The best new books, films, and music out this month
Ten Years After
On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Hollywood producer Jim Whitaker gives us a healing gift with Rebirth. Following the fortunes of five people whose lives were shattered on that day, we see the phoenix of human resilience slowly rise from the deepest grief.
Major League
As a onetime failed baseball rookie turned mortified general manager of the dismal Oakland A’s, Brad Pitt shows us once again just how good he is in Moneyball, a true and hilarious story of mind over matter by the equally gifted Bennett Miller (Capote).
As a onetime failed baseball rookie turned mortified general manager of the dismal Oakland A’s, Brad Pitt shows us once again just how good he is in Moneyball, a true and hilarious story of mind over matter by the equally gifted Bennett Miller (Capote).
Wings of Desire
Gus Van Sant takes a busman’s holiday from his acclaimed experimental flicks with Restless, starring a delicately handsome Henry Hopper (Dennis’ kid) and the reliably wonderful Mia Wasikowska as youthful bohemians who salvage first love from the cruel onrush of death.
Gus Van Sant takes a busman’s holiday from his acclaimed experimental flicks with Restless, starring a delicately handsome Henry Hopper (Dennis’ kid) and the reliably wonderful Mia Wasikowska as youthful bohemians who salvage first love from the cruel onrush of death.
Album to Buy: The Rip Tide, Beirut
Zach Condon, aka Beirut, has on previous records celebrated his love of Mexico and France in a languid, courtly style more wayfarer than jet-setter. The Rip Tide (out August 30) finds him feeling domestically inclined (as “Santa Fe,” an homage to his hometown, attests), with stripped-down melodies and emotionally direct lyrics. Perhaps it’s just a layover en route to his next musical destination, but it’s a lovely place to spend some time.
If We Were Running Fashion Week...
From September 8 to 15, models would sashay down the spring/summer 2012 runways to these new tracks:
Hanni El Khatib’s raucous garage-rock anthem “Fuck It, You Win” (Will the Guns Come Out, Sept. 27)
The walk: aloof stomp
Ladytron’s haunting, synth-heavy “White Elephant” (Gravity the Seducer, Sept. 12)
The walk: ethereal glide
Tom Vek’s upbeat, bass-thumping “A Chore” (Leisure Seizure, Sept. 13) The walk: flirty, hip-swiveling bounce
Zach Condon, aka Beirut, has on previous records celebrated his love of Mexico and France in a languid, courtly style more wayfarer than jet-setter. The Rip Tide (out August 30) finds him feeling domestically inclined (as “Santa Fe,” an homage to his hometown, attests), with stripped-down melodies and emotionally direct lyrics. Perhaps it’s just a layover en route to his next musical destination, but it’s a lovely place to spend some time.
From September 8 to 15, models would sashay down the spring/summer 2012 runways to these new tracks:
Hanni El Khatib’s raucous garage-rock anthem “Fuck It, You Win” (Will the Guns Come Out, Sept. 27)
The walk: aloof stomp
Ladytron’s haunting, synth-heavy “White Elephant” (Gravity the Seducer, Sept. 12)
The walk: ethereal glide
Tom Vek’s upbeat, bass-thumping “A Chore” (Leisure Seizure, Sept. 13) The walk: flirty, hip-swiveling bounce
Three-For-All
The imagistic power of Justin Torres’ debut, We the Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), exists in inverse proportion to its slim 128 pages. Just try shaking off this novel about three upstate New York brothers whose knockabout childhoods with their Puerto Rican “Paps” and white “Ma” are the narrative equivalent of feral kitties being swung overhead in a burlap bag.
The imagistic power of Justin Torres’ debut, We the Animals (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), exists in inverse proportion to its slim 128 pages. Just try shaking off this novel about three upstate New York brothers whose knockabout childhoods with their Puerto Rican “Paps” and white “Ma” are the narrative equivalent of feral kitties being swung overhead in a burlap bag.
Mystery Ride
In his quiet, commanding novella Train Dreams (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Denis Johnson turns out a twentieth-century sagebrush saga-in-miniature about a far-from-home day laborer, Robert Grainier, who “started his life story on a train ride he couldn’t remember, and ended up standing around outside a train with Elvis Presley in it.”
In his quiet, commanding novella Train Dreams (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Denis Johnson turns out a twentieth-century sagebrush saga-in-miniature about a far-from-home day laborer, Robert Grainier, who “started his life story on a train ride he couldn’t remember, and ended up standing around outside a train with Elvis Presley in it.”
When East Married West
A lithe stunner, Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic (Knopf) follows a group of Japanese mail-order “picture brides” from their arrival in San Francisco in the early 1900s through the decades to their internment in America’s infamous camps during World War II.
A lithe stunner, Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic (Knopf) follows a group of Japanese mail-order “picture brides” from their arrival in San Francisco in the early 1900s through the decades to their internment in America’s infamous camps during World War II.
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