The Backroom
Tagged "reviews":
Synopsis
A young woman's world is rocked when she discovers her dead grandfather was a demon hunter, and that now his unfinished quest is hers.
A 20 episode, made for the Internet original series. Written and directed by Drew Daywalt, and produced by MWG Entertainment.
Episodes are released weekly with the last installment on October 31st.
The Backroom review (may contain spoilers)
In the Horror Internet short flick "Camera Obscura" Reagan Dale Neis (Clara) is a young girl whose Grandfather just past the way and now she is going thru his belongings to find a book filled with pictures of demons so she decides to get ride of it causing their release… but she also found a camera that is capable to capture them.
A young woman's world is rocked when she discovers her dead grandfather was a demon hunter, and that now his unfinished quest is hers.
A 20 episode, made for the Internet original series. Written and directed by Drew Daywalt, and produced by MWG Entertainment.
Episodes are released weekly with the last installment on October 31st.
The Backroom review (may contain spoilers)
In the Horror Internet short flick "Camera Obscura" Reagan Dale Neis (Clara) is a young girl whose Grandfather just past the way and now she is going thru his belongings to find a book filled with pictures of demons so she decides to get ride of it causing their release… but she also found a camera that is capable to capture them.
Time: 98 mins.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: High School Comedy
SYNOPSIS: A high school wise guy is determined to have a day off from school, despite the attempts of his principal and younger sister to sabotage his good time.
BOTTOM LINE: Broderick reigns supreme as the king of slacker cool in Hughes' most blatantly fun teen comedy. Perhaps he's too good as the lovable loafer who makes the most of ditching school, as this role is the one that defined his burgeoning career. It's also a role that gave those of us on the high school fringe something to hope for. You see, Ferris is popular not because he has the most money or the fastest car. He's everybody's best friend because he's a friend to everybody. His irresistible charm comes from his inner self-confidence. Ferris could have been a cartoon character, but Broderick makes you believe that a teenager could actually BE happy with who they are. A rare and inspiring concept.
Surprise (Warner Brothers ‘06)
After another long 6-year layoff, during which he again toured with Garfunkel, resulting in the Old Friends Live On Stage CD and DVD, Paul improbably teamed with "sonic landscaper" Brian Eno for the aptly titled Surprise.
It seemed an odd marriage, the two seeming to have little in common beyond their shared love of world music, and I didn't know what to make of this album at first. As with all of his albums, however, this one grew on me with repeat listens, once I got used to the Eno-ized contrasts, as distorted guitars, electronic rhythms, and a highly modernized funkiness aren't the types of things I'm used to hearing on a Paul Simon album. Yet Eno and Simon are smart enough that Simon's melodies are still front and center; they're merely (mostly) enhanced by Eno's moody electronic embellishments in the background. And good melodies they are, accompanied as per usual by a fine batch of lyrics (he asks lots of questions about family, aging, politics, and life in general).
"Outrageous," which has funky, almost rap-like verses (it works better than it sounds) before launching into a light, catchy chorus (undeniable hook: "who's gonna love you when your looks are gone?"), should by all rights be a smash hit, "Wartime Prayers" is a prayerful call for peace that's alternately somberly moving and all out anthemic, and "Father And Daughter" (written for The Wild Thronberrys movie before Eno came on board) is a delightful love song that any parent can easily relate to. I could describe several other songs as well, some of which are quite pretty ("Everything About It Is A Love Song," "Beautiful"), lightly funky ("Sure Don't Feel Like Love," Once Upon A Time There Was An Ocean"), moody ("I Don't Believe," "Another Galaxy"), or simply unlike anything else he's ever done ("How Can You Live In The Northeast," on which Simon laments our lack of sympathy for and understanding of one another).
After another long 6-year layoff, during which he again toured with Garfunkel, resulting in the Old Friends Live On Stage CD and DVD, Paul improbably teamed with "sonic landscaper" Brian Eno for the aptly titled Surprise.
It seemed an odd marriage, the two seeming to have little in common beyond their shared love of world music, and I didn't know what to make of this album at first. As with all of his albums, however, this one grew on me with repeat listens, once I got used to the Eno-ized contrasts, as distorted guitars, electronic rhythms, and a highly modernized funkiness aren't the types of things I'm used to hearing on a Paul Simon album. Yet Eno and Simon are smart enough that Simon's melodies are still front and center; they're merely (mostly) enhanced by Eno's moody electronic embellishments in the background. And good melodies they are, accompanied as per usual by a fine batch of lyrics (he asks lots of questions about family, aging, politics, and life in general).
Yet Eno and Simon are smart enough that Simon's melodies are still front and center; they're merely (mostly) enhanced by Eno's moody electronic embellishments in the background.”
Rated: PG-13
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 2009-05-01
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan, Ryan Reynolds, Lynn Collins, Will.i.Am
Directed by Gavin Hood
Produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter, Hugh Jackman, John Palermo
Written by David Benioff and Skip Woods
The first big summer release of 2009 delivers big action, big special effects and big mutants. Unfortunately it doesn’t address some big questions. How are Wolverine and Sabertooth growing up as kids at the beginning of the film, but ageless after the first 20 minutes? How does adamantium change the shape and look of Wolverine’s claws? How many Twinkies did the Blob have to eat to get that big, that quick? And why, every time I say or hear ‘Wolverine”, do I think of Red Dawn. (Which I just learned is set to be remade next year.)
Look, the bottom line is this: if you love comic book movies, you’re going to love Wolverine. If you’re a comic book purist and pick apart every comic book movie, you’re going to be frustrated and complaining about the demise of the franchise. I loved the movie. I thought it was fun and had great pacing to the tension between story and action. It gives you just enough back story to make it worth telling. And it introduced some new (to the movie goer, not the comic reader) characters that were pretty awesome like the well played tough but mysterious Gambit (Taylor Kitsch, Friday Night Lights TV show), an interesting but too quickly disappearing Wraith (Will Am I of Black Eyed Peas band fame) and the makes-the-movie fun, wise-cracking Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds, Adventureland and Van Wilder). But overall it focuses on Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, X-Men 1,2 and 3, and Australia) and his brother/buddy/enemy Sabertooth (Liv Schreiber, Defiance). Here’s hoping that we get to see a future film with a lot more Gambit and Deadpool involved in the story. Wolverine and Sabertooth get top billing and do a great job carrying the movie. But Gambit and Deadpool give it the intrigue that gets a little lost as they focus on one hero.
A staggering exhibit at New York's Gagosian gallery documents the tumultuous final years of Picasso's life.
"Picasso: Mosqueteros" is the first exhibition in the United States to focus on the late paintings since "Picasso: The Last Years: 1963-1973" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1984. Organized around a large group of important, rarely seen works from the collection of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, as well as works from The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museo Picasso Málaga and other private collections, "Picasso: Mosqueteros" aims to expand the ongoing inquiry regarding the context, subjects, and sources of the artist's late work. Building on new research into the artist's late life through the presentation of selected paintings and prints spanning 1962-1972, the exhibition suggests how the portrayal of the aged Picasso, bound to the past in his life and painting, has obscured the highly innovative and contemporary nature of the late work.
The tertulia, an Iberian tradition of gregarious social gatherings with literary or artistic overtones, played a major part in Picasso's everyday life, even after he moved to the relative seclusion of Notre-Dame-de-Vie in the 1960s. The inner circle of Picasso's last years differed from its precedents in that, in addition to the writers and artists whom Picasso had always favored, it included a contingent of imaginary personages—musketeers, matadors, cavaliers, prostitutes, circus performers – borrowed from the history of art or developed in conversation with his friends. These characters, who fill the late paintings and prints, were drawn from a vast array of sources, from the old masters to the media. As a body of work, Picasso's late period is among the greatest demonstrations of his constant invention of the new, in terms of style, technique, and subject and, indeed, in relation to the history of his own creative output.
"Picasso: Mosqueteros" is the first exhibition in the United States to focus on the late paintings since "Picasso: The Last Years: 1963-1973" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1984. Organized around a large group of important, rarely seen works from the collection of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, as well as works from The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museo Picasso Málaga and other private collections, "Picasso: Mosqueteros" aims to expand the ongoing inquiry regarding the context, subjects, and sources of the artist's late work. Building on new research into the artist's late life through the presentation of selected paintings and prints spanning 1962-1972, the exhibition suggests how the portrayal of the aged Picasso, bound to the past in his life and painting, has obscured the highly innovative and contemporary nature of the late work.
I enjoy myself to no end inventing these stories. I spend hour after hour while I draw, observing my creatures and thinking about the mad things they're up to. -Pablo Picasso, 1968 ”
The tertulia, an Iberian tradition of gregarious social gatherings with literary or artistic overtones, played a major part in Picasso's everyday life, even after he moved to the relative seclusion of Notre-Dame-de-Vie in the 1960s. The inner circle of Picasso's last years differed from its precedents in that, in addition to the writers and artists whom Picasso had always favored, it included a contingent of imaginary personages—musketeers, matadors, cavaliers, prostitutes, circus performers – borrowed from the history of art or developed in conversation with his friends. These characters, who fill the late paintings and prints, were drawn from a vast array of sources, from the old masters to the media. As a body of work, Picasso's late period is among the greatest demonstrations of his constant invention of the new, in terms of style, technique, and subject and, indeed, in relation to the history of his own creative output.
Rated: R
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: 2009-04-03
Starring: Algenis Perez Soto, Reyniel Rufino, Andre Holland, Michael Gaston, Jaime Tirelli, Jose Rijo, Ann Whitney, Richard Bull, Ellary Porterfield,
Directed by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Produced by Paul Mezey, Jamie Patricof, Jeremy Kipp Walker
Written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Watch this 4-minute short film that won the Cannes 2008 online short film competition. Beautiful!
With a stroke of the pen, a stranger transforms the afternoon for another man in this short film by Alonso Alvarez.