Scott Pilgrim vs. the Box Office
This weekend, while everyone and their mother (literally, it will be a mom-filled movie weekend) is waiting in line for popcorn enlightenment via Eat Pray Love, your money would be better spent on a ticket to the very entertaining action-romance flick, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Based on the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley, the new film follows the always lovable Michael Cera in a role he typically plays—a boy in love with a girl. But this time, in order to woo his beloved Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Scott must use everything from kung fu to electric guitars to defeat her seven evil, murderous exes. With his quirky style, director Edgar Wright, the brain behind the delicious zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, takes Cera from awkward bumbler to true action icon. “It’s really about him being an unconventional hero and an unconventional romantic lead,” Wright told The Daily Beast. Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune lauds the film as “raucous, impudent entertainment,” and Moira MacDonald of The Seattle Times compares it to “an animatronic kitten that won't leave you alone.” Now, doesn’t that sound more fun than gelato and ashrams?
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(Neo) Soul Man
Although Eli “Paperboy” Reed is a singer-songwriter with a new record, Come & Get It, he could have debuted the album in 1970. Reed’s soulful style is reminiscent of classic Chicago acts (think Tyrone Davis)—not to mention that he has the pompadour to prove it. But don’t write off the Boston native as a pretender—Reed has the goods to back up his love for early soul. After graduating from high school, he relocated to Clarksdale, Mississippi, to play in the area’s infamous juke joints and blues lounges. His trademark newsboy cap earned him his nickname, and by the time he returned north to form a new band, Reed had absorbed the flavor and sounds of the Deep South. Come & Get It sounds like the dance party you’ve always wanted to attend—sweaty, upbeat, lots of brass, and a sweet crooning voice up front.
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Musical Progeny Take Note
When your father is Johnny Cash, and your mother is his first wife whom he left in a haze of barbiturate use, you are bound to have an interesting life. But Rosanne Cash has done much more than simply be her father’s daughter—she is a lovely songwriter in her own right, and her new memoir, Composed, proves she is an equally adept writer. In the autobiography, Cash begins by describing herself as a “pudgy, withdrawn girl,” and goes on to describe her parents’ rocky relationship, her formative years bouncing around London and Germany, her admiration for her father (tinged with sadness), and the songs and family stories that got her through it all.
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