Reviews
Tuca and Bertie Season 2 Is Beaker and Better Than Ever: Review
The Pitch: Birdtown’s most endearingly dysfunctional duo is back, and they haven’t really changed that much. Toucan Tuca (Tiffany Haddish) is the same boisterous, ebullient, troublingly irresponsible thirtysomething she always was; same with Bertie (Ali Wong), a neurotic songbird wrestling with deep-seated impostor syndrome and a stable, if unexciting, relationship with longtime live-in boyfriend Speckle (Steven Yeun). Bertie’s shopping around for the right therapist to figure out her myriad personal issues, including reeling from the sexual harassment she experienced at the hands of a celebrity chef she worked under last season. Tuca, for her part, wrestles with her neediness and insomnia, and the sudden responsibilities thrust upon her by a rapidly passing sense of adulthood. Togeth...
Roadrunner Is a Devastating Portrait of Anthony Bourdain’s Life and Death: Tribeca Review
When Anthony Bourdain died of suicide in 2018, it hit the world with a force of an earthquake: he was a man who coupled a devil-may-care cynicism with a huge, beating heart that shone through in everything from his dishes to his documentaries. In that spirit, Morgan Neville‘s Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain takes us straightforwardly through Bourdain’s highs and lows: His early days as a chef, his runaway success with Kitchen Confidential, the travel shows that would come, his struggles with drug addiction on both sides of his life, and so much more. His friends and colleagues pop on screen as talking heads — John Lurie, brother Chris, fellow chef David Chang — reflecting on his incredible, mercurial nature…before shaking their heads at what he’d become near the en...
The Conjuring 3 Chucks Scares in Favor of a Supernatural Cop Thriller: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-06-05T01:52:05+00:00“>June 4, 2021 | 9:52pm ET The Pitch: In 1981, paranormal investigators/real-life-con-artists-but-nevermind Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) are on the front lines of yet another demonic possession — this time of eight-year-old David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard), who pretzels his body and speaks in tongues while under the influence of a demonic force. Their exorcism is interrupted, however, by the intervention of Arne Johnson (Ruairi O’Connor), boyfriend of David’s sister Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook), who draws the demon out of young David…and into himself. It’s not long after that that Arne commits a murder while ostensibly under the influe...
Mndsgn Savors Life’s Small Moments on Rare Pleasure
On Rare Pleasure, his third release for Stones Throw Records, Mndsgn evolves from his role as acclaimed beat-maker to focus on vocals, songwriting and arrangements. Complementing the album’s organic quality, its songs are warm gestures drawn from the producer’s personal life and reflected in lilting choruses, flurrying drums and glowing instrumentation. Littered with motifs and encouraging lyrics, the LP reaches for both a musical and spiritual wholeness. Born in San Diego but raised in New Jersey, the producer found his way back to California after releasing beat tapes on Bandcamp as the group Klipmode (alongside Suzi Analogue, devonwho and eventual labelmate Knxweldge). Resettling in Los Angeles, Mndsgn released 2014’s Yawn Zen, his first on Stones Throw, and has since thrive...
In the Heights Is a Dizzying, Vibrant Pool of Summer Joy: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-06-02T18:29:28+00:00“>June 2, 2021 | 2:29pm ET The Pitch: A blistering heat wave is about to pass over the residents of Washington Heights, a Manhattan neighborhood populated chiefly by the members of New York City’s Latinx community — Cubans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, Puerto Ricans, and various other members of the Latin diaspora. Together, they live, work, and just try to get through the hot summer days while maintaining a strong sense of community that has gotten them through thick and thin. For the next three days, though, a few fated folks will be forced to make some dramatic personal decisions about their future: Will hard-working bodega owner Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) leave ...
Why Exodus Is the Perfect Eulogy For DMX
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-28T21:17:31+00:00“>May 28, 2021 | 5:17pm ET Posthumous albums are tough to judge; they’re effectively the last will and testament of a usually beloved artist. Now, calling DMX beloved is the understatement of the last two decades, so Exodus is more than just an album. X’s first album dropped in 1998, and in one calendar year, Earl Simmons became the biggest rapper in the world by more than a few country miles. He snatched the minds, hearts, and souls of anyone on this planet who considered themselves even a casual hip-hop fan. That part about “souls” is essential. DMX laid his spirit to bear in every rhyme he wrote and every bark he bellowed. We felt his joy, his pain, his triump...
Déjà Vu at 50: Looking Back at Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s Folk Classic
One of the most beloved albums by The Beatles was their eponymous double-disc set. It was crafted by the individual members mostly separately, with occasional cross-pollination. The seminal Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Déjà Vu album is now seen through a similar lens, and a massive reissue box set has shed a glowing and loving light on this classic collection. Both albums reveal bands at critical turning points, and both albums were mostly collections of songs recorded with other band members far from the studio. Nonetheless, both albums remain beloved. CSNY were the archetype for the supergroup as its known today. Each musician had proven their chops as founding members of bands that would eventually become instant nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: David Crosby in The Byrds...
Could the Friends Reunion Special *Be* Any More Nostalgic?: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-26T19:02:54+00:00“>May 26, 2021 | 3:02pm ET The Pitch: Seventeen years after Ross (David Schwimmer), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courtney Cox), Chandler (Matthew Perry), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) walked out of their New York City apartments and off the air in 2004, the six are finally back together for a one-off reunion special on HBO Max. But where most networks are dusting off their old properties for decades-late revivals, Friends: The Reunion is content to simply be a look back at the show that took the world by storm for a solid decade, and launched its cast into movie stardom. The One With the Origin Story: Let’s get this out of the...
Teni & DJ Cuppy Is The Perfect Chemistry For Movie Sets, Not Making Music (REVIEW)
Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, popularly known as Nigerian DJ Cuppy, has chronicled songs that have remarkable strides with cultural experiences in the Nigerian mainstream, from her debut single, “Green Light”, in 2017 featuring Nigerian singer Tekno, to her 2018 “Vybe” featuring Ghanaian rapper, Sarkodie, and down to her third single with Nigerian singer, L.A.X titled, “Currency”, and more. Including her 2019 smash hit record titled, “Gelato”, featuring Zlatan Ibile. She returned in 2020 with “Jollof On The Jet” featuring Rema, and Rayvanny alongside a colorful exceptional music video directed by Jimmy Turrel. [embedded content] Jollof On The Jet set the pace leading the way into her debut...
Olivia Rodrigo Doubles Down on Teen Angst With Sour
Being a teenager still fucking sucks and Olivia Rodrigo is here to tell us all about it. That’s really the thesis of Sour, the pop ingenue’s impassioned, sassy and highly satisfying debut album. Sure, it’s largely a break-up record as Rodrigo explores the waves of sorrow, anger and confusion that follow a heart-stomping loss of young love. But more thrilling are the tracks that veer away from those emotional cataclysms. Rodrigo, 18, has quickly proven she’s an exceedingly self-aware songwriter, with a knack for unraveling the insecurities and expectations that cripple teen girls — even blooming superstars. “I kinda wanna throw my phone across the room, ’cause all I see are girls too good to be true,” Rodrigo croons on “jealousy, jealousy,” a slow-burning clarion call to her fellow Ge...
Facebook hit with campaign by pro-Palestinian activists leaving 1-star app store ratings
A social media campaign by pro-Palestine activists has pushed down the ranking for Facebook’s app in Apple and Google’s app stores, NBC News reported. The activists are seeking to protest Facebook’s alleged censorship of Palestinian accounts on its platform, and are instructing people to leave Facebook’s app a one-star review. According to NBC News, Facebook is treating the situation as a high-priority issue internally; one software engineer wrote in a post on an internal Facebook message board that “users are upset with our handling of the situation,” adding that the users “have started protesting by leaving 1-star reviews.” Facebook has reached out to have the reviews removed, but so far, Apple has declined the request to remove the reviews. It’s not clear how or if Google responded to t...
REVIEW: Davido Makes Amapiano Experiment Alongside CKay, Who Perfects The Experiment
“La La” is a vibe, and CKay’s embellishments on the song savored its great taste; he rendered the record to an appealing height with his pristine hook whereas Davido’s take was formed nicely and was all about enhancing the vibe with his verses likened to an experiment with his vocal ability and lyricism to deliver perfectly on Amapiano on a joint with Ckay, who understands how to distinguish records with perfecting the hook & chorus. His vocals are glorious. I understood how the record relaxes to be much of an enticing collection with CKay’s chorus and his hook that never refutes exceptionality, and so I requested my friends take on the song and he confessed to greatly love it for the sake of CKay’s delivery, I asked for the reason why and my friend, Jerry said, “Oboy, CKay vocal lovel...
