Written by: movies
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Memento
Inventive and engaging film about a man with short-term memory loss trying to piece together and avenge his wife’s rape and murder. Told backwards, the narrative motion makes us feel the confusion, delusion, and frustration of the main character (Guy Pearce), while the plot’s noirish style keeps you thinking well after the credits role. |
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Down from the Mountain
This gracious, entertaining and often moving docu-concert features the music behind the Cohen Brother’s hugely successful film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? While the soundtrack has topped the country music charts for months, these live performances really bring home the evident love of the musicians for their music. |
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Osmosis Jones
The Farelly brothers’ “excremental” version of The Fantastic Voyage features both live-action and animated material. What goes on in the City of Frank (Bill Murray’s interior), grosses up the joint in fine style, where Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock) and cold pill Drix (David Hyde-Pierce) make a mismatched cop team. |
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Sex and the City – Series 1
The first season of one of HBO’s most successful series is now available, for better or worse, on DVD. If you don’t mind the in-your-face sex talk, or the idea that four women in New York have nothing better to do than discuss it endlessly over cocktails and arrugula salads, then you’re in luck. |
music
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Elbow – Asleep in the Back
While pundits have compared them to everyone from The Doves to Radiohead, Elbow works on so many fascinating levels it seems churlish to quibble. A battery of melodic dynamics and slight prog-rock tendencies – now supple, now soaring or seething – accompany the emotional overflow and sonic stunts of Guy Garvey’s vocals. An epic debut. |
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Norah Jones – Come With Me
It’s not mere name-dropping to say that she’s got Roberta Flack, Nina Simone, and Carole King on her side. At just 22, this bracingly intuitive singer/songwriter/pianist has a voice that’s equal parts smoke, honey, autumn and regret – it makes heartbreak sound like a sumptuous luxury to be enjoyed in the middle of the night. |
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Les Gammas – Exercices de Styles
For those unfamiliar with the Compost label, suffice it to say that Les Gammas is one of its jewels. On this 2000 release, the duo from Augsburg, Germany, offers a fair spectrum of styles, ranging from real soulful vocal treats and calm, string-laden waters to experimental discordance and beautifully sequenced percussion. |
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Thelonious Monk – Straight, No Chaser
The 1989 film, Straight, No Chaser (produced by jazz enthusiast Clint Eastwood) is a life-and-music-study of one of the most influential jazz pianists. Monk’s eclectic, compulsive music is the film’s raison d’e^tre, as well as the intricate stitching that holds the fabric of the story together. The score is a wonderful collection with many relatively rare cues. |
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CDs and DVDs available at www.albumcity.cz.
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