Arts & Entertainment

Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.

This is PFFR

Known for their absurdly irreverent comedies, produced for MTV2 and Cartoon Network’s sister channel Adult Swim, writers/producers/comedians John Lee and Vernon Chatman are showcasing several special video clips, and holding a Q & A during POP Montreal this weekend.

The dirty dozens

12 Years a Slave is agony in the fullest sense of the word. Chronicling the life of Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841, the film sees director Steve McQueen (Hunger; Shame) at the very zenith of his formidable artistic talent. It takes a horrific portrayal to capture a horrific institution. 12 Years is a mesmerizing, intoxicating tale of man’s capacity for both unspeakable cruelty and incalculable courage.

Could be good

Germany’s all-time best-selling musician Herbert Grönemeyer, fresh from the release of his new album I Walk, plays one of two Canadian dates of his live tour in Montreal.

Album Review: Man Man – On Oni Pond

The more their career has progressed, the more Philadelphia-based experimental rock band Man Man has reined in their sound. Whereas their first LPs, The Man in a Blue Turban with a Face and Six Demon Bag, were full of frenetic yelps and bursts of energy, their latest release, On Oni Pond, finds the band following the polished direction of 2011’s Life Fantastic.

Blue Jasmine : a riches to rags story

Jasmine French—the character that Cate Blanchett is already generating serious Oscar buzz for portraying in Blue Jasmine—behaves like she could have been plucked right off the set of another Oscar-caliber film: Titanic. Jasmine is an obnoxious, narcissistic social climber who, like the Titanic itself, is sinking dramatically throughout the movie.

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