Hype Starts Here's Top 100 Songs of 2014 (100-71)

100. War on the East Coast---The New Pornographers
       Dan Bejar's big moment to shine on the latest New Pornographers disc, WotEC is a steady chug that builds to climax that treats rock music as a form of celebration.
99. Fram---Rodrigo y Gabriela***
        Fram has no use for RyG's standard build-up, hitting you straight away with air-tight acoustic sound, and refusing to loosen it's grip.
98. Susie Thumb---Ty Segall
        Ty Segall can do a lot of things, but I for one like it most when he just rocks out. Susie Thumb is his distinct version of lightning in a bottle, slamming on the gas, and refusing to let up.
97. Nothing But Trouble---Phantogram
        The opener to Phantogram's long-awaited follow-up to 2009's Eyelid Movies, NBT hits the ground running with their signature nocturnal electro-pop, rounding out the track with a schizo guitar solo.
96. Wonderland---ceo
        Has there ever been a more appropriately named song or album? The title track from ceo's latest possesses quite the jaunty, candy-colored swirl.
95. Sweet Sun---Milky Chance
        Milky Chance's appeal is a tough thing to put a finger on, and SS is a perfect example, a goofy, groovy, sexy thing strung together with minimal, sinewy strums.

94. Song for Five & Six---Owen Pallett***
        Owen Pallett's music is always lovely and orchestral, but Song slightly deviates from the formula, adding speed and synths to glorious effect.
93. Stay Ugly---Millie & Andrea
        A lurching anti-techno instrumental, SU places rafter-shaking sounds atop an echoing, fuzz-adorned abyss that only makes them sound that much bigger.
92. Break Free---Ariana Grande feat. Zedd
        Sure, Ariana Grande can steer a decent ballad, but she's much better suited for enormous club jams, as Zedd and his massive dubstep production will readily attest.
91. The Soundmaker---Rodrigo y Gabriela
        Contemplative, spacious, muli-faceted, and ready to rock out at the drop of a hat, The Soundmaker is a high-octane reminder of just how great RodGab can be at the peak of their powers.
90. Soda---Azealia Banks
        One of the things that makes Banks' debut hip-hop record so infectious is its refusal to just be a hip-hop record. On Soda, the new kid on the block stops spitting and crafts one of the years most fun and catchy tracks.
89. All the Rage Back Home---Interpol***
        Those clean, reverberating electric guitar licks are back, caffeinated, and ready to turn the place out with Interpol's best song in years.
88. Are You What You Want To Be?---Foster the People
        Supermodel was never destined to be as big a hit as the band's debut LP, but it certainly would have helped to position this as the lead single, its arena-filling chords and sky-scraping chorus opening the disc on an awfully high note.
87. Low Key---Tweedy***
        A lazy love ballad and a cocoon of mid-tempo warmth and sunshine, there simply couldn't be a more apt song to select from the lowest key offering of Jeff Tweedy's 2+ decade career.
86. Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene---Hozier
        Hozier just can't stop taking us to church; this stand-out from his debut album is straight gospel with a wrought and dangerous twist.
85. Violently Wild---Horse Feathers
        The loveliest, most life-affirming track on an album chuck-full of them, VW finds Justin Riggles' breathy, patient voice in the mid-afternoon sun, encased in all kinds of warm folksy goodness.
84. Turn Away---Beck
        Beck has made plenty of down-tempo tracks throughout his prolific career, but TA stands out for its hymnal qualities, a gorgeously lush three minutes with an etherial quality that's tough to put one's finger on.
83. 180db_[130]---Aphex Twin
        A glitchy stomp that you'd expect more at a dance club than an Aphex Twin album if not for the warped, descending tones that writhe around on its edges, rendering it just as sinister as it is savage.
82. Damage---Andy Stott***
        An agressive, violent change of pace on an album that could have used a little more blunt force to get its point across, Damage stands as one of the year's finest instrumental tracks, even if it almost demands that you cower in fear.
81. Hands Up---Vince Staples
        Vince Staples doesn't really view the travesties perpetrated by his local authorities with a whole lot of nuance, but at this point, why should he? Hands Up is the kind of hip-hop thumper that you could picture on the radio, but don't let its disturbed and distrusting lyrics pass you by.
80. Lazaretto---Jack White***
        This... this is just Jack White doing his Jack White thing. Guitar solos, distrust in women, punchy vocals, and piss and vinegar; just Jack doing his thing.
79. The Front---KOOL A.D. feat. Toro y Moi and Amaze 88
        A lot of indie artists have been tasked with crafting hip-hop beats lately, from Purity Ring to Ariel Pink. For my money, Toro y Moi's The Front beat is among the finest in the growing trend, a laid-back groove perfectly befitting KOOL A.D.'s ever-lazy raps.
78. Cavity---Hundred Waters
        Hundred Waters is bedroom music with an singular bend, Nicole Miglis' hauntingly hushed vocals stretching across Cavity's endless vortex of percussion and synthesizers.
77. Dark Waltz---The Men
        A coming-of-age track from one of the most prolific acts working today, DW hazy, imperfect production befits the wily ideas and desires of the track, all bolstered by their ever-steady ax work, and a surprise harmonica solo.
76. Best Friend---Foster the People
        A track for the festival crowds if ever their was one, Best Friend practically screams fun with its every waking note, over-powering ear drums with the sheer force of its crowd-riling pleasures.
75. Don't Wanna Lose---Ex Hex***
        DWL, like most every other track on Ex Hex's debut album Rips, doesn't exactly require description and assessment so much as it needs you to just lend an ear. This is pure pop rock pleasure, and it hits the main vein the second you press play.
74. Limos---Vince Staples feat. Teyana Taylor
        Less party-ready than we're used to from Staples, Limos is a description of high-life tragedy set to a throbbing beat, and leveled out by Teyana Taylor's comely vocal hook.
73. Winter Linn---Clark***
        Like most everything on Clark's excellent self-titled LP, WL is an angular, aggressive beast, a beautifully haunting track that changes directions, sounds, and moods about 5,000 within its tidy 3 minutes without a single miss-step.
72. 1998---Chet Faker
        Most of Built on Glass consists of chilly instrumentals and lovelorn lyrics, but not 1998, a summertime jam dressed up with curiously inviting samples (ok, the lyrics are still kind of lovelorn, but whatever!).
71. And That's All I Know---Kevin Drew
        Subtle, sweet bedroom pop that leaves Drew's trusty guitar in its case, All I Know's sturdy keyboard core steering the ship while the singer's whispered croon and supporting synths glide effortlessly on its sides.

***Pictured Artist

Hype Starts Here's Top 50 Albums of 2014:

50-41

40-31

30-21

20-11

10-1

Hype Starts Here's Top 100 Songs of 2014:

100-71

70-46

45-26

25-11

10-1

Oscar Predictions 2014 (Round 2)

Best Picture:

1. Birdman (Previous Ranking: 11)

        I don't really love its chances to win the big one, but at this point, it's legitimately the only movie I can't imagine missing out on a Best Picture nomination. This showy show-biz tale is right up Oscar's alley.

2. Boyhood (Previous Ranking: 5)

        The only reason this ever seemed like it could miss was because of distributor IFC's limited track record with chasing Oscars. This one's brought too many grown men to tears to worry too much about that now. 

3. The Imitation Game (Previous Ranking: 9)
        I feel good about Birdman and Boyhood; from here on out, it's a crap shoot. This Alan Turing biopic is right up the Academy's alley, and boasts of strong early reviews, and a lauded lead performance.

4. The Theory of Everything (Previous Ranking: 29)
        Ditto literally everything listed above... only with Stephen Hawking instead of Turing.

5. Selma (Previous Ranking: Unranked)
        Did a Martin Luther King biopic just drop into this race at the last second?!? It did, and the reviews are stunning, but will it pick up enough buzz in time?

6. Foxcatcher (Previous Ranking: 6)
        Some say it's too cold or weird for Oscar. I say Bennett Miller has never directed a movie that wasn't a Best Picture nominee. I'm not about to start betting against him.

7. Unbroken (Previous Ranking: 8)
         The true story of survival in captivity, directed by Angelina Jolie, written by the Coens, scored by Alexandre Desplat, shot by Roger Deakins, and starring buzzy up-and-comer Jack O'Connell? There's enough to like here to move Unbroken to the top spot. Too bad no one has even seen it yet.

8. Into the Woods (Previous Ranking: 4)
        Another Oscar season, another big Rob Marshall spectacle ridding in on the truly endless coat tails of his Chicago. The guy might not have another Best Picture nominee in him, but if Into the Woods is a hit, it's status as the year's lone musical should keep it in the conversation.

9. Gone Girl (Previous Ranking: 7)
         Oscar loves David Fincher, and this was the biggest box office hit of his career. It's not really their style, but with 10 potential slots, not every movie has to be.

10. A Most Violent Year (Previous Ranking: 15)
        J.C. Chandor's previous couple of films (Margin Call and All is Lost) were both Oscar players, and with the white-hot leading pair of Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in front of his camera, I like his odds to be offered a seat at the 'big kids' table.

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11. Wild (Previous Ranking: 22)

12. Interstellar (Previous Ranking: 13)

13. Still Alice (Previous Ranking: Unranked)

14. Whiplash (Previous Ranking: 12)

15. Inherent Vice (Previous Ranking: 1)

16. Fury (Previous Ranking: 18)

17. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Previous Ranking: 34)

18. Mr. Turner (Previous Ranking: 16)

19. American Sniper (Previous Ranking: Unranked)

20. Rosewater (Previous Ranking: 41)

Best Director:

1. Alejandro González Iñárritu---Birdman
        As with all things Birdman, AGI is all but assured to get in, so let's just put him at the top of the list, and reassess the rest when the nominations drop. He might not win the golden man, but he's making the final five for sure.

2. Richard Linklater---Boyhood
        I kind of like the narrative for the perpetually underrated Linklater to win an Oscar on his first at bat, but that's just it... in his 20+ year's of filmmaking, he hasn't even been nominated once. Hopefully things go according to plan, and we can finally stop saying that.

3. Morten Tyldum---The Imitation Game
        There's no real reason to have Tyldum ranked ahead of Marsh, just as there was no real reason to rank Imitation ahead of Everything in my Best Picture rankings. These movies are destined to duke it out through the end of February.

4. James Marsh---The Theory of Everything
         Didn't you read what I just said?!?

5. Ava DuVernay---Selma
        What a story it would be; only the second woman to win Best Director, and the first ever African American. This is worth keeping an eye on.

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6. Bennett Miller---Foxcatcher

7. Angelina Jolie---Unbroken

8. Rob Marshall---Into the Woods

9. David Fincher---Gone Girl

10. J.C. Chandor---A Most Violent Year

Best Actor:

1. Michael Keaton---Birdman
        Again with Birdman? Keeton a carbonite lock for the nomination; who knows after that?

2. Eddie Redmayne---The Theory of Everything
        Finally, something Everything has over Imitation! A steadily deteriorating Stephen Hawking is capitol letters OSCAR BAIT, and early word on his performance is rapturous.

3. Benedict Cumberbatch---The Imitation Game
        Hasn't this guy been 'the next big thing' for about 5 years now? Oscar has been pleading for a chance to nominate him, and in Imitation Game, it finally has one.

4. David Oyelowo---Selma
        Listen: if you're playing Martin Luther King in a well-received movie coming out at the end of the year, you're in line for an Oscar nod. It's really only icing on the cake that Oyelowo's supposedly great in the picture.

5. Steve Carell---Foxcatcher
        The guy from The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin?!? Everyone's known that Carell is great in Foxcatcher for almost a full year now; the interesting part will be seeing is Oscar can take this guy seriously.

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6. Jack O’Connell---Unbroken

7. Oscar Isaac---A Most Violent Year

8. Timothy Spall---Mr. Turner

9. Channing Tatum---Foxcatcher

10. Ralph Fiennes---The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Actress:

1. Julianne Moore---Still Alice
        Overdue, and in a very flashy role. Even at a not-really-old-in-any-sense-of-the-word 54, she'd be one of the oldest Best Actress winners of all time, but with Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep in Oscar's recent past, I don't really see that hurting her. The fact that hardly anyone has heard of Still Alice kinda does...

2. Felicity Jones---The Theory of Everything
        The supportive wife of a mentally decaying mathematical genius? If this role had Oscar written over it any more boldly, they'd have already given it away... wait... they already did!

3. Reese Witherspoon---Wild
        The actress race is particularly thin this year, and Witherspoon practically gets this whole movie to herself. Until Hollywood starts coming up with better roles for women, that'll almost always be enough to get in (Not trying to throw shade on Reese; she's supposed to be great in Wild).

4. Rosamund Pike---Gone Girl

        Her role in Gone Girl is Juicy with a capitol J. Some worry that overwhelming dislike for her character might be a hinderance; I'm more concerned with what the Academy thinks of the film as a whole.

5. Emily Blunt---In the Woods
        Look, it's kind of a shot in the dark, but if Blunt, well liked by just about everyone, can steer a gargantuan musical production into the big race, who's to say she can't win Best Actress?

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6. Amy Adams---Big Eyes

7. Hilary Swank---The Homesman

8. Shailene Woodley---The Fault in Our Stars

Best Supporting Actor:

1. Edward Norton---Birdman
        I'm tired of this, aren't you? Norton's getting in for sure, but I have no earthy idea if he can win.

2. J.K. Simmons---Whiplash
        Everyone and their house cat wants to anoint Simmons as this year's Supporting actor winner, but I have a boat-load of pause for you. The movie is crawling it's way 3 million box office, and as any fans of Albert Brooks' Drive performance can tell you, being a veteran of the craft doesn't really mean a hell of a lot to Oscar unless you're reeeeally up there.

3. Mark Ruffalo---Foxcatcher
        Ruffalo garnering an Oscar nomination for playing a nice-ish guy in a Best Picture nominee wherein he's overshadowed for a pair of buzzier lead performances; if it worked for The Kids Are All Right, it should again work here.

4. Ethan Hawke---Boyhood
        I didn't really see this happening until recently, and I could still be talked out of it fairly easily. Problem is, this category is pretty thin, which means that whole 'I filmed this movie for 12 years' thing might be enough in and of itself.

5. Tom Wilkinson---Selma
        I wasn't really certain how to fill this last slot, but I sided with pedigree. Wilkinson is a former nominee who plays a U.S. President in a movie that might make some serious noise. Let's play it safe.

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6. Josh Brolin---Inherent Vice

7. Garrett Hedlund---Unbroken

8. Domhnall Gleeson---Unbroken

9. Chris Pine---Into the Woods

10. Alec Baldwin---Still Alice

Best Supporting Actress:

1. Patricia Arquette---Boyhood
        A respected industry veteran who's been acting since the late 80's, and has yet to add an Oscar nomination to her resume. The fact that she's in a likely Best Picture frontrunner should help, and Oscar tends to looove his struggling, self-sacrificing mothers.

2. Jessica Chastain---A Most Violent Year
        Arquette's perfect opposite. This would represent Chastain's third nomination since she absolutely EXPLODED onto the scene in 2011. Patricia's got about ten years and a million movies on her, but Chastain's upward movie star trajectory might just be too powerful.

3. Emma Stone---Birdman
        The only potential Birdman nominee who I feel compelled to call a 'potential' nominee. She still feels safe, just not a safe as her cast mates. 

4. Carmen Ejogo---Selma
        There's a fairly bold line in between the top three here and the rest of the field. If I'm taking a flyer on somebody, give me the actress playing Coretta Scott King.

5. Keira Knightly---The Imitation Game
        This last slot is a total crapshoot. If Into the Woods is a hit, I like Streep or Kendrick, but as of now, I'm going with a sizable role in a potential Best Picture winner.

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6. Meryl Streep---Into the Woods

7. Anna Kendrick---Into the Woods

8. Laura Dern---Wild

9. Carrie Coon---Gone Girl

10. Katherine Waterston---Inherent Vice

Best Original Screenplay:

1. Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, and Armando Bo---Birdman

2. Paul Webb---Selma

3. Richard Linklater---Boyhood

4. Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye---Foxcatcher

5. J.C. Chandor---A Most Violent Year

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6. Damien Chazelle---Whiplash

7. Christopher and Jonathan Nolan---Interstellar

8. Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness---The Grand Budapest Hotel

9. Mike Leigh---Mr. Turner

Best Adapted Screenplay:

1. Graham Moore---The Imitation Game

2. Anthony McCarten---The Theory of Everything

3. Joel and Ethan Coen, William Nicholson, and Richard LaGravense---Unbroken

4. Gillian Flynn---Gone Girl

5. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland---Still Alice

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6. Nick Hornby---Wild

7. James Lapine---Into The Woods

8. Paul Thomas Anderson---Inherent Vice

9. Jon Stewart---Rosewater

Interstellar (Release Date: 11-7-2014)

        To say that Christopher Nolan is in rarified air as a tent-pole filmmaker would be the ultimate understatement: no other director can currently turn a mere movie into a cultural event simply by attaching his name. Spielberg used to have it, Tarantino might get there yet, and Cameron would share the mantle if he made more than one film per decade. As is, Nolan alone is afforded movie-star treatment by both the studios that market his pictures, and the audiences that greedily lap them up. It should come as no surprise that all this adoration has emboldened him to take even further risks; with the release Interstellar, Nolan's first since dutifully wrapping up his Dark Knight saga, finds the auteur marching to the beat of his own drum, traveling to the farthest reaches of space all in the name of chasing his muse.

        Hollywood's own Lazarus (Matthew McConaughey) stars as Cooper, a former NASA test pilot and current farmer (they make those?) living in a vaguely post-apocalyptic American midwest. Rather than zombies or artificial intelligence, Earth's ruination is brought about by a newly untenable climate; rain hardly falls, dust sweeps through towns like a menacing brown fog, and our only viable crop left is corn (Take THAT, USDA!). Humanity's last hope manifests in the form of a wormhole that is discovered somewhere near Saturn, a portal behind which mankind hopes to find a new home. Cooper reluctantly accepts the mission, leaving behind a much beloved daughter (a terrific Mackenzie Foy) and an afterthought of a son (Timothée Chalamet) with only a puncher's chance of ever returning.

        It's easy to forget that Nolan's name hasn't always been synonymous with enormity. As recently as  2006's The Prestige, the guy hadn't even made a single epic. Then came The Dark Knight (and, I'd like to posit, the influence of composer Hans Zimmer), a film who's unnerving scale and runaway success properly put Nolan on the pop culture map, and laid the tracks for his career forever more. Interstellar might be his most daunting undertaking yet, a nearly three-hour-long space voyage that finds as much value in explaining the Theory of Relativity as is does in tugging on heart strings, all while consciously and constantly calling to mind 2001: A Space Odyssey with truly reckless abandon. There's no doubting the film's ambition, but the subject of its actual achievement is ripe for debate.

        Nolan has never bared his heart to this degree. It's commonplace to hear his work described as 'cold' or 'inhuman,' and in the same year that David Fincher laughed off those very same criticisms by crafting one of his iciest works to date, Nolan opted to confront them head-on. Problem is, this might not have been the right movie to finally shift his heart all the way down to his sleeve. The cross-cutting that transpires between Cooper's galactic adventures and his children's dust-bowl suffering diminishes the effect of both, while certain scenes that juxtapose the powers of love and science remain tremendously vague, and would likely be more at home in the diary of a 14-year-old girl. Nolan and writing partner/brother Jonathan also stir a little government conspiracy into the pot, often via clumsy expositions delivered by poorly cast villains who slowly reveal 'ah-hah's that play more like 'ho-hums.' There's even a big twist at the end!!! I'll say this about Interstellar: you're buying a whole lot of 'movie' with your $13, even if it's kind of a mess.

        The primary culprit, as it tends to be in Nolan's work, is the screenplay. Where his heavily plot-driven/plot-hole-ridden films of the past have always managed to distract viewers from their faulty mechanics with the allure and power of spectacle, Interstellar sees the details finally catch up to the Brother's Nolan. The film is littered with head-scratch-worthy internal logic, and dialogue that's so on the nose, you might never smell again. And while I anticipated a ready and fair comparison between this and last year's Gravity, Interstellar's closest relative is actually another Nolan offspring, Inception. Both movies are obsessed with the time delineation, parental guilt, love and its perception, anti-gravity, the intimidating power of water, twist revelations, and plots that function more as puzzles than narratives. Had we never seen (and marveled at) Inception, this might be a wholly different conversation; as is, Nolan's latest feels a touch warmed-over.

        Interstellar is all about reaching out beyond what we've previously accomplished, in terms of both the film itself, and the production behind it. Even Matthew McConaughey, now three years into the McConaissance, has something to prove, trotting out his newly-minted Oscar-winner status for a mainstream audience who hasn't seen him in anything since The Ghosts of Girlfriend's Past. He's fine in the picture, employing his steady southern drawl to endearing effect, and really hitting the high notes in his handful of 'oscar scenes,' but one still wonders if this film wouldn't benefit from a less famous face at its center. His 'movie-star-performance' dial is set firmly at 11.5, an odd choice for... you know, a crop farmer, and the thinly-written Cooper ensures that the thespian always comes first to mind before the character.

        Look, there are elements of Interstellar that work like gangbusters. Certain space travel sequences are near jaw-dropping, and the action, especially as presented in IMAX, shows Nolan again at the top of his game, all while the sound nearly deafens. And even if the director struggles to bring some of his thorny, emotionally driven ideas all the way home, the mere way that he presents them is often harrowing, with certain moments and concepts that rattle around in your head for days. Wether these positives properly outweigh the detriments is really all in the eye of the beholder, and somehow, nearly a week after heading to the stars with Nolan and McConaughey, I'm not sure where exactly I stand. Interstellar is undoubtably a mixed bag, one filled with ample amounts of both treasure and trash; your level of enjoyment will likely be determined by how willing and patient you are to sort through it.

Grade: B-

      

Leftovers: Summer 2014

Leftover Movies:
Edge of Tomorrow: 
        Tom Cruise's latest action spectacle/savior-complex accommodation Edge of Tomorrow is that rarest of things: a big-budget blowout that followed a box office trajectory usually reserved for independent films. While opening weekend receipts weren't exactly anything to brag about ($28 million on a reported budget of 178...), the dual power of Rotten Tomatoes and word-of-mouth made the movie a sleeper hit. An amalgamation of Groundhogs Day, Saving Private Ryan, and any number of sci-fi action romps, Edge tells the story of Major William Cage (Cruise), a PR representative for the ongoing futuristic war against the aliens who would love nothing more than to avoid the battle field altogether. This becomes problematic when an intense extra-terrestrial encounter renders him nearly immortal, his death automatically resulting in a total reset, Cage waking up in the very same place where his day started. Cruise is great in the film, constantly toying with his self-image with at least some degree of intentionality, Emily Blunt serving as the convincingly badass Joan of Arc at his side. Director Doug Limen packs the action sequences with much more gravity and visceral punch than your average summer tent-pole, the randomness and brutality of war evident every time that the bullets starts flying. I'm not exactly the first to make this point, but Edge of Tomorrow might just be the greatest video game movie ever made... even though it's not based on anything you can play with a controller. Exciting, fun, and unnerving in nearly equal measure, Edge stands out as one of Summer 2014's very best.

Leftover Music:
Brill Bruisers---The New Pornographers: 
        Before Carl Newman changed his first name to A.C., before Dan Bejar began destroying, and before Neko went solo, there was The New Pornographers. Despite each of their individual successes as solo artists, indie rock luminaries of the early 2000's are back with their best LP in nearly a decade. Brill Bruisers is an 'event album' in every sense, its gathering of buzzy names over-shadowed by arena-rock anthems and ingenious song structures that always save the best for last. This is still power-pop at its most elemental, but the riffs crafted by Newman and Todd Fancey pack infinitely more punch this time around, the undeniable chords of the title track crashing down like the high tide, closer You Tell Me Where smoldering before it finally lights on fire. Even the scaled-back jams work, Neko Case's deceptive anthem Champions of Red Wine riding zippy synths to its heartening climax, Hi-Rise captivating ears with is steady, airy churn. Like Arctic Monkeys, MGMT, and Franz Ferdinand before them, The New Pornographers are a band living far past their purported expiration date of the late 2000's, and on this evidence, they won't be slowing up anytime soon.
Drop the Vowels---Millie and Andrea:
        Here's something you won't be hearing on the radio anytime soon. This collaboration between Miles Whittaker (of Demdike Stare fame) and Andy Stott is about as dark, dingy, and dusty as dance music can possibly be, but unlike Stott's 2012 masterwork, Luxury Problems, Drop the Vowels is willing to gun up the RPMs. These tracks aren't exactly party jams, their nebulous construction, and lack of either hooks or non-sampled vocals rendering their sound esoteric, but those with the patience to let these leering, nocturnal tunes sink in will be hard-pressed to keep their toes from tapping. 51 straight minutes of lo-fi hiss and sneaky-deep grooves.

Familiars---The Antlers
        From the first elegant, delicate notes of Palace, you can tell that something has changed. The Antlers have always been something of a down-tempo outfit, but Familiars seeks to take that thesis to a new level, nearly refusing to shift out of first gear. The approach can take a little getting used to, but when given a chance, these slow-burn beauties sink deep into your bones. No song better exemplifies this idea than Intruders, a spacey 5-and-a-half minute piece that wafts slowly through the air like fog or mist, stripped down to the point where every last note and symbol tap makes a lasting impression. The track, like its nine other album-mates, is bolstered by swooning horns that peak and fall with effortless grace.
         While not exactly an album you'll be hearing on the dance floor anytime soon, one of Familiars' greatest strengths is the way the consistently stayed pace allows the bigger moments to leap off of the recording. The catharsis brought on by the sweeping trumpets of closer Refuge darts straight to your core, but nothing matches the powerful breakdown that serves as Director's foundation-shaking climax. Band leader Peter Silberman's voice has never been more ghostly or powerful, and in Parade and Hotel, he's penned anthems that stand among the band's best. I never thought The Antlers would make another album on the level of their masterful full-band debut Hospice, but Familiars completely flips the script, opening up a new sonic era for one of America's most under-appreciated outfits. My favorite LP of the year so far.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Boyhood (Limited Release Date: 7-11-2014)

        Richard Linklater has been making feature films for the last 23 years, and we're only just now starting to figure him out. Undoubtably one of the most under-appreciated directors of his generation, Linklater's formal elasticity has helped him make minimalist art films (Slacker, the Before trilogy), layered character studies (Dazed and Confused, Bernie), rotoscope animation drama for adults (Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly), and live-action studio comedy for kids (School of Rock, Bad News Bears). This reluctance to be placed in any single box has threatened to become the very box itself, the auteur's insistence on variety serving as a defining trait of his filmography. Another is sparkling dialogue, as anyone who's melted over Jesse and Celine's crackling discourse, or poured over Waking Life's myriad of delightfully thorny ideas, can readily attest. With the release of Boyhood, the critical conversation has shifted to his obsession with time, the Before series having already incorporated the passage of literal years onto its fictional canvas, Dazed serving as a time capsule waiting patiently to be unearthed. All theories are right in their own way, but I'm here to posit my own; Linklater's real love affair is with the notion of growth.

        Back in the summer of 2002, Linklater cast a 7-year-old boy named Ellar Coltrane in the role of Mason, a character who would take his cues from the young actor's real life, rather than the other way around. Over the course of the next 12 years, Linklater and his crew embarked on yearly visits to Houston, filming for about a week at a time on each occasion. Without a concrete script to work off, the filmmaker consulted with Coltrane and the other three leads (Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, and Lorelei Linklater, the helmer's daughter), molding the story according to the real-life development of all of the actors, the kids especially. There is no plot, only a two-and-a-half hour window into the youth of a human being, resulting in a film that could somehow be described as either a dull bore or a towering epic depending on whom you're talking to. And since it's me who's talking, let's go with epic.

        I have never seen anything quite like Boyhood. The most obvious comparison is Michael Apted's Up documentaries, but those films, which check in on the real lives of the same handful Brits every seven years, observe the aging of their stars over the course of many chapters, and many hours. Watching this young boy grow into puberty and then approach manhood over such a relatively short period of time makes a real emotional impact, a special effect more awe-inspiring than anything a computer could ever make. One usually shies away from praising a film for its concept above its execution, but Boyhood is that rare instance where form starts to bleed into content. However riveting the story may or may not be, the experience of watching Coltrane stumble through that awkward, immediately relatable thing we call growing up, all while his parents develop both wisdom and wrinkles before our eyes, is undoubtably the most emotional aspect of the picture.

         Another oddly relatable property are the Harry Potter books and films, a collection of stories that featured growing characters/actors whose collective adolescence ran parallel to that of their primary audience. We certainly know that Mason is Generation Hogwarts, Boyhood oft-referencing the series, and even taking time to revel in the joy of a midnight release of The Half-Blood Prince. The picture is constantly dating itself in this manner, and while one wonders how these year-specific citations will effect the film in the future, they recall the impression and importance of pop art on young brains. The fact that six-year-old Mason loves Dragon Ball Z, 14-year-old Mason loves The Dark Knight, and 18-year old Mason reads Breakfast of Champions and jams out to Arcade Fire is neither a mistake nor a minor observation; his interests chart the moments that, at the time, felt important in popular culture, as well as our protagonist's continuing maturation.

         Casting a pair of children in a decade-plus film project is obviously a risky gambit, but for the most part, both Coltrane and Linklater come up aces. The latter grows from the sort of in-your-face precociousness youngsters often take on into an aloofness readily familiar on the faces of many young adults. Coltrane's journey is a bit more rocky; he proves endearingly observant and pensive during his single-digits ages, then morphs into a counter-culture punk, complete with greasy hair, painted nails, and forth-baked ideas on philosophy and society as a whole. I cannot say, in good conscious, that I liked teenaged Mason, but the brattiness that will undoubtedly turn off a multitude of viewers rings completely true to me. Some will claim that Linklater's writing drops off at this point, but all of the cringe-enducing self-satisfaction marks a recognizable point in adolescent development. Hawke and Arquette are perhaps even more wonderful, Arquette especially, as parental figures who attempt to steer their children onto the 'right path,' an agenda that eventually helps them locate their own.

        The last filmic comparison I want to bring up is Terence Malick's The Tree of Life, a flick which Boyhood will likely follow into a Best Picture nomination. No, there are no dinosaurs on hand this time around, but the way in which both filmmakers present childhood memories less as momentous occasions than a series of poignant minor moments strikes an awfully deep chord. Boyhood might not be electric entertainment from cover to cover, but neither is life. I usually don't like this argument, as it favors films that treat boredom as a sort of artistic virtue, but this is an entirely singular example. Linklater's piece isn't a slice-of-life movie with covert plotting and a relatable human cast; it's a slice-of-life unto itself, posing as a feature film. When most movies fail to intrigue for a few consecutive minutes, you start looking at your watch; when Boyhood hits a lull, you just sort of wait it out, just like you would analogous dull periods in your own life. The only things that come off inorganically are the start and the finish, and only because life lays claim to neither an explicit genesis, nor a definite conclusion, outside of the literal. Even after a slow-moving 165 minutes, the end credits still provide a jolt; there's so much more life to live, and Mason has only just begun.

Grade: A

Guardians of the Galaxy (Release Date: 8-1-2014)

        In case you still haven’t noticed, Marvel Studios is on to something. In a day and age where your average summer blockbuster takes on a gravity previously reserved for Oscar hopefuls, Marvel’s output uses levity as a sort of inspired counter-programming. They’ve also got that whole inner-connectivity thing going on, a rhetoric that serves to creatively handcuff the film-house’s narratives, but has proven successful enough to shake the Hollywood business model to its very core. When it was first announced, Guardians of the Galaxy sounded more like a scouting report than a proper film, a product designed to test just how obscure the brand could get before turning folks away. In reality, it’s the very opposite; Guardians is Marvel’s big power move, correctly betting that our collective previous investment would again put butts in seats, and that said butts would be primed and ready for a comic book adaptation that functions as a comedy first, and an action movie second.

        Chris Pratt stars as Peter Quill, a human orphan and conman who traverses odd ends of the galaxy looking for his next big score, a Han Solo avatar in his own mind. Near the picture's opening, Quill steals a mysterious metal orb with sights set exclusively on the nearest inter-galactic pawn shop. The theft prompts a sizable bounty to be placed on his head, one that a wise-cracking, genetically mutated raccoon (Rocket, as voiced by Bradley Cooper), and his anthropomorphized tree sidekick (Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel) would love to get their grimy mitts on. Then there's Gamora (Zoe Saldana), assassin and hench-woman of the power-hungry Ronin (Lee Pace), and adopted daughter of ultimate celestial baddie Thanos (voiced by Josh Brolin), who's tasked with retrieving the orb, but might just have a few ideas of her own. There's also a tatted-up brute named Drax, as well as Glenn Close's incredible hairpiece, but that's probably enough zaniness for one paragraph.

        Like Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and Joss Whedon (The Avengers) before him, director/co-writer James Gunn treats his Marvel debut as an enormous coming-out party. After contributing a pen to such obvious Hollywood cash-grabs as the live-action Scooby Doo movies and 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake, Gunn retreated into independent film, focusing on genre send-ups like his gross-out, alien slug invasion film Slither, and the twisted cape-and-callow cautionary tale Super. This affectionate riffing carries directly over to Guardians, and while many have praised the movie for the way it frequently skirts expectations and rhetoric, it also employs them where it sees fit. Its parody comes from a place of affection, like a friend who has known you long enough to poke fun at your tendencies every once in a while. The key word, as with all things Guardians, is fun.

        Gunn's picture is also an eye-dazzler, hoping from one planet or location to the next, each new setting beautifully rendered and admirably textured. The technical elements on hand, from costume and production design, to special effects, to sound work, are all steady and assured, while the Oscar for Best Make-Up and Hairstyling has already been shipped out to Marvel Studios, and should be getting there in about a week or so. Even the oddball sound track, comprised of soft-rock hits from the 70's for reasons that prove move affecting than one could have possibly predicted, is a perfect choice, befitting and bolstering the film's tone in equal measure. Everywhere you look, Guardians is having its cake, and eating it too. Well, almost everywhere...

        Marvel's stayed MacGuffin problem crops up once again, yet another superhero movie who's plot is set in motion by something shiny that could destroy EVERYTHING (are these movies written by cats jonesing to chase laser pointers?). The climactic battle again features an endless onslaught of sound and fury signifying nothing, led by a bad guy who we never learn to truly care about (Pace). This wouldn't be such a problem if the film wasn't so good at endearing us to its characters, the movie baring a deep, unmissable affection for its characters that's downright contagious. I expected to giggle at Pratt's pluckiness and grin at Saldana's badass-ery, but emotionally connecting to a talking raccoon and a CGI tree? Now that's movie magic.

        Guardians of the Galaxy is near-ideal popcorn entertainment, a creation so deftly calibrated that you start to wonder why more films don't follow its lead. Instead of inundating us with further gloominess and destruction, why don't big film studios... you know... create characters we like and care about, write a few good jokes, and come up with a unique visual design? Maybe it's just too much to ask, but the experience of watching Guardians in a packed auditorium that erupted into applause upon the film's conclusion reminded me that this sort of fair is supposed to be fun first, and everything else second. Gunn's film, one of the funniest and strangest Hollywood offerings in recent memory, understands what our American tentpoles have been missing, and delivers it in spades. I've always chided Marvel for exclusively making good, not great movies; looks like I'll be changing my tune.

Grade: A-