HEAR IT: LeAnn
Rimes, Family
BRINGING THE TWANG BACK: LeAnn
Rimes has called her new album "countrier" than
anything else she's done lately. Countrier? Um, okay. While
Family is definitely not
as country as Rimes's old-school, ballad-filled
debut, Blue, it is a lot,
yeah, countrier than This
Woman and her other recent crossover
attempts. |
HEAR IT:
R.E.M., R.E.M. Live
LUCK FROM THE IRISH:
Inexplicably, R.E.M. has never released a live-concert
CD or DVD until now. Filmed in 2005 in Dublin, Ireland,
where the group has also been recording its next studio
effort, R.E.M. Live offers 22
songs and more than 100 minutes of old and new music -
plus Michael Stipe's head-shaving secrets. Not
really. |
HEAR IT: Sharon
Jones and the Dap-Kings,
100 Days, 100 Nights
A BAND GROWS IN BUSHWICK:The
Dap-Kings own a studio (an all-analog facility in
Brooklyn) anddistribute their music on a self-owned
label, Daptone Records. That maybe why their soul and
funk ring so true - well, that and Sharon
Jones'scaptivating voice, which can sink to Captain
Nemo depths and is inconstant demand from various
artists, from Rufus Wainwright to TheyMight Be
Giants |
SEE IT (BIG
SCREEN):The Nightmare Before
Christmas 3-D
THAT PUMPKIN IS COMING RIGHT AT
US:Are you ready to see, perhaps, Huckleberry
Hound in three dimensions?You'd better be. Because if
the digital reworking of Tim Burton's
The Nightmare Before Christmas
3-Dis successful at the box office - and
judging by its stunning looks, itmay well be -
then it won't be long before other
two-dimensional worksof animation get a third
side. As Huckleberry might say, "Golly!" |
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SEE IT (BIG
SCREEN):Before the Devil
Knows You're Dead
AND THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE … The
five main actors - Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke,
Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney, and Rosemary Harris - and
director Sidney Lumet have a combined 16 Oscar
nominations, including two wins. So bring a pen and
make your Oscar predictions as you follow this movie's
twisting plot involving family betrayal, robbery, and
adultery. Sorry, Seymour, but our money is on Finney in
a supporting role. |
SEE IT (BIG
SCREEN):My Kid Could Paint
That
YOU CALL THAT ART? If a
four-year-old kid can paint like modern-art master
Wassily Kandinsky, does that mean the kid is a genius,
or does it just make Kandinsky and other modern-art
artists laughable? That's roughly the highbrow query
that director Amir Bar-Lev started with when making
this documentary. And when he began to question whether
little Marla Olmstead had, in fact, painted her works
at all - well, that's when things really got
interesting. |
SEE IT (DVD):
28 Weeks Later
BE AFRAID: London is swell and
all, but if you were to take away the traffic and the
sky-high real estate prices, you'd really have
something. That's just what it's like for the London
inhabitants in 28 Weeks Later.
Unfortunately for them, this quieter, gentler London is
the result of a zombie outbreak. (See
28 Days Later for
details.) But the zombies are now contained. Or …
are … they? |
SEE IT
(DVD):Warner Home Video
Directors Series: Stanley Kubrick
BE VERY AFRAID: The mere idea
of having A Clockwork Orange, Eyes
Wide Shut, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal
Jacket, and The Shining
in one place - in one box - creeps us out. Of course,
the presence of Stanley Kubrick: A
Life in Pictures, a documentary about the
legendary director of the aforementioned films, in that
box, is somewhat calming. But we suggest that you keep
the movies separate, lest Jack Torrance, Private Pyle,
Alex de Large, HAL 9000, and a naked Tom Cruise
conspire against you. |
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