The Brown Note Movie Review

The second excellent album from a Californian modern/alt-pop artist who gets nowhere near the respect or acclaim she deserves, and is far more thrilling and individualistic than most of her more lauded peers.

The full title of the compilation of the year - and an essential own and analogous to the classic Nigeria 70 collection, broke my computer it's so long. It's also the perfect reflection of this awesome psych-funk-soul-rock-RnB music.

Congo Funk! - Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Kinshasa​/​Brazzaville 1969​-​1982) (Analog Africa No. 38)

My biggest gripe in recent years, is one of the worst ever eras of music critics, clamming so many mid-tier female solo pop/rnb & rap albums are masterpieces. Witness my most overrated album from last year, from Caroline Polachek. Or anything by Beyonce. So here we are with this years anointed album of the year. All I can say is that I am always fair.

The esteemed post-rock(?) trio are three decades in and with increasing gaps between albums - a whopping twelve years this time between drinks. There latest is a unexpected balm for anxious times, near true ambient music in its way of sucking negative emotions out of you and replacing them with more meditative and positive energy.

Doug Liman is a massively underappreciated and endlessly malleable director - from Swingers to The Bourne Identity to Edge of Tomorrow to Road House. Given the cast he gets is near perfect for this kind of sub-Tarantino crime film, that makes this a let down on nearly every level. Just about passable. Casey Affleck is great though.

I did not have esteemed auteur director, Richard Linklater, swerving into Rom-coms i my 2024 bingo. Other than being a tiny bit superficial and slight, this film is an utter blast. Very funny and with two of the most engaging leads of the year. Glen Powell excels as the titular fake hit man (based on a very real person) and for fans of Triple Frontier, finally Hollywood seems to be catching on to the gorgeous, electric presence of Adria Arjona. Think Grosse Point Blank more than Pretty Woman.

The relentless reboot and remake cycle reaches the once unthinkable - lets re-do Beverly Hills Cop. Though the electric magic of the original is missing, it's powered across the line by a star missing from our screens (other than in donkey form) for far too long, Eddie Murphy is completely undiminished, possibly due to witchcraft.

We all hoped superhero comic book movies had died off. First with a perfect Endgame to the MCU universe, then a run of genuinely terrible and unsuccessful movies. But no, nothing will stop them, even the most cynical and creatively bankrupt act in major franchise movie history - recasting your most popular actor as a new character. This is some Bobby Ewing level garbage.

Director Jeff Nichols latest, is a superb subject with a great cast. It's also sadly, trite, superficial and far less than sum of its visually gorgeous parts.

The first post slap-heard-around-the-world Will Smith movie, is another broadly successful entry into the unexpectedly rebooted franchise, though with far less narrative ambition than its predecessor.