Rob Dean On Monday, July 11, 2011 at 12:30PM Every week, we list our recommendations of new music, books, comics, movies and TV to check out. This is Recs in Effect:
Tabloid
I know people are going to all go see Harry Potter this weekend. But personally, I hate most of those movies. I like the books (well, all but the first 2) and I like Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix as well as elements of some of the other movies, but mostly I just find them so boring and poorly made. So, in a bit of counterprogramming - I'm asking you to go see Errol Morris's latest film: Tabloid, which concerns former Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney who may or may not have chained up a mormon missionary in the 70s. It appears to be Morris's meditation on fame and a similar look at how diverse the multiple chapters in our lives can be. Errol Morris is, to me, the best documentary filmmaker of all time (his attempts at subverting the truth are more apparent to me than Werner Herzog's, and so I appreciate Morris more) who has done much to not only shape the visual language of modern documentary filmmaking but also to fundamentally alter the way we think about documentary films. Read a review (and explore more about Errol Morris) here.
Rob Dean On Monday, June 6, 2011 at 12:30PM Every week, we list our recommendations of new music, books, comics, movies and TV to check out. This is Recs in Effect:
The Book of Mormon
Who's Responsible? Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez
What Is It? The broadway musical by South Park's Parker & Stone and Avenue Q's Lopez focuses on the pros and cons of faith by examining two Mormon missionaries' exploits in Uganda. Hilarity Ensues?
Why's It Worth Noting? Firstly, Parker & Stone have proven their musical chops many times previously (Orgazmo, South Park, Team America) and paired with the more playful (and less dark) Lopez, they deliver a great musical that craps all over religion - but it also highlights the functions that religion can serve; basically stating that religion is dumb but can provide meaning and direction. The album was released on iTunes a couple of weeks ago, but the CD comes out on Tuesday and is definitely worth picking up. The songs are infectious, hilarious and brilliantly vulgar. Here's a sample (semi-NSFW, language):
