Notes from a Genius

Last week, my sister brought me to see her, arguably, favorite bands (at the moment, because this is an accolade that seems to change every few months or so) at a small club in Boston. This band is from Scotland, and they play indie rock with a hint of shoegazing via Mazzy Star and My Bloody Valentine and pieces of Sonic Youth as well. All seem like the recipe for favoritism in regards to my sister. She's been raving about them for months now and promised or told me I would be going with her the next time they came to Boston. And she delivered. They were everything she has claimed them to be...and louder! It was a great show, with an equally great opening act, which I never caught the name of. There's A Girl In The Corner   Last January   That Summer, at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy   Drown So I Can Watch   I Became a Prostitute   It Never Was the Same   In Nowheres   Alphabet   I Could Give You A...

The return of Sleater Kinney, and I got to share the experience (with my sister, who actually turned me onto them when she was a college student at Bates College, working at their radio station, WRBC, which we used to listen to together when she was in high school). They have always been arguably one of my Top Five favorite bands of all-time, sharing space with Pearl Jam and Nine Inch Nails, but that's beside the point. I've seen them in concert, I think, now 5 times (one time, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs opened for them at a club in Boston, back when the band YYYs were just a small band with one EP out). They were the quintessential riot grrl, indie punk band of the entire 1990s and early 2000s, before going on hiatus in 2006 to many fans who didn't understand the desire for a break. Their first self-titled album came out in 1995 to a music scene in dire need of straight-up, honest music, especially since Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994. Then, they put out Call the Doctor in...

"Honeymoon" starring: Rose Leslie, Harry Treadaway written and directed by: Leigh Janiak This is one of the few promising films in this posts. It takes a simple concept: a couple on their honeymoon and spins it into a fear-inducing trip in the middle of nowhere. We meet Bea (Rose Leslie) and Paul (Harry Treadaway), who are newlyweds and encompassing symbolic fears and emotional distress of marriage that perhaps many people feel when they embark on this journey. That's the interesting piece to this horror film, besides the mystery behind why Bea is sleepwalking all of a sudden and where the hell she goes when she sleepwalks. The setting is the bride's family cabin in the middle of the Canadian woods. Bea and Paul certainly have the chemistry of a would-be real-life couple in everything down to how they interact and respond to each other. They seem familiar with each other just like a real-life couple. Then, things start going awry when Paul finds Bea in the wo...

"The Wolf of Wall Street" starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, etc. directed by: Martin Scorsese written by: Terence Winter (book by: Jordan Belfort) Let me say this up front: I have always felt that Leonardo DiCaprio is an excellent actor, in almost all the films he has chosen to be a part of (especially the ones where Martin Scorsese is at the helm, because he seems to really get the performance of a lifetime out of him every single time. Sure, DiCaprio has made some significant duds in his career, but look to the other films in his catalogue for his sheer talent: What's Eating Gilbert Grape The Basketball Diaries Romeo and Juliet Gangs of New York The Aviator The Departed Revolutionary Road Shutter Island Inception Django Unchained The Great Gatsby and The Wolf of Wall Street These are my favorites, and I think what they all have in common is the excellen...

"Girl Most Likely" starring: Kristen Wiig, Annette Benning, Matt Dillon, Darren Criss, Christopher Fitzgerald, June Diane Raphael, Natasha Lyonne, Bob Balaban directed by: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini written by: Michelle Morgan I give Kristen Wiig create for sort of steering clear of just becoming another one of those typecast, funny girls who steps out from the stage of "Saturday Night Live" into so many typical comedic performances, only to disappear rather quietly later on. Sure Wiig started her career in the comedic sit with roles in films like: Knocked Up Walk Hard Semi-Pro Forgetting Sarah Marshall Adventureland Whip It MacGruber (major fail) Date Night Paul To now, over the past few years, she's made more serious film roles her thing: All Good Things Bridesmaids (even though this is very funny, she is kind of a depressing character sketch) Friends with Kids Hateship Loveship Secret Life of Walter Mitty Her The Sk...

"Beginners" starring: Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent, Christopher Plummer, Goran Visnjic written and directed by: Mike Mills I think I've fallen in love with French actress Melanie Laurent. She is absolutely adorable. Such a cute nose. Expressive and mesmerizing eyes. And just-messy-enough blonde hair. She is the epitome of the cute girl next door, nearly perfect as the almost manic pixie dream girl, but with enough substance to steer clear of that stereotype. My adoration for Melanie Laurent aside, "Beginners" is a great film with a bizarre title that I never really understood like I did the actual film. It's a beautiful rediscovering of self in the form of a man, Oliver (McGregor) who is 38 years old when his father passes away and he finds himself beginning his life, all over again, thanks in large part to inheriting his deceased father's dog, a Jack Russell named Arthur. Five years before his father passed away, he also came out as gay (a cr...

"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1" starring: Jennifer Lawrence (who cares who else, let's be honest), Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Willow Shields, Jena Malone, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci, Natalie Dormier directed by: Francis Lawrence First, I feel the need to express my disappointment for the fact that the film industry and/or studio heads felt the need to bleed our pockets twice by splitting this film into two parts, following in the footsteps of the "Twilight" franchise (and the recent "Hobbit" triple feature). The "Mockingjay" book is probably the least interesting of the three books in "The Hunger Games" series, with the least amount of action happening, but I knew I wanted/had to see the film because I'm a big fan of the books and all they have to say about our current state of affairs. "Mockingjay Part 1...