Music for the Hiatus

Not done or gone, just have been taking a bit of a hiatus. I've been catching up on other things, but, to be honest, I'm also a little counter-cyclical with the film release slate these days. I find summer movie releasing a bit depressing. There's a massive amount of screen space taken up with lowest common denominator junk. Even my local "arthouse" theater has Transformers - and other major studio releases - playing. I can't blame them too much as they do need to stay in business and they can't help it if people vote with their dollars for more franchise sequels.

Smaller films that might have some appeal for adults tend to get short shrift releases - limited space and out of theaters in a week or two. But it's also pretty amazing just how few R-rated action/thriller films see release these days, particularly in summer. Even Expendables 3 (for which I have zero expectations given the awful last one) will be PG-13. If you're looking for something action-y that isn't pulling punches (no pun intended) to satisfy the censors and the marketing bosses, you're lucky to find one or two movies out there, and if you've seen them, it might be weeks of waiting for another one.

I haven't stopped seeing movies, of course, and I'll have some reviews up soon. I liked Kelly Reichardt's Night Moves. Saw The Rover, which was a bit of a disappointment perhaps because I loved Animal Kingdom so much. It is still worth seeing, and I am a bit sad that it has been such a bomb at the box office (lacks critical cachet and A24's marketing efforts seem lacking on this one). 22 Jump Street is funny enough to merit a watch, even if little to no effort was put into originality or a coherent story (which the filmmakers might chalk up as part of their satire of sequels, even if that might be a cynical appeal for a pass). I saw a solid documentary, Band of Sisters, which you might be able to catch as it continues its marathon roadshow around the country. Mexican film The Amazing Catfish has a few issues, but it works decently and is worth a watch if you're up for a bittersweet family story. That's about all I can recommend from the films I've seen since my last review, although there are a few well-reviewed films kicking around out there (though several of them it looks like I may have missed my 7 day window for seeing in a theater in between rushing them on to VOD). I'll be seeing the much-hyped Snowpiercer soon.

I'll be back posting soon. In the meantime, have a good weekend and above and below is music for this hiatus. But remember when you're celebrating this "Fourth Of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn't want to pay their taxes."