Culture

From 1979-1991, Minneapolis quartet The Replacements, consisting of Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars, Tommy Stinson, and Bob Stinson (and later Slim Dunlap), became known as much for their irreverent attitudes and explosive live shows as they were for penning pop-rock songs with punk appeal.

In his fifth and latest feature, The Darjeeling Limited, American writer/director Wes Anderson and his familiar cast of goofball collaborators take to India in a comic tragedy. Featured are Francis, Jack, and Peter Whitman, three estranged brothers who reunite a year after their father’s death for a “spiritual” journey of reconciliation.

Director Ang Lee has followed up his controversial 2005 hit and pop culture punchline, Brokeback Mountain, with another film that is getting more press for its sexual content than its beautiful construction.

According to IMDB.com, there have been two films called Outsourced released in the past year — with a third planned for 2008. If anything, it indicates that vanishing jobs and resentment among US workers provides fertile ground for filmmakers. Surprisingly, director John Jeffcoat’s take on the topic comes as a modest romantic comedy.

Stephen Colbert, the Johnathan Swift of cable programming and host of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report, has decided to grace the literary world with his modern-day satire. Winner of three Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Bill O’Reilly-esque news broadcasts, Colbert has authored I Am America (And So Can You!), allowing his particular brand of caricature access to yet another venue hijacked by personality-driven politics.

In Wasted Orient, documentary filmmaker Kevin Fritz attempts to avoid aesthetic pitfalls while following the regionally famous Beijing-based punk band Joyside during a multiple-city tour across China. The result is a frenetic glimpse into the daily life of a young punk band trying to break out in the country’s small and struggling rock scene.

It has been thirty-five years, and many space adventure movies have come and gone, since men last stepped on the moon. Yet in David Sington’s new documentary, In the Shadow of the Moon, the experience has never seemed so vivid and so untouchable to those of us stranded on Earth.

Verso Books will soon release a compilation of artwork by artist Stanley Donwood and singer Thom Yorke (aka Dr. Tchock), most famous for collaborating on the cover art to all of Radiohead’s albums since The Bends.

History of DJ Krush, a three-disc retrospective on the career of said artist, packages together two documentaries and a disc of videos spanning fifteen years of the ambient/trip-hop turntablist’s career.

In an age when the plastic mini-monsters known as Bratz dolls are coveted by little girls everywhere, the softies movement has taken on great significance. Craftsters, once banished to local fairs and yard sales, have now become part of a growing subculture unashamed of its Peter Pan complex and quirky vision.