All the would-be writers out there claiming that having kids makes it impossible to start a novel should take a tip from Antonya Nelson. When the kids are young and demanding, write short stories during Sesame Street. When they get older and head to grade school, expand with a novel or two. When adolescence hits, … Read more
The most insightful films about the Holocaust certainly haven’t been made by Germans, so why shouldn’t a Dane director investigate the legacy of slavery in the United States? Of course, that leaves redemption and uplifting escapes out of the script, but the story Lars von Trier tells is filled with assumptions, speculations, and unexpected turns … Read more
Spring was still months away, and standing just inside the entrance of the “Twenty-fifth Annual Cycle World International Motorcycle Show,” at the Minneapolis Convention Center, two blond girls were handing out plastic bags. They looked old enough to get their first tattoos, but demure enough to keep tugging at the creeping hemlines of their neon-green … Read more
Robert Towne brings to the screen what has been called the greatest novel about Los Angeles ever written. Ask the Dust is the gritty tale of a young Italian man, Arturo Bandini (played by Colin Farrell) who struggles to write the Great American Novel while trying to pay his rent, get enough to eat, and … Read more
“More than a state of mind, the South is an atmosphere. The blood rules them. They don’t rule the blood.” That’s coming from Florida native and alt-country singer Jim White, who takes us on a weird, close-up tour of the hidden crevices of the Bible Belt in this meandering documentary. Through encounters with locals who … Read more
Anyone who’s ever accidentally blown pot smoke into the face of a baby should see this film. It all started in 1969, when filmmaker Ralph Arlyck made a short documentary about a precocious boy named Sean. This four-year-old was the son of San Francisco hippies extraordinaire, and in the film he famously claimed, “I smoke … Read more
When it comes to frenzied musical numbers, no one in Hollywood history has been as audacious–or parodied–as Busby Berkeley. Less a choreographer than a master of the chorus line, Berkeley’s style borders on the orgiastic. Films like Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames, Gold Diggers of 1935, and 42nd Street feature his trademark scenes … Read more
What a hoot to try on Patsy Cline’s persona–minus the car accident, the plane crash, and all the heartbreak in between, that is. With a hipster-hoedown wardrobe, a good-time band, and an audience that appreciates country music, Neko Case has had scads of fun reviving Cline’s swingy, traditional sound with a dash of foxy urban … Read more
Dear Elvis: We love you. You are the crown prince of geeks the world over, a shining example to funny and funny-looking folks everywhere, and anyone with compromised vision can thank you for keeping plastic horn-rimmed glasses in stock and in style. You’ve written so many great songs, both smart and jumpy punk, and perfect, … Read more
Cantus started ten years back as a collective of the St. Olaf College Choir’s finest male graduates. They were not just fine singers but also, as it happens, pretty fine-looking to boot, which could help to explain the troupe’s staying power. Cantus now celebrates its first decade with a concert that flits through the group’s … Read more