Forget the doings of Rosie O’Donnell, Melissa Etheridge, and Ellen DeGeneres—two of America’s hottest, hippest lesbians are hooking up for some electric dates this fall. Like the ballyhooed “Vote for Change” tour, Margaret and Ani are campaigning in several swing states to get out the vote. (They didn’t name their mini-tour “Vote, Dammit!” for nothing.) … Read more
That saying about how societies elect the presidents they deserve—could it apply as well to pop stars? If so, what did we do to get Britney, Christina, Hilary, et al? The situation of late—in general, not just with pop music—has us looking far and wide for signs of hope, and we found one in Bjork’s … Read more
A major hole in Hitchcock’s representation on DVD is now rectified by this suite of nine films, only one of which—North by Northwest—is already out in that format. There are some real gems in here, too. Strangers on a Train, here in a double-disc special edition, features Robert Walker’s great performance as the effete psychopath … Read more
We’ve gotta be completely honest here and tell you that the last movie we hated so much we couldn’t finish watching it was John Waters’ Pecker, which was just plain lazy. But Hairspray aside, a Waters movie can’t be expected to be “good” in any traditional storytelling sense. He’s probably never going back to the … Read more
Director Takashi Miike’s reputation rests on his bizarre visual imagery and his mindbogglingly prolific career—though Gozu only came out in Japan last year, the Japanese gonzo has already finished seven other films. So it might be too much to ask that everything that happens in this movie makes logical sense. Nominally a cross between an … Read more
If moviespeak shorthand abbreviates “romantic comedy” as “romcom,” then this is a “romzom”—a romantic comedy set amid the zombie plague of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Director Edgar Wright and star Simon Pegg, who also wrote the movie, first worked together on a British sitcom called Spaced, and it’s obvious they have great creative … Read more
In film after film, John Sayles is one of the only directors out there unafraid to take a hard look at the negative influence of money and power on American society. At times that leads to heavy-handed didacticism, as with the disappointing Sunshine State, but we’ve got a good feeling about Silver City, which reunites … Read more
Phoenix Rising, a sculpture fashioned from roughly five thousand melted guns, now lies in two pieces in a storage facility. Hennepin County officials are reluctant to say exactly where, because its current condition “is not the presentation the artist had in mind.” The mawkish symbolism of the mythic bird reborn from ashes certainly makes it … Read more
Mary’s watching: “Live Forever: The Rise And Fall Of British Pop” I settled into my comfy chair and with every good bed-wetting liberal intention tried to watch the Democratic National Convention on TV. I felt like a big dumb demographic cliché. With one eye on John Edwards’ shiny hopeful face, my hopelessly Gen-X other eye … Read more