Weekend Reviews

Just to remind, @@@@@ is the highest rating.

Friday Night Lights - Movie
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This well-made movie about high school football in Odessa, Texas -- and the accompanying fanaticism -- is notable for a lack of sheen and sentimentality, unlike Remember the Titans (though I also like that film). Although it takes a few creative liberties, it is based on a true story and told in it's straightforward, almost flat, manner, it feels pretty real.

Wilco - Auditorium Theatre - Sat. 10/30/04
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The band rocked harder, and to me was loads better than in a dreary, overly folksy show I saw back in August 2002. In the Auditorium, Wilco sounded great and while as a fan of Being There and Summerteeth (even more so than their more recent albums, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot & A Ghost Is Born) I would've preferred a few more choice cuts from those albums, I certainly can't complain about the quality of what they played.

Sweeney Todd - Musical - Porchlight Theatre - Sat. 10/30/04
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An excellent performance of Sondheim's macabre masterpiece. Though the grisly, unredeeming story is always a bit off-putting, the songs are first-rate and were wonderfully sung in this Porchlight Theatre production at the Theatre Building. Michael Aaron Lindner in the title role may have seemed a tad young for the part, but gave an excellent rendering nonetheless. Sondheim is such an icon of musical theatre, it is almost easy to take the genius of his music & lyrics for granted, but even if a song about making pies out of deceased humans sounds incredibly disgusting, Sondheim's wordplay is so adroit, you can't help but smile.

Going Upriver - Movie about John Kerry & Vietnam
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This rating recognizes the quality of the movie; I'll talk more about my impressions in another post.