Sunday, July 19, 2015

I Don't Know What to Call This Any More But It's Definitely Not 'The Week in Review'

Hi.

I don't really like that title any more. I see a lot of other critics using it, and that's rather discouraging. Suggestions are welcome. Now here's what published this past week.

1) For Village Voice: a review of Jellyfish Eyes, pop artist Takashi Murakami's underwhelming kiddy flick. xowAvwEPGz
2) For Village Voice: a review of Ardor, a lousy man-vs-nature picture starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Alice Braga. c1RFCh2jh8
3) For RogerEbert.com: a review of Alléluia, an insufferably arty horror film about the Lonely Hearts killers. alléluia-2015 
4) For RogerEbert.com: my entry in the "Who's Who in Reviews" series. I waited all week for this, and am quite happy with the results. whos-who-in-reviews-simon-abrams



Takes us out, boys.





Saturday, July 11, 2015

The Week in Review: Well, A Week and Some Change

Hi.

I've had some personal setbacks lately. But here, in the meantime, are my writings for the past month or so:

1) For Village Voice, a review of The Face of An Angel, a rather dull thriller by the often superb Michael Winterbottom: YbzoLrrlu1

2) For Village Voice, a feature on Critical Paranoia 2: Dark Night Rising, a frustrating, but intriguing experiment in conspiracy theory bullshit: LHFbgZppwy

3) For Vulture, my last two recaps of Sense8, the Wachowski siblings' uneven and aggravating science-fiction series: 5lnxamq2EL and 1NqIQTu

4) For Village Voice, a review of Phantom Halo, a tedious American indie drama directed by the daughter of Poly Platt and Peter Bogdonavich: character-driven-melodrama-phantom-halo-doesn-t-have-believable-characters-7273204

5) For RogerEbert.com, a review of Rubble Kings, a fine, but flawed documentary about real-life gangs of Fun City New York: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rubble-kings-2015

6) For RogerEbert.com, a review of Into the Grizzly Maze, a lousy, woman-hating animal-attack picture: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/into-the-grizzly-maze-2015

7) For RogerEbert.com, a review of Stung, another lousy, woman-hating animal-attack picture: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/stung-2015

8) For The Dissolve, an interview with Penelope Spheeris, the lovely, and ferociously-talented director of the Decline of Western Civilization trilogy: 0ok2frhFvs

9) For Village Voice, a review of The Suicide Theory, a wishy-washy Australian thriller/dark-comedy: http://www.villagevoice.com/movies/the-suicide-theory-6387710

10) For Village Voice, a feature on "Japan Cuts," the Japan Society's annual program of Japanese pop cinema: 8zbZI5wYcf

11) For Village Voice, a review of The Gallows, a stinky found-footage ghost story: it-wouldnt-be-a-tragedy-if-found-footage-horror-the-gallows-hadn-t-been-found-7351993

And here's some music: