hot mess

Good, Not Great (Bon Iver, 22 A Million)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

I’m glad I went to art school. I was exposed to a lot of people looking to impress, but without anything real to offer up. The struggle of the artist isn’t one of employment, it’s whether they can commit to a purpose and authentically represent it.

Too many posers walk around pretending they suffer, when they should put their nose to the grindstone and be affected for once. Yeah I’m feeling salty on this one.

Bon Iver – 22 A Million
released September 30, 2016
****** 6/10

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Bon Iver is a multi-instrumentalist group headed by Justin Vernon, one that focuses on indie folk and which has been around since 2007. They’ve put out 3 full-length studio albums at this point, but it has been five years since their last album was released.

22 A Million is more of an experiment then anything. Lots of the songs go into unique directions, ascending and descending, depending on the song, but often cutting short before we see a real resolution. I think I may have been spoiled this year dear readers, there have been so many great album releases that Bon Iver didn’t really have a chance.

I should be more clear with my intent – it feels like the songs have lost all interest in established forms of songwriting, and they don’t really help us to whatever atmosphere the group had strived for; thanks Justin and friends. It’s a challenge against convention, a battlecry against form, but the other team didn’t want to show up.

Folk music is in a difficult place these days it seems. While pop music has continued to explore what’s possible and even make conceptual decisions that are exciting, especially this past year, folk artists that dabble in pop should be uniquely poised to come out ahead. And yet, this album feels a lot like the late oughts. I find it very confusing. We’ve explored these themes already.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed parts of this album and it sounds beautiful, but as a professor of mine once said, I’m grading you based on your own ability and not on a preset standard, because that’s the only way you’ll grow. After all, I think it can be exciting when we reject tradition in favour of exploration, but exploration for explorations sake? Come on Bon Iver, wake up.

This album is a complete mess in terms of it’s composition. I might as well be listening to a 35 minute solo track in long form.

Literally every song on this album features some sort of dichotomy, good vs evil, up vs down, I could go on, but the point being made is one of tension. Even the song titles are written with symbols and avant garde grammar, it’s pretentious and we’ve seen that trick before too – leet speak is dead. Maybe I’m completely off my rocker here folks, but 22 A Million is not groundbreaking, it’s evocative, haunting, and a great jazz session. We should look at this as more of a mixtape then anything, and hopefully when the rest of the world wakes up, Bon Iver will have put their pants back on.

 

 

 

Maybe that was a harsh criticism, but I really do believe these guys are capable of a lot more than we saw on this record. I want to believe that this was just a misstep, but the flourishes and fawning of the masses over this record are driving me nuts friends. Listen to this one at your own discretion, but don’t for a second fall into the hype. It’s good, not great.

Tim!

 

Turtle Soup (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Sometimes life throws you lemons, and so you make lemonade. Other times it throws you lemons and you plant a lemon try, because who has time to make lemonade? That was a throwback to yesterday’s post if you didn’t catch it, but also applies to the story of the day folks.

I have a friend that’s been making lemons for a little while now, but they finally started to get productive and dig themselves out of a pretty deep hole.

 

 

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

Cast: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Laura Linney, Stephen Amell, Tyler Perry, Brian Tee
Director(s): Dave Green
released on blu-ray September 20, 2016
*** 3/10

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IMDB: 6.1
Rotten Tomatoes: 38%, Audience Score 50%
The Guardian: */*****

 

David Green is an American film and music video director. He has directed Earth to Echo, and most recently, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.

It’s going to be hard to give this movie any positive accolades because it basically ripped off large parts of TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze, though it did introduce better henchmen in Bebop and Rocksteady, which I’m personally thankful for.

It’s a tale as old as time, four heroes are living in squalor because they cannot accept the recognition they deserve, instead giving it to a minor character who abuses the praise. However, the heroes are then given a second chance to demonstrate their prowess, and after some challenges which include in-fighting over leadership and what course should be taken, the group bands together and takes down an even greater foe. This time they have the opportunity to be seen as the true heroes they are, but they decide to stay where they are, preferring to keep their secrecy.

That’s the shortest and nicest summary I could have come up with for TMNT: Out of the Shadows. Because quite frankly, it’s a hot mess.

I personally thought the turtles were less creepy this time around, both in their presentation and with the flirtations against April, which allowed me to invest in them as characters, but where the crew improved upon the turtles, the supporting cast doesn’t help much at all.

For instance, April O’Neil (Megan Fox) gets less screen time, but when she does show up onscreen, it’s usually to help move the plot forward/feature as a sex object. But Dr. Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry) is an oddball scientist and cameraman Vern (Will Arnett) makes almost no connecting jokes. Also the inclusion of Krang feels somewhat shoehorned in, and we never get to connect the dots over why he wants to leave Dimension X nor why Earth is a great choice to migrate to.

Pros: The action scenes are more fun, the turtles banter is more relevant, and I cannot emphasis this enough, they are WAY less creepy to look at.

Cons: The story is bland, the supporting cast is painful to watch, and the ending just doesn’t make sense. Need I say more?

Runtime: 1 hour 52 minutes

Points of Interest: The mutagen in this film is purple, much like that from the 1987 cartoon, which had a whole host of varieties. This is the first live-action TMNT to feature Krang.

While it is pretty obvious I didn’t love this movie, I will admit that it felt a lot closer to the heroes in a half shell that we know and love than the bastard child of 2014. I will also caution parents of small children to share the other movies and cartoons with their offspring if they are going to watch this movie, because it’s not okay to only call them Leo, Donnie, Raph, and Mikey. Those turtles are much more interesting then Michael Bay gives kids credit for. Seriously, there will be shell to pay.

 

 

 

As mentioned numerous times already, this is not an excellent film by any means. It doesn’t improve on anything already canon in the TMNT universe nor does keep up with the continuity proper. However, it does appear to be the case that the franchise is making a u-turn after many months off course. So with that said, I can suggest you watch this movie if you really like TMNT. Otherwise, it’s probably best left in the shadows.

Tim!