Eight years after the release of Zack Snyder’s 300 (or as my friend calls it, “Eighteen-hundred Abs”), director Noam Murro has made a prequel/sequel/equal to the franchise that explores characters’ origins, parallel storylines and events that take place after the Spartans’ bloodbath. … read more
Director Hugh Sullivan leads this awkward yet charming tale of jealousy and redemption with a delightful cast of characters. McConville is provided with the entertaining opportunity to portray a love-starved mess to a conniving mastermind as his versions compete against one another. … read more
The members of Mordacious joined a horrifying, hooded man in a mask that looked as if his face was falling off. The room began to fill with tiny lights from phones and many tried to capture the evil that was taking place onstage.The mask was removed, revealing God Module front man Jaysn Bangert exposing his even more devious facial expressions. At that moment it became obvious who had brought the larger-than-average turnout. … read more
Andy Landen’s Sequoia, while suffering from some problems with clichéd characters—its cast looks like a mix of privileged if troubled film students and out-of-work soap stars—actually takes some serious risks in terms of subject matter. … read more
Texan director Matt Muir’s Thank You a Lot is the sort of film you find yourself watching late at night in a hotel room in the middle of Idaho or Nevada. For some reason, you never manage to change the channel. … read more
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. snuck onstage, and the audience barely had a chance to clap. It seemed almost intentional as they quickly went into songs, almost like they wanted to catch the audience off guard. The audience battled back though, and 30 of Salt Lake’s finest rhythm specialists took to the floor. Jr. Jr. bopped and jumped and Salt Lake City shook and waved. … read more
Douglas Benson’s vocals are so spot-on that if you closed your eyes you could be transported to a Cash live show circa 1962. Songs like “Boy Named Sue,” “Walk the Line” and even the folk tale epic “The Ballad of John Henry” were all done with attention to detail in such a way that these guys weren’t just playing Cash songs, they were playing Cash songs the way Cash and his band played them … read more
A rowdy group of retirees, my husband and I gathered in the winery. Tables were set in up the warehouse amid huge barrels of wine and machinery. Michael Knight, part owner and winemaker, meticulously explained the art of winemaking, or “voodoo” as he calls it. … read more
True passion for collaboration and subject matter is demonstrated in director Christian Larson’s new documentary, Leave It All Behind, a film following Swedish House Mafia on their farewell tour around the world. … read more
Friday night’s Book on Tape Worm show at Velour, an occasion to mark the group’s reissue of their sold out 2012 album, All the World’s a Stage, spotlighted one of Provo’s very best in this area: the band’s frontman, Scott Shepard. Surrounded by a hundred or so friends, family and fans, with a more intimate set up for the venue, and backed by the hauntingly beautiful music coming from his band, Shepard was in his element and it showed. … read more
Atlas has been described as their most mature album. In the past they’ve been described as the soundtrack to summer, but now they might be the soundtrack to the first day back from school after summer, when reality came crashing back and all the memories of summer fade, all the people you met and friends you made return to their realities. It’s still pretty chill though.
Sometimes a film or a work of art or a piece of music tries to tell you something, in a whisper, barely audible so you have lean in real close, and really listen. Other times it shouts what it wants to tell you from 3 feet away so that nobody could misunderstand or mishear it. I prefer the former. No need to shout, I’m a good listener, I can understand what you’re saying without hearing a word. Pandering to your audience is a good way to win awards, sure, but what I really want when I watch a movie is something that challenges the way I think and exist.
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