Something Borrowed, Something Blue. X-Men: Apocalypse, reviewed.

I’ve enjoyed these last couple of period-piece X-Men movies, but with the 1980s-set Apocalypse, the DeLorean may at last have run out of Plutonium. Here’s my NPR review.

Wanna see a terrific movie this weekend? I recommend The Nice Guys or, if you’ve got the constitution for it, The Lobster.

Air-Conditioned Fun in the Summertime 3: Presenting My Third Annual Village Voice Summer Movie Want-List

The Nice Guys, which I expect history shall remember as my favorite film of the summer of 2016, came out last week; Captain America: Civil War, probably the best of the Marvel bunch, is old news. But Memorial Day weekend is still the traditional start of the summer movie season. Here, for the third consecutive Memorial Day weekend, is my Village Voice list of summer movies I want to see. Light up a phone in any of these and you’ll hear from me.

Bucky (and Everybody) with the Good Hair: Captain America: Civil War, reviewed.

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) Photo Credit: Film Frame © Marvel 2016

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland) Photo Credit: Film Frame © Marvel 2016

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War..L to R: Black Panther/T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Vision (Paul Bettany), Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), and War Machine/James Rhodey (Don Cheadle)…Photo Credit: Film Frame..© Marvel 2016

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War..L to R: Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), and Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan)..Photo Credit: Film Frame..© Marvel 2016

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War..L to R: Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans)..Photo Credit: Zade Rosenthal..? Marvel 2016

Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War Black Panther/T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) Photo Credit: Film Frame © Marvel 2016

For NPR: The 13th Marvel movie/third Captain America movie/third Avengers movie/fourth Iron Man movie/exciting Spider-Man & Black Panther teaser trailer is as good as you’ve heard. The first reviews went up after this screened a month ago (not in DC, for some reason), so all I could do was try to write the Blade II of Marvel movie reviews.

Unconvention Centers: The Welders’ Transmission and Solas Nua’s Wild Sky, reviewed.

In today’s Washington City Paper, I review two new plays being staged in unusual environments. The Welders’ Transmission, by playwright/performer Gwydion Suilebhan, is a thoughtful meditation on the hazards of storytelling, while Deirdre Kinahan’s Wild Sky is a human-scale look back at a pivotal moment in Ireland’s struggle for self-governance. It’s also the first show from Solas Nua in five years. I’m glad they’re back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me, reviewed for Washington Post Book World

I’ve admired music critic Steven Hyden’s writing in Grantland since I first took notice of it a couple of years ago, so I was grateful for the opportunity to review his new book, Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me: What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life, for the Washington Post. If you’d like to read an excerpt from one of my favorite chapters, about the mid-80s clash of egos between Michael Jackson and Prince, Slate ran a piece of that chapter the day that Prince died.

I haven’t written about Prince (save for a few hundred Tweets) because I’ve been busy and I’ve found the prospect of it too overwhelming. His sudden death hit me much harder than Bowie’s did. I’m not sure why. I had enormous admiration for both of them, but I listen to Prince a lot more.