CULTURE JAMMING -- DECEMBER 30

TOP PICK

LittleBigPlanet PSP

(Sony)

The PlayStation 3’s best game finally comes to the PSP, so you can take your cute little SackBoy wherever you go. The gameplay remains pretty much the same: Create and customize a tiny sock guy and guide him through 30 brand-new levels. And like the PS3 version, you can make your own levels and share them online. Worlds of fun.

CD

Elvis 75: Good Rockin’ Tonight

(RCA/Legacy)

Just in time for what would have been Elvis Presley’s 75^th birthday (if he hadn’t died on the can in 1977), this four-disc box gathers 100 songs from the King’s career. There are plenty of hits (like “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Suspicious Minds”) from his quarter-century career, and they’re arranged chronologically so you can chart the various rises and falls.

DVD

The Green Mile

(Warner)

Frank Darabont’s companion piece to The Shawshank Redemption celebrates its 10^th anniversary with a stellar Blu-ray release that includes extra scenes, commentary and a making-of documentary. The Stephen King story – about a prison again, this one with its own type of redemption – resonates with splendid and spiritual vision.

DVD

Heat

(Warner)

Yeah, it’s a cops-and-robbers movie, but it’s a cops-and-robbers movie with Al Pacino (the good guy) and Robert De Niro (the bad guy), sharing a scene for the first time. It’s also one of the great crime films of the past 15 years. And it’s finally on Blu-ray, with deleted scenes and commentary by director Michael Mann. You need to see (and hear) the shootout in HD.

CD

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: The Live Anthology

(Reprise)

This four-disc set collects more than a quarter century of concert recordings by Petty and band. There are plenty of favorites here, like “Refugee,” “American Girl” and “Free Fallin’.” But best are the many covers, including Thunderclap Newman’s “Something in the Air,” the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.”

--Michael Gallucci

CULTURE JAMMING -- DECEMBER 23

TOP PICK

Fight Club: 10^th Anniversary Edition

(Twentieth Century Fox)

One of the best movies of the past 10 years celebrates a decade of mindfucking with its Blu-ray debut. Bonus material includes commentary by director David Fincher and stars Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, deleted scenes, and a couple of cool interactive features. Best of all, the film still packs a solid punch, even if you’ve seen it dozens of times.

CD

Sheryl Crow: Tuesday Night Music Club – Deluxe Edition

(A&M/UMe)

Crow’s 1993 debut gets the deluxe treatment with an additional disc of B-sides, outtakes and a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “D’Yer Mak’er.” There’s also a DVD with all of the album’s videos. The CD, which includes “Leaving Las Vegas,” “All I Wanna Do” and several other key Crow cuts, remains her most uncomplicated work – loose and kinda fun.

BOOK

Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll

(Continuum)

Writer David Kirby probes the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer’s childhood to make sense of the truly revolutionary sounds he would create as an adult. He uncovers a wild, mischievous boy who turned into a wild, piano-playing star. Little Richard penned one of the greatest songs of all time, “Tutti Frutti.” This book brings you closer to his genius.

DVD

Nirvana Live at Reading

(UMe)

Touring on a record that changed ’90s music, Nirvana were weary, massive and on fire during their summer 1992 performance at England’s Reading Festival. This package (which also comes with a CD) includes the entire 25-song set, which featured plenty of NevermindIn Utero a year later. Essential. songs as well as a handful of cuts that would show up on

VIDEO

North by Northwest: 50^th Anniversary Edition

(Warner)

Alfred Hitchcock was at the top of his game when he made this thriller about mistaken identity. It celebrates its 50^th anniversary with a Blu-ray debut. The set pieces and vistas – especially a climatic scene on top of Mount Rushmore – have never looked more stunning. A pair of new documentaries looks back on the film’s history and influence over the years.

DVD

Public Enemies

(Universal)

Here’s your chance to see one of 2009’s most underappreciated films: Michael Mann’s snappy look at 1930s gangland Chicago. Johnny Depp plays Public Enemy No. 1 John Dillinger, but Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard are also great as the lawman and girl who want him. Tons of bonus features include a documentary on the OGs who inspired the movie.

DVD

Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 2, Saturday Morning Cartoons 1970s Volume 2

(Warner)

These double-disc collections gather 34 (’60s) and 21 (’70s) cartoons from an era when the only time you could see them was on Saturday morning. There are plenty of favorites (Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry), plus a bunch of toons you never heard of (The Peter Potamus Show, Inch High Private Eye). A few TV spots are included, just to get your nostalgic juices fully flowing.

VIDEO

Stop Making Sense

(Palm)

Jonathan Demme’s 1984 Talking Heads concert film finally comes to Blu-ray. And it’s still remarkable, especially in HD, where the extended band – a half-dozen singers and musicians join the quartet – pops from the screen. The songs (“Psycho Killer,” “Burning Down the House,” “Once in a Lifetime”) have never sounded more alive. Best: David Byrne’s big-ass suit.

CD

Taylor Swift: Fearless Platinum Edition

(Big Machine)

One of last year’s best albums gets super-sized with an additional six songs plus a DVD with music videos and behind-the-scenes clips. The new tracks are strong – especially “Jump Then Fall” and “The Other Side of the Door,” which continue Swift’s move to pop domination. And the hilarious T-Pain video collaboration, “Thug Story,” proves why she’s a star.

VIDEOGAME

Tony Hawk Ride

(Activision)

The latest Tony Hawk game (for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) is the first to break some new ground after about a decade of increasingly complex button-mashers. The controller this time is a skateboard-shaped peripheral that you actually step on and guide. It’s fun, but it’s also kinda tough to master. At least you won’t break any bones if you miss a trick.

--Michael Gallucci

MOVIE REVIEW -- AVATAR

It’s been a dozen years since king of the world James Cameron won a boatload of Oscars for Titanic. He apparently spent the downtime thinking about how to revolutionize movies with Avatar, his bloated and exhausting sci-fi epic about a tribe of tall, tailed and blue-hued creatures called Na’vi. It’s also one of the most visually stunning movies ever made. The film is set in 2154 on the forest planet of Pandora, where wheelchair-bound marine Jake Scully (Terminator Salvation’s Sam Worthington) is recruited for an ongoing project that fuses human and Na’vi DNA, resulting in “avatars” that look like Na’vi but retain human thoughts. It’s all very scientific, confusing and geeky. With a new body capable of sprinting as fast as any animal on Earth, Jake’s mission is to infiltrate the Na’vi so the military can mine the precious minerals their homes are built on (again, it’s all very scientific, confusing and geeky). It doesn’t take long for Jake to fall for one of the Na’vi (Zoe Saldana, Star Trek’s Uhura) and rethink his assignment. Avatar is pure sci-fi hokum with one-dimensional characters, heavy-handed narration and an unsurprising love story. But you’ve never seen a movie like this before. The CGI creatures and settings flourish in an alien world that charges from the screen (literally and dizzyingly if you see it in 3D, which I highly recommend). Like many of Cameron’s sci-fi excursions, Avatar includes a showdown between eggheads and military dickheads, spiritual/social/environmental subtext and butt-numbing length (it clocks in at 161 minutes). But Cameron’s achievements this time are mostly technical. There isn’t much of a human element (Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Giovanni Ribisi are here, but that hardly matters), and he’s made better films (like Aliens and the first two Terminators). But this hectic, dazzling movie – despite its flaws – is an innovative piece of cinema that changes the game, for better of worse, for everything that follows. --Michael Gallucci

CULTURE JAMMING -- DECEMBER 16

TOP PICK

Left 4 Dead 2

(EA)

The follow-up to one of the best zombie shooters ever is the most cathartic game you’ll play this season (not much beats blasting the heads off the flesh-hungry undead). There’s an arsenal of chainsaws, axes, grenade launchers and gas cans to play around with on the Xbox 360. It’s especially fun tearing through co-op mode with a friend who has your back.

VIDEOGAME

Assassin’s Creed II

(Ubisoft)

The first game in this action series (for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) was exciting and enticing. This one’s even better. As a Renaissance-era assassin with a sword, poison and other deadly items at your disposal, you stroll around Italy kicking ass and hanging out with Leonardo da Vinci. There’s literally a new adventure down every path and around every corner.

VIDEOGAME

Band Hero

(Activision)

Think of this Top 40-embracing game (for all consoles) as Guitar Hero for people who find Metallica a tad too threatening. The pop songs -- including hits by Duran Duran, Fall Out Boy and No Doubt -- span decades, making it the most tuneful music videogame out there. Plus, it’s loads of fun if you’re a Taylor Swift fan: Three of her songs are here.

VIDEOGAME

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

(Activision)

The sequel to one of the greatest videogames of all time is set in war-torn Afghanistan. The single-person campaign is every bit as thrilling as its predecessor, but Modern Warfare became one of the most popular games ever because of its online multiplayer action, and 2 (available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) delivers tons of new maps, perks and weapons.

VIDEOGAME

DJ Hero

(Activision)

There’s only so much you can do with a plastic guitar. This great new music game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii comes with a turntable controller and more than 100 songs to mash-up. You scratch, fade and remix tracks by Eminem, Gwen Stefani, Queen and dozens of others. If that wasn’t enough, Grandmaster Flash is your teacher through the whole game.

VIDEOGAME

Dragon Age: Origins

(BioWare)

RPGs are total time-suckers. They can also be a total waste of time. But this medieval fantasy (for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) comes complete with knights, demons and winged dragons to keep things interesting. There are dozens of ways to play the game, so every decision you make counts. Plus, the sword-rattling battles look great in HD.

VIDEOGAME

God of War Collection

(Sony)

I usually stay away from repackagings like this, but we’re talking two of the greatest PlayStation 2 games gathered on a single PlayStation 3 disc. Hard to beat that deal. Best of all, your ass-kicking Spartan warrior now slays foes, demolishes cities and gets busy with the ladies (two at a time!) in glorious HD. You’ll feel like you’re playing the games for the first time.

VIDEOGAME

Hasbro Family Game Night 2

(EA)

Grandma will no doubt approve of this series, which turns old-school board games into new-school Wii workouts. But it’s still a lotta fun. Last year’s outing included the addictive Yahtzee; 2 contains faves like Jenga and Connect 4x4. Best: Operation, which you really should play sober and with a steady hand. Bonus points: Mr. Potato Head hosts the whole thing.

VIDEOGAME

Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues

(LucasArts)

The Lego series (Star Wars, Batman) is one of my favorites, and this sequel to last year’s trilogy-based outing is one of the best. There are Crystal Skull levels this time around, and they’re way more fun than the movie. Best of all, the tiny weapons pack a surprising amount of power, turning baddies into blocky bits. It’s for all consoles, but play it on HD for full effect.

VIDEOGAME

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

(Nintendo)

The basic gameplay of this old-school classic doesn’t change much; it’s just way more interactive (and fun) with the Wii Remote. There’s also a new multiplayer mode that makes rescuing Peach seem like a real quest rather than an afterthought. Be sure to test out the new propeller suit – it ranks right up there with Mario’s coolest accessories. One of the best games of the year.

--Michael Gallucci

TOP 10 CDS OF 2009

1. Passion Pit

Manners

(Frenchkiss)

Michael Angelakos has the gayest hetero falsetto since Barry Gibb, but his band’s debut album wouldn’t be the indie-disco monster it is without it. The sun-kissed synths are the heart of Manners, but the soul belongs to the kids’ choir that powers several songs. One of the decade’s happiest records.

2. Miranda Lambert

Revolution

(Columbia Nashville)

This Nashville bad-ass kills her supper, refuses to play dress-up and takes zero shit from anyone. On her terrific third album, she explores the divide between the left and right, the blue and red, and the pretty and the ugly. It’s a monumental record filled with great songs and kick-ass attitude.

3. Phoenix

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

(Glassnote)

Just when you thought France was capable of spawning only dangerously hip electronic duos, these dangerously hip indie-rockers inject their cheery songs with blasts of brittle guitar and relatively soulful vocals. Plus, they have hooks as big as the Eiffel Tower. Oui, oui!

4. Animal Collective

Merriweather Post Pavilion

(Domino)

These NYC noisemakers get a little less noisy and a little more tuneful on their eighth album, a psych-soaked mash-up of Beach Boys pet sounds and tribal freakouts. There are no real songs here – just a series of not-so-random sounds that fall together in gorgeous, four-minute chunks.

5. The-Dream

Love vs. Money

(Radio Killa/Def Jam)

The year’s best R&B record is filled with bedroom jams for people who like some winks served with their bump-and-grind. The-Dream wrote Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies,” so he knows how to hook. On this towering album, he also shows he has staying power.

6. Jay-Z

The Blueprint 3

(Roc Nation/Atlantic)

It’s more a collection of great singles than a knockout album (the first Blueprint is the standard), but what great singles: “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune),” “Run This Town” and “Empire State of Mind,” which hit one after the other in the sequence. Plus, Jigga still has hip-hop’s smoothest flow.

7. Green Day

21^st Century Breakdown

(Reprise)

Green Day’s second concept album about how fucked we all are contains Billie Joe Armstrong’s best batch of songs since Dookie. It’s also a tougher record than American Idiot. The whole rock-opera thing falls together as haphazardly as it did in the ’70s, but it sure beats those clunky Yes albums.

8. U2

No Line on the Horizon

(Interscope)

Originally seen as the third part of the band’s new-millennium resurgence, Horizon now sounds like a self-reflective meditation on the two albums it released earlier this decade. It’s big, heroic and epic – everything you want from U2. It’s also vulnerably human beneath all the myth-making.

9. Bruce Springsteen

Working on a Dream

(Columbia)

Springsteen’s most hopeful album in years is also his loosest. After the stifled Magic, the Boss quickly went into the studio with his band and recorded a set of songs about love, life and Obama. It’s sexy, optimistic and brimming with casual songcraft. It’s the sound of legend settling in.

10. Neko Case

Middle Cyclone

(Anti-)

On this nature noir, the modern-day torch singer imagines herself as Mother Nature, a killer twister and a big-ass whale. It’s all very epic and earthy, right down to the endless choir of crickets that ends the record. Case breaks down genres into spectacular set pieces that are as big as her voice.

--Michael Gallucci

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2009

1. Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino rewrites World War II as a funny, action-packed fantasy where the good guys win with an intoxicating mix of verbal sparring and bloodletting. It’s less wordy and windy than his other films but every bit as exciting, with many memorable set pieces.

2. Up -- Pixar continues its winning streak with another classic. This time it’s about an old man, a young boy and a house lifted by balloons to a mythical land populated by talking dogs and a spastic bird. Moving, funny and dazzling to look at, Up is one of the animation studio’s very best.

3. District 9 – Neill Blomkamp’s budget-strapped sci-fi allegory is the year’s sleeper hit. At its heart, the movie explores racism in the form of displaced space aliens who just want to go home. But it’s also a terrific action film with heart and sympathy to spare, plus some kick-ass weapons.

4. Star Trek – Even non-Trekkies love it, and why not? With a total revamp of the franchise that features a spunkier Kirk, a sexier Uhura and a more human Spock, J.J. Abrams took the USS Enterprise for a hell of a ride across the galaxy. It’s the best thing, by far, to ever bear the Star Trek imprint.

5. (500) Days of Summer -- Even though it claims it’s not a love story, (500) Days of Summer is very much a love story – the best since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are perfect as would-be-lovers caught in the wheels of circumstance.

6. Fantastic Mr. Fox – Wes Anderson’s farmland fable about a restless fox who gathers his woodsy pals for one more score is as sly as it is innovative. The stop-motion animation is breathtaking, and the cast (including George Clooney and Bill Murray) brings a sense hipster Zen to the proceedings.

7. The Hangover – The year’s funniest movie mines the same guys-behaving-badly territory as Wedding Crashers and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But unlike those bromances, which eventually get a little squishy, The Hangover is all man, right down to the hilarious end credits.

8. Big Fan – In this dark comedy about home-team pride not quite pushed to the breaking point, comedian Patton Oswalt plays a New York Giants fan who gets a little too close to his hero and promptly gets his ass kicked. Best of all, you don’t know whether to laugh at or pity Oswalt’s lovable loser.

9. Where the Wild Things Are – Spike Jonze turns Maurice Sendak’s beloved kids’ book into a wonderful movie fantasy about childhood imagination and fear. The wild things – actors in giant foam suits augmented with CGI facial expressions – start a rumpus in your heart that never lets up.

10. Coraline – Henry Selick, the director who made The Nightmare Before Christmas, returns with a gloomy stop-motion fantasy about a little girl who discovers a door that leads to a world that isn’t quite as idyllic as it seems. Coraline is dark, spooky and a sumptuous feast for the eyes.

--Michael Gallucci

MOVIE REVIEW -- NINE

Director Rob Marshall did the near impossible with 2002’s Chicago: He turned a beloved and successful Broadway musical into a hit Oscar-winning movie that was actually fun to watch. He got rousing performances out of Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah. And most of all, he made a stuffy and somewhat creaky play cool and sexy.

After a 2005 detour with the stiff Memoirs of a Geisha, Marshall returns to Broadway for Nine, a 1982 musical based on filmmaker Federico Fellini’s mostly autobiographical tour de force, 8½. And like he did in Chicago, Marshall pulls engaging roles out of actors -- including Daniel Day-Lewis, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Kate Hudson – not exactly known for their musical skills.

In 1965 Rome, “maestro” Guido Contini (Day-Lewis with an Italian accent) is struggling to get his latest movie started. The press is hounding him, his producer is itching to begin filming and his star (Kidman) won’t show up until she sees a script, which Guido – Fellini, for all intents and purposes -- hasn’t written yet. Coming off a string of flops, he’s sick, tired and stressed-out. So he anonymously checks in to a secluded hotel for rest.

But soon the press, the paparazzi, his producer, his wife (Marion Cotillard, so good as Johnny Depp’s girlfriend in Public Enemies earlier this year) and his mother (Sophia Loren) show up. So do the various women who’ve paraded through his life. And there are many of them. They’re his main inspiration, personally and professionally (they’re even on his mind during a meeting with a Vatican cardinal).

They’re also Nine’s main inspiration: The movie sizzles during the stylish set pieces (mostly fantasy sequences) featuring half-dressed, gyrating women. The stars throw themselves into the material. Kidman, Cruz (as a mistress), Hudson (a reporter) and Judi Dench (Guido’s long-suffering costume designer) don’t have great pipes, but their energy during the musical numbers powers the film. Day-Lewis is also good, reining in his usual intensity for a role that’s less showy than his last onscreen appearance as the milkshake-drinking Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood.

But Nine doesn’t have quite the razzle-dazzle of Chicago. Marshall takes a few more chances here, but the story and songs simply aren’t as good as Chicago’s (let alone 8½). Where Fellini’s 1963 classic often drifts into extended bouts of surreality, Nine follows a relatively straightforward narrative based on 8½’s general outline (Guido even pokes fun at his movies’ imperceptibility at a press conference).

Plus, parts of the film just flat-out drag, particularly when Guido solemnly reflects on his life and when it tries to make room for everyone’s backstory. Still, the heart of the story, Fellini’s story, remains one of self-reflection by an artist embracing the two things he loves most: art and women, not necessarily in that order. --Michael Gallucci

CULTURE JAMMING -- DECEMBER 9

TOP PICK

1,000 Comic Books You Must Read

(F+W)

This photo- and fact-filled book looks at 1,000 essential comics from the past 80 years. There are plenty of the usual superhero suspects (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men), but writer Tony Isabella also has a thing for Archie comics and Carl Barks’ great work on various Donald Duck titles. Best of all, you’ll fill up your reading list in no time.

BOOK

The Batman Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book Featuring Rare Collectibles From the Batcave

(Running Press)

This overstuffed volume includes tons of Dark Knight memorabilia from seven-plus decades: sketches, lithographs, a mask. The Caped Crusader’s TV and movie history is also covered, but it’s mostly about the comics. The coolest thing? You can pull items – like a paper Batplane and a how-to-draw-Batman booklet -- out of the book and geek out all over them.

BOOK

Best Music Writing 2009

(Da Capo)

The series celebrates its 10^th anniversary with guest editor Greil Marcus, who stocks up on brainy music stories from the past year. There’s a Rolling Stone piece on Britney Spears, a story about emo boys from the late, great Blender, and the liner notes from the Replacements’ Let It Be reissue. Plus, Rosanne Cash and Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein contribute.

BOOK

Bicycle Diaries

(Viking)

Talking Heads oddball David Byrne penned this smart, funny travelogue based on 30-plus years of riding his bike around New York City and the rest of the world when he was on tour. His mind often drifts from the subject on hand to dissertations on the environment and culture, but – like the great music he recorded with the Heads back in the day – it’s an eye-opening trip to many different and bizarre worlds.

BOOK

Classic Toys of the National Toy Hall of Fame

(Running Press)

The National Toy Hall of Fame kicks major ass when it comes to all the other hall of fames. This photo-stuffed book chronicles the first 10 years’ worth of inductees. Faves like Mr. Potato Head, Barbie, G.I. Joe and Leo are here; so are Monopoly, Silly Putty and Slinky. Best of all, old-school playthings like Stick and Cardboard Box are included too.

BOOK
Corn Flakes With John Lennon and Other Tales From a Rock ‘n’ Roll Life

(Rodale)

Robert Hilburn has been The Los Angeles Times’ music critic for, like, ever, and this entertaining memoir documents interviews and run-ins with legends like Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and John Lennon he’s had over the years. Hilburn isn’t a bullshitter. He’s no starfucker either, which makes Corn Flakes a rare honest look at rock ‘n’ roll royalty.

BOOK

The Grateful Dead Scrapbook: The Long, Strange Trip in Stories, Photos and Memorabilia

(Chronicle)

Loaded with tons of band photos, concert flyers and other Dead-related items, this hefty book gathers more than three decades of pot-stenched archives. Writer Ben Fong-Torres was in San Francisco at the beginning, so his text ably pulls together the historical stuff. But it’s all the removable documents (plus a CD of interviews) that will keep you busy for hours.

BOOK

Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times

(Gotham)

Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley will be 83 in February. This memoir (which he penned with Eddie Dean) looks at his long, exciting life, which not so surprisingly reads an awful lot like the gloomy songs he sings. Depression-era childhood in the Virginia mountains? Check. A murdered singer? Check. A thorough history of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? hitmaker? Check.

BOOK

Music Listography: Your Life in (Play)lists

(Chronicle)

All music fans are like the guy in High Fidelity: We choose our friends by their record collections, and we spend approximately 47 percent of our lives making lists. This cool book makes it easy for you to catalog your Top 10 album covers, break-up songs and dead rock stars you wish were still alive. All you need is something to write with and your snobby opinion.

BOOK

The Tao of Wu

(Riverhead)

Wu-Tang Clan mastermind the RZA wrote this book in which he dispenses philosophical enlightenment on various subjects. And like his hip-hop collective, The Tao of Wu is wild and strange at times. Anyone familiar with the Clan knows that the RZA is as much influenced by Eastern spirituality as the streets. This amusing book drops a little wisdom from both.

--Michael Gallucci

MUSIC REVIEW -- ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

Animal Collective

Fall Be Kind

(Domino)

The big news surrounding this five-song EP – released almost a year after the terrific Merriweather Post Pavilion album -- is that it includes the world’s first-ever Grateful Dead sample. It’s part of the nearly seven-minute “What Would I Want? Sky,” a typically mind-melting freak-out that’s also Fall Be Kind’s most dazzling track. Since 2007’s Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective have nudged their experimental noise-making tendencies toward more listener-friendly areas. Merriweather includes a tuneful mix of Beach Boys-style harmonies and modern-day psych, but there are still plenty of minimalist indulgences and drawn-out tribal jams driving it. Fall Be Kind continues down this path, packing songs with skittering beats, digital debris, and dreampop noises that sound like they’re from another galaxy. And like all of the Brooklyn band’s records, this EP is both a frustrating mess and peacefully elegant -- sometimes within the same song. The opening “Graze” starts as a moody ramble to nowhere but turns into a clanging singalong for its second half. “What Would I Want? Sky” works with dichotomy too: After a spacey prelude, the Dead’s Phil Lesh (lifted from “Unbroken Chain”) links with Panda Bear’s airy vocal loops for one of Animal Collective’s best cuts. It’s a glorious moment from a career filled with all kinds of beautiful chaos. --Michael Gallucci

MOVIE REVIEW -- BRONSON

The Charles Bronson in Bronson is a real person. But it’s not the hard-ass Death Wish actor. This Charles Bronson is a hard-ass British prison inmate who’s spent 30 of his 34 years behind bars in solitary confinement. It all started with a post-office robbery, but numerous brawls extended his original seven-year sentence into a lifetime incarceration.

“I came into the world as Michael Peterson, but I come out with my fighting name, Charlie Bronson,” the bad-tempered brawler (played by Tom Hardy in a virtuoso performance) tells the camera early in this spunky movie. And he’s indeed a fighter. The first several minutes of Bronson consist of scuffles with schoolmates, teachers, police officers – pretty much anyone within his fists’ reach. “Prison was a place where I could sharpen my tools, hone my skills,” he says at one point. “It’s like a battleground, an opportunity.”

Bronson is a menacing figure with his bald head and bushy mustache. But Hardy and director and co-screenwriter Nicolas Winding Refn soften him a bit by having him deliver witty soliloquies to the camera, dress like a clown and tell corny jokes. He’s a likable character, despite his thuggish personality. No wonder he becomes a celebrity behind bars.

Hardy is terrific, skirting Bronson’s line between psychotic and being in complete control of his actions. He’s charming, funny and downright terrifying as a man who’s shuttled between prisons, in and out of prison, and eventually to the crazy house. Refn literally lets Hardy roll with the punches, pulling him along with quick edits, some extreme close-ups and a few fancy camera moves. Mostly, though, he unleashes his star and allows him to roam.

Refn can’t quite keep up this momentum for the entire movie. Parts drag, like the theatrical scenes that bridge chapters of Bronson’s life and especially a middle section where Bronson joins a real-life fight club in the outside world and Refn takes the movie into David Lynch territory. But he and his willing star, like their subject (whom they clearly admire), come out and go down swinging. --Michael Gallucci

MUSIC REVIEW -- CHRIS BROWN

Chris Brown

Graffiti

(Jive)

Good luck listening to Brown’s third album if you know anything about his assault on Rihanna earlier this year. Brown’s image used to be that of a young R&B singer exploding with life and talent. Now he’s a portrait of rage – the sort of guy who beats his girlfriend during an argument. Where his ex (on her just-released and terrific Rated R) confronts the incident head-on, Brown tiptoes past the subject on Graffiti. For the most part, he acts like nothing happened, settling into a formulaic (but expertly produced) set of bedroom jams and smooth ballads. It’s disheartening to hear Brown hitting up girls in the club and getting his swag on while sidestepping responsibility. He brings up the confrontation only once, on the ambiguous “So Cold,” where he begs, “Please forgive me.” And even here he sounds sorrier that the whole thing had to play out in public. Brown is more sincere on “Sing Like Me,” where he proclaims, “So many different type of women I’m into … I wanna take ’em back to the crib.” Shorties beware. --Michael Gallucci

CULTURE JAMMING -- DECEMBER 2

TOP PICK

Up

(Walt Disney Studios)

One of the year’s (and decade’s) best films gets the deluxe package it deserves: a four-disc set that includes Blu-ray, DVD and digital versions of the movie. You’ll want to watch it in HD, where every detail – from rainbow-colored balloons to a glorious island vista – sparkles. Tons of extras – including a funny new short starring Dug the dog – round out the set.

DVD

Clint Eastwood Star Collection

(MGM)

The four movies in this gift set (part of a series featuring Hollywood heavies) focus on Eastwood’s westerns. Hang ’Em High is the only one that isn’t a classic. The other three – A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly -- make up Sergio Leone’s great Spaghetti Western trilogy and rank among Eastwood’s all-time best.

DVD

Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection Remastered

(BBC)

After Monty Python’s Flying Circus shut down, John Cleese quickly moved on to this British comedy about a flustered hotel manager. Very few people do flustered as well as Cleese, who’s at his best here. This three-disc set includes all 12 episodes of the short-lived 1975 sitcom, plus outtakes and new commentary by the star.

DVD

Gone With the Wind: Two Disc Special Edition

(Warner)

One of old-school Hollywood’s greatest epics is filmmaking (and storytelling) at its most grand. There are pricey Blu-ray and “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” versions of the movie – which celebrates its 70^th anniversary this year – available too, but this double-disc set is all you really need. Historical commentary puts it all in perspective.

VIDEO

Lost: The Complete Fifth Season

(Walt Disney)

The best show on TV turned in one of its greatest seasons this year. You can prep for Lost’s return next month with this five-disc set that includes all 17 episodes. There’s plenty of action and mind-fucking going on, so you’ll want to settle in and dissect every second. And be sure to pick up the Blu-ray: This is one show that deserves the full HD treatment.

VIDEO

Monsters, Inc. Blu-ray

(Walt Disney Studios)

Pixar’s 2001 movie about a pair of monsters trying to get a little girl home finally comes to Blu-ray. And it’s never looked greater. It’s not only a more enjoyable film than it was eight years ago (it’s gotten better with age), the HD makes everything – especially all the cool creatures – burst from the screen. Extras include commentary, games and early sketch concepts.

DVD

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live

(Time Life)

This massive nine-disc box includes 125 performances from the Rock Hall’s induction ceremonies over the past 25 years. There are also lots of speeches and backstage footage. Hope you like Bono, Keith Richards and Bruce Springsteen: They seem to be onstage every year. Best: Clips from the early days, like when Beach Boys a-hole Mike Love dissed everyone in the room.

VIDEO

Rocky: The Undisputed Collection

(MGM)

By 2006’s Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone’s high-flying boxer had taken some severe beatings (who are we kidding? The series was pretty much played out by 1985’s Rocky IV). But the 1976 original remains one of the top movies of all time. This seven-disc box compiles all six films on Blu-ray plus a bonus disc featuring interviews and documentaries.

VIDEO

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete Season One

(Lucasfilm Ltd./Warner)

The animated TV show is way better than the movie that launched it. It got darker as it progressed, so stick with it. The Blu-ray version is the best way to take in all the cool visuals -- the battle scenes especially look awesome. In addition to 22 episodes, the set includes directors’ cuts, companion shorts and a 60-plus-page production journal.

DVD

TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Hitchcock Thrillers

(Warner/Turner Classic Movies)

The latest addition to this great series features four movies by one of the greatest directors of all-time. Suspicion, I Confess and The Wrong Man (all from the’40s and ’50s) are entertaining Alfred Hitchcock films, but 1951’s Strangers on a Train is the classic. The story – two guys trade murders -- influences filmmakers and writers to this day.

--Michael Gallucci

MUSIC REVIEW -- TOM WAITS

TOM WAITS

Glitter & Doom Live

(Anti-)

Recorded in 10 cities during Waits’ 2008 tour, Glitter & Doom Live can’t quite replicate the boozy, apocalyptic vibe that fuels the scruffy singer-songwriter’s best studio recordings. There are some great songs here (“Singapore,” “Goin’ Out West”), and Waits is a funny and warm concert performer, but so much of his unconventional appeal can’t be copied onstage. The flurry of junkyard sounds that rushes through his records are mere wisps of instrumental adornment here. And the controlled lunacy that drives albums like Mule Variations and Real Gone becomes stilted and workmanlike on Glitter & Doom. Best: A second disc includes 30 minutes of Waits’ onstage musings, some of which are true. Some are hilariously not. --Michael Gallucci