Duncan Jones vs. David Jones
on Nov 16, 2009 in East is East David Bowie Moon Bob Dylan      Duncan Jones, director of the superb Moon, is shopping a sci-fi actioner called Mute, according to the Times (UK), which sounds a little like an update of The Man Who Fell to Earth, which starred Duncan's...

Ian McKellen vs. Pope Benedict
on Nov 16, 2009 in The Prisoner atheism Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Charlie's Angels       I missed AMC's update of my favorite TV show of all time this week and will have to catch it on DVD. The notion of The Prisoner's No. 2 being played by just one actor, and a titan at that, is interesting and I also want...

Get Carter vs. Dirty Harry
on Nov 16, 2009 in Harry Brown Get Carter Death Wish Zulu Hannah and Her Sisters Michael Caine Gran Torino Clint Eastwood       Just as Eastwood played with the expectations built into his persona in Gran Torino, so Michael Caine now is harking back to the early part of his career and movies like Get Carter. In the hyper-violent urban weste...

I Got Soul vs. I'm Not a Soldier
on Nov 16, 2009 in the Killers Pearl Jam The Godfather Mariah Carey      The Killers' first concert DVD, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, confirms in close-up what I've noticed from a distance of 25 or 30 feet at their shows: Brandon Flowers is not a confident performer.      He'...

Born to Run vs. Doolittle
on Nov 16, 2009 in They Might Be Giants Steely Dan Glasvegas Roger Waters Bruce Springsteen Muse The Cure     The Washington Post weighs in on the debate about concerts recreating records in their entirety, as Springsteen, Steely Dan, Pixies, Roger Waters, Liz Phair, Judas Priest, Jay-Z, the Meat Puppets, Lou Reed, Cat Power, the Lemonhead...

Woody Harrelson vs. John Travolta
on Nov 16, 2009 in Platoon Coming Home 2012 Stop-Loss Zombieland No Country For Old Men Before Sunrise Rachel Getting Married The Messenger      The Woody Harrelson career renaissance continues with two solid performances this week, in 2012 and The Messenger, for which he's likely to get an Oscar nomination. He's on a streak that started around No Count...

Sound vs. Vision
on Nov 16, 2009 in Madonna Mick Jagger David Bowie Bob Dylan The Brooklyn Museum show "Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present," only takes up two large galleries, but comes with so many addenda and tangents it takes a while to get through. (I spent two hours there, roughly the le...

Peter Himmelman vs. Karen O
on Nov 16, 2009 in Peter Himmelman They Might Be Giants Jarvis Cocker Where the Wild Things Are Fantastic Mr. Fox       The immesurably cool Peter Himmelman -- whose New York shows I never miss, and who once sent pictures of his dog to my 5-year-old son in response to a fan letter -- shows up in an LA Times piece on rock m...

The Age of Stupid vs. 2012
on Nov 16, 2009 in Resident Evil Robbie Williams 28 Months Later Pandorum 12 Monkeys 2012 Mad Max Muse The Terminator The Road Warrior The Quiet Earth Collapse     If you judge by the recent crop of popular entertainments, which includes 9, Pandorum, Collapse, 2012 and The Road in a couple of weeks, the end must truly be nigh. Something is in the air. Add Wall-E to th...

A.O. Scott vs. Owen Gleiberman
on Nov 16, 2009 in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Martin Amis mumblecore For the Love of Movies The Passion of the Christ Where the Wild Things Are Shrek Tristram Shandy Fahrenheit 9/11 Zodiac       The Times' A.O. Scott, in this week's Sunday magazine, lists his ten most consequential movies of the decade, and it's a smartly eclectic list, unusual for the Times, which I expected to expound on the virtues...