Category Archives: Reviews

A Jar of Flies, A Bottle of Lightning


This year marks the 30th(!) anniversary of Alice In Chains’ seminal EP “Jar of Flies,” and a haunting question still echoes through the halls of rock music:

What the hell happened to rock music?

In 1994, grunge was king. Kurt Cobain’s anguished howls and Eddie Vedder’s impassioned growls dominated the airwaves. Alice In Chains’ “Jar of Flies” proved that even unplugged, grunge could top the charts. The future of rock seemed assured, a brave new world of flannel and feedback.

Fast forward three decades, and we’re left with a genre-shaped hole where rock’s next evolutionary step should be. Grunge, it turns out, was less a beginning than an ending – rock’s last great gasp before slipping into a coma it has yet to wake from.

Sure, we’ve had pretenders to the throne. Green Day could thrash. Black Keys too. Trent Reznor was no dandy. But none managed to capture the zeitgeist – or the charts – quite like grunge did.

Today’s musical landscape is dominated by hip-hop, pop, and whatever genre-bending pablum is currently trending on TikTok. Rock, once the voice of youth rebellion, now feels like your dad’s music – comfortable, familiar, but hardly revolutionary.

The irony is palpable. Grunge, with its disdain for commercial success and music industry machinery, inadvertently killed the very machine that had propelled rock to cultural dominance for decades. In rejecting the star-making system, grunge stars became the last real rock stars.

It’s not that great rock music isn’t being made. It is, in basements and bars across the country. But it no longer drives the cultural conversation. Rock, like jazz before it, has become a niche interest – respected, occasionally brilliant, but no longer essential.

I know we’re still angry as a people; rock just no longer seems to be the medium to express it.

As I revisit the raw emotion and haunting melodies of “Jar of Flies,” I’m reminded not just of grunge’s power, but of its finality. There’s a reason so many of its talismen have tombstones.

In exploring disillusionment, detachment and drug abuse, Alice In Chains captured lightning in a bottle – or perhaps, more fittingly, a jar. And in the 30 years since, no one has managed to replicate that magic.

Rock isn’t dead. It’s just irrelevant. Nothing a little Layne Staley couldn’t fix.

Jojo Rabbit: We Could Be Heroes


Usually, Deja Vieweds are reserved for classic, under-the-radar gems.

Consider this aspirational, because it deserves discovery.

“Jojo Rabbit” is a daring tightrope walk across the chasm of history, and writer-director Taika Waititi never loses his footing. It’s funny, tearful, and lyrical as all get out.

This audacious satire of Nazi Germany, seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, manages to be simultaneously hilarious, heartbreaking, and profoundly human.

Waititi’s film is a masterclass in tonal balance. It mocks the absurdity of fascism while never diminishing the real horrors of the era. The laughs come fast and furious, particularly from Waititi himself as an imaginary, buffoonish Adolf Hitler, but they’re always tinged with an undercurrent of darkness.

Young Roman Griffin Davis is a revelation as Jojo, a Nazi youth whose world is upended when he discovers his mother (a luminous Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic. Davis carries the film with a performance that’s both achingly vulnerable and wickedly funny.

But it’s Thomasin McKenzie as Elsa, the hidden Jewish teenager, who truly steals the show. Her quiet strength and sardonic wit provide the perfect counterpoint to Jojo’s misguided fanaticism.

“Jojo Rabbit” is that rarest of films – a comedy about one of history’s darkest chapters that never feels exploitative or disrespectful. Instead, it uses humor as a tool to dismantle hate, showing how even the most indoctrinated can learn to see the humanity in others.

Waititi has crafted a modern classic that will be studied and debated for years to come. It’s a film that dares to find laughter in the depths of human cruelty, all while delivering a powerful message about love, acceptance, and the absurdity of hate.

“Jojo Rabbit” is nothing short of triumph.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Godzilla Versus Kong: Really?


Just as Japan is making thoughtful monster movies, America is still pitching various themes on the same theme: Wrestlemania on Film.

Sometimes it’s in space (“Star Wars”), in cars (“Fast & Furious”) or a suit (“John Wick”). This time it’s at the zoo!

As “Godzilla Minus One” still streams on Netflix, Warner Bros has answered with its latest flushable action flick, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” It’s a shameless cash grab, with no regard for storytelling, character or even an original twist for kaiju flicks.

The plot is nonexistent, serving only to string together a series of overblown fight scenes. Godzilla and Kong duke it out in a CGI spectacle that quickly becomes as tiresome as the 386th lap of the Indy 500.

The dialogue is laughably bad. In one scene, a scientist shouts, “Do you have any idea how to stop a 300-foot lizard and a giant ape? Because I’m all ears!” Try catching “Minus One;” they have great ideas. Alexander Skarsgård and Millie Bobby Brown are wasted in roles that give them nothing to do but react to the carnage around them.

Mothra’s appearance is a travesty, a gratuitous addition that adds nothing to the story but WB merchandising hopes. Her design looks like a reject from a children’s cartoon, completely out of place in the film’s already incoherent aesthetic. The CGI is inconsistent, with Mothra looking particularly unconvincing and out of scale compared to other monsters.

The blatant product placements are obnoxious. Do we really need to see Kong chugging a Monster energy drink and Godzilla stomping through a city plastered with Samsung billboards?

The special effects are impressive but hollow, lacking any real sense of wonder or awe. It’s all style and no substance. The climactic battle in Hong Kong is a neon-lit mess, more concerned with looking cool than making any narrative sense.

In an era where monster movies can be thoughtful and engaging, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is a disappointing reminder of Hollywood’s worst tendencies. Save your time and watch something with heart and brains instead.