Existential Reckoning confronts today’s lethal inanity in blistering fashion, via songs that posit dire consequences for a country that wants to be entertained more than wants to be informed.
Folk Album Review: Fleet Foxes’ “Shore” — Finding Serenity in Anxious Times
For Fleet Foxes, Shore is impressively consistent. Each track presents a meticulously detailed soundscapes deepened by Robin Pecknold’s varied meditative perspectives.
Film Review: “Rebecca” Remade — Pretty But Unnecessary
What is the problem with this Rebecca? It is stunning to look at and well-crafted, but I sometimes felt as though the actors were striving for a tone more suitable to a film other than the one they were in.
Film Review: “Borat II: Subsequent Moviefilm” — A Suitably Savage Satire
Sacha Baron Cohen uncovers enough destructive inanity in Borat II to justify the savagery of its satire of American ignorance.
Rap Album Review: Open Mike Eagle’s “Anime, Trauma, and Divorce” — Personal Matters
Open Mike Eagle may have written this album for himself, but many others will recognize themselves somewhere in his words and in his pain.
Music Commentary: Remembering the Resonant Indie Pop of Sawyer
It should be no surprise that Sawyer seeks and finds new sounds on Less Than More Than. The EP is a deep dive into synth-driven pop that expands on the band’s philosophy.
Visual Arts Commentary: America’s Historical Monuments — Under Reconsideration
The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial is the latest product of our heated social/political/cultural debates about America’s memorials and their vision of the country’s past, present, and future.
Book Review: “Cuyahoga” — An Old-Fashioned Medicine Show of a Read
Filled with galoots of all kinds, the novel might not have any true reason for existing, nor may it have any reason to end. But heck, it’s a good, old-fashioned, medicine show of a read.
Film Review: Toxicity Roulette — 1969, 2020, and “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
In the end, The Trial of the Chicago 7 strikes a reasonable balance between historical document and cinematic art.
Book Review: “Death in Her Hands” — There’s No Mystery to This Mystery
It’s as if Moshfegh is testing the furthest limits of a “red herring”: what if everything is red and everything is herring?