The Brown Note Movie Review

James Blake always sounds like he's trying to make the perfect James Blake album, and this is one of his closest efforts.

If you have ever wanted to jump on the beloved troubadour Bill Callahan's train, now is the time. Always great but this time more so in every direction. Already a contender for my album of the year.

After the impossible high of director, Ari Aster's debut, Hereditary, for me the follow-up Midsommar was a complete miss. Since then he's posted two take no prisoners art-house triumphs, Beau is Afraid and this equally wild but very different meta-western. The most analogous film to One Battle After Another and just about as good. Ari is one of the greatest out there right now as is his lead actor...

This much maligned entry into the Chris Pratt is everywhere genre, just about limps over the line to watchable - thanks mostly to its star. Despite an intriguing - if obvious - AI premise it's a better film the more it hews towards standard whodunit fare but consequently less and less interesting as a result.

My internittent series on albums that have over (usually) a long period of time continued to be outstanding. Canada's fabulous Broken Social Scene's second album is a fair contender for greatest indie guitar album in history, certainly in North America.

Finally a review of the Table Tennis movie. The two things that stand out, this is one Safdie brother going solo on this film after the mighty one-two of Good Times and Uncut Gems, and I've not been kind to the "Marlon Brando" of our age, Timothy "Baby-Cham" Chamalet. He does actually give a very good performance here, and it's a fine film - but it's not in the same league as Uncut Gems and could...

My now fairly frequent series on (usually) albums that were either denied classic status on release or have been forgotten about since. Witch House pioneers Salem near qualify for both, back in 2010 their debut album caused a lot of fuss but only mild praise, unlike me giving it album of the year. That rare album that has wielded strong influence since yet nothing else really sounds like it. A sho...

The Danny Boyle/Alex Garland Zombie train keeps running and in pretty fine style. Wildly over-violent at times but with great work from a demonic Jack O'Connell and a soulful Ralph Fiennes. At its best when expanding both the human and zombie world's and with a truly gonzo final third.

My intermittent feature on (usually) albums that were either denied classic status on release or have been forgotten about since. I'm not sure the long delayed, much maligned second and final album by The Stone Roses quite qualifies but it's far, far better than the car crash disaster it's remembered as.

Where the industry led push for Timothy "Baby-cham" Chamalet to win continues and a good but not great film breaks the record for most nominations ever in a pretty average year for movies.

There's no doubt Pitchfork is the most important music criticism magazine this century, once the epicenter of the music world. The last decade or more has seen them slide further away from both their implied mission statement and success. Now a pay wall has gone up and that will likely be the end of many ends. But Vale Pitchfork.

In the worst year of movies I've actually watched since I started doing these reviews. The year in which mediocrity reigned supreme. Featuring Superman, One Battle After Another, Warcraft, Sinners, Weapons and many more.

Exactly what it says it is, in a terrific year for album length releases.

Director Zach Cregger, follows his (overrated) "IT" horror, Barbarian, with a film that is better in near every way than its messy predecessor. Though good rather than great and far more cohesive film-making, its still guilty of throwing ideas up in the air without delving any deeper.

This old school sports movie - a near remake of the classic Robert Redford baseball movie, The Natural - is built entirely out of cliches and hokum, and I kinda love it. Brad is ace, they don't rely on a wall of CGI and everything radiates good looking, exciting fun. They don't make em like this (much) anymore.

I felt bad for the last film in this venerable (near 30 year!) franchise. It not only got Barbenheimered at the box office but it was also the first real step backwards in quality. Sadly I would say that's the case once again, as pretty much everything was better even in Dead Reckoning. It's still ultra high quality in most film making areas but the story, people and screenplay are lesser. 

The esteemed Mr William Bevin's latest isn't quite his ambient side nor his beat-heavy side, though it does feel like listening to a club way in the distance. Classy stuff but I would've liked a bit more.

Following on from the outstanding debut album, Madres, a lesser EP from the Berlin based Peruvian DJ. Two fantastic tracks but also a bit of filler.

After an interminable half year of being spammed by this over-promoted battle between, directors Zack Snyder, of the previous DC comic book movies and his replacement, James Gunn, the movie itself is not actually any good. Just as goofy as the pre-release shots proclaimed it to be and too lightweight in all directions to build a universe off of. The irony is Snyder gave us Superman but no Clark Ke...

This timely second live album from Radiohead, is of their most overtly political album, at a time when the band's impenetrable force-field has been broken by politics over Israel. Many tracks outstrip their studio counterparts in a pretty thrilling document of the band in their best live era.

Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, return to their iconic zombie franchise. While it probably wont satiate fans of the first two films in the same way, it does have its own unexpected successes. It looks pretty amazing for a movie filmed on iPhones and has a far deeper soul than relentless zombie kills.

Arguably the MVP of solo rap these last ten years, and particularly for his single producer albums with Madlib and (this album's returning) The Alchemist. It's a fine album but in the context of those other albums, not a stand out. The immaculate luxurious lounge-soul back drop, can get repetitive and overly low-key, but it does give one of rap's technical masters space to do whatever he wants.

I'm not entirely sure where the rebirth happens in the 7th movie of the financially indestructible franchise, given it's basically a remake of Jurassic Park 3. But it is viciously hamstrung by terrible dialogue and acting, more befitting a low budget horror movie. Instantly the worst of the lot and I've never seen Scarlett Johansson so bored in a movie.

The modern music critic is the biggest coward going. If it ticks the right boxes, they worship it out of fear. That's the only reason for the insane level of universal acclaim this album from the very talented Londoner has got. I found it difficult to get through, bland, almost Beiber-esque modern mainstream pop-R&B/Rap, and it definitely doesn't live up to it's title and theme. It feels more...

This John Wick spin off suffers most for an unforgivably trite story. I feel like I've seen this 'young girl that loses her parents and grows up to be an assassin' story a hundred times already. It also fails to make good use of its luminous star. Outside of that, it looks fantastic, is made with great competence and an enjoyable watch.