Sure, it might have made more sense to run this list around the same time as the Oscars. But now, with most if not all of these on DVD, you can make your own film festival out of it, watching ‘em all over the course of a weekend (or as long as it takes to get them all from Netflix).

1. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, USA): This grippingly plausible tale of a strife-torn world on the brink of extinction hits every note just right, (more…)

So the producer-entertainer-mogul-brand currently known as “Diddy” is gunning for Sting’s title as the music world’s reigning marathon man. The onetime “Puffy” reportedly told the London Mirror that during a visit to Paris, he and his girlfriend Kim Porter “had tantric sex for at least 30 hours, ordering up whipped cream and strawberries while we were at it.”

At least? You’re telling me that once you went beyond the 24-hour mark, you didn’t bother to keep track anymore?  (more…)

Eddie Griffin — actor, comedian, Man of the Square Table — environmental activist? Apparently so. The Undercover Brother thespian did his little part to reduce fuel emissions yesterday when he wrecked a Ferrari Enzo yesterday. Griffin was practicing for a charity race to promote the upcoming film Redline when he careened it off of a concrete barrier. The car, valued at $1.5 million, belonged to Daniel Sadek, who is producing the film. Sadek told the Associated Press that the Enzo was beyond repair. “Undercover Brother’s good at karate and all the rest of that, but the brother can’t drive,” Griffin said.

It’s worth noting that only 400 Enzos were ever made: (more…)

(Editor’s note: Today we debut a new feature, in which our senior critic Laurence Station catches us up on the new releases he’s been absorbing over the past month. Take it away, L.S. …)

This month it’s all about protest music (with an Amon Tobin chaser). Whether disaffected by conditions on the homefront (as Jay Farrar appears to be) or taking a more abstract expressionist take on the woeful state of worldly affairs (the suitably named Low), artists are venting their collective spleens and we’re rating their misery.

+ Son Volt: The Search
+ Low: Drums and Guns
+ LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver
+ Ted Leo / The Pharmacists: Living With the Living
+ Amon Tobin: Foley Room

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I’m always leery when Saturday Night Live rolls out the welcome mat for real-life folks to host the show — meaning people who aren’t actors, comedians, musicians or employed in some other entertainment-related field, and thus make a certain amount of sense to guest-host a sketch-comedy show.

True, A number of athletes and politicians have survived the experience pretty much intact (The Rock nailed his first appearance before he became a movie star, and Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Al Gore all did well). But I still have nightmares about 2002’s disastrous show with skier and Olympic gold medalist Jonny Moseley. So I wasn’t anxious to see Peyton Manning, who cemented his status as a national darling with his Super Bowl win in February, embarrass himself on March 24. Sure, he’s been engaging and funny in his numerous commercials, but live television is a whole ‘nother ball game. Turns out I needn’t have worried — for the second time in two months, homeboy came through in the clutch. 

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Modest Mouse: We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Epic, 2007
Rating: 3.9

“Florida,” off of Modest Mouse’s new We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, is the natural complement to “Float On” from the band’s 2004 commercial breakthrough Good News For People Who Love Bad News. The latter song was a crossover hit, a minor-key pop song that differs from much of the rest of the band’s music in its upbeat theme. The newer work is more pessimistic — Isaac Brock singing of his inability to leave his past – yet ramps up the poppiness with an ooh-ah chorus, slick production and yet another powerful guitar hook. The track is certainly not completely radio-friendly, given Brock’s unrepentantly abrasive vocals and a shoegazing bridge, but you can’t say the band isn’t trying. And while it isn’t the lead single, the song is a nice approximation of the album as a whole: generally accessible, but not plying the top 40 crowd for favors.  (more…)

RJD2: The Third Hand
XL, 2007
Rating: 2.7

I saw RJD2 spin two summers ago. It was a formative experience, compelling proof that being a good DJ or crate-digging hip-hop instrumentalist takes more than buying some records, installing Pro Tools on your computer and spending a few Saturdays mixing. The man danced between four turntables and a box of records, building eighteen-minute collages of samples culled from a variety of tracks; it was a weird fusion of visual and aural performance, and a compelling argument for turntablism as the successor to jazz.

Despite being just months after the release of Since We Last Spoke, RJD2’s last outing, there were two events that night that foreshadowed The Third Hand. The first came during a set break, when RJ told the crowd in all sincerity that he couldn’t believe we were choosing to see him instead of the Gin Blossoms, who were playing at another venue. The second came at the end of the set, when a fan asked the DJ what he was listening to at the time. The answer: Odyssey and Oracle, the seminal ’60s pop album by the Zombies. (more…)

Raines
NBC
Rating: 3.7 

At first glance, you want to slap the cuffs on NBC’s new crime drama Raines and book its creators for excessive recycling. It’s impossible to watch the commercials, or five minutes of the show itself, without your knee beginning to twitch, impatient to kick Raines to the curb. On the surface, it’s a shameless mix of two of the more popular formulas in heavy rotation: The “I see dead people” mystery (Medium, Ghost Whisperer) and the “Difficult-to-Get-Along-With, Idiosyncratic Leading Man” drama (Monk, House, Shark, etc).

But that knee-jerk summation captures only the form of the show, not its substance. Because Raines uses those elements to create something, if not entirely new, then at least intriguing enough to more than make up for the nagging sense of déjà vu.   (more…)

 So Dallas Austin has apologized, sort of, to Christina Aguilera and Joss Stone for comments made in a video clip that’s been circulating around the Internet. Or has he?

In the video (which has since been pulled from YouTube), he discusses having sex with Aguilera and asserts that she and Stone sleep with producers in exchange for music for their songs. In a statement released to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, however, he doesn’t refute those claims. He also rather churlishly defends his comments, stating that he “felt justified” in talking about them in this way and that his comments “were purely an act of retaliation, not of malice or cruel intent.”

Oh, well, then — that clears everything right up! You were retaliating — but you didn’t intend to be cruel or malicious! Well, of course! After all, retribution — especially the kind that could cause serious harm to a person’s reputation regardless of its veracity — is perfectly okay! I mean, what’s more human than taking revenge on a singer by going on at length about a young woman’s sexual proclivities, implying that she’s a slut or a ho — while simultaneously propping yourself up as a stud for having partaken of her wares? After all, you weren’t acting out of malice or anything. Seriously, Dallas, who’s your publicist? Because you need to fire them for letting you make even more of an ass out of yourself.

C’mon, dude, man up. If you’re going to apologize, then say you’re sorry and leave it at that. Don’t pull this passive-aggressive B.S. where you’re apologizing out of one side of your mouth and saying “Yeah, but they deserved it” out of the other.

Read Dallas’ non-apology after the jump.  (more…)

 … at least according to hitmaking producer (and all-around class act) Dallas Austin, as revealed in this appearance on something called Rowdy TV. (Editor’s note: The video has been pulled from YouTube since this was originally posted.) In it, he also claims that Aguilera and Joss Stone have sex with producers in exchange for music for their songs.

So the inference here is that it’s skanky to sleep with producers for tracks (and to sleep with their friends) — but it’s perfectly okay to avail yourself of a pop singer willing to trade sex for tracks. Nice double standard there, D.A. 

If this guy didn’t have friends in high places, with any luck he’d still be wasting away in a posh Dubai detention facility. Wonder how Sen. Orrin Hatch, Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones feel now about having pulled strings to get Austin out of there. Great work, fellas!