by Daniel Erenberg
So, it seems that Slow Century Magazine has taken the entire month of May off. Co-founders Joe Ireland and Janna Washington have spent the month packing up their shit and shipping it out west, as they now reside in Eugene, Oregon. Danielle Berg has spent most of her time working on The Quilt Project, a wonderful Community-building non-profit, which hosted a very successful fundraiser on May 9 (which I couldn’t attend, due to Star Trek-related prior commitments). And my laptop has been broken, which has given me the excuse to ignore my journalistic commitments and, instead, sit in my Slanket and watch Gilmore Girls DVDs. But, of course, I have been keeping up on everything pop culture-related, so I have to play catch-up. I thought it might be a good idea to put together a collection of mini-reviews in case our many, many readers have been wondering what Slow Century’s official take on the happenings of early summer are. And I might even have collected my thoughts on the broadcast network upfronts in time for Summer Press Tour in July. Maybe.
FILMS
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
This was, simultaneously, a missed opportunity and a mistake from the get-go. I suppose a good film could be made based on the origin of the most mysterious of the X-Men. There are certainly good comic books having to do with it (just check out Barry Windsor-Smith’s “Weapon X” and Paul Jenkins’ Origin). But, one of the main strengths of the Wolverine character is how shrouded in mystery his origin is. I, for one, really don’t want to know about it. Why not make a modern-day Wolverine film or, if the producers were really so hung up on the origin idea, why not make a Wolverine film about the days just before he joined the X-Men? But these ideas are meaningless. What we’ve got is this fairly terrible, far too angsty action film with dialogue entirely composed of exposition, and a series of overhead shots of Hugh Jackman crying out, “Nooooooo!!!” What’s even worse is that the casting is uniformly spot-on, particularly Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth, but no one is given anything remotely interesting to do or say. The first big summer movie is the first bad movie of the summer.
Grade: C-
Star Trek
I’ve never been a Star Trek fan. I watched a handful of Next Generation episodes, when reruns used to air alongside Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I’ve seen a few of the movies. I was interested in this film because J.J. Abrams was at the helm, and I’ve liked all four of his TV series (Felicity, Alias, Lost, Fringe). So, I went to see this at the Ziegfeld with a massive crowd of ridiculously nerdy Trekkers, and I had a really good time. It’s a hell of a fun movie, completely well cast, with a light tone and a whole bunch of terrific action sequences. And I thought it was completely charming that Abrams thinks “Sabotage,” by The Beastie Boys is still going to be a relevant song hundreds of years in the future. And I didn’t catch the subtle Trek references that my friends did, but I did catch the Abrams-verse references (Slusho! Amanda Foreman! Greg Grunberg’s voice!), and those satisfied my geek cravings far more than seeing Emma Frost for two seconds in Wolverine.
Grade: A-
The Limits of Control
Enjoyment of The Limits of Control depends entirely on one’s ability to stand Jim Jarmusch. I happen to be a huge fan and, having enjoyed all nine of his previous films, I managed to enjoy this one as well. But the film is something of an endurance trial. The pacing makes Dead Man, Jarmusch’s previous meander-fest benchmark, look like a Michael Bay film. But there is something quite mesmerizing and beautiful about the whole affair, and the soundtrack, featuring such favorites as Earth, SUNN O))), and Boris is the best of the year so far.
Grade: B
Music
Veckatimest, by Grizzly Bear
This is Grizzly Bear’s best release to date and, while being a completely satisfying, near-perfect recording, it still hints at even bigger and even better things to come. It retains the spacy, atmospheric dread that the previous Yellow House captured so well, but it adds a newfound interest in melody. First single “Two Weeks,” with its jaunty piano lead, overactive drums and Beach Boys-like harmonies is my pick for song of the summer, not something I would have expected from a Grizzly Bear album. “While You Wait For The Others” is equally enchanting, running up and down the scale with a brilliant bass-line and some more wonderful harmonizing. And, for the angstier Yellow House fans, there’s some more entrancing atmospherics, especially on tracks like “Cheerleader,” the sometimes cacophonous “I Live With You” and the absolutely beautiful closer, “Foreground.”
Grade: A
Outer South, by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
This is Conor Oberst’s second album with his non-Bright Eyes band, and it’s a halfway good album, with a load of filler. He lets various band-mates sing lead on roughly half of the tracks, but there are 16 songs, so there’s still a full-length Oberst album in here somewhere. The best of the three non-Oberst singers turns out to be drummer Jason Boesel, mainly because his deeper, more gravelly voice is a nice break from the generically whiny indie rock of the other two. Oberst, predictably, has most of the best songs, including the fun sixties pop-folk of “Nikorette” and “Slowly (Oh So Slowly),” the meandering, but emotionally satisfying “White Shoes” and the rage-aholic political deviation, “Roosevelt Room.” But the other guys bring some decent stuff too, especially “Big Black Nothing,” by Nik Freitas and the synth-led “Air Mattress,” by Taylor Hollingsworth. So, there’s a good album to be found in this sprawling collection of songs, but far too much filler to make it a fully satisfying release.
Grade: B-
21st Century Breakdown, by Green Day
I’m not quite sure how Green Day became one of the biggest bands in the world, but they are. 21st Century Breakdown, their second political rock opera in a row, after the more creatively successful American Idiot, has a much more vague storyline than its predecessor, but the same sense of overblown, epic pop punk. The obvious influence here is Queen, with Billie Joe Armstrong’s reaching vocals and seventies-style guitar leads, and it’s absolutely packed to the brim with memorable melodies, but the main problem here is the lyrics, which are, at times, offensively stupid. Armstrong, a strong craftsman when writing songs about jerking off or smoking weed, was quite at home on American Idiot discussing modern suburbia and disaffected teenagers, but 21st Century Breakdown is a more overt political statement. But, all the statement is saying is that the government is, like, totally lame, broseph. And we need to, like, do something about it! What should we do? Well, the best Armstrong is able to come up with is “Rally up the demons of your soul.” Awesome. It’s a decent Green Day album, if you like that sort of thing. But nothing more and nothing less.
Grade: C+
Yours Truly, The Commuter, by Jason Lytle
When Grandaddy broke up, it seemed as though I was the only one that was upset. The press didn’t cover it much, and that includes the Pitchforks of the world, and there was no spike in sales on their excellent farewell record, Just Like The Fambly Cat. But, still, when frontman Jason Lytle announced his intentions to release a solo album, I was excited. And, though the album is nothing new for him, it’s a satisfying release precisely because of that. It sounds like a solid Grandaddy album, and I’m happy that those are still getting made, even after the break-up. The lyrics are less about technology and the great outdoors now, and more about Lytle’s recent break-up and move to Montana, but there’s the same electronic sheen and rustic beauty of the best Grandaddy albums. Just check out the beautiful “Birds Encouraged Him” and the title track, which begins with the statement-making verse, “The last thing I heard I was left for dead/I could give two shits about what they said/I may be limping, but I’m coming home.” The album ends with a song called “Here For Good,” and I’m extremely glad that he is.
Grade: B+
Television
Glee
FOX tossed us a bone a few weeks ago. After the second-to-last episode of American Idol, they aired the pilot of a new fall series called Glee, about a high school glee club, and the young, idealistic male teacher (Matthew Morrison) who runs it. I can’t fathom that there is a better pilot on any network’s fall schedule. It has an insanely large cast of immediately engaging actors (especially Morrison, Lea Michele and Jayma Mays, who I am considering proposing marriage to) and, seemingly, a lot to say about growing up, even in adulthood. Sure, it sometimes hearkens too close to its influences, which obviously include Freaks and Geeks and Election, but that isn’t too bad when your influences are as wonderful as Freaks and Geeks and Election and, besides, even Freaks and Geeks and Election didn’t have incredibly charming song-and-dance sequences set to songs as far reaching as “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Rehab.” Also, it made me cry. Just for the record. And I watched it twice in the same day, which I don’t think I’ve done with any pilot ever.
Grade: A
The Goode Family
This is a new Mike Judge (Office Space, King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head) animated series, and it’s as good an excuse as any for him to rip on liberals. It’s got a few funny bits (especially the meat-craving vegetarian dog and the heartthrob teen, who makes documentaries and puts them on YouTube), but it doesn’t add up to much more than a time-passing summer diversion to break up Wednesday nights a bit.
Grade: C+
DVD
Caprica
Hot on the heels of Battlestar Galactica ending (mostly unsatisfyingly), here we have the Battlestar prequel show, whose pilot the Sci-Fi channel saw fit to release on DVD a year prior to the premiere of the actual show. It’s very promising, certainly as smart and intriguing as BSG was in its early days, and it’s more down-to-earth to boot, with a solid lead performance from the reliable Eric Stoltz, and an even better supporting one from young Alessandra Torresani. It also has about 1000% more boobs than Battlestar did in its entire run, if you’re into that sort of thing. It captures virtual reality better than Harsh Realm ever did (that’s right, a Harsh Realm reference), and there are geek-out references to the early stages of Cylon creation. So Caprica is good. More next year, I guess.
Grade: B+
Books
Columbine, by Dave Cullen
Cullen achieves something truly remarkable and rare here. It’s a non-fiction account of a fairly recent event that somehow manages to work both as surprising and informative journalism and completely riveting and page-turning storytelling, in the vein of Capote’s In Cold Blood. It’s the best non-fiction book in ages and really makes you realize that everything you’ve previously read about the Columbine tragedy is dead wrong. Even that Michael Moore movie, and especially that Michael Moore movie. Cullen manages to make the true-life characters so fascinating and engaging that you’re dying for a sequel when the book is over. But there is none waiting. And thank god for that.
Grade: A
New Mutants #1, by Zeb Wells and Diogenes Neves
I’m not exactly sure who was clamoring for a New Mutants reunion, but Marvel Comics is banking on some nostalgia for that 100-issue “X-Men in training” eighties superhero book with this one. The characters are certainly as good as ever, and Zeb Wells is obviously having a ton of fun writing them (particularly Sunspot, more wisecracking than he’s been in ages, and Cannonball, taking on a leadership role that has seemed inevitable for decades). Still, there’s a sense of the inconsequential about this book. I feel like I should care more. For now, it’s a quick, fun read, but it better be headed somewhere.
Grade: B
The Unwritten #1, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross
Ah, now this is a comic with a lot on its mind. It’s about Tommy Taylor, whose father once wrote a massively successful series of 14 books about a boy wizard named Tommy Taylor. He’s lived for the last several years as a pseudo-celebrity, cashing in on his MIA father’s books, but now he’s beginning to wonder whether he’s a real person or, simply, a character made flesh. The expressive art of Peter Gross brings Mike Carey’s fast-paced, cerebral writing to life, and the quick scenes we see of the Tommy Taylor films satirize and pay tribute to the Harry Potter series perfectly. The finest first issue of a comic I’ve read in a while.
Grade: A
Tags:
capsule reviews
glee
comic books
wolverine
star trek
grizzly bear
June 2, 2009 at 1:28am ∞
