Posts by James Roberts

Deafheaven seem to have completed their sonic transition. The band, which formally sat firmly abut, if noth entirely within, the realm of black metal, began their progression with 2018’s Ordinary Corrupt Human Love. While that album featured the blast beats and witch vocals that first drew the attention of metal fans across America and the […]

A familiar story with perfect execution, CODA never fails to charm.

There’s a desperate intensity that permeates Distant Populations, the fourth album of Quicksand’s near 30 year career and second with legendary west coast label Epitaph. With the longest tracks of this 11 song album barely breaking the three-and-a-half-minute mark, Distant Populations is a concise exegesis of philosophy and emotion that finds the band exploring the […]

Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks pen a beguiling and beautiful opera.

The debut feature from Edson Oda is a powerful reminder of what life means.

Rating: B+ The arthouse crime thriller has had something of a renaissance in recent years thanks to the efforts of the directing team of Josh and Benny Safdie. Their work brought the genre out of the arthouse and into the mainstream with Good Time and Uncut Gems, proving that heady caper flicks can find wider […]

It’s nothing new, but it sure is fun.

The Blu-Ray release of A Quiet Place II is a lot like the film itself–inconsequential.

Rating: A- The line between stardom and artist is a difficult one to walk within the Hollywood system. Val Kilmer always felt like an actor torn between the two disparate worlds of movies. Coming up around the same time as his Top Gun co-star Tom Cruise, Kilmer always walked a different path. Where Cruise chose […]

Rating: B- The allure of Mars is almost mystical. The idea that our cosmic neighbor is both so similar and so different from the planet we call home has been the spark of countless imaginations for time immemorial. Even today, a new corporate fueled space race is in effect with the nebulous but tantalizing goal […]

Morgan Neville returns with a beautiful look at the life of Anthony Bourdain.

The joys come too little, too late for this milkshake.

Late is better than never, but only just.

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson creates a loving and powerful ode to the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969.

While not as amazing as the Twitter thread that inspired it, Zola is still an often uproarious road trip through modern American culture.

Diminishing returns sully a film ripe with ideas.

TVA revelations bring Loki to new directions.

At least it’s not Cars.

Mischief as far as the eye can see.

Sometimes heart counts more than predictability.