In cinema, there’s always a fine line between the supernatural and the ridiculous, and the best horror films flirt with this boundary without crossing it. Unfortunately, director Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman was less than tactful in his approach to the werewolf genre, and the film ends up resembling more of a farce than a truly scary movie.
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
CD REVIEWS: Four Tet: There Is Love In You
The fifth full-length album from British electronic musician Kieran Hebden (better known as Four Tet), isn’t a dramatic departure from his earlier work. Nor will it disappoint fans of Four Tet’s already well-established oeuvre. The album is barely over 45 minutes long and undemanding enough to not need your full attention.
Revamping spoken word
It’s hard to imagine how rewriting the lyrics to a Fat Boys song into his own beat-box symphony at the age of nine could lead C.R. Avery to where he is today. Currently on his Dead of Winter cross-Canada tour, backed by The Legal Tender String Quartet, you could say that Avery is in his element – his storytelling/harmonica-playing/beat-boxing element.
Valentine’s Day sucks
On Friday, I lost a bet with an A&E editor. Two days later, I was by myself, waiting in a long line of moon-eyed couples at the AMC Forum, ready to review Garry Marshall’s newest film, Love, Actually II. Wait, no, that was the working title. I mean Valentine’s Day, starring everyone you would expect.
Colm Tóibín, the award-winning Irish writer, on crafting prose
Colm Tóibín is a writer fascinated by other writers. Tóibín, the award-winning Irish journalist and author, first considered writing a novel after reading the work of other journalists who wrote fiction: Ernest Hemingway, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, and V.
Fear and loathing just outside of Las Vegas
It’s been said that there’s only two different types of stories: either the protagonist leaves his or her old life, or someone new enters it. Oversimplified? Yes, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any truth to it. In the case of Saint John of Las Vegas, it’s both.
Everybody’s a terrorist in From Paris With Love
Pierre Morel’s new film From Paris With Love is exceptionally tasteless. Admittedly, action movies are meant to be vile concoctions of guns, cars, drugs, and racial/sexual stereotypes, but From Paris With Love is so strikingly problematic that it cannot be considered a harmless testosterone-fuelled fantasy.
CD REVIEWS: OK Go: Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
You may know OK Go from their infamous viral videos on YouTube – including the treadmill dance routine in “Here it Goes Again” – from their previous album Oh No. Of the Blue Colour of the Sky is the latest album from the unique digital rock band. The album starts out with a Prince-like track, appropriately titled “WTF?” OTBCOTS is a departure from their first two albums, with a funkier, dancier sound.
CD REVIEWS: Line Spectra: Maps & Directions
Line Spectra has finally released their first studio album. For the past couple years, you may have noticed this all-girl trio playing at staple venues around Montreal and even a few shows at OAP. These ladies wield their instruments with a fancy, sparkle and a twist.
CD REVIEWS: Beach House: Teen Dream
Since 2004, Beach House has been the leader of the dream-pop scene with slow, simple pop melodies layered over lush soundscapes to create achingly beautiful songs of love and longing. Vocalist Victoria Legrand and guitarist/keyboardist Alex Scally have crafted a winning sound that is completely their own, and with Teen Dream it seems they’ve truly perfected it.