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Articles tagged "popmatters pick"

PopMatters Pick

Film Review

The Flight of the Red Balloon (Le Voyage du ballon rouge)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[7.May.08] :. In Hou Hsiao-hsien's first French film, interactions are mirrored and refracted, images of images, reflections of longing.

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PopMatters Pick

Film Review

Standard Operating Procedure

by Cynthia Fuchs

[2.May.08] :. Errol Morris' new documentary, Standard Operating Procedure, remembers the pictures' effects -- the shock, the outrage, and the anger that greeted their release.

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PopMatters Pick

Comic Review

Criminal Vol. 2

by Greg Oleksiuk

[1.May.08] :. With its second story-arc it has cemented itself as one of the best modern books and, likely, as one that will long be regarded as an example of the medium's artistic potential.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Santogold: Santogold

by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

[30.Apr.08] :. This is the soda shack where punk and electronica meet the rhythm of a diasporic dub addiction.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Portishead: Third

by Filmore Mescalito Holmes

[28.Apr.08] :. Over a decade in the making, this legendary UK trio has buried trip-hop under a pile of creepy analog gear with their painfully long awaited third (duh) album.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Carole King: Tapestry

by Christian John Wikane

[25.Apr.08] :. Tapestry: Legacy Edition is the definitive genuflection to Carole King's 1971 masterpiece. Nearly 40 years later, it's still a thrill to feel the earth move.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

Corporate Warriors by P. W. Singer

by Chris Barsanti

[25.Apr.08] :. By refusing to cast himself as a finger-wagging scold on the subject of military contractors, Singer’s concerns have all that much more power.

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PopMatters Pick

Multimedia Review

Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds

by Michael Abbott

[25.Apr.08] :. Inserting cartoonish characters into luscious, realistic environments is all part of the Hot Shots aesthetic, and for some reason it just works.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Robyn: Robyn

by Daniel Rivera

[24.Apr.08] :. Nearly three years after its initial Swedish release, one of the best records of 2005 finally gets an official, slightly reworked, U.S. issue.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Los Campesinos!: Hold on Now, Youngster…

by Ian Mathers

[18.Apr.08] :. Here's a riddle for you: How is a promising Welsh septet like an American political candidate?

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Dazzle Ships

by John Bergstrom

[17.Apr.08] :. OMD's concept album about Cold War-era technology and tension was a flop upon its original release in 1983. But seen through modern eyes, it's a brilliant precursor to OK Computer.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

Cornbread Nation 4: by Dale Volberg Reed, John Shelton Reed, John T. Edge (Editors)

by Carolyn Fanelli

[17.Apr.08] :. A vivid, heart-felt, often lyrical look at some of the most iconic food of the South -- from the commercial to the home-cooked to the most seasonal of delicacies, gathered in the wild.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

by Ron Hart

[14.Apr.08] :. On his 14th studio album, Australia’s crown prince of goth manifests into its unheralded king of rock.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Marvin Gaye: Here, My Dear

by Mike Joseph

[11.Apr.08] :. Gaye put his frustrations and anger into one of the most painfully intimate song cycles in musical history and then released it to the public, creating a time-delayed classic.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

Jackalope Dreams by Mary Clearman Blew

by Diane Leach

[9.Apr.08] :. Blew's prose is as hardscrabble and finely whittled as her Montana subjects: protagonist Corey Henry is fierce, grumpy and, most unusual in today’s fiction, she’s older.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Steven Bernstein: Diaspora Suite

by Will Layman

[9.Apr.08] :. The fourth of the trumpeter's ingenious transformations of Jewish music, this gorgeous mass of guitars, horns and drums fuses Bitches Brew to the synagogue.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

The Open Road by Pico Iyer

by Carlin Romano [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[1.Apr.08] :. The Dalai Lama: Down-to-earth and intimate.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Big Dipper: Supercluster

by Jennifer Kelly

[28.Mar.08] :. Massive three-disc reissue reintroduces the jangle-punk, goofball geniuses of Big Dipper to the world, including all three Homestead releases, and the long lost-in-limbo big label and assorted unreleased tracks.

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Featured Article

Music Review

Hercules and Love Affair: Hercules and Love Affair

by Daniel Rivera

[27.Mar.08] :. Damaged emotion, carnal frenzies, and genuine club bangers mark an exceptional debut from Andy Butler and his myriad guests.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski

by Nav Purewal

[27.Mar.08] :. This is clearly the work of a superior intellect, but one that doesn’t shy away from juicy plot twists or exciting set pieces, fashioning a story that thrills without condescension.

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Featured Article

Music Review

Gnarls Barkley: The Odd Couple

by Christian John Wikane

[25.Mar.08] :. Gnarls Barkley toils ever so soulfully in a complex confluence of emotions on The Odd Couple. Call it therapy-a-go-go.

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PopMatters Pick

DVD Film Review

The Kite Runner

by Elizabeth Cho

[24.Mar.08] :. This is a sensitive, kind adaptation of a well-loved book, and the DVD has well-crafted features that help extend the message of what is essential to human existence: hope.

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Featured Article

Music Review

Neon Neon: Stainless Style

by Zeth Lundy

[21.Mar.08] :. Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys and hip-hop beatman Boom Bip get elbow-deep in '80s synth-pop with a concept album about John DeLorean.

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PopMatters Pick

Multimedia Review

Sam & Max: Season 2

by L.B. Jeffries

[21.Mar.08] :. The comedy routines between Sam and Max run a bit like Calvin & Hobbes humor taken to a freakish extreme.

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PopMatters Pick

Comic Review

Green Arrow: Year One #1-6

by Greg Oleksiuk

[20.Mar.08] :. The best Green Arrow story in years.

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PopMatters Pick

DVD Film Review

Gattaca

by Shaun Huston

[19.Mar.08] :. This film is quietly provocative, well crafted, and a subtle meditation on the future.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

Sway by Zachary Lazar

by Mikita Brottman

[19.Mar.08] :. Reading this book is like taking a ride a dark, scary ghost train. Only in retrospect can you look back and see where you’ve been.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

Pravda by Edward Docx

by David Pullar

[18.Mar.08] :. The odd mixture of cowardice and courage in all of us, the curious ties of family and genetics, and the eternal quest for significance are all contained within this novel.

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PopMatters Pick

Multimedia Review

Audiosurf

by L.B. Jeffries

[17.Mar.08] :. The real joy of Audiosurf is picking a song, any song, and seeing it literally appear before you as you travel and listen along.

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PopMatters Pick

DVD Film Review

Post-War Kurosawa: Eclipse Series 7

by Michael Barrett

[14.Mar.08] :. Many films of this era tap into fear and paranoia but not many address if destruction will come from those who fear it or those who ignore it.

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PopMatters Pick

Film Review

Paranoid Park

by Cynthia Fuchs

[12.Mar.08] :. The movie realizes Alex's desperate, poetic subjectivity in layers. His halting voiceover is perfectly unmatched with the uneven editing and skips back and forth in time.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Samamidon: All Is Well

by Ian Mathers

[11.Mar.08] :. One of the best records of traditional Appalachian folk songs ever recorded, and that's probably damning it with faint praise.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

Our Daily Meds by Melody Petersen

by Chris Barsanti

[11.Mar.08] :. It's hard to read Our Daily Meds without thinking of Americans as shaven-head underground dwellers of THX-1138, shuffling through their twilight days in a prescription-drug-haze.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

by Diane Leach

[10.Mar.08] :. It's impossible to read Mudbound without images of the Ninth Ward flooding one’s inner eye, or recalling the remarks made by former First Lady Barbara Bush.

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

In Search of the Blues by Marybeth Hamilton

by Chadwick Jenkins

[7.Mar.08] :. This is a different story of the blues; it is the story of those people (primarily white men and women) who were in search of something that they believed the blues or some other form of secular and "primitive" African-American music communicated in an undiluted manner.

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Featured Article

Music Review

Bell X1: Flock

by Christel Loar

[6.Mar.08] :. An album full of airborne anthems, celestial epics, and rock 'n' roll!

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

The Gathering by Anne Enright

by Nav Purewal

[6.Mar.08] :. A multigenerational saga that never sacrifices intimacy for affected grandeur, a domestic novel that feels limitless in scope, and a family tragedy that affirms the very life it laments.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Gutter Twins: Saturnalia

by Ron Hart

[5.Mar.08] :. Two alt-rock titans return to their roots to create an album that rivals the best in each of their respective canons.

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PopMatters Pick

DVD Film Review

Into the Wild

by Mike Schiller

[5.Mar.08] :. A "follow your dreams" narrative in a package that belies the cliché that it expounds upon.

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PopMatters Pick

Comic Review

Incognegro

by Chauncey Mabe [South Florida Sun-Sentinel (MCT)]

[4.Mar.08] :. Incognegro proves once more, if proof is still needed, that the graphic novel equals prose, film and stage in its potential for all kinds of creative expression.

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PopMatters Pick

DVD Film Review

The John Frankenheimer Collection

by Marco Lanzagorta

[29.Feb.08] :. The rather complex ideological issues and unique sense of aesthetics that Frankenheimer infused in his films can be fully appreciated in this collection.

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PopMatters Pick

Film Review

Be Kind Rewind

by Cynthia Fuchs

[22.Feb.08] :. A set of relationships -- father and son, past and present, fiction and something like history -- forms the foundation of Be Kind Rewind, another gently antic film by Michel Gondry.

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PopMatters Pick

Multimedia Review

No More Heroes

by L.B. Jeffries

[22.Feb.08] :. Whether you'll enjoy No More Heroes really boils down to whether you're the kind of person who can make fun of yourself or you take yourself so seriously that you don't get the joke.

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PopMatters Pick

Film Review

Taxi to the Dark Side

by Cynthia Fuchs

[20.Feb.08] :. Methodically, relentlessly, Gibney's Oscar-nominated documentary assembles stories, evidence, and testimony from witnesses and experts.

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Featured Article

Music Review

Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool

by Zeth Lundy

[15.Feb.08] :. Lowe's classic 1978 solo debut, long out-of-print and overlooked, is reissued in a definitive expanded edition that includes ten bonus tracks.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Future of the Left: Curses

by Cole Stryker

[14.Feb.08] :. Future of the Left inject a little adrenaline into our ears, a jarring wake up call from the sleepy sounds of today's indie rock landscape.

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PopMatters Pick

Film Review

Liberty Kid

by Cynthia Fuchs

[11.Feb.08] :. It's not long before this small, extraordinary movie begins to unveil its many dimensions.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Michael Jackson: Thriller 25

by Mike Joseph

[11.Feb.08] :. This, folks, is where the mere pop stars get separated from the legends.

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PopMatters Pick

Film Review

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

by Cynthia Fuchs

[5.Feb.08] :. The clock is ticking in the very first moment of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. It's Romania, 1987, and time is running down.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Hot Chip: Made in the Dark

by Dan Raper

[4.Feb.08] :. Hot Chip's third album offers moments of sparkling pop-dance perfection -- and some unexpectedly emotional material as well.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Shelby Lynne: Just a Little Lovin’

by Evan Sawdey

[1.Feb.08] :. From the delicate opening cymbal tap of the title track onward, Lynne remembers what made Dusty Springfield so great in the first place: she poured her soul into each song.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

by Ron Hart

[31.Jan.08] :. Four more rich boys from NYC who think they can rock? But don’t have a stroke, they really do!

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PopMatters Pick

Book Review

Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon

by John Carvill

[28.Jan.08] :. There is sheer virtuosity and beauty in Pynchon's prose, its poetry and jazz rhythms, which he uses to build up a sense of artistic wonderment and then discharges with that little laconic snap of emotion at the end.

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Featured Article

Music Review

Joe Jackson: Rain

by Will Layman

[28.Jan.08] :. The eclectic pianist/songwriter delivers a treat -- ten perfectly crafted pop songs that recall his best work or maybe are his best work.

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Featured Article

Music Review

Jonny Greenwood: There Will Be Blood

by Mike Schiller

[28.Jan.08] :. There is only the stultifying loneliness, sadness, and occasionally the twistedness of the film to be found in its music.

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PopMatters Pick

TV Review

The Wire

by Jesse Hicks

[27.Jan.08] :. In David Simon's indictment of American capitalism, numbers -- say, crime stats and school test scores -- no longer have an epistemic value, they don't refer to any external reality.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Black Mountain: In the Future

by Matthew Fiander

[21.Jan.08] :. In the Future is an expansive statement of an album, full of big guitars and cold space, a variety of sounds and a hard-earned and ever-present brilliance.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

Koop: Koop Islands

by Zach Schonfeld

[14.Jan.08] :. Freed from the constraints of genre boundaries, the Swedish duo has crafted this convergence of electronic pop and jazz that sounds as utterly natural as it does unusual. An overlooked treasure, for sure.

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PopMatters Pick

Music Review

The Magnetic Fields: Distortion

by Dave Heaton

[14.Jan.08] :. Distortion is a game, a question, a provocation, a distortion, a fable, a fake, and a collection of pop songs.

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Featured Article

Book Review

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

by Nav Purewal

[8.Jan.08] :. Economical and considered out of necessity, this is so meticulously crafted that there isn’t a wasted passage or a superfluous phrase.

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