Authors: Cody Kirkland
Heavy Girls
Daniel, a middle-aged man with a wife and son, serves as 90-year-old Edeltraut’s caretaker while her son, Sven, works during the day. When Edeltraut, suffering from dementia, locks David out on her balcony and takes off, David and Sven search the streets of Berlin to track her down. Thus begins the start of their unspoken secret romance. … read more
On Tender Hooks
We hear Ozzy Osbourne wailing in the background as Damien rises into the air, hanging several feet above the ground from the hooks in his back. Then the film fades to black—at least for me, because I passed out cold. I came to as the end credits rolled—apparently I had slumped over onto the audience member to my left and had missed the end of the film. … read more
Bindlestiffs
A riotous and irreverent tale of three high school virgins and their quest to “fuck shit up,” Bindlestiffs is like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Superbad on crack—literally. Suspended from school for graffiti after The Catcher in the Rye is banned, Andrew, Luke and John check into an inner-city motel, determined to experience the world, Holden Caulfield style. What follows is a week of debauchery as the boys go looking for love, good times and poon. … read more
Hope. You Like Crap.
20 years ago, Shaun Parker made a horrible student film. In Hope. You Like Crap., Parker shows the film in its entirety, talking shit on it and his former pretentious self with amusingly scathing, self-depreciating commentary. … read more
Danland
“I’m in love with the concept of being in love,” says amateur porn producer Dan Leal, aka Porno Dan, in the beginning of this documentary following his unrelenting search for love amid porn conventions and gangbangs. But for co-dependent sex addict Porno Dan, love is hard to come by when sex with hundreds of women is business as usual. … read more
I Want My Name Back
Roger Paradiso documents the rise and fall of hip hop pioneers Wonder Mike and Master Gee, original members of The Sugarhill Gang, the group responsible for the seminal record “Rapper’s Delight.” After the release of the world’s first commercial hop hop composition, Wonder Mike and Master Gee’s artistic credit and monetary earnings were taken by Sugar Hill Record execs, throwing the two into a 30-year struggle to reclaim their place in hip hop history. … read more
Washed Out, Memoryhouse @ Urban 04.28
There was a big difference between Washed Out on record and Washed Out the show. If you’re the kind of person who wants a band to sound exactly like they do on the record, you probably hated this show—a lot of the songs were changed up a bit to translate into a full band as Washed Out has moved from a bedroom project to a career for Ernest Greene. The songs sounded bigger and louder and heavier than the laptop synth-pop versions. Greene was obviously into it—pounding on his keys, bobbing his head like a parrot and putting himself into every word he sang. … read more
Liars @ Urban Lounge with Cadence Weapon
Then, like a splash of hot oil in the face, we were hit with the caustic surf guitar and cymbal crash of Sisterworld’s “Scarecrows on a Killer Slant.” The crowd members immediately started slamming into each other as our long-forgotten punk instincts took over, and the band took advantage of our heightened energy as they moved into the dance-punk club banger, “Brats,” from WIXIW. It was as if the Liars from 2001 met the Liars from 2012 and made a song together—too bad nobody knew how to dance, because this would have been the time for it. … read more
The Boards Reunion Show with Avon Calling and Gnawing Suspicion...
As these sages of punk rock strap on their guitars and study their set lists, the crowd of two dozen aged rockers (and a couple young punks like myself) watches anxiously, sensing the nervous energy in the bar. The guys haven’t forgotten how to kick ass, though, and they start with some of the oldies—stripped down punk rock n’ fuckin’ roll. … read more
Found Footage Festival @ Brewvies 11.29
The Found Footage Festival, which originated in NYC in 2004, is comprised of a nationwide tour of various US cities. They insist that in eight years of the festival, this year’s footage is the most unsettling yet. I believe them. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Who Is Dayani Cristal?
A man recites “A Migrant’s Prayer” in Spanish, backpack in hand, as he prepares for a treacherous journey north across the Mexican border, into the USA. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
On February 12, 2012, the punk-informed feminist art collective Pussy Riot stormed the altar at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, clad in colorful dresses and balaclavas, screaming “It’s God’s shit!” in a performance art piece that would be heard of around the world. … read more
