As well-intentioned as an Activia commercial. Grade: B-
Artist: The Walkmen. Album: Lisbon.
Artist: Bombay Bicycle Club. Album: Flaws.
Mona Simpson's saga of women and children and Los Angeles is recounted in alternating chapters by a television writer's wife and her Filipina nanny. Their trenchant observations about marriage and parenting build to a moving conclusion that's marred ever so slightly by a Hollywood ending that feels like the second act break from a Katherine Heigl movie.
Todd Solondz's twenty-first century oeuvre has tended to be experimental and workshoppy. In that regard, Life During Wartime is more of a reckoning with 1998's Happiness than a conventional sequel. It's thoughtfully presented and ably performed but it lacks the original's spark of cinematic vitality. Grade: B
Artist: Wild Beasts. Album: Two Dancers.
About a half hour of really funny material stretched excruciatingly thin. Marky Mark, don't quit your day abs. I almost would rather have watched the Dwayne Johnson-Sam Jackson fake-out. Grade: C
Preposterously entertaining Cold School thriller, directed with Early Nineties expertise by a Clear and Present Phillip Noyce. Grade: B
Artist: Black Box Recorder. Artist: England Made Me.
Artist: Nneka. Album: Concrete Jungle.
Artist: Dragonette. Album: Fixin to Thrill.
Tom Hardy is the second coming of Oliver Reed. Grade: B
Artist: Jónsi. Album: How to Train Your Dragon (Music from the Motion Picture).
Artist: Alexander Perls. Album: Storm.
Artist: Vokab Kompany. Album: So Bright.
Artist: Gipsy Kings. Album: Toy Story 3 (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture).
Artist: We Are Scientists. Album: Barbara.
Pretty good for a threequel and then just pretty fucking great. Grade: A-
Artist: Beautiful Small Machines. Album: The Robots In Love.
Artist: Neil Halstead. Album: Oh! Mighty Engine.
Notoriously difficult directors make the most uncompromisingly awful movies. Grade: F
Artist: Miike Snow. Album: Miike Snow (Deluxe Edition).
Artist: Adele. Album: Femmes de Paris, Vol. 1.
Artist: Ricki-Lee. Album: Brand New Day.
Director Michael Patrick King has an uncanny ability to make any shooting location resemble a backlot in Burbank. That said, if you know what you're getting into, this live-action Chipmunk Adventure is watchable the way reruns of The King of Queens are watchable when you're stuck in a hotel room or on a long flight. Grade: B-