The Antlers – Burst Apart

Fleet Foxes’ reign as my go to album was cut tragically short by a series of late-May releases. You’ve already heard about the latest from Death Cab and we’ll be talking about My Morning Jacket soon enough, for now, let’s take a moment to talk about Burst Apart, the latest from the Antlers.

2009’s Hospice was an amazing album, in fact it was among my top ten for the whole year. But it was easily the most depressing album on that list. Burst Apart is not quite so heavy, weighing down on you more like the way maybe a Radiohead album would. Which is a pleasant change of pace considering the last album was about cancer, impotence and unwanted pregnancy.

The Radiohead comparison is particularly apt, as this latest release definitely has been influenced by the post-O.K. Computer band. I don’t know how you could listen to a song like “Parentheses” and not think so. But this is not mere emulation, the album is unmistakably Antlers and everything that I liked about Hospice is still present. Just more evolved.

I beg you guys take a look at this one. Listen to “Every Night My Teeth are Falling Out,” probably my favorite track of the whole album. If you like it, imagine getting ten times that. That what’s Burst Apart is; a truly consistent and terrific album. It’s one of those great collections of songs that just washes over you. Right now, this is my favorite album of the year.

Favorite Tracks: “I Don’t Want Love,” “Every Night My Teeth are Falling Out,” “Putting the Dog to Sleep”

Hanna

I’ve never been the biggest fan of director Joe Wright. I never saw Pride & Prejudice. I thought Atonement was not nearly as great as everyone told me it was supposed to be and I wrote The Soloist off as pathetic Oscar-bait. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to give the guy a chance. There certainly were parts of Atonement that were interesting, especially the infamous tracking shot on the beaches of Dunkirk. My roommates and I recently had a chance to take on Wright’s latest, Hanna, in an empty theater. Did his new action picture have what it takes to finally win me over? I think the answer is obvious, since you’ve already seen my star rating, but humor me anyway.

Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is a little girl who has spent her whole life living in the icy wilderness with her father (Eric Bana), the only other person she has ever known. All she knows about the real world is what she has heard from an encyclopedia. She has been trained in a variety of martial arts, foreign languages and survival strategies. When the time comes, she will enter society for the first time. Her mission: kill corrupt CIA agent Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett).

Saoirse Ronan continues to prove herself a talent young actress, nailing this complex role. Hanna speaks in numerous languages and accents, has to be extremely tough sometimes, extremely vulnerable other times and always thinking a lot more than she says. Blanchett speaks with a hilarious, villainous American accent that maybe someday, after decades of research, science will be able to explain. Bana is basically just playing the same part he’s played his whole career, which I can’t fault him for doing. The whole supporting cast is great, I found myself really not liking the other villains and being thoroughly amused by the innocent bystanders Hanna runs into.

But Hanna is a great film because of its style. Part of the credit has to go to the Chemical Brothers’ pulsating score. We were all whistling the theme when we left the theater. Wright’s camera does a lot of interesting things – there is another long tracking shot that’s pretty cool – and the film’s kinetic editing style actually works, unlike other shaky action pictures of late, like Quantum of Solace. The movie just seems really cool most of the time, shifting to more intimate and dreamlike moods when necessary. Hanna‘s a really effectively made picture.

So you win, Joe Wright. I like one of your movies. In fact, I really liked it. Now just don’t let me down with your next project. What’s that? Your next project is a live action adaptation of The Little Mermaid. That’s… um… wow. OK then. Well, at least Hanna was good.

Pokémon White Version

Right before the Nintendo 3DS came out (remember that?) another big Nintendo product was released in America: the latest Pokemon games. Pokemon Black and White versions bring the series into its official fifth generation and feature the most changes the series has seen yet. But is that enough, or has Pokemon become too stagnant for its own good?

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: you wake up one day and find out its finally time for you to go see the local professor to get your own Pokedex and your first Pokemon. You venture out into the world, battling your way through eight Pokemon gyms to earn badges so you can go challenge the Elite Four and the reigning Pokemon champion. But your real motivation is to catch all the Pokemon in the world, because, uh, that would be cool, I guess.

The story of Pokemon White Version does change from the traditional campaign in some interesting ways. You have two rivals now, both lifelong friends of yours that always encourage you and even work with you on a few occasions. The evil group you keep running into is the most interesting aspect about this game, they’re basically the Pokemon version of PETA, who say its wrong that people capture Pokemon and make them fight. I’m glad someone finally said that, but the main characters never take Team Plasma and their cause seriously, since that would ruin playing the game.

This game features 150 new Pokemon, you won’t see a single familiar face until you’ve completed the main story. That’s cool, I guess. Graphically, the game looks the same, maybe a little better, since Pokemon sprites are now animated and the game uses some limited 3D effects. Nothing groundbreaking. What is groundbreaking is that TMs are now infinite use, a welcome change. With brand new Pokemon to catch and easy ways to fix any mistakes you make while leveling them, this is a great game for wannabe Pokemon trainers to hop on.

But I can’t help but feel like Pokemon needs to do something really different. This is the same basic game I played like 13 years ago. Hopefully when Pokemon makes the leap to the 3DS, or the Wii 2, Nintendo will take that opportunity to profoundly change the franchise. In the meantime, this is still a great game for anyone looking for that Pokemon experience they’ve always enjoyed.

Fast Five

Since taking over the franchise with Tokyo Drift, director Justin Lin has done an amazing job developing the mythology of this ridiculous series. Things have gotten so insane that Fast Five is basically an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist movie. That’s right the gang’s all here: Dom, Brian, Mia, Han, Roman, Tej, Tego, Rico and Gisele. What’s that? Those name’s mean nothing to you? Well, go read the Fast and the Furious retrospecticus if you want. You don’t really have to though, because Fast Five stands enough on it’s own that you could probably appreciate it even if it was the first movie in the series you saw. And you definitely should see it.

Dom, Mia and Brian are on the run after busting Dom out. They’re hiding in Rio de Janeiro just trying to survive when their old buddy Vince shows up and offers them a job. Things go south pretty quick and soon enough American super agent Luke Hobbs (The Rock) is on the hunt for Dom and his team. So Dom decides it’s time for one last huge job, after which everyone will disappear. How do you do a job like that? You bring in the dream team.

What’s kind of amazing about Fast Five is how little it has in common with the rest of the franchise. Yes, these guys’ specialty is racing, but the film actually opts to not show a gratuitous race sequence. On the other hand, what we do get are a few harrowing chase scenes, including one on foot and the totally insane finally heist chase. It’s got to be seen to be believed. The movie has plenty of gunfighting and even the long-awaited fist fight between Vin Diesel and The Rock. That might have been the most muscular scene since the arm wrestling in Predator.

I know there’s going to be plenty of movies to keep everyone entertained this summer, but I think Fast Five is a great place to start. It’s long but it never feels like it. The starts do well enough that you won’t hate them, or feel disappointed. The action is top-notch. This is the least car porny, bromantic entry in the franchise and an excellent action movie, I don’t care who you are.

The Office – “Goodbye, Michael”

The weird thing about TV shows, especially long-running TV shows, is the insane amount of character development that can happen through years of new episodes and writers. Inevitably, everyone gets together, becomes friends, has fights, breaks up and so on. After its all over, it’s amazing how far characters have come. Who would have thought, after seeing The Office‘s pilot, that Michael would evolve into the good-natured, well-loved boss that he is today? That he would be close friends with the married Jim and Pam? That everyone would care so much when it was his time to go?

This should have been the series finale. Season seven of The Office has done a great job reinforcing Michael as the show’s driving comedic force and shown that pretty much everyone else on the show is played out. Yes, there’s the slow-moving romance between Erin and Andy, and the looming “who will be the new boss” cliffhanger, but everyone is pretty much where we want them to be. I imagine a lot of people who haven’t been paying as much attention to The Office these past few years could use this episode as an opportunity to leave the show forever. I wouldn’t blame them.

What I really appreciated about “Goodbye, Michael” was its homages to both early episodes of the American Office and even the British Office. Little touches like Michael putting the Dundie on his desk like in the opening credits were sublime. The biggest surprise for me was the scene at the airport, starting with Michael’s monologue that mirrored Tim’s from the original series. Then, just like Tim, Michael took off his microphone and shared an embrace with woman who is probably his best friend. It was a genius tribute and proof that Michael is so much more than the American David Brent.

The episode did spend some time developing two Andy-related plots for the future. Gabe is upset about the horrible way he was dumped last week and is lashing out at Andy, which I guess was supposed to be funny. It all paid off when Michael gave Gabe some truly terrible advice towards the end of the episode. Meanwhile, Michael has also given Andy all of his clients, and Andy goes with D’angelo to meet with one of them. Is this setting up Andy as one of the candidates to be the new boss? That’s a pretty crowded field, with Jim and Dwight already there and a ton of guest starts on the horizon.

So Will Ferrell’s character is starting to come apart. He’s having trouble coping with his desire to eat unhealthily and its revealed that he only got the job by saving one of Jo’s dogs. In fact, he appears to be totally incompetent. Quite the departure, since he seemed perfectly fine just a couple episodes ago. I imagine Ferrell will completely abandon his straight man style next week and return to his more wacky tendencies. That will be either terrible or hilarious. For what it’s worth, I did enjoy the conversation in the car. “Andy, do you know how to high five? Because if you do, now’s the time.”

So long, Steve Carell. You made this show great and it will struggle to find a voice without you. Too bad they never got Paul Rudd in there with you, so you could have acted with the whole Anchorman news team.