Music Reviews

Music

Barry Manilow: Songs From the Seventies

Barry Manilow: Songs From the Seventies

After tackling the songs of the Fifties and Sixties, there was nothing left for Barry Manilow to do but take on the Seventies. He couldn’t represent the decade’s chart-toppers...

Jennifer
Step Up 2: The Streets

Step Up 2: The Streets

We’ve all seen this plot before: Outsider rebel kid gets in trouble one too many times. S/he is going to get sent off to reform school/Japan/Texas unless… said kid...

Linda
Step Up 3D

Step Up 3D (2010)

It’s kind of funny that there is a formula to dance movies. Doesn’t anyone out there just, you know, dance for fun? To have a good time? Instead, dancing...

Linda
Black Nativity (2013)

Black Nativity (2013)

Jacob Latimore stars as Langston, a grumpy Baltimore teen whose cash-strapped single mom (Jennifer Hudson) sends him to New York City to spend Christmas with his estranged grandparents –...

Vickie
Cry-Baby

Cry-Baby

I swear, sometimes it seems like I have powers. This summer I developed the sudden and uncontrollable urge to watch Cry-Baby. I hadn’t seen it in over a decade,...

Jennifer
Duets

Duets

Do you roll up the windows so that nobody can hear you, or do you roll ‘em down and blast the volume? If this rings any bells, then you...

Tim
A Hard Day's Night

A Hard Day’s Night

Like many people, I went through my own Beatlemania, albeit a generation or two too late, when I was 16. I suddenly gained a new appreciation of my mom’s...

Linda
20 Feet From Stardom

20 Feet From Stardom

It takes a certain type of personality to be on stage, but not demand the limelight. Ever since I was a teen, I’d joke that if I were reincarnated,...

Linda
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Inside Llewyn Davis is undeniably a gorgeous looking film, capturing a moment in the 1961 when the folk movement was finding its groove. Joel and Ethan Coen, along with...

Linda
The Christmas Toy (1986)

The Christmas Toy (1986)

I was ten years old in 1987, and the one thing that paralleled my love for playing with my dollhouse was Christmas. In fact, I loved Christmas so much...

Jennifer
Wild Style

Wild Style

In the 80s as a suburban kid, my impression of hip-hop and rap came from early hits by Run-DMC and the seminal stinky (but hilarious) breakdancing films Breakin‘, Beatstreet,...

Linda
Crazy Heart

Crazy Heart

Greasy, sweaty, drunk and seeming like he’d probably reek of whiskey, cigarettes and B.O., Bad Blake (Bridges) is a once-lauded country-music star who’s so far down on his luck...

Vickie