Taste

Reviews of releases new and old, including film, video, TV, music and more

Certified Copy

  • IFC Films
  • In theaters now

Though he’s made dozens of films in a career that’s spanned five decades, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and is the godfather of the burgeoning Iranian film industry, Abbas Kiarostami is largely a cult figure in the U.S. That’s partly because he’s based in Tehran — the capital of a country we’ve been in a cold war with for thirty years — and partly because of his unconventional films and unconventional filmmaking style. Kiarostami’s ambitious attempts to combine fiction, documentary, spirituality and autobiography are usually confounding to the uninitiated (Roger Ebert notoriously gave a one star review to the Palme d’Or-winning Taste of Cherry). Americans also like their directors’ filmographies to fit into a nicely-organized box (think Kubrick, Malick, Scorsese), and Kiarostami’s is a sprawling body of work that in addition to his own major films includes hundreds of films he wrote but didn’t direct, documentaries, shorts, compilations, video art installations, and even title designs.

Even given that gigantic list of accomplishments, though, Certified Copy is a towering achievement that may be his best film ever. Juliette Binoche stars as an art dealer in Italy who specializes in elaborate forgeries. She takes in interest in a book about the validity of fakes by a British author, played by opera singer (!) William Shimell. The rest of the film consists of the two driving and walking through Tuscany. At the risk of getting you hyped up for what sounds like a Lifetime movie, any more of a synopsis would spoil what I’m sure will be one of those movies that cineastes discuss and debate for decades to come. On its face, Certified Copy is about what, if anything, separates real from fake. It’s also about what happens when abstract concepts encounter real life. It’s also about the gap between the knowledge of intellectuals and the knowledge of blue collar workers. It’s also about how we savor and ignore the beauty of everyday life. It’s also about how talented and gorgeous Juliette Binoche is. All of this is captured by the subtle mastery of Kiarostami, who imbues every frame with warmth, humanity and greatness. Certified Copy is an instant classic.

A Bride’s Story

Kaoru Mori won the hearts of manga nerds everywhere with her Victorian romance Emma, and in her new project, A Bride’s Tale, she’s taken her craft to another level. Tale follows the story of 20-year-old Amir Halgal, a newly married woman in central Asia, circa the 19th Century. She first meets her husband, Karluk Eihon, on the day of their wedding, only to discover he’s a boy of 12. Yet romance—or something like romance—does begin to blossom between the two, and readers can look forward to a vivid, affecting portrait of life among the nomads of the steppe. Mori’s art is painstakingly detailed without sacrificing motion or life; she is an artist at the top of her game. A Bride’s Tale is so good, we here at SPJ unhesitatingly recommend it even to non-fans; it’s easily among the best manga releases of the year so far.

The Cars: Move Like This

Between their 1978 debut, Candy-O, Shake It Up and Heartbeat City, The Cars had more era-defining songs than any of us have fingers to count them on, and for anyone around during the early ’80s, their music was an inescapable. Twenty-three years after their breakup in 1988, The Cars are back—minus singer/bassist Benjamin Orr, who died in 2000—and they sound just as lively and catchy as they did then. Tracks like “Blue Tip”, “Too Late” and “Free” are classic Cars and “Sad Song” feels like a chart-ready, contemporary update to their signature sound, while the wonderful, heartfelt “Soon” is reminiscent of their undeniable classic “Drive” and only lacks Orr’s vocal stylings. For longtime fans, this album is a must-have with the same magic that made The Cars a radio mainstay for nearly a decade. For new listeners, even thought it might not penetrate today’s vastly different pop music scene, Move Like This is a well-crafted slice of yesteryear that feels fresh all over again.

The Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

  • Capitol Records
  • Available now
  • Download from iTunes | Amazon

For some reason, between the release of Paul’s Boutique in 1989 and the release of Check Your Head in 1992, the Beastie Boys decided that their rich, velvety voices sounded best when recorded through a subway announcer microphone and played back in a deep, echoing cave. It was the third complete reinvention for the Beasties in just 6 years, following their introduction as Def Jam pranksters on Licensed to Ill and sophisticated sound collagists on Boutique, and in retrospect is their most unique and memorable incarnation: distorted vocals, live instrumentation, newfound social consciousness, well-chosen samples, unforgettable beats. The just-released Hot Sauce Committee Part Two finds the Beasties revisiting that trademark sound for the first time since 1994′s classic Ill Communication, and though nostalgia is never as great as revelation, it’s the most fun they’ve had on a record in years. The highlights include first single “Lee Majors Come Again”, which hearkens back their hardcore roots, the dubby “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win” with Santigold, and the Nas-guesting jam “Too Many Rappers”.

Ben Harper: Give Till It’s Gone

  • Virgin Records
  • Available May 13
  • Download from iTunes | Amazon

For years, musician and songwriter Ben Harper seemed to be just under the mainstream radar (for those that remember it, his appearance on Sessions at West 54th made 1999′s Burn to Shine an instant personal favorite), but he’s continued to venture forward and make soulful, thoughtful music all throughout. With this month’s Give Till It’s Gone, Harper ventures into those rarely-visited back alleys of the soul with only the light of rock and blues to show the way, and the result is a solid mix of tracks, from the touching (the tender, exposed heartstrings of “Feel Love”) to the deceptively feel-good (the mocking “Rock N’ Roll Is Free”, the slinky desperation of “Waiting on a Sign”) to an older, more weary Harper (the down-but-not-quite-out “I Will Not Be Broken”, the sudden, startling realization of “Clearly Severely” and the obsessive angst of “Do It For You, Do It For Us”). While this mixture of weighty subject matter and catchy rock isn’t new for Harper, his work on Give Till It’s Gone feels more direct and intense than ever.

Portal 2

Well, here we are again. The capricious auteurs over at Valve have labored and toiled and turned the glorified tech demo that was the original Portal into a big ol’ game. And whether or not you played the original (although if you didn’t, shame on you),  all you need to know is that Portal 2 is completely brilliant and a total masterpiece.

If Portal was a hit single, Portal 2 is the whole album, and every track on there is as good or better than the original. The gameplay is almost completely unchanged, because why mess with perfection? You are still the silent protagonist Chell, you still wield the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, and you still have a very complicated relationship with artificial intelligence and human testing. But there’s a lot more to it than that this time around. For one thing, there are more characters. You’ve got an affable robot with a British accent named Wheatley helping you out, which is good, because GlaDOS, your nemesis from the first game, wants revenge for that time you killed her. (She seems to have conveniently forgotten that she tried to kill you first.)

The puzzle design is relentlessly clever, and there are many more puzzles in this game than in its predecessor. The environments in which those puzzles exist are equally impressive. You can expect to see significant graphical and aural variation from room to room, and even on the aging XBox 360, everything looked great—the PS3 and PC versions are even better, supposedly.

There’s not much else to relate without spoiling the many surprises of the game, so it must suffice to say that Portal 2 is a synthesis of all the video game arts: graphic design, sound design, animation, gameplay, puzzle, and narrative—each doing its part to create one of the most memorable entertainment experiences of 2011. And that’s not even getting into the incredible 2-player co-op mode, which has its own characters and plot.

If you own any of the platforms capable of running it, Portal 2 is a must-play. I know it’s only April, but this could be Game of the Year.

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP

A darkness haunts the land, and as The Scythian you must destroy it by succeeding where others have failed. It won’t be an easy task, and the way won’t always be obvious, but as you wander through dreams and darkness, your sword and “sworcery” will keep evil at bay long enough for you to accomplish it. At first glance, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP stands out because of its pixel art aesthetic and subdued color palette, but this odd little adventure game really shines when it comes to its immersive audio presentation (including some truly excellent music by Jim Guthrie), its sly pop-culture references (Andre the Giant?), and since there’s little to no in-game HUD, the clever use of Twitter-like updates to tell its sometimes-humorous, sometimes-peculiar story. The world of S:S&S EP can be either comforting or creepy, and intuiting your way around it is absolutely essential. Fear not, though, because it’ll be totally awesome.

PJ Harvey: Let England Shake

Yes, Let England Shake actually came out way back on Valentine’s Day. But it was this month, as Harvey came to the U.S. for a brief tour, that the record finally clicked for me. When I got into music in the 90′s, nobody’s music meant more to me than Harvey’s. The cacophonous post punk of Rid Of Me hit right as I entered teenhood, and its darker, more expansive follow-up To Bring You My Love is still one of my favorite albums. But after 2000′s melodic masterpiece Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, Harvey spent the rest of the decade too quiet, stripped down, and grown up. Let England Shake doesn’t really rock, but it is her most passionate and accessible record since Stories. Her last few records sounded lost in textures and atmospherics; here they lift jangly, folksy songs like “The Last Living Rose” and the urgent “The Words That Maketh Murder” to divine heights. Let England Shake finds PJ Harvey acting her age, but realizing she’s way too young for the old folks’ home.

Water for Elephants

  • 20th Century Fox
  • In theaters April 22

There’s nothing new about Water For Elephants, but it’s been so long since something so unabashedly old fashioned hit the multiplexes that I enjoyed the hell out of it. Like Field of Dreams, October Sky, or A Walk In The Clouds, it bathes us in the warm, autumnal glow of American nostalgia: baseball games, science fairs, harvest time and the circus. Seriously, this is a movie in which a young man during the Great Depression hops a train, runs away with the circus, falls in love with the star performer, and competes with the ringmaster for her affections. If that sounds corny to you, stay home in your ironic hipster flophouse. For those of us who are willing to embrace old timey stuff, Water For Elephants contains some very nice work from Christoph Waltz (pretty much just playing a sadder Hans Landa, but still…), Reese Witherspoon at her best since Walk The Line, a dreamy script by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King, The Bridges of Madison County) and some great circus imagery from director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend) and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain, The 25th Hour).

Taxi Driver

When disenchanted cabbie Travis Bickle takes a shine to a beautiful young campaign worker only to ruin it with his social awkwardness, he turns inward and sets out to right wrongs in the world around him. While the name Martin Scorsese undoubtedly brings to mind some of the greatest filmmaking talent ever, Taxi Driver is just as much a product of Paul Schrader’s dark, angst-filled storytelling and Robert DeNiro’s daring performance as Bickle. Restored to near-pristine condition, Taxi Driver looks better than ever in this month’s new Blu-ray collector’s edition, but this is a must-see for the plentiful extras, including three commentaries—including one with Scorsese and Schrader originally recorded by Criterion way back in 1986—and other featurettes detailing the film’s production. If you missed the recent tour of theater showings, this is easily the next best way to take in this modern classic.