I’m Sorry, Kurt Cobain
A quarter of a century ago, I turned my back on our revolution. As the reprogramming accelerated, I slowed time by pursuing love. But it was not enough.
reviews
Happy Birthday, Batman
…the dark cipher who rises with our aspirations and sinks with our capitulations
The Big Bad Fox’s Hand-Drawn Laugh-Off
In our apocalyptic epoch, sometimes you need an old-school good time grounded in the natural world. Enter The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales, from the directors of the wondrous Ernest and Celestine, who I interviewed ahead of their consecutive Academy Awards nod.
Animation Is Film, Said The Festival
It may not seem like we need to have a three-day festival in Hollywood celebrating animation as cinema with a capital C. But if that was the case, I would not have spent the weekend with my girls in Hollywood at the Animation Is Film festival.
Swervedriver Returns To Raise Heads
One of the most underrated bands of the ’90s, Swervedriver restored its good, loud name in the ’00s and beyond. This weekend on the west coast, it performs full versions of its twin masterworks: Raise and Mezcal Head.
Cli-Fi: 75 Years Later, Bambi Terrorizes
Written by an immigrant Jew hounded by Hitler, and envisioned by a Chinese immigrant dreaming of America, Walt Disney’s Bambi remains an unheeded warning of terror and terraformation, sadly forgotten by a burning world careening into an exponential apocalypse.
Bong Joon Ho’s Okja Animates Cli-Fi
Revolutionary filmmakers are shaping the future of cinema by analyzing our destabilized planet. Snowpiercer director Bong Joon Ho’s new vision Okja, out today from Netflix, was inspired by biodiversity at the mercy of capitalization and extinction.
The Girl Without Hands (Re)Draws The Line
Sebastien Laudenbach’s The Girl Without Hands will likely confound artistic and cultural convention, even though it’s based on a tale from The Brothers Grimm.
Cli-Fi: Coral Vs. Ice, We Lose
We are slaves to fossil fuels, Chasing Ice director Jeff Orlowski once told me. His new film, Chasing Coral, may find that we have also broken our (food) chains.
I’m Sorry, Chris Cornell
Today, I sit here stunned, sifting through press releases telling me what Chris — and Soundgarden, and Temple of the Dog, and Audioslave, and every other artist that Cornell’s widening influence deeply touched — have been doing for the last several years.
Mulatu Astatke’s Eternal Return
Few have sequenced the genes of future music as much as Mulatu Astatke, whose dizzying sonic explorations have skillfully skipped across jazz, soul, funk and much more. Those new to Mulatu of Ethiopia seeking a launch window might as well start with a new reissue of … Mulatu of Ethiopia.
Cli-Fi: Tesla, Reanimated
The National Film Board of Canada is responsible for some of the finest animation the world has ever seen. It has also created world-changing documentaries exploring and analyzing how and why our world changes as it does, for better and worse.
Underwater Welder Goes Transmedia With Ryan Gosling
Jeff Lemire has been creating some of the most unique comics of the last decade. Just ask Ryan Gosling, whose interest in Lemire’s recent stunner, Underwater Welder, may bear cinematic fruit.
Shaun the Sheep Hits the Streets
A wordless wonder in the tradition of Chaplin, with an eye to rural labor and love, Aardman’s stop-motion masterpiece is for everyone, everywhere.
At Last, Samurai Jack Returns
Last year, I once again interviewed Samurai Jack creator and animation auteur, Genndy Tartakovsky, who told me the samurai’s arrival was imminent. Now here he is, in all of his glory and wonder, when we need him most.
Sleater-Kinney Brings Power, Life to Paris
There aren’t enough ways for me to thank Sleater-Kinney for returning from hiatus, even if it was to a sleepy hyperreality still needing to be shaken awake with punk power and poetics.
David Lynch Takes Center Stage In The Art Life
Although he is one of the most immediately recognizable directors in film history, David Lynch originally wanted to be an artist.
Neil Young Breaks Ground On Peace Trail
As lesser artists struggle today for meaning and inspiration, Young finds excesses of both in our increasingly turbulent and apocalyptic epoch.
Bjork Dives Deep Into Virtual Reality
Bjork’s stunning evolution continues with the interactive VR project, “Family” — which may also be one of the most dazzling cli-fi experiments yet created.
Rogue One Continues Star Wars’ Technocratic Takeover
You can’t get more cli-fi than a death machine pretending to be a planet.
Cli-Fi: Director Remi Chaye Breaks Down Long Way North’s Arctic Animation
One of those rare films, especially in animation, that analyzes the dizzying complexity of life on Earth using what John Muir called the “glacial eye.”
Cli-Fi: Peace On Earth’s Intertextual Extinction
Adults and children rarely see the Real World as it is, much less as it should be. If what they see is what makes them who they are, then they should watch Peace On Earth before every new year.
All Hail Sharon Jones, Unstoppable Soul Sister!
Although soul sister Sharon Jones is continually referred to as a throwback to a funkier 20th century, she’s here, now, and still fighting to bring more humanity (and less autotune) to our increasingly digital music. And we’re all the better for it.
Why Does Jon Stewart Cower Before Power?
Jon Stewart has changed late-night television for the smarter, but The Daily Show’s satire kingpin has a way of cowering before powerful people when they come on his set for interviews.
Karen Berger’s Coolest Vertigo Comics
DC Comics has lost one of its most influential tastemakers with the news that executive editor Karen Berger will be stepping down.