A Fall From Grace
Denver, Colorado has muscled its way onto the summer festival radar with the aptly named Mile High Music Festival, scheduled to descend on the nearby town of Commerce City from July 19-20. The Saturday lineup consists of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Steve Winwood, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Spoon, moe. and others while Sunday is sure to draw a giant crowd with Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, The Black Crowes, The Roots, and Leftover Salmon among the confirmed artists. The proliferation of festivals this year is an interesting development as promoters have clearly latched onto the notion that they are profitable if staged under the right circumstances. However, as more and more city-adjacent events arise, the traditional festival consciousness is being diluted due to an absence of unity that would manifest from a group camping scenario. To be honest, Mile High is more of an all-day concert than festival and concern grows as to what will happen if this model proves more successful than the traditional counterpart. Attendance figures will ultimately determine which ones return or fall to the wayside, so take that into consideration when gassing up the car for a weekend excursion to simply enjoy live music because what happens behind-the-scenes to bring it all together is far more complex.
Now on DVD, watch Southland Tales at your own risk. This depiction of America three years after dual nuclear attacks in Texas is frightening, perplexing, and frustrating as it ultimately implodes from a rare filmic ailment: an abundance of unique ideas. Setting aside the religious overtones, the eccentric performances that serve as an (un)intentional homage to the oeuvre of David Lynch, and the far-fetched space-time continuum subplot, we’re still left with a myriad of concepts that clash against one another much like the out-of-control rioters of this alternate Los Angeles. Those who brave the two-and-a-half hour running time will find some rewards buried deep within the rubble; the presentation of the news media as an unceasing window into violence and terror in the streets is not that far removed from our current broadcasts. Extrapolating the Patriot Act of today into what is termed the USIDent system in Southland is also not so far-fetched given the proclivity of the United States to protect its borders and population through whatever means necessary. The ensemble cast including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, John Laroquette, and Jon Lovitz amounts to a talented pool of actors reciting incredulous dialogue. Six years after Donnie Darko, director Richard Kelly’s follow-up aims for the stars but only reaches the stratosphere before the gravity of the scripted situation pulls it back to Earth in a twisted heap of wreckage. If you’re feeling daring, give it a chance, but don’t say that Wear & Tear never warned you.
RSS FEED