The Brown Note Movie Review

My simping for star Mia Goth reached insufferable heights with the one-two punch of Pearl and Infinity Pool, where I claimed she was this era's Bridget Bardot, but a much better actor. Sadly this third in the X film trilogy is by far the weakest and the biggest let down of the year, next to Civil War. At least Mia is photographed exceptionally well and is as electric onscreen as always. But such a...

Given the high praise afforded this latest reboot, I can't help but feel let down. It's not really any better than the 2014 tornado/Twister movie, Into the Storm - in fact I can't say the tornado effects are any more impressive. Plus it often plays like a Nicholas Sparks romance movie. It is scarier than its two predecessors though, and we get a couple of charismatic leads in Glen - man of the mom...

The second excellent album from a Californian modern/alt-pop artist who gets nowhere near the respect or acclaim she deserves, and is far more thrilling and individualistic than most of her more lauded peers.

The full title of the compilation of the year - and an essential own and analogous to the classic Nigeria 70 collection, broke my computer it's so long. It's also the perfect reflection of this awesome psych-funk-soul-rock-RnB music. Congo Funk! - Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Kinshasa​/​Brazzaville 1969​-​1982) (Analog Africa No. 38)

My biggest gripe in recent years, is one of the worst ever eras of music critics, clamming so many mid-tier female solo pop/rnb & rap albums are masterpieces. Witness my most overrated album from last year, from Caroline Polachek. Or anything by Beyonce. So here we are with this years anointed album of the year. All I can say is that I am always fair.

The esteemed post-rock(?) trio are three decades in and with increasing gaps between albums - a whopping twelve years this time between drinks. There latest is a unexpected balm for anxious times, near true ambient music in its way of sucking negative emotions out of you and replacing them with more meditative and positive energy.

Doug Liman is a massively underappreciated and endlessly malleable director - from Swingers to The Bourne Identity to Edge of Tomorrow to Road House. Given the cast he gets is near perfect for this kind of sub-Tarantino crime film, that makes this a let down on nearly every level. Just about passable. Casey Affleck is great though.

I did not have esteemed auteur director, Richard Linklater, swerving into Rom-coms i my 2024 bingo. Other than being a tiny bit superficial and slight, this film is an utter blast. Very funny and with two of the most engaging leads of the year. Glen Powell excels as the titular fake hit man (based on a very real person) and for fans of Triple Frontier, finally Hollywood seems to be catching on to...

The relentless reboot and remake cycle reaches the once unthinkable - lets re-do Beverly Hills Cop. Though the electric magic of the original is missing, it's powered across the line by a star missing from our screens (other than in donkey form) for far too long, Eddie Murphy is completely undiminished, possibly due to witchcraft.

We all hoped superhero comic book movies had died off. First with a perfect Endgame to the MCU universe, then a run of genuinely terrible and unsuccessful movies. But no, nothing will stop them, even the most cynical and creatively bankrupt act in major franchise movie history - recasting your most popular actor as a new character. This is some Bobby Ewing level garbage.

Director Jeff Nichols latest, is a superb subject with a great cast. It's also sadly, trite, superficial and far less than sum of its visually gorgeous parts.

The first post slap-heard-around-the-world Will Smith movie, is another broadly successful entry into the unexpectedly rebooted franchise, though with far less narrative ambition than its predecessor.

Perhaps alongside Beach House as the most well established of the second wave of Shoegaze and Dreampop bands, though on this immaculately presented effort, sadly not as prepared as to offer variety or imagination to their sound.

The Hyperdub label head and his head honcho team up and not for the first time. After Burial's recent extremely punishing EP, this is one of his most commercial sounding releases. Full of light skipping 2step beats and UK garage flourishes, plus a heap of hooky vocals and synths. Kode9 ably backs it up veering into early 90s rave and Drum n Bass. Undemanding but in a good way.

My intermittent series on albums/artists/films that were either denied classic status on release or forgotten since. Both in this case. Forever he will be known for the tragic element to his career, for not reaching superstar status, after turning down the offer at the end of the Sixties to become the front man of Led Zeppelin. And Deep Purple. But his talent as a guitarist and one of the finest e...

Colombian  JP López turns in possibly three of the best electronic tracks of the year on one powerhouse 4 track EP, that seems to be more inspired by the more experimental post dub-step UK artists than Latin Club music per se.

I was annoyed when they couldn't help themselves in the endless rebooting of existing projects cycle that is modern cinema, given the recent films were the best SciFi-Fantasy trilogy since The Lord of the Rings. However, the odd quibble aside, this is far better than we could've hoped for and again, much better than Dune 2.

George Miller's unexpectedly reborn Mad Max franchise is now more consistently great, than its peers, The Terminators, Predators and Aliens, with the latest falling just shy of the heights of the instant classic Fury Road, a film it actually deepens. It's also a miles better SciFi-Fantasy than Dune 2.

The question isn't whether the debut solo album by the iconic Portishead singer, lives up to the unbearable weight of expectation, it's whether it will be my album of the year.

The New Jersey via Haiti mystery that is Mach-Hommy seems to be circling closer to the mainstream with a worthy follow up to 2021's Pray for Paris, in a year that seems a standout in rewarding old heads with actually decent rap albums.

Although I've been fonder of the more intense and dense albums by the UK's Darren J. Cunningham, unlike the recent Four Tet release, this at least goes on a cohesive journey and ends up being more than the sum of its parts.

With a show-stopping performance from Alisha Weir as a young kidnapped rich girl (>cough<), an uneven yet ultimately welcome entry into a golden era for horror films, this deliberately at the schlockier end of the spectrum.

Despite having everything on paper - including strong reviews - this amiable farce is only half the film it could be, or needs to be. A waste of the talent and budget on display. It's too slight and surface level and the story too weak to be anything more than a forgettable once through. And I'm docking it another point for that godforsakenly awful cover of The Unknown Stuntman.

The hugely surprising second act in the once terrible, now pretty great, director Guy Ritchie's career continues. Ironically Henry Cavill gets to play the guy that inspired James Bond, in this wild re-telling of a genuine WW2 story. Superficial to a fault but hugely entertaining. Someone help him with his movie titles though.

This excellent and surprisingly art-house prequel to the original (and superb) Omen movie, is also very bizarrely close to the recent Immaculate.