DVD | HIGH AND LOW
Akira Kurosawa / Criterion
And this is a prime example of why Akira Kurosawa is one of the great masters of his craft, oft imitated but never surpassed. This film moves seamlessly between taut suspense thriller to laser-focused social commentary, subtly blending in wry cultural observations with surgical precision. The end result is nothing less than a timeless portrait of a society caught between the reactionary hold of the past and the gleaming promises of a post-Industrial future, echoing particularly Japanese sentiments of confusion, apathy and anxiety. Toshiro Mifune is, as always, spectacular as Kingo Gondo, a wealthy businessman whose family becomes entangled in an ever-more intricate web of lies.

DVD | SHINE A LIGHT
Martin Scorsese / Paramount
I’m at an impasse here. On one hand, we have one of the most talented directors to ever grace cinema calling the shots behind the camera; on the other hand, the band in front of the camera hasn’t been relevant since the early ’70s. Let’s face it, folks: the Rolling Stones have long lost any sense of pure rock and roll sincerity, their rotting corpses representing nothing more than the basest human desire to cash in. Even Scorsese’s electrifying direction can’t revive these dead men walking.

CD | BLOOD, LOOMS AND BLOOMS
Leila / Warp
I’ve never cared much for electronic music; it’s either all terribly dreary ambient bullshit or some idiotic piece of tripe dominated by the incessant pull of the backbeat. But I’m loving this album, the first from Iranian-born Leila in nearly eight years. It’s unexpected in all the best ways, loosely grooving between anxious click-technology paeans to playful teases based on torchsong jazz. It’s melodic, it’s atmospheric, and it even has a danceable beat or two; what’s not to love?

BOOK | HEAVY METAL ISLAM: ROCK, RESISTANCE, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF ISLAM
Mark LeVine / Three Rivers Press
Well, there you have it. Metal will save the world. LeVine’s lively travelogue about his years spent headbanging across the Middle East is both informative and highly entertaining, providing both insightful cultural context and thoughtful analyses. In a society where the political consumes the general discourse, it’s heartening to read that the faithful are staying strong, expressing the new progressive face of Islam through a common language that’s universally understood. Hail Satan, dudes. Hail, hail.

BOOK | HOW FICTION WORKS
James Wood / Farrar, Straus and Giroux
I was totally excited when I saw this, because I really want to know what James motherfuckin’ Woods has to say about writing fiction. But then I realized that this was written by James Wood, a poncey prick of a literary critic who’s too busy gagging on the balls of the Realists and the Modernists to actually know what good fiction reads like.  Stop quoting Henry James ya nancy, or I’m gonna have to get the Irish Holy Trinity (Beckett, Joyce and O’Brien, god bless) to collectively cockslap ya across yer face.