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I Am Eleven Explores a Number Rather Than Lives
Here’s how an 11-year-old French girl describes the future. “There are flying cars, dogs who eat screws and batteries, and aliens have captured the world,” she gushes. But then she slows, thinks harder, folds her arms, kicks her legs in their black leggings. Inspiration strikes: “And every human being has a huge house, and human […]
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SONIC WALKABOUT
Vocalist Nai Palm, who wields an Ibanez Artstar guitar and often appears garlanded with most of a midtown notions store’s contents, fronts Melbourne quartet Hiatus Kaiyote. Despite the vintage punk-rock moniker, her voice is all cool, honeyed soul, and there’s a whole lot of everything going on around her. Kaiyote’s economical debut, Tawk Tomahawk, opens […]
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In Mockumentary The Magician, Hit Men Have Feelings Too
Ye gods, it’s another mockumentary. In this one, Melbourne hit man Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan, who also wrote, directed, and produced the film after apparently going on a Tarantino binge) is followed around by his slightly dim next-door neighbor, a budding filmmaker looking for his big break. With camera rolling, Ray alternately plies the tools […]
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First Time’s the Charm for Animal Kingdom Director David Michod
Debut films usually come with qualifications. They have limited budgets and scopes. They get called “small,” patted on the head, and judged on a curve. Which is precisely what Australian writer-director David Michôd, whose first feature Animal Kingdom opens next Friday in New York, worked hard to avoid. Part crime drama, part coming-of-age tale, part […]
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Eddy Current Suppression Ring+Pissed Jeans
These nice Melbourne lads started a sensation here on these shores with their second album, 2008’s Primary Colours (note spelling), and with good reason. Their brand of punky garage beat our own recent native-grown brands just by ditching such cutesy pretenses like irony and self-consciousness. The band’s pay-off was critical acclaim but not commercial success—probably […]
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Eulogy for Black Caesar
Eeeeeeyow. Gud gaad. Aintit fonkeenah? James Brown knew how to freak the tribal speak and the tribal feet alike—the tribal neckbone and irrepressible tribal hambone too. Being a poet, a boxer, and a onetime Pentecostal supplicant, the Godfather knew a thing or two about being hit with the spirit and hit with the quickness; he […]