Month: January 2019

TV Review: The Little Drummer Girl

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A few months before Thanksgiving, I read about a little mini-series coming to AMC starring one of my favorite actors, Michael Shannon. And I also found out that it was an adaptation of a John Le Carre novel, The Little Drummer Girl. That drummer girl was played by a relative newcomer, although she’s about to show up everywhere (Outlaw King and Fighting With My Family), Florence Pugh. The cast was rounded out nicely with Alexander Skarsgard as an Israeli intelligence officer. Florence played Charlie, an actress, and is recruited by Michael Shannon’s Mark Kurtz for an extremely dangerous undercover mission to bring down Khalil, a Palestinian terrorist who is bombing Jewish targets in Europe. Overall, this was a spy series, but there were other nice elements, as well.

A six-part mini-series that aired two episodes a piece in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I think this series could have benefited from dragging it out a bit. Now, did I have to watch it the way they aired it? No, I could have recorded it and taken my time, but I digress. I have not read the novel, so I can’t fully judge here. Overall, it was a fine adaptation, although I think The Night Manager (starring Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Dibicki) did it better. With all that fine talent it is definitely worth the watch!

Movie Review: White Boy Rick

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The first movie of 2019! Having said that, it was a bit of a letdown. I applaud the fact that they filmed in Lakewood, OH and Vegas, and the soundtrack was on point, but the story line itself was rather slow and dragged out.

Super-scum from Detroit shows Richard (Matthew McConaughey) and son White Boy Rick himself (newcomer Richie Merritt) dealing firearms to the other scum of Detroit. Rick gets caught up in the wrong crowd, drug dealers, and lives the high life for a while while also being an informant to the FBI. All that comes to an end when Rick ends up getting shot, and then the FBI eventually drop him and arrest his entire crew, including friend Boo. Rick and his dad try to strike a deal with the FBI in the end, but they don’t keep their word and Rick ends up in jail with a life sentence.

When I initially heard about this movie based on real-life Rick Wershe Jr. who was the youngest FBI informant ever at the age of 14, I thought this was going to be entertaining as hell, but it just wasn’t paced properly. Not a great way to start off my 2019 movie list, but there will always be misses with the hits.

Gotham Season 5 Premiere, “Year Zero”

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This past Thursday marks the final season premiere of FOX’s Gotham with the episode “Year Zero.” Having not fully watched the show in the past, but having a pretty strong understanding of its premise, this episode was a little tame, but packed with all of your favorites. I have to hand it to them with that opening scene though! Gordon, Bullock, the Riddler, and the Penguin all teaming up to shoot down an unknown enemy?! I suppose twelve episodes later we will see??

After that flash-forward we see the immediate aftermath of Jerome’s blowing up of all of Gotham’s bridges which has essentially made Gotham the most undesirable island ever. There are five “factions” ruling different parts of the city, all are running low on grub. That’s where rich kid Bruce Wayne steps up to get a helicopter with food over for all of the people currently being protected by the GCPD. Of course that was foiled when someone shot it down. Bane? Jerome? That remains to be seen. Then there was a food battle between the Penguin and his crew, GCPD, and then suddenly Tabitha shows up to exact her revenge for Penguin killing Butch in the season 4 finale. All that rage only for Tabitha meet her maker at the hands of Penguin. Barbara plotting revenge all season? Probably.

There wasn’t nearly enough Ed Nygma/Riddler in my opinion, but I imagine his story line will get better. In his Riddler state, Ed is controlling where he is going when he sleeps (which I assume is to Penguin). Meanwhile, Selina, having been paralyzed at the end of last season, has a semi-successful surgery but still can’t walk. That’s enough for her to want to kill herself, but some hospital staff and Bruce get to her in time. A seriously creepy looking nurse keeps hinting at “The Witch” to help Selina, but Bruce is (stupidly) ignoring her. Having not seen Lee Thompkins in the premiere, maybe it’s her? Who knows what Hugo Strange did to her?! And there is also the fact that Jerome did not surface either, but a potential Harley Quinn did, leaving his signature on a map of Gotham for Gordon to find.

I’m excited for what’s to come, but also insanely sad that this show is going to see its end. Given that the original order of ten episodes got bumped to twelve, I’m not holding my breath for any other network or streaming service to pick it up when all is said and done. We can only look forward to what the cast will do next in there careers.

2018 Rewind: Top Albums, Concerts, Books

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Since we’re only one day into 2019 I figured it wouldn’t be too bad to take a look back at my favorite albums, concerts and books of 2018.

ALBUMS:

  1. Underoath, Erase Me – This was quite the comeback! The first album from the band with original drummer Aaron Gillespie in a decade and it was a banger (a head banger that is!). All 10 tracks are a hit with standouts being “It Has to Start Somewhere” and “I Gave Up.” I was also a big fan of all the added clean vocals from lead singer/screamer Spencer Chamberlain.
  2. MGMT, Little Dark Age – I have loved this band since the beginning, but I will say that the duos last two outings were less than. Give them four years and they come out with a wickedly awesome record! It was rocking some serious disco/70s vibes and I was digging it. Standouts for me on this record included “One Thing Left to Try” and “When You Die.”
  3. The 1975, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships – While that album title might not be as long as their 2017 release, it still has just as many jams. I keep finding that they are reinventing themselves with every release, and the band has become a little less elusive since appealing to the masses. They have not sold out despite their ever-growing teeny-bopper fan base (makes me sad) by being themselves and creating some great work. Tracks you should check out would be “Give Yourself a Try” and “Love It If We Made It.”
  4. Avatar, Avatar Country – This Swedish heavy metal band really took concept album to the next level with this release. Singing all about hailing to the king with some serious shredding, this album managed to make me a real fan. My sister introduced (forced) me to them and I’ve seen them in concert countless times. This is a very enjoyable record. Go jam to “Avatar Country” and “The King Wants You.”
  5. Fall Out Boy, Mania – Aside from Folie a Duex, this is probably my least favorite record from them. With that said I liked most of the songs, just not the particular vibe. They still put on a great show and they’ve got an extremely large catalog of work, so I can’t fault them for experimenting. My favorites from this include “Young & Menace” and “Wilson (Expensive Mistakes).”

CONCERTS:

2018 was an ambitious year for me – I managed to attend 28 concerts/festivals! That’s a lot of live music! Below are my three standout shows from the year.

  1. Arcade Fire’s Everything Now Continued Tour was by far my favorite show this year. Even though I wasn’t crazy about the opener, the venue was an hour and a half away on a work night, and it was humid as hell I still had a crazy awesome time! The set list was a whopping 25 songs and they played all of the good ones. I caught myself dancing, which I literally never do at shows – that’s how immersing this show was! The last time I saw them was back in 2014 in a much larger venue, so if you get the chance to see them somewhere a bit smaller – DO IT!
  2. Foo Fighter’s Concrete & Gold tour was also quite magical. My sister and I had got my dad tickets for Christmas 2017 for a show happening in the middle of July! We also splurged on some closer seats and it was well worth it. The Struts opened things up with the small library of songs they have, but they have such strong Queen vibes that they totally killed it. Then the Foo Fighters played for three hours!!! It was amazing.
  3. Warped Tour’s final cross-country tour was also a gem to be at. While I’ve experienced better line-ups and it was ungodly hot, it was still a blast. My sister also took part in one of the TEI workshops with Chris Motionless of Motionless in White (an exceptionally nice guy!). The food was on par, and the performances were all solid. I may not have cared too much about the line-up, but you could tell that the bands there were really grateful to be included on this last hoorah. Best performances were Underoath, Motionless in White, 3OH!3, and Silverstein. R.I.P. Warped Tour.

BOOKS:

Really brief reviews here – I don’t want to ruin anything!

  1. Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage – As far as first novels go, this one was trippy. Told in alternating perspectives by mother and 7 year-old daughter, it’s hard for me to ever want kids after reading this. Like ever. It gave me very strong We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Omen vibes.
  2. You by Caroline Kepnes – Yes, I was influenced by the fact that this was getting made into a TV show starring Penn Badgley, but this book was gripping. A story about a stalker, told by the stalker, who wouldn’t really consider what he was doing as stalking. Doesn’t get more unsettling than that.
  3. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware – I am a big fan of all novels that Ruth Ware has written in her short career, so it was no surprise that I was going to like this outing. Set in present day, there is a case of mistaken identity, some serious inheritance, and a very intense plot twist. While it gets a bit wordy and repetitive, you’ll definitely be itching to know how it ends.