City Paper grade: A- In introducing himself to audiences, The Amazing Randi has always been upfront about his own reliability. “I’m a liar, a cheat and a charlatan,” he gleefully tells crowds before executing some sleight of hand or escaping…
City Paper grade: B- Throughout the 1950s and 60s, much of the most memorable music was created by artists whose names never appeared on the album covers. Several recent documentaries have helped remedy that oversight Standing in the Shadows…
City Paper grade: C+ If Jim Jarmusch had made Only Lovers Left Alive a quarter-century earlier, it would have looked a lot like A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Both are languorous portraits of stylish, world-weary vampires, but where…
City Paper grade: C+ Sports and nationalism often go hand in hand, as anyone whos ever been engulfed in a U.S.A.! U.S.A.! chant could testify. Gabe Polskys Red Army finds that notion literalized through the story of the Red Army…
FRESHMAKERS: The three co-leaders of the Fresh Cut Orchestra: trumpeter Josh Lawrence, bassist Jason Fraticelli and drummer Anwar Marshall. When I first dropped in on the Fresh Cut Orchestra in a UArts rehearsal room in October 2012, none of the…
City Paper grade: A Despite their pitch-perfect recreations of 1970s European genre aesthetics, “homage” is an inadequate descriptor for the films of Peter Strickland. In Berberian Sound Studio, the British writer-director turned the Italian horror film into a set of…
City Paper grade: C- The Wachowskis’ films since The Matrix have all been hobbled by jarringly bad choices, but always in service of a respectably grandiose vision. So Jupiter Ascending comes as a disappointment not just because it’s often clunky and silly, but…
City Paper grade: D Their gadget’s limited ten-year capacity means that the teenage time travelers of Project Almanac can’t go back and kill Hitler, which one of them immediately mentions as “time travel 101.” It might be just enough time…
Lionel Loueke Monnette Sudlers mother didnt always understand her daughters passion for the guitar. A gifted classical singer who performed in church, she was suspicious of any music that involved an electric guitar. My mother didnt understand all the capabilities…
City Paper grade: C Especially in the wake of his unforgettable appearance at the 2012 Republican National Convention, it’s near impossible to approach a Clint Eastwood movie about the Iraq war without the Hollywood icon’s politics in mind. But Eastwood…
