Year of Critique

Oldboy Park Chan-wook Review:  As far as foreign film making goes, there are few directors with as large a catalogue of quality films as Park Chan-Wook. It seems according to my friends that he releases banger after banger - but for some reason,  " Oldboy " stands above them all as the most critically acclaimed. I think after watching the film, I can see why, but having seen it I can also see how a Director with this many good ideas could have many films that dedicated fans think far surpass it. Let's talk about why I think this movie is so well received, and why I personally did not love it as much as some of my friends.          Now I wanna get out of the way that  " Oldboy " is an incredibly difficult film to talk about spoiler free. I don't know if I've ever seen a Movie that's more important to watch blind, so if you do want that perfect blind watch, I'll tell you that it is undoubtedly worth your time and that you will prob...

Black Earth Bohren & Der Club of Gore Review: This year has been an exploration in what music means to me. For much of my life music has been but an avenue for me to sing or otherwise enhance the experience of other activities. This means that most everything I've listened to this year, the highly conceptual, often times narratively driven music has been almost a waking up of sorts. My values in music have changed so much from the beginning of the year to now, and yet when I listen to Bohren & Der Club of Gore's  I'm brought back to understanding just how good music to enhance experiences really can be.           " Black Earth "  is the fourth studio album by the band  Bohren & Der Club of Gore  and after listening to their other post saxophone stuff I can definitely say it is my favorite by them of this type - see for a long time the individual members of  BDCG  were in hardcore bands named "7...

Hello everyone! Sorry there was such a delay in getting my reviews out, I was in Europe for two weeks so of course there was a slight delay in getting everything out. I'm back now though, so without further ado here are my picks for August! Theme: Artificial Intelligence Album: Kid A Radiohead Why I chose this Album: I've had my eyes on the theme of " Artificial Intelligence " for quite a while. Earlier this year during my own time I listened to the album "OK Computer" by Radiohead and was completely blown away by how good it was - and was told that this album, the direct sequel, was just as good. I've heard that it's one of the most influential albums of all time, the greatest left turn in history, and the most successful transition in style of any band ever. It's been built up a lot and I would've listened to it earlier had I not been doing YOC, but I knew from the beginning of the year that I wanted to pick this album ...

Super Mario Galaxy Nintendo Review: " Super Mario Galaxy " is the definitive Mario title of my generation. It's a game that was on the shelf of every household of every switch owner I know, and is generally seen as one of the greatest games in the franchise when matched with its sequel "Super Mario Galaxy 2". Perhaps looking at my rating would lead you to think that I don't believe this is true, and I do have to say that at this current point in time I find it quite difficult to decide how exactly I feel this game stacks up to its contemporaries. On the one hand the visual presentation, theming, and score of the game are far and away the best in the series. On the other, it feels like there are a lot of steps backward the game makes in taking to its new gameplay elements. This is the nature of innovation but it's unfortunate to say that some of the standard Mario gameplay elements are put on the backburner. I'll elaborate a bit more on...

Dune Frank Herbert "He who controls the spice, controls the universe." - Vladimir Harkonnen Review: It surprises me that Frank Herbert's  " Dune " is not more popular than it is with how much influence it has had over the Science Fiction genre. It wasn't until last year when myself and a couple of friends decided and failed to start a book club that I even heard about this novel as it was by far the book everyone wanted to read the most. Things fell apart though and people ended up reading it on their own time. Now with my Year of Critique it's finally time for me to join the club! My friends let me know that they felt pretty positively about it and it is in fact the second best selling Science Fiction novel of all time, so surely it must be good right? Well as is true of any rhetorical question in review format, no I don't really think it's all that good - and before I get flamed by hardcore  " Dune " fans I do  no...

2001: a space odyssey Stanley Kubrick Review/Critique: It has been over 50 years since the release of " 2001: a space odyssey " and it is still heralded as the definitive Sci-fi film. It has inspired many of the most famous pieces of popular media since its release (Wall-E and the Portal series for example) and is directed by one of the most famous names in all of cinema, Stanley Kubrick. This film has been built up so much for me that had it not come out over 50 years ago I'm unsure any other film could match the hype I had going into it. Due to it coming out so long ago though, almost nobody I know actually talks about the film aside from mentioning its title. This means aside from the famous quote "I can't do that Dave" from the AI "HAL" and the title, I knew nothing of this film when watching it. I think that was for the best, and now having reflected on it a bit more I feel comfortable saying that  " 2001: a space odyssey ...

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars David Bowie Review: It's not all that often that an album comes around that completely changes the type of music I like. The first three times I listened to " Ziggy Stardust " I wasn't all that impressed. I didn't think it was bad, I just wasn't really all that fond of the sound coming from it and didn't really understand why the artist was so beloved. This is in fact David Bowie's most famous album that I believe is super representative of the most famous era in his musical career, so I figured it just wasn't for me - thought I would give it a three and move on. Well luckily I gave this album some more time time to grow on me and upon listen number four something just clicked for me. At the time of writing this review I have listened to this album over a dozen times and it's got to be one of the most addicting albums I have ever listened to. It's to the point that...