immediately apparent during an early dinner scene at the house. Jim is interestingly quiet for the beginning of this scene, and he when he does speak, it’s to say basically what he said in the barber shop, which now simply comes off as rather sad instead of strong and indignant like the first time.

A phone call from England interrupts their dinner. Jim’s ex-wife – the mother to all of his children – has died and is going to be buried in Alabama. A death in the family is an easy way to make an audience feel for a group of people, but it’s really when Jim says, “She deserved to be with her people, don’t matter what she’d done to us” that you become involved and drawn in.

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DVD Review: Buying Sex

Should sex workers be allowed? Buying Sex tells the story about how Canadians react to a court case addressing this issue, with information about laws in New Zealand and Sweden.

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Film Review - What's in a Name? (Le Prenom)

By Adam Ruhl

 

 



One of my favorite types of films to review is mainstream foreign films that have not yet opened in America. There’s a thrill in being able to draw attention to some really great movies that have been, up to this point, somewhat obscure In this country, often due to something as small as a language barrier.  I hadn’t heard of ‘What’s in a Name?’ until I had the chance to see it and now that I have I’m excited to talk about it.

This is a comedy set in an apartment over a dinner party. Vincent (Patrick Bruel) is an expectant father attending the party thrown by his sister for himself and some of their friends. Things are going well until they start a game to guess what the baby will be named. When Vincent announces the name it snowballs into an evening of revelations, great arguments, and some very funny dialogue. Things get heated almost like ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe’ but with less venom.

The opening reminds me a lot of ‘Amelie’. There are a lot of shots of moving through Paris traffic while a narrator gives us trivia and background information on our characters. Once we settle into the plot the film becomes a filmed play with most of the action all taking place in one apartment. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a new film of this type and I sorely missed the genre. Watching these characters verbally spar with each other is absolutely captivating.  

The film is from writer/director team Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, based on their 2010 original play. It’s just now opening in America but was released in France over a year ago (a major source of pride for the production is that it opened against The Avengers and had a higher opening weekend gross).

What’s in a Name? opens on VOD (Available on ITunes HERE) and in select theaters including NYC's Cinema Village on December 13^th.

Color

French Language

109 minutes

Not Rated

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Where My Party People At?! An All-Star House Party Music Mix!

by Kari Tervo

Hey Pop Culture Beasties! Who wants to party?! I want to party! You want to party! We want to party! Let's party!

To party, we need a great house party music mix!

I tend towards EDM events these days for my music enjoyment, but I threw a certified bash for the Fourth of July in 2008. Well, by my standards. I invited 20 people, and 50 showed up. There were fireworks from a cool vantage point (accompanied by the Kiss version of the national anthem), many foods and drinks, unexpected actors passed out on the floor, and grown men throwing Pop Its in each others' faces! I even had a freaking pinata.

Photo Credit: Matt Carpenter

But what's all of that without a great soundtrack? Would any awesome even happen without one? When I go to a party, I love party music. You know, those songs pretty much everyone loves and can sing along to, or get a good groove going on. So when it came time to decide on music for my party, I thought about all the songs I love to sing along and dance to when I'm in a party mood.

People loved the mix! Walking through the room, I'd be hearing, "omg! I love this song!" People were dancing on the patio. But this was 2008! Would my mix stand the test of time? I recently unearthed those party mix CDs, and was really excited to find they're still mostly great. So, I want to share my list with you as inspiration for your own party mixes! 

CLICK RAWR TO UNLOCK A TREASURE CHEST OF AUDITORY PARTY FAVORS!

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IRON COMIC: The Time I Wrote A Joke With Kumail Nanjiani!

by Kari Tervo

Monday nights at Largo in Los Angeles have become legendary, primarily due to Tig Notaro's comedic confessions about her very difficult year in 2012. Even prior to Notaro's touching and talented set, Largo was known as a comedy laboratory: Monday nights are when comedians like Sarah Silverman show up to massage some new material. And it's a celebrity comedian oasis, too. One night, Ed Helms appeared on stage without any pre-announcement or fanfare. In this intimate small-theater setting, it's like a private party: It's impolite to gawk at the celebrities, and we're all on our best behavior. Any night you're at a Largo comedy night, you're probably going to feel lucky to have been there.

CLICK RAWR TO ENTER THE COMEDY OCTAGON!

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DVD Review: Monster Pies

Monster Pies is an absolutely wonderful film about first love and the troubles of growing up, finding one’s place in the world and asserting oneself. It features excellent performances, particularly by the two leads, but also by all of the supporting players. It stars Tristan Barr as Mike and Lucas Linehan as William, two gay teenagers who develop a relationship and learn about themselves through a class assignment on Romeo And Juliet.

The film opens with Mike riding his bicycle to school. He’s late, and the teacher makes him go to the office to get a late pass, which apparently is a regular thing for him. While waiting, a new boy comes out of the office, and the two make eye contact. All of this is set to gorgeous piano music, and is the opening credit sequence.

In class, the teacher holds up a copy of Romeo And Juliet (the Signet Classic edition, for those who are curious). William doesn’t have a copy yet, so the teacher asks Mike to share his. William, at the teacher’s request, then reads aloud from Act I Scene i: “Alas that love, whose view is muffled still.” The shot is from the side, with William in the foreground, but the focus being on Mike who is next to him in the background, looking toward us. It’s a nicely framed shot of the two of them.

The teacher assigns the students a project. In groups of two or three, they must do their own modern interpretations of Romeo And Juliet, which will be due at the end of the semester. It’s nice that Mike doesn’t immediately try to partner up with Will. But all the other kids get other partners, showing Mike as a bit of an outsider. So then Mike asks Will, who is also without a partner, being the new kid. They decide to do their project as a horror film (as Will says, “The only kind that can be so bad but still be good”).

The film does a good job of establishing the two characters’ worlds by cutting back and forth between shots of their individual lives, showing them with their families. Will’s dad thinks he should be working instead of in school, and his mother is in a hospital after suffering a brain injury. She is nearly catatonic. (There is a great shot of Will’s mother alone, after Will and his dad have left.) Mike’s parents are divorced, and his father is upbeat through a bit awkward.

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Movie Trailer - Godzilla

What a great teaser. Atmospheric, mysterious, and exciting. I am on board with this for sure.

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DVD Review: All Hallows Eve

I'm not gonna lie, I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder when it comes to horror movies that appear to go straight to video.  I grew up during a time where this meant your movie was terrible and in a lot of cases this is still true.  The thing is that today is a rapidly evolving world in terms of film and film distribution so have a movie release on DVD and not have a big (or any) theatrical release is not necessarily an indication of the quality of the movie.  Look at Curse of Chucky for a prime example, which I think went direct to DVD more as a way to get the Chucky Collection box set to sell more copies rather than as a determiner of its quality.  It's great btw.

So it was not without a bit of trepidation that I sat down to watch All Hallows' Eve, an anthology/narrative hybrid about a babysitter and her two charges watching an unmarked VHS tape.  The tape contains three stories all featuring a maniacal clown, amongst other things, doing all manner of horrific things to various people.

I had seen the trailer for this one and I found myself interested in seeing it, and after watching it, I am pleased to say it's damn good.  I watch a lot of horror movies and it takes a lot for me to get creeped out.  I'm not talking jump scenes, I am talking genuine creeps.  All Hallows' Eve delivers the good old fashioned under your skin back of your neck creeps.  The kind you just don't get anymore.

Heavy on gore and scares, this film delivers something for pretty much any horror fan.  When I finished watching it, I'll be honest, I was hesitant to turn the lights off.  I had no idea what manner of demon or monster would show up once the light was gone.

That is exactly the way you should feel after a good horror movie, the need to check your locks and then get up out of bed to check them again.  All Hallows' Eve left me with that feeling.

This is definitely a fun flick to watch with friends and one that you can enjoy scaring yourself with even if you're all alone.  Don't let the cover fool you.  This movie is about so much more than a clown.  It's really rather multilayered in terms of its scares and what kind of monstrosities you experience.

I'm not going to spoil anything for you just do yourself a favor and check it out.  It's a fun little flick that does prove that releasing on DVD does not have to be a indicator of a bad movie.  Not by any stretch.  I, for one, can't wait for a sequel.

All Hallows's Eve is available now.

All Hallows' Eve

9/10 Cursed VHS Tapes

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DVD Review: Triple Crossed

Triple Crossed tells the story of a soldier who has returned from Afghanistan, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and living in his car. He needs money and a place to live, and is offered both by a woman who wishes him to kill her deceased brother’s lover.

The film opens with a brief battle scene in Afghanistan, focusing quickly on a soldier on the ground, a certain tattoo on his wrist. It then cuts to Los Angeles, a year or so later. Chris (Jack Brockett) is working out in a park, the same tattoo on his wrist. He calls Jackie to follow up on a job as head of security. Interestingly, in this scene, we don’t see Jackie’s eyes. Her mouth is at the top of the frame, forcing us to focus on her voice, just as Chris does. She has him meet her at her house. And even then right away we don’t see her eyes, for she has on large dark sunglasses.

Jackie (Laura Reilly) tells Chris that he failed the drug test, so her company can’t hire him. But she has a personal job for him – to kill Andrew Warner, her brother’s partner. Her brother was killed in Afghanistan, and he had left his partner fifty-one percent of the family company. It is then she removes her glasses, as if to get a better look at Chris and to show him that she trusts him and knows he’ll do the job. She tells him she’ll set him up with a place to live and fifty thousand dollars in cash.

Meanwhile Andrew (played by Sean Paul Lockhart, who also directed the film) is hanging out with a female friend, Kendra, who tells him it’s time he met someone.

There are flashbacks to the war, hinting at the troubles Chris suffers from, and also hinting at another relationship there.

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CD Review: Gov’t Mule: “Shout!”

Gov’t Mule’s new album, Shout!, is the band’s first studio album in four years. This rock jam band has an interesting approach to the new album. There are two discs, but it’s the same material on each disc. That is, the same songs appear on both discs. But the second disc features different versions of the tunes, each with a special guest vocalist. Folks like Elvis Costello, Dr. John and Steve Winwood all join Gov’t Mule on the second disc.

All the songs on Shout! were written by Warren Haynes. Sometimes the sort of gruff, boisterous energy of the vocals reminds me just a bit of Brent Mydland. Other times, like on “When The World Gets Small,” the vocals remind me of Lou Gramm. These are basically rock tunes, but a song like “No Reward” has a heavy blues-rock vibe. And then “Scared To Live” has a reggae beat, which is nice, though it is the sound of that song’s choruses that I really love.

On the second CD, the songs are presented in a different order. With three exceptions, the versions on the second disc are shorter.

Shout! kicks off with “World Boss,” a groovy rock number with a bit of a funky dance rhythm at its base. “Everybody, have you heard the news/World boss is coming.” There is a nice jam toward the end of the tune. On the second disc, Ben Harper provides vocals for this tune.

“Whisper In Your Soul” has more of a trippy feel, particularly due to the guitar. The vocals, however, have a somewhat romantic bent, which is nice. “Lie with your body next to mine/Feels like I’m traveling through time/I feel the whisper in your soul/I feel me losing all control.” And when it kicks in, it has more of a rock feel. Grace Potter provides vocals on the version on the second disc.

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SPARK: Burning Man's Intentions Shine Through

by Kari Tervo

"I drew a line on the ground. And I said, 'On the other side of this line, everything will be different.'" So stated co-founder Larry Harvey in Spark, a documentary about Burning Man. He was speaking of the genesis of Burning Man, the long-running counter-culture festival of arts, music, and positive intent.

Burning Man is certainly a different world. It's a temporary near-utopia in the Nevada desert, a true phoenix that is born and dies in the span of a week every summer. But Spark, the Steve Brown-led documentary, shows us that not everything is different there out on that dusty playa playground. While conscious living and love are overarching principles of the event, its participants and organizers display human foibles that sometimes interfere with achieving those goals. With so much tension, can the spark of intention shine through?

CLICK RAWR FOR THE SPARK THAT WILL START YOUR FIRE!

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BLOG ZINE! The Grim Reaper In A Balloon Hat

by Kari Tervo

Zine reviews! What shall we talk about today? Hrm. Oh! Hey! It's the holiday season! How about two of America's favorite celebration topics: balloon animals and death!

Here's the FAQ, ya big dummy.

Here’s my Rating System:
Recommended: !
It’s Aiight: .
Maybe If You’re Into That Sort of Thing: ?

CLICK RAWR TO POP OUT OF THE CLOSET WITH A BALLOON ANIMAL AND ADORABLY SCARE THE ANGEL OF DEATH!

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