Reviews 50 Beardy from Hell

The Humans

Genre Drama Reviewer Linda Heller-Salvador

In Stephen Karam’s haunting film directing debut, which he adapted from his award-winning Broadway play titled The Humans, strange noises don’t just go bump in the night, they creep into the subconscious and play unusual tricks on the unsuspecting mind. With a fly-on-the-wall approach, Karam has created a powerful warts and all observation of a dysfunctional family in all its glory.

What starts as a friendly Thanksgiving gathering for three generations of the Blake family soon deteriorates into a passive-aggressive display of pent-up grievances and secrets which only intensifies the foreboding atmosphere permeating the air within their dilapidated apartment.

Richly textured character performances from the small cast consisting of Richard Jenkins, Jayne Houdyshell, Steve Yeun, Beanie Feldstein, Amy Schumer and June Squibb, as well as the intimate cinematography by Lol Crawley, result in an intriguingly atmospheric and darkly amusing slow-burn film that addresses themes of loneliness, anxiety, conflicts, love, mortality and how we confront our demons.

As Above, So Below

Label Loma VIsta Recordings Reviewer @aldothewriter Rating  I’m not sure why As Above, So Below isn’t generating more buzz. It is an absolutely scorching album. Perhaps it is the weirdly placed second track, ‘Lane’, which does it no favours by featuring an incredibly lazy Denzel Curry verse and destroying all momentum generated by the intro. Skip that and you’re literally dancing. Sampa has borrowed heavily from the best of Kendrick and (the old) Kanye, which could be because they’ve borrowed heavily from Zambian music, I don’t know, but whatever, it works. The song ‘Bona’ is like some wonderful cocktail of the former’s ‘ADHD’ and latter’s ‘Black Skinhead’ - drink it up!

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

Asphalt Meadows

Label Atlantic Records Reviewer @aldothewriter Rating 

Just when the world thought it was done with sad, old white men, Death Cab For Cutie drop this glorious ode to self-indulgent and snarky misery on us. It has been some time since they released anything that equated to more than dreary moaning, but Asphalt Meadows is a delightful return to form. They’ve ditched the attempts at jazzing up their production and have returned to what they do best; simple melodies, with some stingingly sharp lyrics. Did you know when you Google image search lead singer Ben Gibbard, the next suggestion is ‘sad’? The second one is ‘running’, which I must admit surprised me.

THE MARS VOLTA

The Mars Volta

Label Clouds Hill Reviewer @aldothewriter Rating 

These guys blew my mind at Big Day Out nearly twenty years ago and they’ve blown it again by making me realise that was nearly twenty years ago. Life goes fast, people; hug your loved ones and eat more mangos. I don’t expect they move around quite like they did back then, but they still have great energy. A Mars Volta album has always been an epic journey, but this feels less a frenzied, hallucinogenic gambol through a Mexican forest, and more an afternoon in a steamy Oaxacan beach bar. Twenty years on, I think I’d pick the beach bar, but who knows where the evening will take us…