MetroPulse Stories: Arts and Entertainment

'Scum' and 'Life Is Sweet' Serve Up Divergent Views of the British Working Class

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:56:00 -0000

Scum and Life Is Sweet, a pair of older British films out now in new video editions, offer two contrasting and indelible visions of that most endlessly gawkable aspect of British life—its working class.

Does the Audience Really Get the Satirical Thriller 'The Purge'?

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:15:00 -0000

Sometimes the reaction to a movie is more interesting than the movie itself. Such is the case with The Purge, the futuristic home-invasion tale from writer/director James DeMonaco, which set a record last weekend when it grossed $36.4 million—a bigger opening than any other original, R-rated horror film to date.

'Louder Than Hell': New "Definitive" History of Heavy Metal Misses the Mark

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 15:12:00 -0000

By trying to cover the entire scope of loud, fast music over the past 50 or so years via interviews with those who played it, recorded it, or released it, Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman allow the music itself to cede center stage to tales of tour-bus excess and vicious infighting.

Magic Thriller 'Now You See Me': A Con Job, But a Fun One

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:56:00 -0000

Now You See Me is supposed to leave us thinking about the many parallels between movies and stage magic. We go into both with a willingness to be tricked—we know it’s all an illusion, but we’re partners in the artifice.

New Marble City Opera Seeks to Fill a Knoxville Niche

Wed, 29 May 2013 18:54:00 -0000

Marble City Opera is a partnership of two Knoxville singers: soprano and artistic director Kathryn Frady Marvel and baritone Kevin Richard Doherty, a University of Tennessee School of Music alumnus who will serve as general director. The pair is seeking to define and add a sorely needed layer to Knoxville’s already diverse music and performance scene—chamber-style opera.

Haskel Wexler Blurs Fact and Fiction in 'Medium Cool'

Wed, 29 May 2013 16:01:00 -0000

Intermittently out of circulation since its 1969 debut, Medium Cool returns in a typically luxe new Criterion DVD/Blu-ray edition, and, despite some of its dated aspects, it retains a provocativeness as bright and pungent as a fresh coat of paint.

Out of the Attic: Making Friends With 'The Woman Upstairs'

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:07:00 -0000

The Woman Upstairs starts aggressively: “How angry am I? You don’t want to know. Nobody wants to know about that.

'Fast and Furious 6': The Best Bad Movie of the Summer

Wed, 29 May 2013 14:48:00 -0000

Having struck an uneasy truce with Dwayne Johnson’s caricatured super-spook at the end of Five, the F&F gang are back on alert when Johnson finds himself up against an international gang of auto-savvy thieves hell-bent on constructing some sort of military communications disruptor—and he knows just the team to take them on!

Q&A: Fanboy Expo Celeb and 'Star Wars' Icon Billy Dee Williams

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 29 May 2013 14:42:00 -0000

Billy Dee Williams was tagged as the “black Clark Gable” early in his career, and the description wasn’t that far off the mark: His striking good looks, wealth of charisma, and easygoing acting style made him an overnight leading man of the old school. But then George Lucas came calling, and Williams was vaulted into a whole other universe with The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

Shane Carruth's Follows 'Primer' With the Perplexing But Rewarding 'Upstream Color'

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:11:00 -0000

That Upstream Color even exists represents both a triumph and a rebuke to the mainstream film-production system that couldn’t spring for a work this daring and, for all its polish, most likely inexpensive.

Baz Luhrmann’s 'Great Gatsby': All Spectacle, No Heart

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:48:00 -0000

Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby has quite a bit going for it: an epic soundtrack; eye-popping art direction; a titanic-sized (or Titanic-sized) budget, courtesy of co-producer Jay-Z; a number of radiant performances; and source material from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great American Novel. It also kinda sucks.

Q&A: Food Writer Francis Lam

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:27:00 -0000

In this era where everyone who Instagrams his lunch and posts it on Tumblr fancies himself a food writer, Francis Lam is the real deal.

Studio Ghibli’s Torch Is Not Quite Passed Yet With 'From Up on Poppy Hill'

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:35:00 -0000

From Up on Poppy Hill is a fine film. But it’s not a great one.

The Emporium Keeps Its Standards High With a New Exhibit of Contemporary Polish Prints

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:47:00 -0000

Upon recently rewatching Roman Polanski’s The Pianist as my nod to the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto’s Jewish uprising, I was reminded of how intrigued I am by Poland and its history. But even though I have traveled to other Eastern European countries, I’ve somehow missed Polska. So I’m excited that the Marek Maria Pienkowski Foundation has brought art from Poland to Knoxville. Until June, the Arts and Culture Alliance presents works from the Wroclaw School of Printmaking, produced by professors and teaching assistants at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design, as part of the larger Wroclaw Faculty of Graphic Arts and Media Art Exhibition.