Man of Steel: Back to the drawing board

A painfully inept film, full of dialogue and plot points that any professional writer should have rejected without hesitation Seven years ago, I felt like the only person in the world who liked Superman Returns.  Over time, my feelings have softened considerably, but my childlike affection for the idea of Superman was enough to blind me…

Gatsby Fails to Resonate

I wanted to love the Great Gatsby adaptation so much.  I tried, I really did.  But when a studio moves a prominent release from prime Oscar season to the following summer, that’s usually a bad sign for the movie’s prospects.  And in this case, smoke meant fire. Fitzgerald’s Great American Novel is set in the…

Green Day’s Trilogy of Desperate Hope

In the summer of 2011, I was privileged enough to see Green Day play an impromptu, intimate concert at an Orange County, California venue normally reserved for bands who have sold about 1/100th as many records as they have.  I had just moved out to southern California, and the area greeted me by placing me within…

Elessar – Sun we Rise (2012): To Touch the Bliss

Only lucky people encounter bands like Elessar.  You won’t hear them on the radio until orchestral indie folk music wins its fifteen minutes of widespread public appreciation.  You won’t be able to see them play live in the near future if you live more than a stone’s throw from northern France.  Still, consider yourself lucky:…