Reviews
Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak Kick Off Silk Sonic Las Vegas Residency: Recap + Setlist
Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) began their Las Vegas residency on Friday (February 25th), transforming the Dolby Live theater at Park MGM into a seventies disco. The superduo — whose live appearances have thus far been limited to awards shows — threw what might just be the sexiest dance party Sin City has ever seen. The mood for “An Evening With Silk Sonic” was set from the get-go, as wisps of fog spilled out from under a red velvet curtain while guests settled into their seats. When the venue went dark, signaling the start of the show, the crowd roared in unison. Two screens on opposite sides of the stage flashed images of Silk Sonic sipping cocktails in a tropical setting with flowery button-up shirts, while a giant disco ball hung high above the seats. As the curtain lifted,...
Clairo Brings the Intimacy of Sling to Radio City Music Hall: Review, Setlist + Photos
Clairo’s 2021 sophomore album Sling is an album of closeness, immediacy, and contemplation; it is turned inward, but the moments that burst out do so like snowfall, and even the warmest, brightest choices are dripped in a haze, like you just woke up and the sun is shining through the corner of your window. So, hearing it performed live in the 6,000-capacity Radio City Music Hall on Thursday night (February 24th) is a little strange. The whimsy and intimacy of Sling almost suggests it should be performed in a cozy cabin somewhere in the woods, but Clairo’s remarkable rise to stardom has proven that the upgrade in venue size is deserved. Considering that Clairo’s debut album Immunity came out only six months before the pandemic began, as well as the fact that her biggest single to date, “Sof...
With Love Sux, Avril Lavigne Cements Pop-Punk Legacy
For 20 years now, Avril Lavigne has swung a pendulum between her two rock personas: playful, vaguely punkish pop (see: “Sk8er Boi,” “Girlfriend” and “Here’s to Never Growing Up”) and self-serious alternative (“My Happy Ending,” “Nobody’s Home” and that unfortunate collaboration with Chad Kroeger in 2013). Yet despite regular attempts to shift her sound — 2019’s Head Above Water was a collection of glossy pop ballads fit for Demi Lovato or Kelly Clarkson — Lavigne’s legacy appears forever tethered to the pop-punk moment of the early ‘00s. To casual listeners, she’ll always be the teenager in the necktie, tank top and heavy eyeliner skateboarding to the mall. Yet the Canadian singer has never released a true-blue pop-punk album. Her colossal debut, 2002’s Let Go, was more Michelle Branch tha...
Dog Review: Channing Tatum and His Canine Co-Star Anchor a Surprisingly Emotional Road Trip Tale
The Pitch: Let’s begin this review with what the dog lovers want to know first. Spoiler alert: Nothing bad happens to the dog. There’s some minor peril, and the climax of the film is tough to watch. But no Marley and Me-esque tragedy lurks in the final act. At the end of the film, the dog is fine. With that out of the way, let’s talk about Dog, the often-charming road trip dramedy that marks Channing Tatum‘s (co)-directing debut, starring Tatum alongside a trio of Belgian Malinoises for a darker and more emotionally affecting film than you might expect from its marketing. What the Trailers Don’t Mention: All the advertising for Dog sells a pretty authentic version of the film as a whole: Former Army Ranger Jackson Briggs (Tatum) gets tasked with a new mission: Bring a former Army Ranger do...
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 Review: More Mediocre Than Magical
The Pitch: When we last saw the titular character in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Amazon Prime comedy, things were looking quite bad for her. Despite killing at The Apollo, Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) has been fired from Shy Baldwin’s tour, thanks to some jokes that alluded a bit too closely to his status as a closeted gay man. This left her abandoned on the tarmac with Susie (Alex Borstein), who, unbeknownst to Midge, had lost all of Midge’s hard-earned money thanks to a combination of gambling problems and general managerial irresponsibility. Meet Me on the West Side: Season 4 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel picks up shortly after these events in a familiar setting — Midge, onstage, cigarette in hand, seemingly killing at a club in The Village. The cliffhanger of Season 3 seemed to ...
Space Force Season 2 Review: A Big Improvement That Leaves You Wanting More
The Pitch: The original pitch was simple: In 2019, the 45th President of the United States announced a plan for a Space Force branch of the U.S. military. To Steve Carell and Greg Daniels (who previously worked together on The Office), that sounded pretty ridiculous, so they successfully pitched Netflix on a satirical version of what such a “space force” would look like, with Carell as the general in charge. Unfortunately, Season 1 of Netflix’s Space Force… didn’t quite work. Despite the assembly of a surprise-packed ensemble, including awkward comedy G.O.A.T. Carell, human live wire Ben Schwartz, secret MVP Tawny Newsome, and wild card John Malkovich, there was something just off in how the writing and acting and directing jelled together — and to the credit of Carell and Daniels, they no...
Uncharted Review: An Indiana Jones Riff That Still Delivers Some Unique Thrills
The Pitch: For non-gamers, Uncharted is a remarkably straightforward project: Hot treasure hunters go on an action-packed adventure to track down a centuries-old treasure? Sure, checks out. Maybe these particular treasure hunters aren’t as nobly intentioned as, say, one Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr., but that doesn’t mean 25-year-old bartender/history buff/aspiring thief Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) isn’t just as dedicated to tracking down some long lost gold. We first meet Nathan as a 10-year-old living with his older brother Sam in an orphanage, though Sam makes his escape from the place after a run-in with the law, leaving his brother with a family artifact (an engraved ring), followed by, in the ensuing years, a trail of vague postcards from exotic locals. Now (ostensibly) an adult, Nate’s ...
Ghost and Volbeat Bring the Fire in the Home of the Devils: Recap + Photos
You might not expect a rock or metal show to kick off with a saxophone rhythm that slaps, but that was the first sound the fans at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, heard onstage as Twin Temple began to play on Thursday night (February 10th). Vocalist Alexandra James and her husband, guitarist Zachary James, took to the stage in an opening ritual with swords and all. The singer asked for Satan to burn down sexism, racism and ignorance. If the big man downstairs is wise, he’ll heed her request. Alexandra’s vibe is part Elvira, with the soulful essence of an Amy Winehouse, and a sprinkle of a Lars von Trier film — but she has created an innovative style that is all her own. The height of her beehive hair was impressive, but nothing could outmatch her vocal talent as she belted out...
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s BigBug Is a Glitchy Robo-Farce: Review
The Pitch: It’s the year 2050, and advances in artificial intelligence have led to a bright, bubbly utopia where robotic servants and maids see to our every whim, from cleaning our homes to, well, cleaning our pipes. But when one brand of security robots, the Yonyx (François Levantal), decides to take over and wrest control of Earth from humanity’s hands, the domestic robots of one suburban home decide to lock their humans inside their well-manicured domicile — for their own safety, of course. As the hours and days pass, the unwitting hostages of domesticity — including divorced couple Alice (Elsa Zylberstein) and Victor (Youssef Hajdi) and their respective new partners Max (Stéphane de Groodt) and Jennifer (Claire Chust), daughter Nina (Marysole Fertard), Max’s bratty son Leo (Hélie ...
Big Thief’s Mammoth New Album Overflows With Indie-Folk Ambition
To label Big Thief’s panoramic new project a “double album” is something of a misnomer. In totality, the 81-minute mammoth that is Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is not two halves but four quarters, divided by as many distinct recording sessions, in upstate New York; Topanga Canyon, California; the Colorado Rocky Mountains; and Tucson, Arizona. The acclaimed indie-folk foursome has become known for their deliberate recording techniques, especially evident in 2019’s celebrated sister LPs U.F.O.F. and Two Hands — the former captured the lushness and claustrophobia of the Washington state forest where it was laid down, while the latter was purposefully open and austere, mimicking western Texas’ desolation. For the band’s fifth album, however, the sessions do not so much attempt to ...
The Best Way to Enjoy The Book of Boba Fett Is to Embrace the Mess
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the season finale of The Book of Boba Fett, “Chapter 7: In The Name of Honor.”] The funny thing about The Book of Boba Fett is that a whole lot of people would have been a lot happier if they’d just done something different with the title. While the series started off as a stand-alone tale of the famed bounty hunter’s (Temuera Morrison) transformation into a new kind of crime boss, as seen with Episode 5 the show took an abrupt turn by bringing back famed Space Daddy Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), with the second half of the season serving as a clear sequel to the end of The Mandalorian Season 2. Now that we’ve reached the end of the season, all that’s left to do is try to sort out what, exactly, happened here. Because nothing feels in ba...
Inventing Anna Review: Shonda Rhimes Reminds Us That She’s the Master of Captivating TV
The Pitch: If there is one constant running through the work of Shonda Rhimes, it’s this: Her instincts for what makes a good story are dead on. Not every show with her name on it is an out-of-the-gate hit like Bridgerton or Grey’s Anatomy — rest in peace, The Catch, a great little show about con artists that deserved more of a chance. But it’s impossible to say that a Shondaland series is ever boring. Speaking of con artists, though… Inventing Anna, the new limited series premiering this Friday on Netflix, represents Rhimes’ first Netflix project that bears her name as not just a producer, but a creator. And you can sense why she chose not to hand this project off to someone else, given how many delicate elements are involved in these nine episodes — primarily, the depiction of its two le...
