the only best-of-the-year film poll you'll need

Well, that might be an exaggeration. But the indieWIRE poll of 107 alt-weekly and alt-leaning critics is a good place to start. My only com...

who loves the shins?

I do. You should too. And with their new single, "Phantom Limb," there's more to love. Elsewhere in Consumables , I gush abou...

will smith goes for his oscar

The Pursuit of Happyness is a pretty standard based-on-a-true-story "inspirational" tale. But Will Smith's seemingly indestru...

ucla 13, usc 9: the fans have their say

Sometimes you don't need a sportswriter to summarize your feelings about a game's outcome; sometimes the fans can express it just as...

too many movie reviews to keep track of

My reviews of ... ... Casino Royale ... For Your Consideration ... The Departed ... Babel ... Happy Feet ... Candy ... Flags of Our Fathers ...

i don't make my jukebox selections for the recognition

One of the best places for consistently good music commentary is The Onion , that beacon of cultural satire. I must admit that I had taken T...

david thomson on will ferrell

David Thomson's Biographical Dictionary of Film is a reference book I check as frequently as I do my dictionary -- it's a constant ...

penelope cruz vs. borat

I'm sure it's a fight some twisted individuals would love to see. My reviews of Volver and Borat are part of my latest Consumables ...

joanna newsom's new album.

Five songs. Fifty-six minutes. Say hello to Ys . Ugh.

whatever happened to moby?

After 1999's Play , he seemed like he was on his way to becoming a superstar. Didn't quite happen, huh? Still, with the release of h...

cocaine cowboys

It may seem like a sleazy documentary about the drug wars that overtook Miami in the 1970s and '80s, but Cocaine Cowboys is also a dark...

the queen

The Stephen Frears movie is great, even if you don't care at all about the royal family . Also in Consumables, the Hold Steady and the P...

the man who used to be in guided by voices

Robert Pollard writes too many songs and releases too many albums. But that's why his fans love him. Even though Guided by Voices has d...

saw iii

The third installment in the horror franchise is more of the same, except less so .

badly drawn boy

It's been six long years since The Hour of Bewilderbeast . Badly Drawn Boy's latest record, Born in the U.K. , is as cozy and lush a...

little children

Todd Field's second movie is pretty terrific, although it could have been ever better . Also in Consumables, reviews of Deliver Us from ...

the decemberists

Colin Meloy's indie-rock group has never done much for me. Then I heard their new record, The Crane Wife . This is the warmest, most mov...

writing pad, lesson two: reviewing as storytelling

Greil Marcus is brilliant at taking an album and turning its songs, lyrics, and themes into a narrative -- he reviews the work by presenting...

writing pad, lesson one: the review as social observation

I mentioned before that I'll be teaching a class this weekend at the Writing Pad on the art of criticism, so I've been looking for ...

zerophilia

Good news: My review of Zerophilia is my first in The Village Voice . Bad news: I had to watch Zerophilia .

marmaduke explained

Is this commentary? Should it be in this blog? I dunno -- but it makes me laugh . A lot .

jesus camp

Jesus Camp , the new documentary about the religious right's desire to indoctrinate its children into the cause, is both disturbing and ...

j dilla, r.i.p.

Dilla, the talented hip-hop producer, died at the age of 32 earlier this year. The Shining was the album he was working on near the end, and...

crumb

Crumb , Terry Zwigoff's great documentary about his friend Robert Crumb, will be playing at the Aero on Sunday, October 1 as part of a ...

studio 60 on the sunset strip

Aaron Sorkin's new NBC drama, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip , is the sort of sophisticated, flashy character piece you'd expect from...

how have we changed since 9/11? don't ask us.

John Powers has a fine essay in the LA Weekly about the incessant desire in the media and within both political parties to use the anniver...

lambchop

The Kurt Wagner-led Nashville alt-country band return with a new album, Damaged . I think it's one of their best.

zach braff gets serious

The Last Kiss plays like a somber version of Zach Braff's Garden State , but despite this new film's ambitions to be significant an...

keep your 9/11 away from my 9/11

The anniversary of 9/11 always depresses me, but it goes beyond the memory of what happened five years ago. Nowadays, it's the way certa...

bob dylan

Modern Times isn't up to the level of Dylan's other recent albums. Sorry, it's true. Elsewhere in Consumables, I go nuts for Ne...

the album leaf

Jimmy LaValle, the electronica musician who is the Album Leaf, is an unassuming nice guy. I know because I interviewed him about two years ...

jody rosen on robert christgau

Slate 's Jody Rosen has a noteworthy appreciation on Robert Christgau's legacy . While I disagree with some of Rosen's nitpicks ...

talking to patricia foulkrod

Patricia Foulkrod is the director of The Ground Truth , a new documentary about the horrors that befall our troops once they return home fro...

robert christgau and "breakfast with the beatles": say it ain't so

As we slide into Labor Day weekend, there are two sad stories on my radar. First, is that Robert Christgau has been let go from the Village ...

the st. louis rams as a microcosm of the nfl

Yes, a rare sports piece from yours truly. For Deadspin , I wrote an NFL season preview for the St. Louis Rams. Kinda. I mostly used the te...

hearting justin timberlake

It's no secret that I'm quite fond of the solo career of Mr. Justin Timberlake . I continue with the kind words in my latest Con...

hendrik hertzberg nails bush again

The New Yorker 's Hendrik Hertzberg has so continually criticized the Bush administration's failures in Iraq and elsewhere that it...

snakes on a plane

The wait is over: Snakes on a Plane is finally here. It's no work of art, but for a late-summer B-movie, it has a whole lot of charm .

seeing barry lyndon on the big screen

The Academy is hosting a screening of Stanley Kubrick's underrated Barry Lyndon on Monday, August 21. If you've never seen it -- or ...

writing pad

I'll be teaching a one-day seminar in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 14 as part of the Writing Pad. The topic? The art of reviewing. ...

please see the house of sand

It's an amazing film . If that doesn't sway you, my latest Consumables column also covers Miami Vice , Scoop , and Band of Horses.

there are worse things than mel gibson...

... like our current president , for instance.

will ferrell

The former Saturday Night Live comedian is pretty funny in his new film, Talladega Nights . If that's not enough to entice you, Sacha ...

the motel

Writer-director Michael Kang's debut feature, about a young boy stuck working in his mom's dingy motel, might sound dull, but it...

little miss sunshine

Steve Carell is quite good in this comedy-drama . Also in Consumables, I discuss A Scanner Darkly , Thom Yorke's The Eraser , and that s...

the endless misery in the middle east

Remember how those who opposed the Iraq War said we shouldn't overextend our military on the off-chance that, who knows, we might need o...

metallica: "enter sandman"

Although my article profiling the making of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" ran in Blender a year ago, the piece is just now beco...

people like johnny depp as a pirate

The Pirates of the Caribbean sequel is making a ton of dough, but isn't so good. Elsewhere in my Consumables column , I tackle Superman...

you, me and dupree

I thought Wedding Crashers was a pretty smart "new dude" comedy, but You, Me and Dupree demonstrates that the genre is far from ...

baffled by the searchers

In honor of its 50th anniversary, John Ford's The Searchers has been re-released on DVD. Here in Los Angeles, the Academy of Motion Pi...

wishing roger ebert well

It's easy to make potshots at Roger Ebert because of his popularity and visibility as a film critic, but there can be no question that f...

if only gay sex caused global warming

That's the provocative headline to Daniel Gilbert's great op-ed about people's willingness to ignore a problem that doesn't...

no comment

Attention, all bloggers: If you're sad that no one's responding to your heartfelt, eloquent postings, Pearls Before Swine feels your...

the road to guantanamo

The controversial film, along with Cars, A Prairie Home Companion , and Ghostface Killah's Fishscale , is reviewed in my latest Consumab...

the fast and the furious: tokyo drift

The new installment in the Fast and the Furious series isn't necessarily terrific, but its up-and-coming star, Lucas Black, may be someo...

the lake house

The new romantic drama starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, which opens Friday, will be a hit among the female set. Men are another mat...

bruce springsteen: protest folkie

While I respect Springsteen's post-9/11 work, it's been hard for me to love it as much as Tunnel of Love or Born in the U.S.A. His ...

the need for iraqi civil war

While the Bush administration strains with all its might to insist that Iraq is not tumbling into civil war, Edward N. Luttwak of the Center...

camera obscura

This sextet from Glasgow write pretty songs about being sad. Let's Get Out of This Country is their latest. I quite like it.

Playwright Edward Albee argues that what separates us from animals isn't our ability to use tools or possess a soul -- it's our desi...

the best weapon against terrorism? scorn

Professor J. Michael Waller has an interesting suggestion on how to win the War on Terrorism. When engaging an enemy whose main weapon is f...