Authors: Cody Kirkland
Sundance Channel Series Review: New American Noise
This six-part documentary series produced by Somesuch & Co. and Nokia Music delves into the underground music scenes of six cities across the U.S.—the sticky strip clubs of Atlanta, the twerk battles of New Orleans sissy bounce parties, the guerilla shoegaze concert on some bridge thing in Portland. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Crystal Fairy
Jamie (Michael Cera) an American living in Chile, and his Chilean friend Champa (Juan Andrés Silva) have made plans to go on a road trip into the desert and ingest the psychedelic San Pedro cactus with Champa’s younger brothers (Agustín and José Miguel Silva). While at a house party the night before the trip, Jamie smokes weed, snorts coke and accidentally invites the hippie girl he just met to go on the trip with him. By morning, Jamie has forgotten about the previous night and the boys hit the road. But the girl (Gaby Hoffman), and American who calls herself Crystal Fairy, hasn’t forgotten—she’s on a bus to the desert and calls Jamie, asking to be picked up. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Big Sur
Punching thru death clouds suffocating the New Zion, foot glued to accelerator with guitar chord change feedback shrieks into high-altitude circle jerk of starfuckers and art cannibals and humble unseen angels to stash auto in strip mall, take pre-noon flask pulls in tribute in anticipation of a dead reluctant god’s silver screen flashback, Jean-Marc Barr is Kerouac incarnate and Polish… … read more
Sundance Film Review: Soldate Jeannette
Fanni tries on an expensive dress at an upscale fashion boutique. After much deliberation, she buys the dress. She dumps it into a mailbox just outside the boutique. Fanni’s landlord and his lawyer walk into her posh apartment. She offers them matcha tea, and they tell her she’s being evicted that afternoon because three years’ rent is past due. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Wajma (An Afghan Love Story)
What begins as a series of secret flirtations in a society that prohibits contact between the sexes before marriage turns into the worst scenario imaginable: Mustafa, professing his love for Wajma (Wajma Bahar), pressures her into a forbidden romance despite her reserved protests. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Toy’s House
I knew this movie was going to be painful to watch as soon as the ‘70s or ‘80s power-pop intro song started. It seemed out of place, forced—As did most of the dialogue in the film. A couple of high school friends, Joe Toy (Nick Robinson) and Patrick Keenan (Gabriel Basso) decide that their parents are such a drag that the only option is to build their own house in the forest and live there. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Upstream Color
It’s going to take me a few more viewings of this film to full grasp what the hell is going on and what it all means, but let’s try this: Larvae infect a plant, kids harvest and process the blue dust on the infected plant and they make a drink out of it which gives them mental, physical and spiritual connection. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Hell Baby
From the creators of Reno 911! comes a wickedly funny horror-comedy that explores horror film conventions in such an over-the-top and self-aware way that I’ll never be able to take a haunted house, exorcism or demonic baby films seriously again. … read more
Sundance Film Review: Magic Magic
Everybody around Alicia (Juno Temple) is acting weird. Nobody is making any sense and there is an undercurrent of maliciousness behind everyone’s smiles. Alicia, an American girl travelling in Chile, is driving with her cousin Sarah (Emily Browning) and Sarah’s friends to a cabin in remote southern Chile. … read more
OCTOBER, The Circulars, Jason Dickerson, Amy Childress @ Bar Deluxe...
A dollhouse set ablaze, the fumes of burning paint and polyester choking my lungs until the flames are smothered with shot glasses of tears and piles of broken vanity mirror glass and skittles until a smoldering mass remains, the ashes blown away with a faint sound of wind chimes. This is how it feels to hear Amy Childress read from her photocopied zine on the Bar Deluxe stage on Wednesday night, April 17. … read more
Everything Is Terrible! @ Brewvies 09.14
As part of the Two Head Cleaners and a Microphone Tour, the guys from EIT stopped by Brewvies Cinema Pub to show their two video collections: Comic Relief Zero and Everything Is Terrible! Does the Hip-Hop! It’s like getting really stoned and hating it, but you end up looking back on it fondly the next day—you value the “experience,” man. … read more
