US – Sunday, March 14
The Grid
The week's releases
Metro staff reviews the latest CDs, DVDs and books for your reading pleasure.
 
Music
Run this town
No living man but Jay-Z could get a sold out Boston arena so excited about New York City. But for two hours last night, the sold out crowd at the Garden was in an Empire State of Mind, as “The Blueprint 3” tour rolled into town.
 
My Television
Back in the trenches
Steven Spielberg makes strikingly vivid, breathtakingly poetic movies about some of the most terrifying conflicts in the history of man. The filmmaking aesthetic he pioneered with “Saving Private Ryan” — and continues to perfect in HBO’s new WWII miniseries, “The Pacific” — was born out of a desire to translate as honestly as possible his conversations with veterans on their combat experience.
 
The Word
Is nothing in her life real anymore?
When we first read that Heidi Pratt was firing husband Spencer Pratt as her manager, we thought, “Yay! Heidi’s new face is finally doing something right!” But then we found out that although she did fire Spencer, it seems like she’s replacing him with psychic Aiden Chase to take the reigns on her “career” — and then we got scared.
 
Movies
Pattinson: A vampire in Brooklyn
Robert Pattinson has been playing Americans so often that he has forgotten how to talk like a Brit. In his latest, “Remember Me,” the “Twilight” heartthrob stars as a soulful young New Yorker attending NYU, but he insists he didn’t need any help sounding like a native. “I’ve never had a dialect coach or anything,” Pattinson says. “Ironically, I’ve only had a dialect coach for this film I’m doing now, which I’m doing in an English accent. I guess I’ve forgotten how to do an English accent.”
 
Published 22:50, October the 22nd, 2009
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Dafoe visits hell on Earth in “Antichrist.” Dafoe visits hell on Earth in “Antichrist.”
 

Unholy crap

‘Antichrist’
Director: Lars Von Trier
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Rating: R
Grade: ➊➋➌➍➎

“Antichrist” is another solid installation into Lars Von Trier’s cannon of tragic stories about tortured women and passively abusive men. It’s like watching someone beat up Bambi and then cook him for dinner.

In the film, a therapist (Willem Dafoe) tries to treat his wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who is grieving over the death of their infant son at their oh-so-subtly named mountain retreat, Eden. Broken into sections — “Grief,” “Pain (Chaos Reigns),” “Despair (Gynocide)” and “The Three Beggars,” along with a prologue and epilogue — the film is laced with knock-you-over-the-head allusions that are so grim they border on parody. The most laughable is a talking dog, which is so out of context it severs viewers from their suspension of disbelief.

And then there’s the gratuitous close-up genital mutilation. And don’t forget the theme — women are evil.

HEIDI PATALANO
 
 
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Music
MMMpod
The March MMMpod features conversation and music from Surfer Blood and The Allman Brothers Band (There's a double-bill you're not too likely to see. However, Gregg Allman does mention Hannah Montana!). We also speak with Vampire Weekend and the Dropkick Murphys.
 
 
 
Metro Life Panel
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