Review

Culture

Movie review: Visual feast pays homage to Coen brothers

Graham Gentz | April 16

“Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter” is a love letter to many things. First, it is loosely based on the urban legend of the 2001 death of a young Japanese woman said to have been looking for the buried money from the Coen brothers film “Fargo.” Emphasis on loosely. The opening title card of “Fargo” is even recycled for “Kumiko,” in which it falsely claims to be a true story. Since “Kumiko” is a movie that claims a fictional event to be true, which in turn involves a movie that claims a fictional event to be true. The levels of “truthiness” in how stories are told is chiefly of concern here.

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Opinion

Review: UNM's outdoor festival satisfies

Matthew Reisen | April 13

Fiestas 2015! was a huge success this weekend – filling Johnson Field with good music, students, beach balls, hula-hoops and so much more. Hearing the words “miniature-Coachella” was a common happenstance at Fiestas this year, and to any attendee, the reasons for such a comparison were obvious, with the event taking on the very look and feel of a music festival. The skies above may have been mainly overcast but the positive energy was palpable, with people coming and going for a good time throughout the day.

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Culture

Review: New Nightwish singer makes studio debut

Skylar Griego | April 9

It took four seemingly endless years, but it has finally happened. Nightwish has unleashed their eighth album into the world. “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” has been highly anticipated by long-time Nightwish fans ever since the replacement of former vocalist, Anette Olzon, with Floor Jansen in 2013. This is the first studio release featuring Jansen’s vocals, and it’s been long overdue since “Imaginaerum” in 2011. Like many fans, Jansen won my heart with her kick-ass vocals and goddess-like stage presence in the live DVD, “Showtime, Storytime.” After seeing what she can do on stage, hearing her voice in Nightwish’s latest masterpiece is breathtaking. Not only is Jansen’s voice the perfect combination of original frontwoman Tarja Turunen’s operatic voice and Olzon’s light melodies, but she also brings a heavy edge with gritty metal vocals — all giving Nightwish an entirely new range of sound.

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Culture

Review: Short stories explore life's breakups

Moriah Carty | April 9

While many people may try to forget about past loves and relationships, Tony Rauch decided to write about his in a way that’s so exciting and curious that it’s hard to put down. The book, “what if I got down on my knees,” is Rauch’s fourth compilation of short stories. The title represents his passive nature and already clues the reader into what may be, perhaps, a series of mental breakdowns and hardships. This collection is cleverly imagined. It touches on the essence of being human creatively. It isn’t too far-fetched to say everyone can relate to at least one of his stories.

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Culture

Review: Singer stretches her limits

Skylar Griego | April 2

Imagine this: It’s 1 o’clock in the morning, and you’re counting the minutes until you can finally put the notes away and sleep before tomorrow morning’s exam. To help with your struggle to stay awake, you decide to play your newest indie rock album. Immediately after pressing play, your ears are struck with a dissonant ringing that makes you cringe. This is the first impression Waxahatchee’s “Ivy Tripp” gives poor unsuspecting night owls. It might be best to wait until daytime to listen to the band’s third release. “Breathless” doesn’t improve much musically. It’s about as good as an untrained child experimenting with the effects on a keyboard. The atonal music is redeemed only by Katie Crutchfield’s mellow vocals. Her light and airy harmonies only go so far. For listeners who prefer their music to sound like, well, music, expect to skip this track often.

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Culture

Review: 'Chupacabra' lost its focus

Graham Gentz | April 2

It is never a good sign when any script contains five different names under the writing credits. Such is the troubled production of the original work “The Chupacabra Cantina,” created by the local activist and Latina performance troupe Las Meganenas, which recently finished performances. The play attempts to tackle a baffling number of discordant social issues while unfortunately illuminating none of them, attempting to embed them sneakily within a broadly-cast net of New Mexican culture and convention. Where to begin? “The Chupacabra Cantina” is set in a bar in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico, but none of that really matters. Nothing in the play really matters. There is no conflict, no tension, no plot and certainly no story. There is a lot that’s distressingly wrong about “The Chupacabra Cantina.” But the single biggest issue is simply the atrocious writing.

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Culture

Review: 'Big Hero 6' a surprisingly fresh Disney effort

Graham Gentz | March 5

Disney is one of the six corporations who control 90 percent of American media. Disney owns ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Miramax, Lucasfilm and Marvel Entertainment. The main way this has changed American media is the shaping of the thunderously lucrative Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Big Hero 6,” which recently came out on DVD, is probably the most creative use of Disney’s ownership of everything Marvel. “Big Hero 6” was originally a 90s comic series failure. I’m a huge comic book nerd and even I hadn’t heard of it before — it is essentially the artistic dregs of the Marvel’s comic history. But since Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009, this provided an opportunity to deconstruct and reinvent.

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Culture

Review: Best picture winner flaunts industry's vanity

Graham Gentz | February 26

On Sunday, the 87th Academy Awards rained down their judgment on all moviedom for 2014. The Oscars have long been criticized as being out of touch for everything from the masturbatory glitz to the selection of each actual award. None receive more attention and examination than the politically-driven selection of the highly coveted Best Picture. I was fairly excited to see “Birdman,” which stars Michael Keaton, take the top spot. It seemed surreal and cerebral and looked to be filled with many long takes, but I failed to anticipate the rather shallow message the movie expounded, which explains its political selection by the voters of the Academy Awards.

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Culture

Review: Nic Cage makes another once-a-decade masterpiece

Graham Gentz | February 19

It’s a contentious stance, but I like Nic Cage. He’s an easy man to disregard. Sure, the bottom 85 percent of his filmography is earth-shatteringly bad. But every 10 years or so, he makes a really good movie. And if you blink, you’d miss films like “Adaptation,” “Raising Arizona,” “Matchstick Men,” “Bringing Out the Dead,” “Lord of War” or “The Weather Man.” Go watch them and see what I mean. You won’t be disappointed.

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Culture

Stale book makes for stale movie

Moriah Carty | January 15

An ever-changing maze in a race against murderous creatures sounds like an OK premise to what could be a good story, but sadly, it was not. Based on the 2009 novel of the same name, “Maze Runner” does a poor job of connecting the dots and delivering a story worth watching. However, if the book, the first installment of the three-part teen fiction written by James Dashner, didn’t read like a 10-year-old boy wrote the tale, then the movie might have been better. It begins with a bunch of boys trapped in a maze with no way out. Everything needed is given to the boys from the Creators through an elevator, known as the box, which comes up once a month with supplies and a new member.

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Culture

Review: Manion's stories a dismal read

Skylar Griego | January 6

here are few moments when critics find themselves at a loss for words. Reading Lance Manion’s collection of short stories titled “The Song Between Her Legs” was one of those rare speechless moments. From the very first page, on which Manion quotes himself, this is one of the worst things a person can ever have the misfortune of being subjected to. These stories assault the reader’s IQ relentlessly until there is nothing left but a bloody pile of broken bones and torn flesh. One might literally feel the intelligence being sucked out of them while reading about two men arguing over whether the peanut is the preferred nut of the upper or the lower class, as in “Mr. Peanut.”

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Culture

Movie review: Space film grounded by too much ambition

Graham Gentz | December 4

I think I’m mostly sad that I didn’t like “Interstellar.” It seemed like everything was in place for it to be an intriguing, Chris Nolan-directed epic about space that pushed more science than science fiction. Also, it seemed to push the reality of humanity truly beginning its first steps into colonizing beyond Earth. In terms of subject matter, there is almost nothing that fascinates and excites me more. “Interstellar” is about a team of space explorers, led by a farmer (Mathew McConaughey), who search for a habitable planet because the Earth is dying. What I didn’t expect was how completely goofy it was going to be.

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Culture

Play review: Science and stage don't mix

Graham Gentz | November 20

So I walked out in the middle of “One-Act Science Comedic Showcase” at Explora. It’s not so much that it’s beyond awful, which it is. It’s not so much that you should never consider subjecting yourself to it, which you shouldn’t. Mostly, it’s that “One-Act Science Comedic Showcase” should never have been allowed to go up in the first place. Also, it’s a complete embarrassment that Explora is even asking people to pay money to see it.

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Culture

Play review: Uncut 'Midsummer' drags

Graham Gentz | November 13

Albuquerque is really testing how much I like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Duke City Repertory Company produced the play this past March. The Vortex Theatre performed it in the plaza this summer, even after producing two other productions of it in the last four years. Even The Santa Fe Shakespeare Society performed a popular version of the play in 2012. “Midsummer” exists as two main plots that intersect: a group of lovers and a troupe of actors each escape to the seclusion of a forest, only to be both futzed with by nefarious fairies. Hijinks ensue.

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Culture

Review: 'Memphis' breaks film convention

Graham Gentz | October 23

Alfred Hitchcock once famously said, “Drama is life with the dull parts left out.” However, Tim Sutton’s “Memphis” exists in the moments that most movies leave on the cutting room floor.It exists as a tonal, visual poem. Yet it ripples with nebulous purpose, executing laissez-faire intention.

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Culture

Play Review: "As Five Years Pass" features a surreal experience

Graham Gentz | September 29

It's really difficult to write about something so surreal.“As Five Years Pass” is functionally a play.

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Opinion

Review: Skit and dance show unique and hilarious

Graham Gentz | June 22

It takes an entire year for the Equilibrium Theater Company and Buen Viaje Dance Company to prepare their show, so you’d figure it ought to be good. You’d be right. The show this year is called “North Fourth Night Live! and BVD Does Broadway.” It runs about an hour, the first half with Equilibrium doing a series of skits, and the second half with Buen Viaje’s dance pieces.