Wednesday, Dec 16, 2009
Avatar may be technically amazing with a script that is too formulaic, but it certainly does not lack heart.
[David Harris]
Wednesday, Dec 16, 2009
If Reitman and Clooney both took more risks, Up in the Air could have soared.
[David Harris]
Wednesday, Dec 16, 2009
Broken Embraces is an auteurist misstep, the kind of film that exposes its maker's preoccupations and gives away his shortcomings.
[Teri Carson]
Wednesday, Dec 16, 2009
Ricky is unextraordinary and tedious in every sense; a movie that feels like an imposition.
[Andrei Alupului]
Tuesday, Dec 15, 2009
A Town Called Panic is a genuinely unique and frequently hilarious film.
[Andrei Alupului]
Tuesday, Dec 15, 2009
Sympathetic viewers may overlook the film's glaring inadequacies for the sake of its message
[Lauren Westerfield]
Monday, Dec 14, 2009
The Spectrum Culture 20 Best Albums of 2009!
Monday, Dec 14, 2009
This is a fine and glorious thing, since few tipples are more fitting on a cold winter's night than a warm, steaming and preferably brandy-spiked mug of the wine lover's answer to apple cider.
[Lauren Westerfield]
Monday, Dec 14, 2009
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, seems to plot its bizarre interior confabulations as stepping-stones on a trail to nowhere.
[Jesse Cataldo]
Monday, Dec 14, 2009
Home is a contemporary and enticing tale of spiraling humor and darkness; an environmental "horror" movie where a happy home is transformed into a nightmare due to extreme environmental influences.
[Teri Carson]
Sunday, Dec 13, 2009
Our writers pick their favorite records of the '00s.
Sunday, Dec 13, 2009
Our writers pick their favorite records of the '00s.
Sunday, Dec 13, 2009
Our writers pick their favorite records of the '00s.
Sunday, Dec 13, 2009
Our writers pick their favorite records of the '00s.
Sunday, Dec 13, 2009
Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR, 10/18/09
[Lukas Sherman]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
Just in time for the yuletide comes our feature picking the Good, Bad and Ugly of Christmas in film.
[Nathan Kamal]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
Unfortunately, no matter how ambitious a filmmaker is, a topic that has perplexed the whole of humanity for recorded history can't quite be covered in 98 minutes.
[Nathan Kamal]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
We are proud to present Spectrum Culture's Top 25 Tracks of 2009.
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
Big River Man follows a world-record attempt without any of the standard gravity, turning this grueling pursuit into a peculiar celebration of absurd behavior.
[Jesse Cataldo]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
Perhaps one person's religious journey is too personal to be interesting to another.
[Jessica Bari]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
Fall be Kind is a fitting close to a great year for Animal Collective.
[Lukas Sherman]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
The Secret Song, his sixth full-length album under the DJ Spooky moniker, shows evidence that Miller has long left behind the narrow confines of hip hop, embracing a wealth of collaborators from a wide variety of musical spheres.
[Sean Marchetto]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
Though too generic to inspire more than a passing interest, Received Pronunciation is clever enough to hold your attention for 26 minutes. Brevity is sometimes a virtue.
[Brady Baker]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
Russian Circles is not afraid to layer and spread their sonic textures, which weave together into a complex and rounded audio landscape.
[Rafael Gaitan]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
Initially scheduled to mark cult-electropop singer Annie's major label debut last year, Don't Stop has finally made its way onto record shelves.
[Sean Marchetto]
Saturday, Dec 12, 2009
Regardless of your budget, Paul McCartney seems determined to stuff himself in your stocking one way or another this holiday season.
[Aaron Passman]
Thursday, Dec 10, 2009
A film cannot rise above mediocrity on the strength of theme alone. It needs execution. And it's here that Eastwood drops the ball.
[James Shelledy]
Thursday, Dec 10, 2009
If you are a longtime fan, you should bid farewell to your old CDs and buy these immediately. But it's not the sound quality that's the most remarkable part. It's the songs themselves.
[David Harris]
Thursday, Dec 10, 2009
Backspace, Portland, OR, 11/21/09
Thursday, Dec 10, 2009
Pollard never met a first draft he didn't like, and the man almost seems contemptuous of the idea of craftsmanship, let alone quality control.
[Aaron Passman]
Thursday, Dec 10, 2009
While it doesn't sound like the best praise to say that a documentary resembles something invented, in this case it's a total compliment. Darius Marder's debut film has all the lean emotional economy of first-rate narrative drama.
[Jesse Cataldo]
Tuesday, Dec 8, 2009
Doug Fir Lounge, Portland OR, 10/21/2009
[Nathan Kamal]
Tuesday, Dec 8, 2009
The record is clearly meant for the most hardcore of DOOM fans, considering how much history it spans.
[Danny Djeljosevic]
Tuesday, Dec 8, 2009
Those unfamiliar with Lymbyc Systym will find these 42 minutes a perfect starting point. Shutter Release is a thesis of their music, a hybrid of the sound they've been honing.
[Jory Spadea]
Tuesday, Dec 8, 2009
This isn't a documentary about art or about artists, to the extent that it doesn't allow itself to be either.
[Andrei Alupului]
Tuesday, Dec 8, 2009
District is the type of place where everyone is talking animatedly to one another about some extremely salient topic while simultaneously eying each other's designer footwear.
[Jessica Bari]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
" I don't know where this came from that I don't like doing interviews. I've always done every interview that someone has asked me to do. Somehow people think that I'm evasive. I don't know what it is."
[David Harris]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
Remixing is a somewhat dicey proposition. While it makes sense for electronic/dance acts, it does not really work for indie artists.
[Lukas Sherman]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
At face value, Michael and the Mumbles is a largely piss-poor recording, with the band sounding crowded around a single reel-to-reel machine's microphone.
[Chris Middleman]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
Gigante is a fine first effort, and although it isn't a laugh-out-loud funny black comedy, the film exhibits Kaurismäkian sympathy for the hardships of the working class.
[Teri Carson]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
Those versed in Burroughs' fiction will find plenty of the familiar characters who have graced and disgraced the pages of the writer's seedy rants and semi-autobiographical novels throughout A Spoken Breakdown.
[Marcus David]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
Knowing, at this stage in the game, Little Dragon is this consistently good can only mean the band has unbelievably classic material waiting to be released in the future.
[KayJay]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
Actor Ryan Gosling appears neither egotistical nor irrelevant as the big name behind Dead Man's Bones. This is a high-concept, lo-fi slice of weird that's often delightfully novel without ending up a mere novelty.
[Brady Baker]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
Despite his deep feelings for his characters, Desplechin refuses to sink into the mire of sentimentality even as death, infidelity, insanity and deep-seeded hatred threaten to destroy the delicate fiber of the film.
[David Harris]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
Before Tomorrow doesn't follow cinematic conventions, it follows Inuit storytelling traditions, and the emphasis is on the power of storytelling in the culture.
[Andrei Alupului]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
With only three previous albums to their credit, it would seem awkward to consider Rewolf a "Best Of" collection, which in essence it is.
[Sean Marchetto]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
On new solo album, Malaikat dan Singa, Arrington de Dionyso sings entirely in Indonesian, taking lyrics from mystic poet/artist William Blake and a Kabbalah text. Are you sufficiently intrigued?
[Lukas Sherman]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
A visual narrative in five sweeping acts, a girl & a gun blends found and famous images into a drama chronicling the inescapable overlap of sex and violence in cinema.
[Lauren Westerfield]
Sunday, Dec 6, 2009
Esperanza becomes the younger voice of Cisneros, explaining the neighborhood of Mango Street, the people who live there and condition of the buildings.
[Aimee Herman]
Thursday, Dec 3, 2009
Unlike many such reissues, this version is worth a purchase for both fans that have the original album as well as those who have yet to hear Sweetheart.
[Eric Dennis]
Thursday, Dec 3, 2009
Introducing sounds like any number of NME or Mojo-compiled punk history give-away discs.
[Morgan Davis]
Thursday, Dec 3, 2009
Me & Orson Welles uses the young-adult-friendly novel by Robert Kaplow as an excuse to deliver a fictionalized account of Welles' pivotal modern-dress staging of Julius Caesar.
[Danny Djeljosevic]
Wednesday, Dec 2, 2009
The newest PLAYLIST focuses on David Bowie. What if you had to choose the best of the Thin White Duke? Unfortunately, there is just one small parameter to overcome....
Wednesday, Dec 2, 2009
The Pageant, St. Louis, MO 10/17/09
[Eric Dennis]
Wednesday, Dec 2, 2009
Beast Rest Forth Mouth may require a few listens before the hooks reach through the murk and pull you in.
[David Harris]
Wednesday, Dec 2, 2009
The real fun the record presents us with is the way D'Orio and Trost treat the English language, and by extension, pop music, as an artsy playground.
[Chris Middleman]
Wednesday, Dec 2, 2009
Alexander Sokurov's The Sun, features a look at the last hours of Japan's Emperor Hirohito before he surrendering to the United States and is an astounding work of intimate detail that should not be missed.
[David Harris]
Wednesday, Dec 2, 2009
Burger Lounge doesn't belabor the point, but they're certified green and obsessed with being organic, biodegradable, and all those other wonderful things that the cynical and ignorant write off as annoying, trendy buzzwords.
[Danny Djeljosevic]
Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009
New Moods is an immensely promising, rewarding work that easily stands out in a year crowded with excellent electronic releases.
[Morgan Davis]
Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009
Although, Rivers Cuomo is far past his sell-by date, his earnest songwriting has always been attuned to this teenage sensibility.
[Rafael Gaitan]
Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009
"I wasn't in a sensory deprivation tank or in a cabin in the woods. It's gotten out of hand. What happened: I stopped talking to my friends. Why that happened: that's explained in the record."
[Eric Dennis]
Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009
Director Lukas Moodysson lives up to his surname, as nobody in this movie is very happy.
[Danny Djeljosevic]
