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The Square (2017)
The Square (2017)
2017 | Comedy, Drama, International
Another of those occasions where the Smashbomb rating scale falls a little short: 'shoddy' isn't how I'd describe this film as much as fundamentally somewhat misconceived. Anyway: award-winning satire of liberal pretensions and angst set in and around a Stockholm art gallery. Curator Christian gets mugged, leading him to make some very poor decisions; various installations and performances go horribly wrong; the gulf between the high-minded aspirations of the museum's patrons and their actual behaviour is repeatedly exposed.

The odd quite funny and on-point scene, but it doesn't half labour its points and at nearly two and half hours it feels much too long (I watched it in installments, which I never normally do). Bang is pretty good in the central role and the thesis of the film is certainly relevent to the modern world, but it could have been funnier, sharper, and less irritatingly weird in places. As it is, this is a film satirising pretentiousness which actually feels rather pretentious itself - so not a great look. Hard work, if you ask me,
  
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
1988 | Horror
7
6.7 (20 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A nice return for Michael.
Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) is having nightmares of Michael Myers coming after her. When he returns to Haddonfield, Jamie and her sister Rachel (Ellie Cornell) must fight for survival. Luckily, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) also returns to stop Michael.

Halloween 4 is more of a blunt movie then its predecessors. It lacks the inventive camera work of Carpenter, and Michael comes across less sneaky, he's much more aggressive.
Loomis feels a bit unneeded, the mask is weird looking, the score isn't as good.

But there is still plenty of good. Harris's performance is pretty good, especially for child actor standards. Jamie's nightmares are surprisingly fairly creepy. The various death scenes are brutal and unsettling.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a pretty simple slasher. But it put the franchise on a new steady path, and it gave us Danielle Harris which is a plus. It's definitely not a film you'll hate, and if you like the Halloween franchise it's a must watch!
  
Around the World in a Day by Prince and The Revolution
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Raspberry Beret', 'Paisley Park' and the title track was amazing as well. It's a great psychedelic cover, I guess a bit like Sgt. Pepper's…. I love the flute intro on the title track and that was a big goal for the musical - to have each song have this little virtuosic moment, whether it was a harmonised guitar solo or a little flute line or some kind of piano solo. We had a rule that you had to be able to air-play some instrument on any song and if you could do that you could still be excited listening to the album 20 years down the line. It's hard doing fully contemporary music like Yeasayer, where doing something like a guitar solo always seems like a little dated or cheesy - so you want to have that variety, like a saxophone that's going through a weird pedal or being chopped up by a sampler or something, but this was pure "let's get this trumpet solo to be really haunting"."

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Ariel Pink's Picks Vol. 1 by R. Stevie Moore
Ariel Pink's Picks Vol. 1 by R. Stevie Moore
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Me and Stevie have a really good relationship. He’s just a music making machine, he doesn’t stop. Anything he does is good. He’s got the magic ears. He’s the line from Elvis and Roy Orbison and The Beatles to the present day. His musical pedigree is the best. His dad was the bassist for Roy Orbison and he grew up with Jim Reeves around. He grew up as the son of the most badass bass player who was playing with all the big hitters. He has the most solid-roots rock pedigree, and he’s an appreciator of music. Him and his dad disagreed about stuff because the British Invasion hadn’t really hit Nashville. They thought British people were weird, funny people. Stevie was beyond that. Not only was he into The Beatles, he was into The Mothers of Invention. The freakiest most degenerate shit ever. Stevie appreciates really freaky shit. With his sounds and development and process of recording, you get a real glimpse into a different era, that’s the magic with him."

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