Comedian Peter Berman’s big break occurred when hallucinogenic drug guru Dr. Timothy Leary caught his act and invited the then-University of Michigan student to perform a gig in Los Angeles at Hollywood Improv. One year later, with a degree in communications in tow, Peter moved to Los Angeles and quickly became a regular on the […]
Los Angeles
Posted inArts & Culture
Haunting Gift one of the year’s best
Jason Bateman in The Gift. Smart, uncompromising and timely, Joel Edgerton’s excellent new thriller The Gift is a sly little film that mirrors its main character in all the best ways. Unassuming and deceptive, the movie slowly sucks you in, leading the viewer down what seems a familiar path only to play against expectations, shunning […]
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A cautionary tale about our fading feelings
Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore in Spike Jonze’s film, Her. Though Spike Jonze’s Her takes place during some undisclosed time in the near future, it couldn’t be more timely. And while its premise seems absurd on the surface – a man falls in love with the operating system on his phone?!? – as the film progresses […]
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Stars shine in Enough Said
James Gandolfini as Albert and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Eva in Enough Said. PHOTOS COURTESY FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES’ There’s an air of melancholy that hangs over Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said. Obviously, some of this is due to the untimely passing of James Gandolfini, who delivers one of his most informed performances, pointing toward what could have […]
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Ezra Furman and the Harpoons
PHOTO BY ROSIE WAGNER A performing songwriter since 2006, Ezra Furman hangs out in the indie-rock, folk-rock, original music land and calls Chicago home. With the Harpoons, the group delivers ferociously friendly sounding on-the-beat and in-your-face songs with sweet and sour lyrics balanced between personal experiences and existential dialogues with the universe as a conversational […]
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Phil Yates
Based out of Burlington, Vt., singer-songwriter-guitarist Phil Yates spent time in Los Angeles and Chicago, then Columbia, S. C. and once upon a time lived in a little burg called Springfield, Ill. After attending high school here, he split town and now teaches mathematics at a college in Vermont, while making music he describes as […]
Posted inMusic
James Armstrong
Some people play the blues and some people listen to the blues, but James Armstrong just is the blues. From starting his first band in seventh grade to traveling the country playing major festivals and shows, Armstrong made music his life’s work and coincidently, Springfield his home. Born in Los Angeles, Calif., as a young […]
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The Call not worth taking
If there’s one thing I realized while watching Brad Anderson’s The Call, it’s that a documentary on 911 call centers and the people who work there would probably make for a fascinating film. A look at the triumphs and tragedies they experience, the stress they deal with and how the system works would probably help […]
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Family Groove Company
This Chicago-based quartet keeps making the rounds and stirring the pot with festival appearances at the Midwest’s finest, including Summerfest, Summer Camp and 10,000 Lakes. Family Groove Company employs Adam Lewis (guitar), Janis Wallin (bass, vocals), Jordan Wilkow (Fender Rhodes, keyboards, lead vocals) and Mattias Blanck (drum, percussion, vocals) as the providers of the music, […]
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Squad a pretender in the gangster genre
While director Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad lets us know that it’s “inspired by a true story,” it becomes clear early on that it’s much more interested in the artifice of crime films rather than the hardboiled facts. To be sure, it’s a good-looking movie as the clothes, cars and locations all look of the post-WW […]
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Realism makes Watch one of year’s best films
Cop movies are a dime a dozen and writer/director David Ayer has done more than his fair share to keep the genre alive. Having written the Oscar-winning Training Day, and the Kurt Russell feature Dark Blue, as well as directed Street Kings, the filmmaker has specialized in bringing a degree of authenticity to his work […]
