The Brown Note Movie Review

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 Kent, whereas Gunn has given us Clark Kent and no Superman.

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 like the day-time TV of Black British Music.

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.

Given Mr Young's insane amount of releases in recent years, I suspect this maybe one fans have skipped. You shouldn't. In a banner year for live performances from Young (Glastonbury etc), this attendant studio album is one of the most ramshackle he's ever made, but its full of idiosyncrasy and Young in the now. Unusually specific personal lyrics, churning garage rockers and several gentle ballads, that show he has lost none of his ability to craft melodies and songs as pretty as Helpless or Harvest Moon.

The feverishly awaited return of the mighty Thornton brothers, Pusha T and Malice (plus production again from the Neptunes/Pharrell Williams) after more than fifteen years, has been the rap event of the modern era. Unless you like children's rap like Travis Scott and Drake. There was no way on earth it could live up to the hype or their heyday best. It does. Every last aspect - from the rollout to the music - is peerless class.

One of the best reviewed superhero projects since GOTG3 and it still stiffed at the box office. The days of comic book movies earning a billion are long gone, even half that is a success now. Florence Pugh takes over from Scarlett Johansson (who ironically just killed her at the box office...) as the new Black Widow (kind of). There are big plusses and nearly as big minuses here. The themes, soul of the film, the lead actor and for once even its visuals, are excellent. Shame they had to saddle it with the worst dialogue this side of The Batman, and some repetitive scenarios and overlong sequences can be a drag.

My intermittent series on albums, movies or bands that either were denied classic status on release or have been forgotten about since. Though their Krautrock peers, Can, Neu!, Faust and Kraftwerk still get plenty of coverage, these equally brilliant pioneers are rarely mentioned. Their first three album run, Phallus Dei, Yeti and Dance of the Lemmings (two of which are doubles) is one of the finest in rock. In fact this was supposed to be their first FIVE albums but I ran out of time (#5 Wolf City is also a masterpiece). A genuinely wild ride through some of the best proto-metal, prog rock, space rock and krautrock out there.

A new segment on this channel called Overrated. I am a hater at heart and love trashing things more than loving them. So this bit will feature things that have garnered universal acclaim, that I don't think are actually any good. Here the holy cow, that stinks up every list of best war films, reviewed in depth, where I factually and objectively state why Saving Private Ryan was never any good.

In an era where the live music mega-festival has changed, a look at two elements from the recent Glastonbury festival. Charli xcx Vs Neil Young, is live music important at a live music festival anymore? And the Kneecap/Bob Vylan controversy.

MASSIVE SPOILERS Director Ryan Coogler certainly has critics bending over backwards, but like Black Panther, this - the best reviewed major release so far this year - is nowhere near as good as the insane level of praise it's got. A beautifully made and totally worthy watch, but a long way shy of a masterpiece in multiple ways. The first half is done so well, I kinda wished the vampires had stayed away.

My intermittent series on something either denied classic status on release, or has been forgotten about since. I wanted to review this all time fave but struggled to know if it belonged here. It DID get classic status, but many years after it was made, and that was the 90s. Since then the final, notorious and never conclusively released final album from Alex Chilton's power-pop inventing Big Star, has faded from view. Like Nick Drake around the same time period, they released two classic, hugely influential, critically acclaimed albums, that sold nothing and left them to produce one final angry, dejected, hopeless finale. Often ranked as one of the darkest and most harrowing of albums, it's shot through with brilliance and bitter beauty.

The fabulous Victoria Beverley Walker, aka PinkPatheress, hasn't put a foot wrong with her three major releases, including this new mixtape. Unlike contemporaries like Billie Eilish, she actually is a self created bedroom star and not an industry plant, and one who wipes the floor musically with the likes of Sabrina Carpenter. In fact she is about the only peer of Brat-era Charlie XCX.

What a con-artist Swans leader, Michael Gira is. After creating the greatest achievement in rock the last decade, the monolithic, gargantuan trilogy of, The Seer, To be Kind and The Glowing Man, he promised us he was done with these planet sized two hour behemouths and that Swans would enter a new phase of very different music. Well, they did for two albums, but he's right back into it with Birthing, another two-hour, widescreen apocalypse - and a hugely worthy addition to the now quadrilogy. And given how much fun they sound like they're having this time out, a great choice for my first Swans album for the terrified and uninitiated.

This substance free, Casio-presets, ambient waffle, is the worst album length project the (recently under fire) Radiohead front man has been involved with. Worse, it completely wastes the talents of a legend of British electronic music, who may as well not even be here, so little is his noticeable input. Someone needs to sit Thom down and say, stop commenting on the Middle East and stop releasing ghostly ethereal ballads. A total wasted opportunity.

As a huge fan of the underappreciated original, I could not be more disappointed by this utter slop. "Critics think it's better than the original"?! How?! By watering down and denuding everything that was different and special about the first film, until it's homogenized garbage? Even Ben Affleck's lead doesn't escape, his previous intensity as the autistic hitman, is now just goofy and the usually reliable ace in the deck, Jon Bernthal, has never been so annoying.

Not an original bone in it's body but utterly enjoyable sub-Hitchcock hokum, that makes great cinematic use of limited environs. Luckily they also have an excellent lead to helm it all in Meghann Fahy, as she traverses a dinner date with murderous complications.

As a painfully stick in the mud old school rap fan, I am deeply ashamed to have featured the last two Armand Hammer albums, without paying any attention to the twenty-five plus year career of one half of the duo, Billy Woods. Golliwog is one of the finest and most immersive rap albums of the recent era, though that immersion is not pleasant, the world being a nightmarish horror-scape, it is however brilliant.

DJ Felix Manuel has delivered one of the best - and classiest, and most listenable - electronic albums of recent years. A pairing of his virtuoso piano playing and equally dexterous drum programming - all produced to sonically beautiful fidelity.

A few years ago I would've ranked Alex Garland alongside Robert Eggers, as one of the most exciting new directors out there, now it's two utterly forgettable war films, back to back, that are bad in completely different ways. Though Warfare does share with Civil War, having both nothing to say and being at the back of the pack of numerous other much better films on the same subject. Watch something like The Outpost to see how the single battle film can be done so much better.

After my initial exposure to the mercurial talents of John Martyn - who created his own language through Folk, Blues and Jazz through the 1970's and on - a follow up. Before I focused on the immortal albums like Solid Air and One World, this time an extensive look at the rest. Well, up to a point, specifically from his debut, London Conversations in 1967 to The Apprentice in 1990. A slow start, and some real 80s trash lie in wait, but a few more classics are added to the list and it's a fascinating journey. Fans of Beverley Martyn turn away.

After a lackluster decade of documentaries, Theroux returns with one of his finest, most important - and most timely - ever, on Israeli colonization of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It says the quiet part out loud - it never has been about how the Palestinians behave, it's always been about ethnic cleansing.

Since their second album, Ants From Up There, bagged my album of the year in 2022, and promptly lost their iconic leader - no British indie act has gone through more change. Now firmly ensconced in their Harry Potter House Band/Music Hall Indie phase with a beguiling, detailed and unique baroque new album.

Director Gareth Evans rightfully made his name with the iconic Indonesian action crime films, The Raid and the even better The Raid 2. This grimy cop thriller goes unexpectedly full tilt Hong Kong era John Woo, but it's a law of diminishing returns as the dozens (hundreds) of bodies pile up, albeit imaginatively.

Happily, Justin Vernon's much loved project has made the tilt away from the experimental, abstract songwriting of the last two albums, and a return to more satisfying complete pieces of the first two, albeit with the odd slightly annoying and incongruous hangover stylistic elements. Still, it's great to have him back in this pocket and with his own defined genre of Neo-Country-Soul.

Well who knew, if you take something with a rusted on fan-base and don't abuse that fan-base or take them for granted, people will come and watch your film. There's nothing good about it - great turns from Jason Momoa and Jack Black aside - but there's nothing really bad about it either.

I went in expecting mid-tier MCU, like Captain Marvel or Black Panther, I got bottom tier, like Antman 3 or The Marvels. This is an abomination of a film with no reason to be and horrible visuals. An excellent Harrison Ford aside - there's zero reason to even bother once.

There are commonalities with Hollywood and TV in recent years. Having not one single original idea and remaking something no one asked for, to a terrible standard and for some reason, cynically using an existing fan-base but rubbing that fan-bases noses in it by race/sexuality or gender swapping a lead character. There's also a more vile and insidious trend going on here where only one person always seems to pay the price.

Director Steven Soderbergh's latest is a classy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy variant, expertly made and with an impeccable cast, exceptionally led by Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. The odd improbabilities aside.

I do love Germany's DJ Koze, and ranked both his previous long form behemoths, Amygdala (2013) and Knock Knock (2018) as my second best albums of those respective years. The same cannot be said for his third. A beautifully produced and effortlessly classy affair, that is almost never compelling, sadly.

I think this is an all time first for me, an album where I hated the first half and actually liked the second half. The "UK Bass" artist has one of the most acclaimed albums of the year, I suspect in large part to music critics rating anything that mentions gender or sexual identity higher than it deserves. The first five tracks of yelping vegan Death Grips are interminable, yet the next five are vastly better.

The most mind-blowing album I've heard in years. This psychedelic journey through a club apparently owned by Cthulhu, by Bolivian-American siblings, encourages you to invent a new genre at every turn. A colossal monolith of dayglow noise that is, in an already exceptional year for albums, my new reigning album of the year (sorry Deafheaven/Darkside).

This years brightest new indie attack, levels with octopus armed percussion and a sound like no one else. Music to attune to (like Trout Mask Replica) before all its glories are revealed.

This latest and most rote Stephen King adaption has 79% on Rotten Tomatoes. How. Following on from last years tepid, flat and overrated Long Legs, the same director is getting kudos for an even worse film. Far far worse. It's utter garbage.

The superb Deafheaven, always welcomed by the COMPLETELY REASONABLE gatekeepers of Death Metal, sound reborn on their masterpiece sixth album. The only questions being, is it their best release yet? (possibly) and is it my album of the year so far? (yes).

Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, was expected to follow his last collection with a return to the his perfectly sculpted run of albums, so why does this feel more like another disjointed collection, when compared to his best work?

Or more accurately an EP review of a minor, yet still excellent collection of music the esteemed Canadian electronic composer has made for films.

The British TV drama has become a lightning rod for a burning issue, shining a spotlight in the online spaces turning young boys into misogynists. It's also artistically brave in its structure, superbly shot and directed and features some of the best acting you'll see on TV. The follow up https://brownnote.podbean.com/e/adolescence-what-to-do-about-a-problem-like-jamie/  

The Russo brothers latest attempt to turn as much cash as possible into a bad movie, is nowhere near as terrible as the reviews suggest. Its a pretty watchable, near remake of Bumblebee - with everything a bit worse.

This side quest to the excellent A Quiet Place sci-fi horrors, is immaculately made, directed and acted. So it's rare for me to trash it - I just can't remember seeing a film with so little reason to exist.

Mel Gibson puts his director hat back on for an unusually small project for him. It's really just three people in a room - or in this case a plane. It's been pretty trashed by critics but as a low key B movie actioner it's worth a once through.

Maestro Nicolas Jaar is one of modern music's MVPs. His long run of solo albums plus the two superb AAL albums plus the Pink Floyd analogous cat-nip Darkside project, with guitarist Dave Harrington and now winningly drummer, Tlacael Esparza. Possibly their best album in this now The Smile analogous collective. Continually restless and evolving - often in one track - and always hugely listenable, my fave of the year so far.

Noah Lennox - aka Panda Bear - has long established himself as the most prominent offshoot of the erstwhile Animal Collective band. I have found recently albums - even with the (godlike) Sonic Boom co-album Reset - to be too simplistic and over acclaimed. That's half true here, where songwriting, melody and sequencing get it over the line. I do miss the wild abandon and inspiration of Person Pitch though.

One of the most fascinating aberrations ive ever reviewed. Will Oldham (aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy) has an impeccable thirty year discography, with some of his best and most interesting work in recent years. He is undoubtedly one of the finest songwriters and lyricists in modern American history. So for some reason he has decided to release a generic modern mainstream country album. The lyrics are either very broad and trite, or surprisingly on the nose takes on men and women, the instrumentation, arrangements and song progressions as predictable and unambitious as modern country itself. Then there's the anti gun track. Most baffling of all is how this album is actually acclaimed by critics.

One of the buzziest internet-rap stars of the last couple of years, makes distinctive wall-of-sound melodic rap, that is very post Chief Keef, even more Playboi Carti and a little Salem. It's pleasant stoner music/head music but could do with a wider variety of attack.