The Brown Note Movie Review

The last thing I wanted from the Icelandic post-rock titans was an orchestral album, but I was wrong. Alongside Suns Signature's release last year, one of the two most beautiful albums in recent years, an immersive, soothing balm for troubled times. Immaculately sequenced, constantly ebbing and flowing, one of the years finest albums and their best since 2007's Takk.

Another fine, though often very low key album in the indicative style, all of his own, from Archy Marshall. Though still yet to reach the incredible peak of 2017's The Ooz.

The Run The Jewels alumni delivers his first solo project since 2012's RTJ launching R.A.P. Music, which contained my track of the year Reagan. Having followed him ever since, this project lacks the widescreen dynamism and variety, lyrically and sonically of the RTJ albums, ironic, given this uses multiple producers and guest artists.

The latest Scream film has some massive problems. Like its predecessor, it's so heavy handed with the over done self-awareness it becomes extremely tiresome. Yet despite continually talking about slasher movie stereotypes, it also embodies the most stupid ones, in a manner I found grating.

I liked the first in this John Wick adjacent, also stunt-man directed, saga a great deal, but everything about the sequel seems slightly better, classier and more cohesive. The prison break is a long form action sequence for the ages.

After avoiding this like the plague, I found myself enjoying it about three times more than I expected and about ten times more than Avatar 2 - in comparison with that other billion dollar success, also made for twelve-year old boys, the excited voice cast, brevity, fun and visuals, wipe the floor with Cameron's interminable nightmare of dullness. Perhaps the LEAST written film in history - yet th...

Michael Gira's 37 year old Swans are moving into a post Seer/To Be Kind era, and if 2019's Leaving Meaning was an underappreciated collection of great songs, The Beggar is a more coherent (two hour long) album length statement as to what that looks like. Some of the most direct and powerful lyricism of his career, amongst what accounts to almost easy listening in this bands catalogue, with plenty...

My occasional series on (usually) an album that was either denied classic status on release or has been forgotten about since. Immediately I feel maybe I should've chosen the second Leftfield album for this - as has Leftism been forgotten that much? It was alongside Portishead's Dummy and Air's Moon Safari, in every CD library back then. Maybe it has a bit, due to their initial run only being two...

With my PHD in the Fast and Furious franchise I have both pluses and minuses with episode ten. I prefer its leaner nature to the overwhelmingly messy previous two installments - though the heyday of 5,6&7 is long gone - but that said, the $340 million shooting budget isn't visible and the profit point of $850 million pure insanity. There are, however, a lot of down sides. Too many characters,...

I'm a big fan of Ben Affleck and all his trials and tribulations, though I thought Argo, his massive Oscar winner, was his weakest film as a director and his debut, Gone Baby Gone his best. Air - the story of Michael Jordan and Nike - is a new bow for him, pure, flat out entertainment and one of the years most easily enjoyable films. Plus he gets to give best bud Matt Damon a great starring role....

A surprising delight, that works best when it trusts itself, by leaning fully into the comedy and chemistry of leads Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez, and illusions to the likes of The Princess Bride and even Shrek. Often hilarious, with plenty of expensive fantasy action and some fine support from Hugh Grant and Regé-Jean Page

Though rightly being called the Finnish John Wick, the stunningly barren landscape and WW2 Nazi setting make it wholly distinct, and the non-more grizzled star ( Jorma Tommila ) takes stoicism to painful new levels. It still has a strong sense of self-awareness, even though its better the straighter it plays things. Cat-nip for fans of ultra violence against Nazis.

The British organic-electronic wizz returns with another inventive, detailed, immersive album length concept which will as always end up as one of the finest 'electronic' albums of the year.

This criminally underappreciated gonzo blast is way more self aware and hilarious than it's been given credit for. I really hope Russell Crowe's moped riding, devil-bashing, rootin tootin priest (with an EXCELLENT ITALIAN ACCENT) is just staring his cinematic journey. Truly a thing of joyous wonder.

I launched this channel with a 10/10 review for my joint album of the year (with Rosalia's Motomami) Ants From Up There, then immediately their totemic lead singer and lyricist, Isaac Wood quit then band for mental reasons. Where would this outstanding premier new wave of British indie act go from here? A near perfect answer is a live album of entirely new material, which is often fabulous and con...

Surely the dumbest name for a movie ever, given this unexpectedly superb step out of his comfort zone for Mr Ritchie, can only be hamstrung by wedding itself to his signature style. Both leads Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim are excellent, but the shock is Ritchie getting the tone so right for a serious post Gulf war film, sonically and visually - it's closer to Lone Survivor than anything in his fi...

The female indie super-group of Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers is definitely one of the music stories of the year, and the outstanding performance at godforsaken Coachella made me believe more - but I feel the album, though often great, is a little weighed down by a few inconsequential tracks. Little doubt how much of a star Phoebe Bridgers is though.

God bless Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski for the greatest vanity project in modern cinema - barely a foot wrong in four films. JW 4 is arguably the pinnacle, sonically and visually it's the most beautiful action film this side of Fury Road. It also boast the best side characters in the series, a screenplay that easily handles a near three-hour run time and a performance from Keanu that is like an...

Another 4K retro review and a real eyeopener. Perhaps my idea of this film had been sullied by subsequent sequels but it is far less goofy or zany than I remembered, and far more thoughtful and, often beautiful. It also hews far closer to the original of these films, the classic Out of Sight. With as charismatic a cast as modern films get, an iconic soundtrack from David Holmes, a surprisingly bri...

I swear these films are getting worse. Removing anything remotely charming or funny about the first two films and with a main cast that appears tonally to be acting in different movies, this is an objectively worse film than the awful Shazam 2, but a brilliant Jonathan Majors villain, Kang, and some pretty pictures, save it from a big fat zero out of ten.

An overview of the iconic, yet somehow awful festival - including the elephant in the room (that isn't Frank Ocean). Consider this - on the biggest night of the biggest music festival in America, the four biggest acts on the biggest stage - in a row - did not feature one single musician playing an instrument. Half the acts sing over the top of backing tracks and some even mimed their entire sets....

I swear the comic-book/super-hero movies are getting worse, in what maybe their long downward spiral. Amazingly this universe-connected film is even worse than Black Adam - by miles. Incredibly unambitious story, mid-to-bottom tier characters, barely passable acting and the most monumental air of will this do yet. Awful on every level.

The Adam Driver/Young Gomora(!!!) starring sci-fi got royally trashed by critics, but due to a great premise and some nice production design, just about limps over the line for a once through.

A perfect 10/10 for the greatest Western of the last forty years, with a special emphasis on the career best - and Breaking Bad relatable - performance from director Clint Eastwood's finest hour.

After acquiring a big TV, continuing my journey back through widescreen classics. Here Martin Scorcese's luxurious follow up to the greatest gangster film of all time, Goodfellas. Another classic no doubt but the main takeaway from this review is that it isn't better than that film, as I and many others have often claimed.