Toronto - So I have been watching a lot of movies lately. I don’t know why, maybe, just maybe it’s because the theatres are air conditioned. Here is what I think of them

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan - Light hearted film featuring Sandler and his gang (Turturro, Schneider). The film has some hilarious over the top action sequences and Emmanauelle Chriqui is ridiculously hot. Who would have thought that watching YTV a few years ago? The formula is similar to a lot of Sandler movies, but the jokes are alright and I enjoyed it. It’s definitely better then most of the crap Sandlers put out in the past few years but him and his buddies are falling further and further behind the Apatow and Frat Pack groups in terms of putting out quality flicks.
2.5/5

Speed Racer - Holy ADD overload. This movie is great for two groups of people - seven years old hopped up on sugar, or adults who just dropped acid. The visuals in this movie are stunning, and the world created by the Wachowski brothers is ever so colorful. However, the story and acting in this movie is rubbish and the subplot with a kid and a chimp are just downright painful. However, the racing sequences are great, made me want to turn on my 360. The only problem with CGI movies is that there is a total disconnect from reality, so you never really worry about the characters being in harms way or anything. Shame for Emile Hirsch though, he followed up a stunner of a movie (Into the Wild) with a crappy ass action movie. I am also surprise Susan Sarandon has been relegated to minor support mother characters now.
2/5

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - surprisingly good movie. I don’t really know whether it’s a comedy or not. However, everyone here does a pretty job playing their roles and the story was pretty good. Mila Kunis is unbelievably hot in this movie as well. What makes this movie good is that the characters are pretty well rounded and you get to see the story from everyones point of view. I would say this and Knocked Up are my favorite Apatow flicks. Also, one of the few films were Jonah Hill did not manage to annoy me.
3.5/5

Be Kind Rewind - I rented this one on DVD, and it’s a very cute, heart warming movie about a neighborhood coming together. I am sure by now you know it’s about Jack Black getting magnetized, erasing all the films in the video store and remaking them with his buddy Mos Def and a few folks from the neighborhood. Really, it’s about the ability for a community to pull together in a time of crisis and the hippy spirit stuff that goes along with that. A creative, enjoyable film.
3.5/5

Here’s a song by Portland’s The Blow called ‘The Love I That I Crave’. Ten Points to the person who can find the connection between the Blow and one of these movies.

 

 The Blow - The Love That I Crave: Play Now

The short list for the Polaris Music Prize was announced a couple of weeks ago. The list is as follows.

Black Mountain - In the Future
Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
Caribou - Andorra
Holy Fuck - LP
Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
Plants & Animals - Parc Avenue
Shad - The Old Prince
Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs
The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour

Three things are wrong with this list; The Weakerthans, Stars and Two Hours Traffic. Everybody has their criticisms with the above list. When talking about inclusion/exclusion of a specific artist people seem to forget who and what this prize stands for.

POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE MISSION STATEMENT

The operation of a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected critics and experts.

Let me tell you, i’m not the worlds largest Holy Fuck fan. Do I think they should be on the short list, absolutely, because they fulfill what the Polaris Music Prize stands for. These albums are supposed to be judged solely on artistic merit.

» Read the rest of the entry..

 

 Sandro Perri - City of Museums: Play Now

Toronto - Jennifer Connelly really shouldn’t do this to herself (and consequently her fans) anymore. Look at the imdb listing of recent offerings from her. Requiem for a Dream, House of Sand and Fog, Little Children, and now Reservation Road. Seriously. Just reading that list made me manically depressed. What, A Beautiful Mind broke that line, but it’s also not entirely happy. Blood Diamond? She was barely a figment of imagination under Archer’s skin. Granted, she was good in each of those films, even discounting nudity and other insane stunts. But there wasn’t one movie where her characters and their cohort aren’t suffering 2hr-long accelerated downward-spirals-with-occasional-derailment to hell. So. Reservation Road certainly wasn’t going to break that tradition.

As soon as the movie starts you can see it’s not going to end well. Two families are portrayed in their prime, and of course the screenplay wouldn’t work in the traditional sense if their paths do not cross. Little Josh gets to play road kill and the lawyer who will handle this exact case decides to perform a hit-and-run. The rest of the film has the father of the boy seek revenge on the lawyer. I thought the most powerful part about the movie was the obsession a wrongful death can grip normal, even excellent characters. Even as calm as the college professor can be in a debate over policies and morality, Ethan still cannot out-run vengeance. But then contrast his reaction to Grace, who came across for me at least to be very cold and unforgiving, you see the other extreme.

I’m still not totally convinced that denial was a solution and I think the screenplay could have been more lenient on Grace to express her grief other than those small bursts of utter devastation. Which is also what I didn’t like about this film. Yes. A sense of total sadness is a powerful thing. But when you require the audience to take that too frequently, they get uncomfortable and really, denial sets in so that we mentally remove the association and even sympathy with the characters. In this case, I prefer the slow creepy demise of House of Sand and Fog and Requiem over the overnight transformation of Reservation Road. Of course, there’s also guilt from the lawyer Dwight. But I felt that was like background decoration to the grief. Sure you want to feel sorry for him, but you also want to see a bullet through his head.

Verdict? JC wasn’t baring twins. But this is still something you want to see if you need to come down from a sugar high.

Concert attended and reviewed by Panic Manual correspondent Karen Parker

(Toronto) I discovered Bon Ivers’ (Justin Vernon) album For Emma: Forever Ago after hearing one of his songs featured on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy……don’t’ judge me. I instantly loved the “sound of a man left alone with his guitar and his memories” (Pitchfork). And when I discovered that he had isolated himself in the woods for four months to write it….I lost my mind. It was like all my fantasies had been rolled into one big one and served in woolly touque. Thoughts of a beefy bearded man in a wool coat ala Gerard Butler, capably chopping wood and foraging for his food by day while nursing a broken heart and healing through the creation of haunting music in front of a roaring fire in the woods by night was almost too much to bear….almost.

At the show my friend Ashley was heard to say:

Mmmm I’ll be your skinny love…..I’ll lose like 25 lbs for you if you let me sit on your face.

He was supposed to go on at 10:15 and as everyone knows bands never go on at their scheduled time. It’s 10:30 and I’m racing from work thinking….I’m gonna make it with time to spare and sure enough…..he went on at 10:13!!!! C’mon Bon! Rock stars make you wait! By the time I got there, got past security and made it inside I had missed most of the show….including Skinny Love! Who plays their best song early in the set anyway? I caught two songs and then two in the encore.

What I did hear was fantastic. The place was packed and more humid than a Brazilian rain forest and speaking of brazilians, clearly I wasn’t the only woman there hoping to witness her fantasy on the stage. He could have done with a bigger venue but I think even he was overwhelmed and surprised by the turnout. And while attractive in his own way, sadly, up close, he doesn’t look like Gerard Butler in a plaid shirt…..but this.

I think I can see his balls.

(Pitchfork photo credit)

 

 Bon Iver - Skinny Love: Play Now

Toronto - On the heels of Canada’s Polaris award, the Brits have announced the 2008 nominees for the Mercury Music Prize. Here are the nominees:

Adele - 19
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Burial - Untrue
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Estelle - Shine
Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
Portico Quartet - Knee-Deep in the North Sea
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - The Bairns
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement

I am obviously hoping this is British Sea Power’s year, given the love I have given that album.

Here is a list of the last ten winners:

2007 - Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future
2006 - Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
2005 - Antony and the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now
2004 - Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
2003 - Dizzee Rascal – Boy in Da Corner
2002 - Ms. Dynamite – A Little Deeper
2001 - PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
2000 - Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast
1999 - Talvin Singh – Ok
1998 - Gomez - Bring it On

Toronto - For all you britpoppers out there, let it be known that the band James is touring North America, and you must go. For the casual fans wondering who is James? Is that James Blunt? NOPE. James is the band that sang that ‘American Pie’ song. You know which one. Despite the fact that Tim Booth now looks like some sort of Bond villain, I am still extremely excited that one of the classic brit bands has decided to come serenade us with classics like ‘Come Home’, ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Tommorrow’. It will be a fantastic show and I eagerly await it. My friend Nick is flying in from Edmonton for a week to go see My Bloody Valentine, now he gets to go see James, MBV, Nick Cave and Hot Chip in one week. Pretty f’n good.

Ticket info:
September 15 - Paradise Lounge, Boston, MA
Tickets on sale now: www.livenation.com or www.ticketmaster.com

September 16 - The Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA
Tickets on sale: July 25

September 18 - 9.30 Club, Washington, DC
Tickets on sale: August 7

September 19 - Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY (supporting Squeeze)
Tickets on sale now: www.radiocity.com

September 20 - Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ
Tickets on sale now: www.livenation.com

September 22 - Club Soda, Montreal, QB
Tickets on sale: July 24

September 23 - Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, ON
Tickets on sale: July 25

September 25 - Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL
Tickets on sale now: www.ticketmaster.com

26 - Turner Hall Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI
Tickets on sale now: www.turnerhallballroom.org

September 27 - Fine Line, Minneapolis, MN
Tickets on sale: July 19

September 29 - Ogden Theatre, Denver, CO
Tickets on sale: July 25

October 1 - The Regency, San Francisco, CA
Tickets on sale: July 27

October 2 - The El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
Tickets on sale: August 9

October 3 - House of Blues, San Diego, CA
Tickets on sale: July 25

October 5 - House of Blues, Anaheim, CA
Tickets on sale: July 19

 

 James - Come Home: Play Now