Tag: spectrum review

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Given my well-reported excursion to central Wisconsin to dive headlong into pop minutiae, I didn’t have much spare time to contribute to Spectrum Culture. In fact, the only words I strung together were for our monthly mixtape feature, writing about a new track from the Screaming Females. I’ll be back up to speed in the coming week with new reviews in both the film and music sections. On the film side, I’ll be writing about a dirty movie from France, which seems like a weirdly satisfying way to return to digital print. Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I contributed a couple of pieces this week at Spectrum Culture. On the film side, I reviewed a French film based on a true story involving terrorists hijacking an airplane. While I didn’t expend much effort on this angle in the review, it’s sometimes very odd to see French filmmakers wrestle with the some of the established mechanics of action movies and thrillers without applying their deconstructionist tendencies. It really does wind up landing in some nether region between United 93 and Passenger 57. In the Music section, I reviewed the debut full-length effort from Alabama Shakes. From the editorial … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I had couple things on Spectrum Culture this week. In the Film section, I reviewed Womb, a film that continues the unexpected British trend of gentle sci-fi stories about cloning, a distinct subgenre done exceedingly well in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go and less so in the film adaptation of the same book. Womb is further proof that we all would have been better off in Ishiguro’s original work was allowed to be the sole and final work of art on that front. I fared a little better with my selection in the Music section, offering an assessment … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

My week at Spectrum Culture started with me writing about one of those films that I know backwards and forwards. Usually, when I write about anything for Spectrum, I try to give it a fresh viewing (or listen), but that absolutely wasn’t required in this instance. There is one problem, though. I really should have asked to get pushed back a week so the review was closer to Opening Day, although Major League Baseball is sure working hard to make Opening Day (true Opening Day, not exhibition-games-that-count Opening Day) feel goofy and anticlimactic. Continuing on the movie beat, I wrote … Continue reading Spectrum Check

FilmLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

In part due to a little mistake I made the prior week, I had two different film reviews go up at Spectrum Culture this past week. First was a film I should have reviewed earlier, but release schedules apparently baffle me at times. It was a French drama starring Audrey Tautou which proved to be not especially good. Tautou has been fairly choosy since her breakthrough in Amélie, at least by the standards of the European film industries which tend to push stars to churn out movie and movie. That’s a sound choice on her part, but it can make … Continue reading Spectrum Check

FilmLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

So I was kind of a screw-up when it came to my contributions to Spectrum Culture this week. I had two different screeners sitting by my DVD player, clear instructions as to which one to watch and review, even complete knowledge in my own skull about the cinematic release schedules of the films embedded on those shiny discs which should have led me to be able to make the right conclusion about how I should devote my time. For some reason, though, I watched the wrong film, wrote up my Dire assessment of it and sent off the piece. I … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

I had a fairly busy week with Spectrum Culture. I had two different pieces post in the music review area, beginning with a consideration of the the first solo album from Sophia Knapp. The second review I wrote this week was probably more significant: the new album from Bruce Springsteen. I like the record quite a bit–probably more than anything he’s put out since 1995’s The Ghost of Tom Joad–which was a bit of a relief. It gave me a chance to make up for trashing The Boss in an earlier List Inconsequential feature, which felt like a bit of … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Luckily enough, I had a very light week at Spectrum Culture just when I needed a break. I’d like to say I orchestrated that, but that’s plainly not the case. The only thing I reviewed was the new film from the director of Maria Full of Grace, which was surprisingly left behind in the first go-around in our selection process. Were I smarter or at least less of a procrastinator, I would have take the comfortable schedule to actually work ahead on a couple of the pending record reviews I have. Of course I didn’t, so I suddenly have a … Continue reading Spectrum Check

Film, MusicLeave a comment

Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

This week at Spectrum Culture, I opted to review the new film from director Jill Sprecher, who previously created the very good comedy Clockwatchers and the sadly mediocre 13 Conversations About One Thing. It’s been a long time since that prior feature, so I had perhaps had reason to be leery. But then the movie poster calls attention to the fact that it takes place in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I couldn’t turn that down, right? It was good, but there’s some internet scuttlebutt that it may have been even better in the original cut that debuted at Sundance a year ago. … Continue reading Spectrum Check