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Album Review: Green Lung – ‘This Heathen Land’

10Nov

By Martin CroftNo Comments

Features, Music, Reviews

Album Review: Green Lung – ‘This Heathen Land’

Since their inception in 2017, London-based heavy metal quintet Green Lung have grown from a tiny underground band to a cult favorite and recent signee with one of the genre's most beloved labels, Nuclear Blast Records. Through their journey, they have gained some serious love from the heavy metal community, and that trend looks to continue with their third full-length release, This Heathen Land. Green Lung is likely to land on a lot of black t-shirt wearers' "Best of 2023" lists with their winning formula of tight, massive composition, excellent production, and their unique take on heavy metal's lyrical conventions. Occult Following A metal band using pagan religious imagery in their lyrics is not new, but it's the specific themes Green Lung draws inspiration from that make their wr...

Sofia Coppola Explores Love and Loss with ‘Priscilla’ (Review)

10Nov

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

Sofia Coppola Explores Love and Loss with ‘Priscilla’ (Review)

Priscilla Presley was little more than a footnote in Baz Luhrmann's 'Elvis' last year, despite being his only wife. For her eighth feature film, Sofia Coppola turns the tables and puts the focus on Priscilla's formative years. Based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll, we are introduced to Priscilla when she is just 14. An American teenager living in Germany while her Air Force officer father was stationed there, she is lonely and homesick. Then, she meets Elvis. Already a worldwide star, Elvis was drafted into the Army and served from 1958 to 1960. He took a shine to Priscilla, but because of her age, he was cautious about going too far in their relationship. Or so we're led to believe. As they fell...

New Milli Vanilli Documentary Takes You Beyond The Scandal (Review)

27Oct

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

New Milli Vanilli Documentary Takes You Beyond The Scandal (Review)

For a brief moment in time in the 90s, it seemed like Milli Vanilli were the future of pop music. Their songs were inescapable. Their debut album produced hit after hit on the charts. Until, at least, it all fell apart. Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus were on top of the world until they were proven to be frauds. Or that's the story that everybody remembers. In a new documentary from director Luke Korem, we're offered a lot more information about what really went down. The two young men were living in Munich and both wanted to be famous. They were dancers on a popular German music television show and eventually formed a band. Discovered by producer Frank Farian, he signed them to a contract and agreed to record their music. The only problem? He loved their look, but didn'...

‘The Exorcist: Believer’ May Make You a Skeptic (Review)

13Oct

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

‘The Exorcist: Believer’ May Make You a Skeptic (Review)

With 'The Exorcist: Believer,' director David Gordon Green has taken another legacy horror series and updated it for modern times. Whether or not he has succeeded in that is debatable. I was a fan of his 2018 reboot of the 'Halloween' series, but stretching that into a new trilogy felt unnecessary. Now, the plan is for another new trilogy using the backbone of 'The Exorcist.' I gotta say, it feels like Green should stop while he's ahead. This is not to say that 'The Exorcist: Believer' is unwatchable. Far from it. The first half of the film is rather compelling. Unfortunately, things change once efforts are made to tie the new storyline into the original tale of possession from the 1973 classic. Leslie Odam Jr. is Victor, an overprotective single father raising his teenage daug...

All is ‘Fair Play’ in Love and Climbing the Corporate Ladder (Review)

6Oct

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

All is ‘Fair Play’ in Love and Climbing the Corporate Ladder (Review)

At Sundance 2023, 'Fair Play' set off the kind of bidding wars that we don't often see anymore for indie dramas. Most of the mini-majors like Searchlight and Neon were battling it out against streaming services to release the feature debut from Chloe Domont, who cut her teeth directing television series like 'Ballers' and 'Suits.' In the end, Netflix emerged victorious and took global rights on the film which had everybody talking in Park City. Alden Ehrenreich as Luke and Phoebe Dynevor as Emily in 'Fair Play.' Cr. Sergej Radovic / Courtesy of Netflix Emily (Phoebe Dynevor, 'Bridgerton') and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich, 'Solo: A Star Wars Story') are two young professionals working in the cutthroat world of hedge fund management. Their scorching hot relationship is against company po...

‘Flora and Son’ Explores the Healing Power of Music (Review)

22Sep

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

‘Flora and Son’ Explores the Healing Power of Music (Review)

With his latest film 'Flora and Son,' Irish director John Carney continues to build on the themes that have brought him success. Over the last two decades, the former bass player for The Frames has earned raves with movies like "Once" and "Sing Street." His newest is a little more rough around the edges, but still illustrates the transformative properties of song. Flora (Eve Hewson) is a single mother living in Dublin. When it comes to luck, she just doesn't have any. Her teenage son Max (Orén Kinlan) is a problem child, but Flora isn't much better. Life has been a series of mistakes and disappointments and when she gets a warning that Max needs to clean up his act or risk serious trouble, her maternal instincts finally start to surface. After rescuing a guitar from a dumpster, she ...

Charming Rom-Com ‘Love at First Sight’ Lands on Netflix (Review)

15Sep

By Matt ShiverdeckerNo Comments

Features, Film, Reviews

Charming Rom-Com ‘Love at First Sight’ Lands on Netflix (Review)

'Love at First Sight' is an adaptation of a hit YA novel that finds the fickle finger of fate pointing directly at two strangers who meet at the airport. Narrated by Jameela Jamil ('The Good Place'), the film is charmingly slight, but fun to watch. The original novel is called 'The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight,' which is such a better title and, yet, you probably would be less likely to pick that off the Netflix menu. Haley Lu Richardson ('The White Lotus,' 'Columbus') is Hadley, who is on her way to England for the second marriage of her father (Rob Delaney). It's a special event that she has very mixed feelings about. She's still smarting from her parents divorce and not particularly excited to cross the pond to watch her dad get married to a woman she has never...