The Disciple‘s diptych structure creates a mature, nuanced portrait of the weight of personal and professional compromise. Sharad Nerulkar — the titular disciple in Chaitanya Tamhane’s sophomore feature — is, by most accounts, unexceptional. He’s devoted his life to archiving, preserving, and, most importantly…
It’s been nearly two decades since there’s been a new motion picture written or directed by George Armitage, a name that would appear foreign to many moviegoers born after the turn of the millennium, and for some relatively good reasons. He kicked off his…
Playground in a Lake is an album of dull noodling and banal soap-boxing, offering little to digest with any measure of seriousness. Clark’s Playground in a Lake, the British electronic composer’s second classical release for Deutsche Grammophon after his OST to 2019’s Daniel Isn’t…
Facile, mawkish songwriting, bland production, and an overly-affected show of “authenticity” do major injustice to Justice. Justin Beiber wants to sell you a narrative: that the once-dumb adolescent from Ontario has grown up, found God (ok, he’s always had that), gotten married, and become…
Even ignoring the hilarity of a premise that supposes Tokyo Jetz has enough relevancy to be even be cancelled, Cancel Culture is nothing more than a bland, uninspired bit of nothing rap. What’s worse: cancel culture at large or the swath of artists aiming…
Visionland does nothing to disabuse all the clowning and dunking on that has been directed at Nahmir — it’s DOA. For about a week now, a social media massacre has taken place: YBN Nahmir — whose once budding career was deemed long over until…
If one were to properly date when Pascal Arbez-Nicolas’ cultural ascension commenced — from his humble beginning as a no-name disk jockey, steadily slumming it in France under the moniker of Hustler Pornstar — it would be easy to attribute his rise to an…
Shiesty Season is low-key, minimally-produced rap record that thrives on Pooh’s undeniable charisma and swag. T’was first decreed by the ever-ostentatious Young Thug to be the season of slime; then Gunna, his most felicitous protégée, declared it the juncture of drip. Now, there’s a new…
While frequently interesting to watch unfold, The Inheritance has no overarching vision and thus finds much of its potential political power muted. Inspired by both director Ephraim Asili’s personal experiences living in a Black radical collective and the formalism of late-’60s Godard (a giant…
Harlecore is an almost otherworldly album, built from familiar parts but singular and thrilling in every way. Danny L Harle makes music for an alternative universe, one where “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” has retained its status as the number one song in the world for…
