The Antlers – Hospice

One surprising upside to losing my whole music collection is that it has really illuminated which albums I really liked from this year. As I rebuild my collection, an album like jj n° 2 seems really unnecessary. Sure, it does sample Ghetto Reporter, but that album was a product of the summer that I have no interest in revisiting. However, some albums, like Hospice, demanded returning to my hard drive.

Released early this year, Hospice is the debut album of The Antlers. It is definitely a winter album, since this music often feels really cold and fragile. The lyrics aren’t very optimistic either, covering fun subjects like heartbreak and abortion. However, these lonely themes are surrounded by some of the best soundscapes this side of Sigur Rós.

But there are plenty of songs that just rock too. I think my favorite track is called “Bear” (it’s the one about abortion) which would seem almost optimistic if you didn’t listen to the lyrics because everything else on that song is so fun. Peter Silberman, who is both the vocalist and the man playing most of the instruments, has a great voice and definitely knows what he’s doing.

This is the first of a couple album reviews that I’ve wanted to do since I put my music collection together again. Expect those soon. And expect Hospice to be on my top 10 of the year.

Favorite Tracks: “Sylvia,” “Bear,” “Shiva”

Girls – Album

I thought I was pretty much done with new music for the year, but then I happened to stumble upon this San Francisco-based band, Girls. This “Album” came out a couple months ago, but it seems like it’s been ages since I’ve reviewed an album, and this is the first one that’s really grabbed me in a while.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has had a fairly strong fifth season. Following a season that had it’s highlights but faltered when going too over the top, I wasn’t sure if this show was running out of steam or just having a few “Off” episodes. Either way it’s been a good year for Sunny, notably marked by the gang’s first christmas special recently released straight to dvd. Unrated and an hour long A Very Sunny Christmas is an unrated, hour long extravaganza of violence, Christmas lessons and all out raunchiness. It may not be worth spending 20 smackeroos but for Sunny fans it’s a nice little Holiday treat.

Set on Christmas Eve, the story is split between the gang as they each engage in their own holiday hi-jinks. Mac and Charlie take a stroll down memory lane as they each recall christmas memories. Mac remembering how his family use to break into neighbors homes on christmas to open their neighbors’ presents and Charlie recalling a series of Santas that would come over on Christmas to “Cheer up his mom”, if you know what I mean. Meanwhile Dee and Dennis try to teach Frank a lesson after year’s of ruined Christmases, this of course having disastrous results.

It’s basically the same old dark Sunny format with the added bonus of no censorship resulting in some great sequences. Overall I think it struggled to fully utilize the longer runtime, there’s definitely some jokes and bits that misfire but it’s still a solid episode. I don’t know why they released it straight to dvd with so little bonus features and if this is on the fifth season dvd I’ll be pissed, though I doubt it. You can probably watch it somewhere on the web, so I’d recommend that over whipping out the dough to buy one episode, unless your a big fan. It’s alone worth seeing for Charlie’s brawl with a certain jolly fellow.

Assassin’s Creed 2

I remember the first Assassin’s Creed very well. It came out shortly after Bryce moved out and I reconfigured the room to be awesome for one person. I remember really enjoying the freedom of the gameplay, the grace of Altair as he scaled buildings and chased targets. I loved the story, the combat and especially the thrill of the hunt. However, the game got really repetitive. In the end, I did stay long enough to beat it, but Assassin’s Creed was then promptly sent away to its masters at GameFly, since I knew I would never play it again.

Since then, I have occasionally longed to revisit the Middle East through Altair’s eyes through Desmond’s eyes, even considering purchasing the title a few times, but I never relented in my original resolve. So it was with eager anticipation that I returned to the franchise about two years later with its sequel. While I can certainly understand the complaints people have with the original, Assassin’s Creed 2 is an undeniably great game.

Once again Desmond is forced into reliving an ancestor’s life. This time it’s Ezio, a young man living during the Italian Renaissance. His nice life takes a turn when some serious shit goes down, and it’s up to him to get vengeance from those that wronged him. Ezio is a better character with a better story. Altair was bad ass, sure, but Ezio is a lot more relatable and interesting. The story is overall a lot better too, with the sections outside of the Animus fewer and more compelling along with Ezio’s decade long quest for revenge being quite good.

The controls are really intuitive and allow you to do some really cool stuff a lot of the time. Scaling buildings is faster and easier, combat is more streamlined, generally everything works. There are times when the auto targeting will fail you and you’ll end up jumping in the wrong direction, but everything mostly works great. There’s a lot more to do. Aside from the story missions, which have a greater variety than just assassinating dudes, there are tons of side quests. You are platforming missions, assassination contracts, races, treasure to collect, people to beat up, glyphs to find, it’s a lot of fun. Assassin’s Creed 2 has all the variety people wished the original had and then some. After probably more than 20 hours of gameplay, I still can’t wait to get back in there.

One huge new feature to the game is economics. You have this villa, in the beginning it’s pretty run-down. But you can go to an architect and upgrade it, which creates an income for you. There are other ways to upgrade too, like findings statues, paintings, and these feathers that your mom wants. You use that money to buy stuff like medicine, new weapons and armor. It is surprisingly compelling, I thought for sure it would be a huge pain in the ass but quickly turned toward grinding out extra money just so I could get the next piece of armor or upgrade the brothel. You can also use money as part of your assassinating by hiring courtesans, mercenaries or thieves to distract people or even just throw money on the ground.

The recreation of Renaissance Italy is something to behold. You spend most of your time in Florence and Venice, and it’s really great. You’ve never played in places like these before, and apparently the historical accuracy is quite high. Unlike the first game, it is fun to run on the street level. There’s so much life here and I’m sure historians, especially art history majors, would really get a kick out of it.

In the first game, you could blend in the the occasional group of passing monks. In Assassin’s Creed 2, you can blend in with any group you want. That’s the difference. That’s why this game is so much of an improvement. Yes, there are some technical bugs that are a little annoying, but this is still one of the best games I’ve played this year.

Brothers

I had no intention of seeing this but some friends from work wanted to go see a movie yesterday and I had the final say. After it came down to Brothers and Armored, both movies that had received relatively mixed reviews I chose Brothers due to my fondness for the cast. Walking away I think it was the right decision, everyone enjoyed it and I’m not really sure why it’s received such a lukewarm response. The acting was great and the story was one of tense confrontations and powerful drama.

Directed by acclaimed Irish director Jim Sheridan known for his Daniel-Day Lewis collaborations; My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father and The Boxer, Brothers is more or less a remake of the 2004 Danish film of the same name. Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) is a marine captain ready to embark on another tour of duty in Afghanistan. A responsible and respected husband to Grace (Natalie Portman) and father of two, Sam’s black sheep brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) is released just before his departure. Strongly disliked by Grace and even more so by his own father, things change for Tommy after Sam goes missing overseas. Stepping up to help Grace and her children it doesn’t take long for a bond to form between Tommy and Sam’s wife and kids… But wuh oh, a couple months go by and Sam is alive and that’s when it gets heated.

A majority of the film’s first half is split between back home with Tommy and Sam in Afghanistan. Here we see Sam and another soldier from Sam’s hometown struggling to survive as prisoners of war, which leads to Sam committing a life changing act of violence. This first part of the film teeters between more heartfelt moments with Tommy and war drama with Sam. The acting on both sides is incredibly strong with Tobey Maguire and surprisngly his character’s oldest daughter (Bailee Madison, who’s only ten) being the standouts. The at home segments may be a little over polished with a Hollywood coat but it’s never cheesy and provides plenty of smiles along with some hard hitting drama

Brothers gets damn tense once an unstable Sam returns home. Blinded by paranoia and Posttraumatic stress disorder, Sam’s suspicion that his brother and wife have slept together enrages him and leads to lots of shit getting broke and reckless gun firing. I think what makes Brothers work is it’s unpredictability carried by a solid cast and engaging scenario. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original film is superior but this is still a notch above most mainstream Hollywood dramas and it’s even got a sweet U2 song at the end.

The Road

Another one of Cormac McCarthy’s acclaimed novels takes to the big screen and although the film may not be the critical success that No Country For Old Men was it’s still a film to be reckoned with. Australian director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) takes on this gritty adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, about a father and son surviving in a post apocalyptic America after an undisclosed disaster has taken it’s toll.

Here were shown a ravaged world of broken buildings and withered trees, where a lack of food has led to cannibalism and other extreme acts of violence. Things like electricity and even the most basic forms of technology are long gone and the world has been reduced to a primitive state full of scavengers and thieves. We follow “The Man” (Viggo Mortensen) and his unnamed son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) fighting against their surroundings in an effort to make it to the coast. Where most inhabitants have become violent and ruthless we watch as The Man tries to teach his son to survive while still maintaining some form of righteousness as a human being, as his son always wants to be assured “Were the good guys right?”

I’ll start by saying that Viggo and Kodi are both standouts in this bleak yet moving picture. Both highly convincing and strong as a struggling father and son, both worthy of Oscar nominations in my opinion. The film is essentially weighted on their performances and they truly bring Cormac McCarthy’s words to life. The supporting cast is small but as well genuine, with screen vet Robert Duvall being another standout but he’s always good.

Though it’s a deeply engaging story with a wonderful cast I think the settings and overall look steal the show. I’ve never seen such a convincing blend of CGI with nature to create such astounding surroundings. I’ll tell you now that if this film doesn’t win some kind of award for it’s setting or cinematography, then someone is about to get straight up murdered.

Though I’m yet to read the book that I bought a year ago, I hear that this was a fairly faithful adaptation. I guess all the flashback segments with Charlize Theron were new additions but those were brief and never really distracted the viewer from anything. Truly a story that captures immense violence and suspense while still keeping a sense of innocence. The Road is brimming with powerful themes of life and death and is a film that you wont soon forget. It’s definitely one of the better film’s I’ve seen this year and an excellent film to kick off the November to December transition, where the weather starts getting colder but the films start getting better.