Beltmann

My county in southeast WI went 67% for Trump. Huh. Usually the Republican can count on at least 70%. (I definitely live in a bubble... to my endless frustration.) My precinct, though was only 60% Trump, so there's that.

Same here. To my eyes, American Animals is one of the summer's most entertaining movies and yet fairly limited in what it wants to say. (Even when factoring in the interesting fiction/nonfiction hybrid, it's rather conventional in its ideas.) For me First Reformed is a much more thoughtful and incisive work of art, especially in its searching questions about individual spirituality, religious hypocrisy, and the intersection of churches and politics. It joins Silence and Calvary as one of the great recent movies about what it means to be a person of faith.

Four terrific films. Red is the trilogy's crowning achievement, but White is underrated, its comic touches unfairly overlooked.

Today I saw the new film American Animals, and noticed a Wilco poster on a dorm room wall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4lzoQKIF8E Not exactly "hearing" Wilco while out and about, but it still fits the spirit of the thread. I saw this trailer at our local arthouse, playing in front of a screening of "RBG." My wife and I yelped a little when we saw the cameo at the 2:09 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2YeuWYVnKs At the 1:38 mark, Scott declares Wilco's "Poor Places" his favorite song of all-time.

I've loved, loved this show from the first episode. This season has been especially ambitious.

This news is really wrecking me. Like bbop, I'm a big Frightened Rabbit fan; unlike bbop, I never had the chance to see the band live. It's hard to believe there won't be any more Hutchison songs.

Around Oscar time there seemed to be a growing, perhaps inevitable backlash to that movie. But much of the criticism seemed rooted in the knee-jerk presumption that it's intended as a work of realism rather than a fable. If the film has flaws--and I think it does--they have little to do with how it abandons reality. What struck me about “Three Billboards" is how it's less about a mother’s local activism and more about the overlapping ripple effects of two distinct acts of violence. While the lead character delivers on the caustic, funny vibe of the trailer, it's interesting to note that dire

Gobsmacked. And I thought I knew you... I'd probably vote for "Capitol City." I like the ambition, but it doesn't work for me.

Same here. Today, though, I'm going to pick "Poor Places," if only because I heard it this afternoon and loved it as much as the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzlazAyylw8 Andrew Haigh's "Lean on Pete" is ostensibly about a boy and his horse, but it's really about a boy and his environment--and the careful, observant, compassionate point-of-view makes it one of the most compelling dramas of the year so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XeK0rc_9a0 Joaquin Phoenix plays another damaged soul--this time he's Joe, a child-retrieval professional imploding under the weight of his own childhood terrors--in Lynne Ramsay's dense and surprising character study. "You Were Never Really Here" is a thriller in name only, as the usual genre conventions are completely swamped by Ramsay's fractured layers of memories, flashbacks, fantasies, and confounding tension. There's plenty of blood, but the real violence occurs inside of Joe's mind. His heart is filled with tender circles but his head is filled with h

Brian Fallon, at Turner Hall in Milwaukee.

I think that's exactly what she's up to. Her sly wink often makes it into the songs, too.

Good grief, Crow, you sure know how to make an entrance! Sorry to hear about your difficult spell, man. But I'm super glad to see you back in these parts.

Looking forward to that one, too. If you haven't yet, check out the catchy video for "It's a Shame." I'm also eager for the new Brandi Carlile, Brian Fallon, Erika Wennerstrom, and, most of all, the Eels in April.

Over the course of the year I do a solid job of seeing eventual Oscar nominees--the result, no doubt, of being a ravenous cinephile--so when the noms finally arrive I usually have few gaps to fill. This year, my initial reaction to the announced nominations was, "Dammit, now I have to see Ferdinand." Crossed that one off tonight.

This admin laughed out loud when looking through the reports.

Grabbed me instantly--sounds fantastic.

I saw 50 feature films and 24 shorts at the 15-day Milwaukee Film Festival. My favorite? "Faces Places," a collaborative documentary-essay-poem-memoir by Agnes Varda and the street artist JR. I also thought highly of "Lucky," with Harry Dean Stanton in one of his final roles; "The Summer Is Gone," a Chinese drama about how a young boy perceives China's privatization reforms; "The Blood Is at the Doorstep," a documentary about the aftermath of the killing of Dontre Hamilton; and "Maliglitut," a revenge tale set in 1913 on a small Inuit island in northern Canada. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

"That's Not the Issue," today in a Potbelly Sandwich Shop in Milwaukee.

My wife and I still count the "nuthin's" when we hear the song live. Many years ago Jeff crossed 50 at one of our shows, and the crowd went crazy.

Oh, this sounds good. Downloading now. Thanks for the heads up, SS!