The problem is that the decent Coen brothers knock-off and the better-than-decent rom-com don’t really work together.
Author Archives: Noah Berlatsky
Posted inFilm
See beyond disability in The Unseen
Inspiration and overcoming are the Hollywood disability default. Jennifer Goodman, RJ Mitte, and their collaborators suggest that there’s a lot more to see.
Posted inFilm
Review: Extraction II
I guess the one upside is that it’s hard to imagine that the inevitable Extraction 3 will be much worse.
Posted inMusic
Singer-songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan loves all the genres
Aaron Lee Tasjan’s 2021 album was called Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! (New West). The title captures the singer-songwriter’s exuberance and hints at his eclecticism—his records pack in so many different styles that listening to one can feel like you’re shuffling between three. Based in East Nashville, he’s perhaps most associated with roots music, per his “East […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago alt-country darlings the Texas Rubies come on home
The Texas Rubies are the great Chicago alt-country phenomenon that wasn’t. Lead vocalist Jane Baxter Miller and guitarist and harmony singer Kelly Kessler were Kentucky transplants who met in Chicago in the early 90s and started writing hard-hitting retro-country songs in the tradition of Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard. They released one album, Working Girl […]
Posted inFilm
Review: The Mother
If you’re looking for wit or charm or invention or frills, you should probably skip it. But if you want to see Jennifer Lopez bloodily take apart a bunch of bad guys in the name of maternal love—well, The Mother will take care of you.
Posted inFilm
Review: R.M.N.
The film’s rejection of bigotry is undermined by its own uncomfortable assumptions about whose story is worth telling and who gets to represent the community.
Posted inFilm
Review: Tommy Guns
Carlos Conceição has created a smart, strange film that is disjointed because colonialism is a thing of disjointed desires, histories, and deaths.
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Review: One True Loves
At its core, One True Loves isn’t really a zany screwball film. It’s a dramatic weeper with surprising heart.
Posted inBuy Local
Best used poetry section in Chicago
Myopic Books in Wicker Park has a ton of poetry on offer, but the prices aren’t that much better than you could find new. The late, lamented Bookman’s Corner in Lakeview sold books so cheap it made it feel like you were stealing them—but there weren’t that many poetry books to steal. Between those extremes, […]
Posted inMusic
Miirrors’ shining debut reflects the kinship of the band’s members
Miirrors’ sound is as smooth as their name suggests. The Chicago outfit’s debut album, Motion and Picture (Pravda), is filled with giant, radio-ready alterna-rock meticulously designed and arranged for earworm bliss. Formed by singer Brian McSweeney and drummer Shawn Rios, who can trace their friendship back nearly 25 years, Miirrors originally focused on recording, but […]
Posted inMusic
Senegalese legend Baaba Maal makes retro Afrofuturist music on Being
Senegalese superstar Baaba Maal has been recording for close to four decades, and at age 69 he still sounds relentlessly, almost eerily contemporary. While his first album, 1984’s Djam Leelii, features himself and his teacher Mansour Seck on acoustic guitars in a mesmerizing, fluid triumph of griot tradition, he’s since embraced electronics and transnational collaboration. […]
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Review: Country Gold
It’s a little late in the day for a Garth Brooks parody, but Mickey Reece’s Country Gold is fully aware of its own obsolescence.
Posted inFilm
Review: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey
A Winnie the Pooh horror film just seemed like it had the potential to be more pointedly cruel. Instead, we got a weirdly anonymous ursine rather than the best bloody bear in the world.
Posted inFilm
Review: Children of the Corn
In Kurt Wimmer’s new reboot, a demon in the corn once again possesses the children of a rural town.