Nov 28, 2012 By Lily Moayeri A Place to Bury Strangers

After watching Flashdance, there can be a lingering desire to live in a warehouse. Jennifer Beals’ character brings a cache to making a storage space that is meant for inanimate objects your home. This desire is rekindled every time that movie airs on television, and A Place to Bury Strangers’ Oliver Ackermann is not immune to it. More

Nov 27, 2012 By Laura Studarus Chad Valley

On his last EP, Equatorial Ultravox, British musician Hugo Manuel (also known by his stage name Chad Valley) proved that tropical tunes need not hail from a warm climate. For his debut full-length Young Hunger, out now on Cascine, Manuel continued his musical journey, gently guiding listeners from the beaches to the packed club dance floors. More

Nov 21, 2012 By Laura Studarus Saint Etienne

Saint Etienne’s eighth album, Words and Music by Saint Etienne, starts with singer Sarah Cracknell—transported back to a time before adult autonomy—admiring kids with the daring to question authority. “It all happened because of music, I wanted to know why,” she says in a beatific whisper. It’s a hushed admiration that’s drawn out over the album’s 13 songs, as the band explores a world where music doesn’t just soundtrack life, but rather directs it. More

Nov 19, 2012 By Dan Lucas The Antlers

In 2011 The Antlers’ Burst Apart was one of the indie records to name drop. It was an outpouring of emotion so expressive and gut-wrenchingly gorgeous that it exposed the sensitive underbelly of a thousand hipsters’ collective psyche as well as resonating with the 21st century’s spiritual beatniks. On both sides of the Atlantic there was effusive praise across the world of music press. More

Nov 16, 2012 By Austin Trunick Web Exclusive

For David O. Russell, director of The Fighter, Three Kings, and I Heart Huckabees, diving into the minutia of each and every character—no matter how unbalanced—is one of the most important requirements of his job. More

Nov 15, 2012 By Austin Trunick Keira Knightley

Keira Knightley and filmmaker Joe Wright have a great chemistry working together. The young actress landed a starring role in the director’s 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. That same magic struck again with their second collaboration—an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel, Atonement, in 2007—which received a nod for Best Picture. More

Nov 15, 2012 By Chris Tinkham Alicia Vikander

Danish director Nikolaj Arcel estimates that he saw 70 actresses in Denmark while trying to cast the role of Queen Caroline Mathilda for his film, A Royal Affair, but none of them had the regal quality that he had envisioned for the character. He found what he was looking for when he met Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, a classically trained dancer who studied at The Royal Swedish Ballet School for nine years. More

Nov 14, 2012 By Laura Studarus John Hodgman

It seems like a scene out of one of Wes Anderson’s fevered dreams: John Hodgman, former literary agent, turned author of fake facts, turned minor television celebrity (as both a correspondent on The Daily Show, and a PC in a string of Mac ads), turned Tom Selleck’s only facial hair equal, decrying inauthenticity. More

Nov 09, 2012 By Chris Tinkham Dree Hemingway

Sadie, the surly and reclusive octogenarian widow played by Besedka Johnson in the indie drama, Starlet, doesn’t know what to make of Jane (Dree Hemingway) when the inquisitive young blonde begins to entrench herself in Sadie’s life. After purchasing a thermos from Sadie at a yard sale, Jane suddenly begins to impose companionship upon her elder, turning up again at her home, at her grocery store, and at her bingo hall to offer car rides and other favors. More