A Band Called Death is an oral history of a band called Death (surprise), the first black punk band (and one of the first punk bands, full stop, even if they didn’t call themselves that at the time). Formed in Detroit in the early ‘70s, their music was vital and visionary, but never caught the…
Two more pieces of writing on other websites to spruik: I found Wolf Creek 2 an interesting film; it’s marketed as a gritty horror film, a successor to its (quite brutal) predecessor, but there’s a lot of intelligence beneath its bloody surface, a satire of Australian xenophobia amongst other things. It’s also a pretty entertaining…
Fat Tony and Co. doesn’t bear the title “Underbelly” (for reasons to do with Screen Australia that I don’t really understand) but it’s the most Underbelly-esque series yet. It’s essentially a remix of the first series, with most actors returning (except for the ones who, y’know, actually became successful), with the masculinity pumped up to…
A belated, brief review here. But I have to keep some sort of record of seeing my favourite band of all time – post-punk royalty, Wire – live. It’s clichéd to describe a band whose longevity has left their members with grey hair (if at all) as “playing like a younger band.” But Wire played…
Gloria (Paulina García) is refreshing and complex. A 58 year-old divorcee, she’s neither a sexy cougar nor a dowdy grandmother; rather she’s intelligent, attractive and assertive. Gloria, a Chilean drama/comedy from Sebastián Lelio, opens and closes on similar shots of Gloria alone on a crowded dancefloor. Alone, not lonely. Gloria’s still dating, becoming acquainted with…
Lone Survivor desperately wants to be described with clichéd buzzwords like “authentic,” “gritty” and “visceral,” but never earns such descriptors. When its four bearded Navy SEALs find themselves outnumbered by hundreds of Taliban guerrilla fighters, the action sequences’ painful physicality (there’s some bone-crunching stuntwork on display) is squandered by poor directorial choices from Peter Berg.…
Overseas holidays often serve as impetus to examine one’s life, to recognise and ponder the crossroads you stand at. Roger Michell and Hanif Kureishi’s Le Week-End instead finds Meg (Lindsay Duncan) and Nick (Jim Broadbent), in Paris for their thirtieth wedding anniversary, at a roundabout. Much like tourists encircling the famous l’arc de triomphe, they…
Mystery Road does, as the title suggests, concern a mystery of sorts. An indigenous teenage girl is found murdered on the outskirts of an outback Aussie town, and Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen, fantastic) investigates. His inquiries turn over dusty rocks, disturbing the dark creatures from their hiding places. In spirit of noirs like Chinatown…
A mini-series/telemovie about INXS was probably never going to be great, but Never Tear Us Apart ends up being this awkward combination of astoundingly misjudged moments amongst surprising glimmers of goodness. Let’s talk the good stuff: the casting of the band was well done; Luke Arnold is too young and pretty for Michael Hutchence, but…
In case you couldn’t guess from the title, this ‘ere post is commemorating the completely arbitrary milestone of reaching 100,000 total views on ccpopculture. It also conveniently comes at a time where my focus for the site is shifting away from fostering page views. When I first started ccpopculture, it was practically an obsession –…
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