May 14-20, 2014

May 14-20, 2014 / Vol. 28 / No. 12

Cover Story

The Film Issue: Revisiting the cinema of 1984

(To check out the accompanying list of the Best & Worst Movies of 1984, go here.) In James Cameron’s The Terminator, the title character, played with steely grit by Arnold Schwarzenegger, saunters into a police station. After he’s summarily blown off by the desk sergeant, he looks around, leans forward and — in a now-classic…

Matt Brunson

Bizarre crime from Charlotte police files (May 15)

Impressive Stash: Police picked up a man in northeast Charlotte just as he prepared for takeoff, though he was nowhere near the airport. Officers showed up at a house after a call involving a drug complaint and found a man who was admittedly in possession of marijuana buds, marijuana wax, 10 hits of LSD, hashish…

Ryan Pitkin

Godzilla: Missing in action

GODZILLA **1/2 DIRECTED BY Gareth Edwards STARS Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bryan Cranston As the Warner Bros. logo loomed large on the screen — and in 3-D, to boot — to herald the start of Godzilla, my watch read, “19:35” (yes, I’m a stickler for military time). When the preview audience finally got a full look at…

Matt Brunson

Belle: Brit-lit writ large

BELLE *** DIRECTED BY Amma Asante STARS Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson Thanks to the barrage of Brit-lit adaptations — Jane Austen or otherwise — hitting the screen for some time now, we’ve come to expect our British period pieces to tackle issues of classism and sexism. Belle, however, is different in that it also adds…

Matt Brunson

Million Dollar Arm lobs softballs

MILLION DOLLAR ARM ** DIRECTED BY Craig Gillespie STARS Jon Hamm, Lake Bell With such titles as The Rookie (the baseball flick with Dennis Quaid), Miracle (the hockey flick with Kurt Russell), Invincible (the football flick with Mark Wahlberg) and Secretariat (the horse-racing flick with Diane Lane) under its heavyweight belt, it’s clear that Disney…

Matt Brunson

A Locke for a satisfying film experience

LOCKE *** DIRECTED BY Steven Knight STARS Tom Hardy, Ruth Wilson Adapting such films as The Lion King, Titanic and Ghost for the stage took some mental gymnastics, but if anyone ever elects to do likewise with Locke, the task won’t be nearly as taxing. Basically a one-man show set within the confines of a…

Matt Brunson

CD review: Matrimony’s Montibello Memories

It’s been a year and a half since Matrimony signed with Columbia Records, but good things come to those who wait. The Charlotte folk-rock outfit’s debut album is comprised of 11 finely crafted works that play solidly from start to finish. For Matrimony, the beauty of a major label comes through in the album’s production…

Jeff Hahne

CD review: Sage the Gemini’s Remember Me

Sage the Gemini, a California-based rapper, gained attention last year for his songs “Gas Pedal” and “Red Nose.” Lonely, minimalist songs, they started as local hits and eventually became nationally known through the micro-video blogging site Vine. Fans of the songs uploaded brief six-second videos of themselves dancing along with the music, then #gaspedal and…

David Turner

Book review: Dominion

In the spring of 1940, Germany made peace overtures to Great Britain at the same time British forces were in retreat. Hitler, it was believed, would end the fight with Britain on the condition that Germany be allowed to do as it wished in Europe. Exhausted by war, some in Britain wanted to consider a…

Erik Spanberg

Con-grad-ulations!

It’s that time of year again! Another wave of college graduates are tumbling out into the world, like baby sea turtles valiantly pulling themselves to the ocean of adulthood. Sadly, it’s a dangerous stretch of beach from here to there — filled with predators like hungry seagulls and credit card debt — but fear not,…

Ashley Spurgeon

The best & worst of the Godzilla films

The 5 Best 5. Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001). The 25th installment of the Godzilla series tells the story of a Godzilla possessed by the spirits of Japanese soldiers who died in World War II. He returns to destroy Japan, but the Japan Self-Defense Forces seek out three of Earth’s…

Adam Frazier

The G spot: Reflecting on 60 years of Godzilla

It’s been 60 years since a kaiju named Gojira — to American audiences, a monster named Godzilla — first emerged from the sea and wrecked Tokyo. Since then, and over the course of 28 movies, he’s battled three-headed dragons, psychedelic smog creatures and all manner of aliens and robots, usually in films by Japanese film…

Corbie Hill

The Charlotte minister and rabbi involved in the lawsuit against Amendment One make their case

Open-minded clergy serving mainstream congregations are coming together and demanding that North Carolina join other states in allowing houses of worship and ministers to perform same-gender marriages so that everyone can have access to a consecrated, healthy and legally supported family. A local law firm contacted several clergy asking if we would be interested in…

The Rev. Nancy Ellett Allison and Rabbi Jonathan Freirich

DrumStrong’s finest

While DrumStrong’s true focus — raising money in the fight against cancer — has never wavered, the music selection of the three-day event has continued to improve each year. This time around, the acts are regionally focused with some of North Carolina’s and Charlotte’s finest performers representing a wide range of genres from alt-country and…

Jeff Hahne & John Schacht

Weekly horoscope (May 15-21)

For All Signs: The planet Mars, ancient god of war, turns direct on the 19th after a long retrograde period that began in February. During the retrograde cycle we are often detoured from taking significant external action. Though we may be frustrated by the delays, the purpose of the time is to struggle with inner…

Vivian Carol

Heritage Food and Drink is just right

From the minute you enter Heritage Food and Drink, you feel at home. This unassuming little spot in Waxhaw has everything you look for in a restaurant: an inviting interior, an attentive wait staff that loves food and assumes you do too, and a chef/owner who has designed a space to be small enough —…

Tricia Childress

SNAP out of luck

You can buy Oreos from a convenience store with food stamps but not produce at most farmers market. Not the ones anyone on food stamps would likely frequent, anyway.

Sara Patterson

Got raw milk?

I’m sitting in a South Carolina parking lot with my kids in the backseat, waiting to buy an illegal substance off the back of a truck. The lot sits behind a seemingly ill-conceived combination fireworks shop and gas station and is empty at this midmorning hour, sunlight glinting off water pooled in deep potholes. It’s…

Sara Patterson

The Film Issue: The best and worst movies of 1984

As we celebrate the movies of 1984 — a stellar year for cinema, if you’ve not read this week’s cover story — we list (in alphabetical order) the best and worst films that came out that year. THE 10 BEST (Alphabetically) 1. Amadeus (Milos Forman). Winner of the Best Picture Academy Award, this grandly entertaining…

Matt Brunson

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