This month Vulture will be publishing our critics’ year-end lists. Last week's lists included albums, art, and video games. This week we've covered comedy — sketches, specials, and podcasts — plus Margaret Lyons's top shows, Bilge Ebiri's top movies, and music videos and memes. Now it's on to late-night clips, comic books, graphic novels, and album reissues.1. The Velvet Underground — Loaded (1970) Lou Reed’s final album with Vu was dubbed Loaded for a reason: It’s stacked with the Factory house-band version of pop hits. The band makes its intentions clear right away, too, opening with one of rock’s most crucial trilogies to date (“Who Loves the Sun,” “Sweet Jane,” “Rock & Roll”). Loaded was among the first albums to signify a weird band making a play at commercialism — a phase in many acts’ careers in the decades to come — but it’s also one of greatest entries in that particular category.
- 12/16/2015
- by Jillian Mapes
- Vulture
One of the things that mark out both Buffy's fourth season and Angel's first is the cross-over episode. Even miles apart, it's inevitable that the paths of the former lovers will somehow cross, and the first instance of this comes only three episodes into the new run. Bridging the link between the two are a shiny bauble of vampire immortality, Oz, and a returning Spike, who's naturally on the hunt for this piece of valuable bling.
It's interesting to look at these two episodes again, back to back. Despite containing some of the familiar Buffy characters, monsters and perilous situations, it's clear that Angel's pitching towards a slightly older audience. Whereas Buffy The Vampire Slayer stays on the slower path and continues its gradual look at the perils of growing up, Angel impatiently leapfrogs the latter teenage years, headlong into the 20s. So its interesting seeing the...
It's interesting to look at these two episodes again, back to back. Despite containing some of the familiar Buffy characters, monsters and perilous situations, it's clear that Angel's pitching towards a slightly older audience. Whereas Buffy The Vampire Slayer stays on the slower path and continues its gradual look at the perils of growing up, Angel impatiently leapfrogs the latter teenage years, headlong into the 20s. So its interesting seeing the...
- 8/11/2014
- Shadowlocked
In 1972, a couple of years after the Velvet Underground imploded, Lou Reed, struggling to latch onto his identity as a solo artist, kicked off a period of rapid-fire image transformation roughly parallel to the more high-profile one that David Bowie was enacting. For three or four years, Reed tried on his outlaw personas like costumes from hell (Iggy-ish gutter hunk, kohl-eyed leather-bar rock & roll animal, cropped-blond ambisexual mannequin). It was his way of tapping into the liberating boundary-bashing of the post-’60s wasteland. During that period, Reed tried to live up to the ideal of being a “transformer” (the title of his second,...
- 10/30/2013
- by Owen Gleiberman
- EW.com - PopWatch
Lou Reed’s death on Sunday has given a massive boost to the “Walk on the Wild Side” singer’s catalog on the streaming service Spotify. In the day following the news of Reed’s death, streaming of Reed’s solo material, as well as songs from Reed’s groundbreaking group The Velvet Underground, have jumped more than 3,000 percent on the music-streaming service. Also read: Lou Reed’s Death: Tributes Pour in From Music Academy, Rock Heavyweights Popular Reed songs on Spotify include “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Perfect Day” and “Satellite of Love.” The Velvet Underground tracks “Oh! Sweet Nothing,...
- 10/28/2013
- by Tim Kenneally
- The Wrap
If it's too cold to leave the house for your local theater, there's plenty of options if you stay inside online, on demand and on DVD. What follows is your guide to all the new releases coming your way between now and April.
Online and On Demand
My French Film Festival
Thanks to bids for Oscar consideration, the winter is traditionally one of the rare times foreign films get plenty of attention in the States, particularly at West Coast festivals such as Palm Springs and Santa Barbara. However, Francophiles in particular will be excited to know you won't have to go to California or New York -- or even Paris for that matter -- to be able to catch some of the most recent cinema from France since uniFrance is unveiling My French Film Festival, which is being billed as the "first exclusively online film festival celebrating French talent" that...
Online and On Demand
My French Film Festival
Thanks to bids for Oscar consideration, the winter is traditionally one of the rare times foreign films get plenty of attention in the States, particularly at West Coast festivals such as Palm Springs and Santa Barbara. However, Francophiles in particular will be excited to know you won't have to go to California or New York -- or even Paris for that matter -- to be able to catch some of the most recent cinema from France since uniFrance is unveiling My French Film Festival, which is being billed as the "first exclusively online film festival celebrating French talent" that...
- 1/11/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
A look at what's new on DVD today:
"Bitter Feast"
Directed by Joe Maggio
Released by Mpi Home Video
When a food critic ("Humpday"'s Justin Leonard) takes a butcher knife to the restaurant of a celebrity chef (James LeGros), the chef plots the ultimate revenge in this gory satirical thriller from director Joe Maggio. (My review from the Los Angeles Film Festival is here.)
"Case 39"
Directed by Christian Alvart
Released by Paramount
2010 is probably a year best forgotten by Renee Zellweger, who not only appeared in the execrable "My Own Love Song," which went straight to Netflix, but also this thriller that was filmed in 2006, but didn't see a release until last fall. Zellweger stars as a social worker whose latest case involving a child (Jodelle Ferland) that she believes is a victim of abuse leads to something far more terrifying. Bradley Cooper and Ian McShane co-star.
"Catfish...
"Bitter Feast"
Directed by Joe Maggio
Released by Mpi Home Video
When a food critic ("Humpday"'s Justin Leonard) takes a butcher knife to the restaurant of a celebrity chef (James LeGros), the chef plots the ultimate revenge in this gory satirical thriller from director Joe Maggio. (My review from the Los Angeles Film Festival is here.)
"Case 39"
Directed by Christian Alvart
Released by Paramount
2010 is probably a year best forgotten by Renee Zellweger, who not only appeared in the execrable "My Own Love Song," which went straight to Netflix, but also this thriller that was filmed in 2006, but didn't see a release until last fall. Zellweger stars as a social worker whose latest case involving a child (Jodelle Ferland) that she believes is a victim of abuse leads to something far more terrifying. Bradley Cooper and Ian McShane co-star.
"Catfish...
- 1/5/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
'We don't know if our new album is crap or not,' Andrew Van Wyngarden says.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Rya Backer
Mgmt's Andrew Van Wyngarden
Photo: MTV News
Mgmt didn't set out to make the stereotypical sophomore album, but, in a roundabout way, that's exactly what their upcoming Congratulations (due April 13) is. An ambitious, swirling, downright paranoid thing, full of songs that try very hard to shed much of the fanbase they earned with the success of "Kids," Congratulations is very much the end product of a young band facing the twin specters of fame and expectation, staring them down, then saying, "F--- it, let's go surfing."
Which, of course, is exactly how the guys planned it.
"I think the album in general is kind of, like, lyrically and musically, a reaction to fame and success. We said that it wasn't going to be, but then we realized that was impossible,...
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Rya Backer
Mgmt's Andrew Van Wyngarden
Photo: MTV News
Mgmt didn't set out to make the stereotypical sophomore album, but, in a roundabout way, that's exactly what their upcoming Congratulations (due April 13) is. An ambitious, swirling, downright paranoid thing, full of songs that try very hard to shed much of the fanbase they earned with the success of "Kids," Congratulations is very much the end product of a young band facing the twin specters of fame and expectation, staring them down, then saying, "F--- it, let's go surfing."
Which, of course, is exactly how the guys planned it.
"I think the album in general is kind of, like, lyrically and musically, a reaction to fame and success. We said that it wasn't going to be, but then we realized that was impossible,...
- 3/15/2010
- MTV Music News
When I saw that trailer for Leap Year I had one of those “hey I love that guy, but what's his name?!” moments with Amy Adams’ American boyfriend. And then today a friend forwarded me a trailer for this new indie film Passenger Side (I’ll watch anything named after a Wilco song) and there’s the guy again. Turns out the actor in question Adam Scott (not the equally attractive PGA golfer of the same name). I first realized I’d seen Scott in Passenger Side director Matt Bissonnette’s charming earlier film Who Loves The Sun. I IMDb’d him and,...
- 1/13/2010
- by Wendy Mitchell
- EW.com - PopWatch
Occupation 101, directed by brothrs Sufyan Omeish and Abdallah Omeish, was the recepient of the Golden Palm Award at the 7th annual International Beverly Hills Film Festival, which concluded Sunday. The documentary about the U.S. government's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, also took the prize for best editing.
The awards were handed out at the gala awards ceremony held at the Beverly Hills Hotel in honor of the Hearts of Hope Foundation.
Molly Parker was named best actress for her role in writer/director Matt Bissonnette's Who Loves the Sun, while the best actor award went to Steven R. McQueen for Club Soda, directed by Paul Carafortes. Soda also won the audience choice award for best short.
R. L. Hooker was honored as best director for his short film The Knife Grinder's Tale. The prize for best producer went to director/producer Michael Feifer for Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck, a horror film based on the true mass murder that took place in 1966. Massacre also won the Audience Choice Award for best feature.
The awards were handed out at the gala awards ceremony held at the Beverly Hills Hotel in honor of the Hearts of Hope Foundation.
Molly Parker was named best actress for her role in writer/director Matt Bissonnette's Who Loves the Sun, while the best actor award went to Steven R. McQueen for Club Soda, directed by Paul Carafortes. Soda also won the audience choice award for best short.
R. L. Hooker was honored as best director for his short film The Knife Grinder's Tale. The prize for best producer went to director/producer Michael Feifer for Chicago Massacre: Richard Speck, a horror film based on the true mass murder that took place in 1966. Massacre also won the Audience Choice Award for best feature.
- 4/18/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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