Giant Robot Store and GR2 News – Tagged "MW"– Page 49 – GiantRobotStore

julia holter · melvins · Music · MW · unsane · Mar 19, 2012

New music reviews: Julia Holter, Melvins, Unsane

Naomi Yang and Julia Holter in Los Angeles (March 17, 2012)

No, it isn’t necessary to make the pilgrimage/business trip to SXSW to dig new sounds or catch up with old faves. Here are some recent releases that I love–all with some sort of connection to Giant Robot. On Saturday, for example, I was exposed to the music of Julia Holter when she came over to my house for a video shoot by my longtime friend Naomi (of Damon & Naomi, Galaxie 500, and GR mag). The publication as I knew it is no longer, but the culture lives on and grows.

MW · perfect time · pity corp · pryor praczukowski · Reviews Cinema · tad suzuki · tadashi suzuki · the working man · thy mai · wing ko · Mar 13, 2012

The Working Man and Perfect Time’s Tad Suzuki and Thy Mai

Animal Style wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Tad Suzuki and Thy Mai. It was after I sent their first film short to my friend Tim Hugh, who runs FAAIM’s Asian American Showcase in Chicago, that he suggested I curate an entire skate video program. And now their noir-inspired “The Working Man” and hyper-colored “Perfect Time” will kick off the bill on April 14.

asian american showcase · faaaim · hong kong · know1edge · lmf · MW · News · nigel ong · skate first! · skateboarding · skateboarding is love · that's i.t. · Mar 09, 2012

Skateboarding Is Love’s Nigel Ong

I was introduced to Nigel Ong when the Animal Style program was practically finished, and was only able to squeeze in one of his latest shorts. But he really deserves his own film festival. That’s I.T. (2006) not only documents one of Hong Kong’s much-loved and missed spots, but pretty much maps out the territory’s entire scene–not to mention visiting rippers including Kien Lieu, Koston, Janowsky… Yet Nigel is no scenester; his follow-up work, Skate First (2009), showed Chinese groms how to rip and his latest work, Skateboarding Is Love (2010), is 100 percent local without the locals-only vibe.

chow yun-fat · ge you · jiang wen · let the bullets fly · MW · News · Reviews Cinema · Feb 29, 2012

Chow Yun-Fat in Jiang Wen’s Let The Bullets Fly (opens in the U.S. on March 2)

With all of the polish and scale of a modern Chinese blockbuster but none of the pretense or clumsiness, Let The Bullets Fly is as fun to watch as it is stylish and epic. Unlike most of its big-budgeted, all-star peers from the Mainland, its audience members won’t feel like they’re going to be tested on an overblown and somewhat historically based script. If they look down at their cell phones, the only thing they’ll miss out on is well-delivered, clever dialogue from a stellar lineup of actors. Rising director and world-class actor Jiang Wen (In The Heat of the Sun, Red Sorghum) casts himself as the protagonist of this Western-flavored, action-sprinkled black comedy set in the 1920s: a bandit who seizes the governorship of Goose Town in order to skim money off the rich. It’s a tremendously juicy role in which he gets to display leadership, smarts, and ruthlessness, yet it pales in contrast to his on-screen adversary. Chow Yun-Fat plays the village’s gangster overlord with reckless abandon. The much-loved actor references his entire career, from the coolness of The Killer to the goofiness of God of Gamblers, and his true asset is proven not to be stylized use of firearms but endless charisma. An otherwise exceptional actor such as Ge You (To Live, Farewell My Concubine) can only be a foil as the obsequious, everyman adviser who brings the two together and can’t quite escape their escalating games of cat-and-mouse which ensue. Populating the historically unique and architecturally potent setting of Kaiping with a gang that wears masks resembling Mahjongg tiles, an array of hookers, and Chow playing his character’s half-wit body double, Jiang has no qualms mixing high and low, intrigue and comedy, or profound and profane themes. The legitimacy of government, marriage, and loyalty of any kind is questioned one after another, but whether he is depicting a ruthless-but-ultimately-pathetic power struggle between thugs or providing commentary on the interchangeability of those in power is neither clear nor important. What matters is that the film delivers on multiple levels without compromise–humor, action, tension, violence–while telling tightly sewn story with the coolest of actors. Well worth supporting on big screens across the U.S. starting on March 2, although you can watch it on demand as well. Check out the trailer and theaters at http://letthebulletsfly.wellgomovies.com/

85ive2 · 8five2 · animal style · asian american showcase · chaiya · eric murphy · faaim · hollieday · jesse neuhaus · MW · News · nigel ong · perfect time · preduce · ray barbee · skateboarding is love · stevie dread · the brotherhood: chicago · the working man · traveling sounds · Feb 24, 2012

Animal Style skateboard film program to premiere at FAAIM’s Asian American Showcase in Chicago

Sometime last year, an artful and amazing indie skate short was rejected by the International Skateboard Film Festival. My friends who made it were philosophical, but I was pissed. What was the point of calling for–and charging for–entries to such an event if it was just going to screen industry-backed skate vids (which receive big-budget premieres anyway)?

So I was motivated to hit up my friend Tim, who programs the Asian American Showcase for FAAIM in Chicago. He liked the piece a lot, and suggested that I assemble an entire program of skate videos. I thought about it and realized that I had other friends with works that had not been seen, realized, or shown in the U.S. This was a good opportunity to help get their work out.

After months of correspondence/hounding via email, the lineup has been finalized and the screenings will take place on Saturday, April 14 at the Gene Siskel Center. Tim asked me to summarize the films for festival purposes, and I thought I’d share them with you, too. What do you think? Any chance we’ll meet in Chicago? Got a screen where you’d like to show it? Let me know!