DVDs: HBO's "Game Of Thrones" Bloody Fun But Not Great

GAME OF THRONES FIRST SEASON ($79.98 BluRay; HBO) -- Game Of Thrones may be the biggest roll of the dice in TV history. It's based on a series of novels that tell one long story...and they haven't even all been written yet. In fact, if author George R.R. Martin continues at his new slow pace, the show may have to go on hiatus for a number of years before the series can reach its finale. And that finale will take seven seasons to satisfy fans. It's also one of the most expensive shows in TV history, telling a story laced with fantasy and set in a medieval era with all the lavishness of a feature film. Now that's bold and I look forward to future seasons. I just wish the first one were better. The story is one of intrigue, based loosely on the War of the Roses. Numerous royal families are vying for power while a supernatural threat from the North slowly works its way towards the "civilized" world. You get backstabbing, scheming, incest, swordplay, lots and lots of nudity and a clutch of fine actors. The problems? Casting and costuming. No expense was spared but the costumes and makeup quite often fall far short. Hair, makeup, clothing -- they should all invisibly denote the power and prestige of the wearers (or the lack). Instead, too often the costumes look just like that: costumes. Jaime Lannister is meant to be the most handsome, dashing man in the world but his clothing often looks like a Members Only jacket and the haircut and demeanor of actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau remind you of Malibu Ken, not Lancelot. Harry Lloyd also falls quite short as the intended to be menacing Viserys Targaryen. With his bleached white hair and petulant manner, he seems like Draco Malfoy's cousin, not a threat to the throne. These weaknesses continue for other minor characters and illustrate an unusual feature of GoT. Except for Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, almost all the "bad" guys in the series are far less interesting than the "good" guys. That's rarely the case for a genre piece like this where the villains often get the best lines and the most dastardly deeds. In contrast, the Stark clan is well cast up and down the line, from Sean Bean as the family head to Maisie Williams in the challenging role of Arya (with a special shout out to an excellent Kit Harington as the bastard Jon Snow). TV rarely tackles fantasy and almost never does it well, so that and the appeal of the books will keep me watching. Stronger tech work and some better casting (luckily, lots of people die so the show always has a chance to inject fresher, stronger talent) could turn GoT from a guilty pleasure into a genuine one. P.S. Maybe it's the slowdown in DVD sales, but it's great to see the cost to consumers for an entire season of a show like this come down in price, especially on sale. Less than $40? That used to be a fantasy, but no more.



MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE ($39.99 BluRay; FOX) -- This intriguing drama stars Elizabeth Olsen as the wayward sister who shows up looking for a place to crash but unwilling to talk about where she's been or what she's done. In flashbacks, we see her get slowly drawn into a cult led by John Hawkes (in another excellent performance). Then the phone calls and the mysterious strangers make clear that this cult doesn't let its members take off so easily. More quiet tale than thriller, the film isn't an out of the park success but delivers on its quiet premise quite nicely.



HUGO ($44.99; Paramount) -- I enjoyed the graphic/novel by Brian Selznick, which had the much more evocative title The Invention Of Hugo Cabret. Changing that to just Hugo was the first sign this movie wouldn't deliver. The second was hiring director Martin Scorsese, a man not known for gentle family fare. But it's not entirely his fault. The appeal of the book rested entirely on how the story was told: a clever combination of images a la a graphic novel (sometimes dozens of pages would go by without any text at all, just pictures advancing the story) and text (at other times the images would stop and the text would dominate a la a traditional novel). The story itself was rather flat and unimaginative, with very little action or change of any consequence: in essence, a kid hiding in a train station discovers the man running a toy store used to be a film director. That's about it. To bump up the action, lame subplots are introduced to the movie like a romance between two older characters and a bumbling cop given a greatly expanded role and his own attraction to a flower girl. That's interspersed with all sorts of chases and fancy camerawork. The movie looks just as artificial on 2-D at home as it did in 3-D at the theater though it's a blessed relief not to have to wear those bulky glasses when the effects were so minimal. Heavy-handed touches (like mixing the sound of a film projector unspooling early on in the movie to subliminally remind us of the pleasures of movies) can be found throughout. Dramatically static, cartoonishly acted, Hugo is not one for the ages, though a number of critics enjoyed it far more than me. Well, they're wrong.



PUSS IN BOOTS ($39.99 BluRay; DreamWorks) -- I've never been a huge fan of the Shrek films (my favorite one is their made-for-tv Christmas special; the movies I find too enamored with random pop culture references).  But thank goodness they spun off Antonio Banderas's witty character Puss In Boots. I would not want to have sat through a movie about Eddie Murphy's Donkey. This movie breathed a little creative life into a very tired franchise. It wasn't the massive success of the Shrek movies, but $535 million is probably enough to guarantee another adventure.



SUPER BOWL XLVI CHAMPIONS ($34.93 BluRay; NFL/Vivendi) -- More. That's my sole comment about this highlight DVD, which does a good job of recapping the entire season of Super Bowl champs  the New York Giants and (finally) includes the extras you'd expect like post-game ceremonies, media day and the like. NFL Films really does excellent work in capturing unlikely and striking footage of games that's superior to what you see in a live game and during most movies about football. BUt why just recaps? This should be a 2 DVD set with one DVD including the entire Super Bowl game day hoopla (with commercials that aired as a bonus feature -- why not?). That should be the cheap option. But they should also offer a boxed set with every regular season game of the Giants plus the 2 DVD Super Bowl package as well. And for about $70. Max. Finally, why not have a release for the Patriots. The heartbreaking story of the losers can make for compelling drama too. They've got the footage. Why not? This one-disc release is more complete than in past years but still feels skimpy compared to the goodies lying in their vaults unused and unseen.



TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE ($29.99; Zeitgeist) - Multi-director omnibuses -- with multiple short films strung together around an over-arching theme -- are one of the least-loved ideas in movie history and rarely worth the bother. But this one comes from Romania, one of the most innovative and exciting sources of movies in the past few years. Overseen by Cristian Mungiu (director of the acclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), this pulls together urban myths and legends that sprang up around the final years of the brutal Ceausescu regime, a terrible era the government propaganda machine defiantly dubbed "The Golden Age." Mungiu teams with other talented filmmakers to spin multiple, mordantly funny tales. It's funny how suddenly a country can become a hotbed of filmmaking for no discernible reason, but that's exactly what's happened in Romania, making even a project like this seem a tantalizing prospect. Yes, when it comes to cinema, Romania truly is in a Golden Age.



IMMORTALS ($39.99 BluRay; FOX) -- Director Tarsem Singh has a remarkable ability to create striking imagery and it's on full display in this 300-ish epic tale of a Theseus (Henry Cavill), a young villager handy with weapons who takes on the mad king (Mickey Rourke) threatening to destroy the world. It looks amazing, if you just turn off  your mind and glance at the screen in a daze. But story? Characters? Dramatic involvement in their fates? Tongue in cheek fun? Nope. Not on the menu. But what you do find on the DVDs menu are tons of extras like an alternate beginning and two alternate endings, which should tell you something right there.





THE BRIEF COMPLETE COLLECTION ($59.99; Acorn)
MIDSOMER MURDERS SET 19 ($59.99 BluRay; Acorn) -- Alan Davies of the gently charming Jonathan Creek series paired with the team behind TV's Inspector Morse about a barrister with a messy personal life (gambling debts, an affair with the wife of a politician, etc) and far more successful legal one. Nothing groundbreaking, but Davies does have his appeal. Meanwhile, Midsomer Murders -- the long-running British cozy mystery series (that is, crimes set in a village setting that are gently humorous) -- continues along wit no signs of stopping after its latest four installments, each one a self-contained movie of about 100 minutes. Unlike most "cozys," the murders are rather brutal in nature at times, but the general tone is still amiable if not quite Murder, She Wrote.



THE SKIN I LIVE IN ($45.99 BluRay; Sony Pictures Classics) -- One of the most baroque plots in director Pedro Almodovar's history (pulled from a not terribly interesting novel) is unfortunately treated with deadly dull seriousness. Almodovar long ago started making the movies he used to lovingly send up and this is a prime example, with Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon who has a mysterious but beautiful woman trapped in his home. It's silly from the stilted beginning to the ludicrous finale, but unfortunately the movie doesn't realize how silly the story is and we never get to have any fun.









JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN ($34.98 BluRay;  Universal)
JACK AND JILL ($40.99 BluRay; Columbia)
FOOTLOOSE ($44.99 BluRay; Paramount)
BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD VOLUME 4 ($26.99 BluRay; Paramount) -- Do we need another James Bond spoof? No, we do not, but Rowan Atkinson's non-Bean creation Johnny English is a lot more popular overseas so he will return. Are Adam Sandler's fans unthinking automatons? No, they are not because even they handed him a rare commercial flop with this tepid comedy about an annoying sister who comes to visit. Did anyone want to see a remake of the dated-the-day-it-was-released movie Footloose? Do they did not. I know it's nominally based on a true story but I always felt this story would have worked better set in the 1950s.Will I laugh at Beavis and Butt-head? No, I will not. Hey, I like South Park and even enjoyed Beavis and Butt-head Do America, probably because they played actual characters and had an actual story of sorts. But their TV show I find relentlessly...well, I can't say stupid because they would laugh at me and say "duh!' Dull? Yes, dull. No change but fans will enjoy these all new episodes. I guess.

MOST TITLES LISTED HERE WILL BE AVAILABLE IN MULTIPLE FORMATS AND IN MULTIPLE COMBINATIONS, INCLUDING DVD, BLURAY, DIGITAL DOWNLOAD, VOD, STREAMING AND THE LIKE. THE FORMAT LISTED IS THE FORMAT PROVIDED FOR REVIEW, NOT ALL THE FORMATS AVAILABLE. IT IS OFTEN THE MOST EXPENSIVE VERSION WITH THE MOST EXTRAS. DO CHECK INDIVIDUAL TITLES FOR AVAILABILITY IN ALL THEIR VARIOUS GUISES AND PRICE POINTS.

Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available  for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and  gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.

Note: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of DVDs and BluRays with the understanding that he would be considering them for review. Generally, he does not guarantee to review and he receives far more titles than he can cover.

Music: The Best Albums Of 2011

I've traveled to the future and can reassure you that Adele will have a fun night at the Grammys on Sunday. Her album is one of those inevitable triumphs at an awards show that feels right. Adele has dominated the charts and the radio and critics; if she'd been able to tour, we'd probably be saying how much better her songs sound in concert than they do on the album and realize she has room to grow. Her smash hit 21 is in every sense the album of the year.

So I was surprised in my recent trip down South to realize how few people actually own it. Five million copies is nothing to sneeze at in the North American market, but a lot more people should snap it up. If and when they do, here are some other albums you might want to consider purchasing as well. These days, you can check them out first on Spotify or MySpace so you won't have to take my word for it before spending your precious entertainment dollars. I have an embarrassing lack of classical music this year (I just wasn't exposed to much), but there's something for almost everyone -- pop, rock, country, jazz, gospel, world music, film scores, ambient, folk and more. If you've liked the artist before or enjoy the genre, I'll bet it's worth your time.

Now make sure you read the list and immediately chide me for not including so and so (Wilco! Jayhawks! Tuneyards!) or for foolishly including so and so (Panic! at the Disco? Really?) or for having one act too high (Glen Campbell in the Top 10?) or too low (Frank Ocean at the bottom?). Hey, it wouldn't be fun if we didn't argue. I'm especially looking forward to getting tips about any albums I haven't heard yet. Chances are if an act is on a lot of year-end lists that I probably already gave it a listen. But little known favorites of yours are very welcome comments indeed. That's certainly all I hope to achieve with my picks: point you in the direction of an album or two I think you'll love. And now, the list! Come back over the weekend and I promise to add in some comments explaining my choices.

BEST ALBUMS OF 2011

1. FLEET FOXES Helplessness Blues (CSN rocks out)

2. TOM WAITS Bad As Me (bohemian troubadour in top form)

3. KING CREOSOTE & JON HOPKINS Diamond Mine (quirky concept album, gorgeously done)

4. GILLIAN WELCH The Harrow and the Harvest (simple, straightforward, striking folk)

5. TEDDY THOMPSON Bella / kd lang Sing It Loud /RON SEXSMITH -- Long Player, Late Bloomer (pure pop by pure pros)

6. WYNTON MARSALIS AND ERIC CLAPTON  Play the Blues / BRANFORD MARSALIS AND JOEY CALDARAZZO  Songs of Mirth and Melancholy (trad jazz)

7. GLEN CAMPBELL  Ghost on the Canvas (haunting country pop)

8. BOMBINO Agadez (Tuareg rocks!) / BOUBACAR TRAORE Mali Denhou (gentle African guitar) / LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO Songs From a Zulu Farm (ecstatic and playful children's music)

9. VARIOUS ARTISTS This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African American Gospel on 45 RPM (1957-1982) (lo-fi, high flying gospel that's so good you'll convert)

10. ADELE 21 (unstoppable soul diva)

***

11. GROUPLOVE Never Trust a Happy Song (raucous LA pop-rock)

12. PANIC! AT THE DISCO  Vices & Virtues (sterling but overlooked pop-rock)

13. NICK LOWE The Old Magic (vintage wine, vintage bottle)

14. WILD FLAG Wild Flag (giving super groups a good name)

15. BRAD MEHLDAU Modern Music (dependably adventurous jazz trio)/COLIN VALLON -- Rruger (bold EU trio following in Mehldau's wake)

16. JAY-Z AND KANYE WEST  Watch the Throne (braggadocio taken to new heights)

17. BON IVER Bon Iver (stares down success with quiet confidence)

18. BALLAKE SISSOKO AND VINCENT SEGAL Chamber Music (delicate instrumentals)

19. PAUL SIMON So Beautiful or So What (mortality, musically)

20. BETH HART & JOE BONAMASSA Don't Explain (the blues, thumpingly good)

***

21. PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND AND DEL MCCOURY BAND American Legacies (an institution finds new life via collaboration)

22. AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE When the Heart Emerges Glistening (quietly probing jazz)

23. JAMES BLAKE James Blake (trippy pop)

24. VARIOUS ARTISTS Live From the Old Town School (folk's beating heart)

25. GIRLS Father, Son, Holy Ghost (interesting identity crisis)

26. TINARIWEN Tassili (bluesy, distinctive, campfire sing-alongs)

27. JOY FORMIDABLE The Big Roar (noisy pop)

28. DARI0 MARINELLI WITH JACK LIEBECK Jane Eyre soundtrack (the year's best traditional score)/ MATTHEW COOPER Some Days Are Better Than Others (the year's best untraditional score)

29. THE CORAL Butterfly House/THE MAGIC NUMBERS Runaway (pop, unimported, unrecognized)

30. PISTOL ANNIES Pistol Annies / MIRANDA LAMBERT Four The Record (country's top gal and friends)

***

31. THE LOW ANTHEM Smart Flesh (brainy Americana)

32. CHARLIE HADEN AND QUARTET WEST Sophisticated Ladies (female singers, jazz swingers)

33. THE BLACK KEYS El Camino (rock, no fuss)

34. M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (ambient pop)

35. ALISON KRAUSS AND UNION STATION Paper Airplanes/ JOHN HIATT Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns (old dogs, old tricks, happily so)

36. BEASTIE BOYS Hot Sauce Committee, Part Two (feisty hip-hop from the old-timers)

37. BEN HOWARD Every Kingdom (gentle pop)/MIKE BLOOM King Of Circles (WARM singer-songwriter vibe for this solo debut)

38. VINICIUS CANTUARIA AND BILL FRISELL Lagrimas Mexicanas (two great guitars, one great voice equal haunting Latin music)/

39. THE GOURDS  Old Mad Joy (rootsy celebration) / MARC BROUSSARD Marc Broussard (bluesy rock)

40. SUZANNE VEGA Close-Up Volume 3: State Of Being (acoustic songs, electric songwriting)

***

41. VARIOUS ARTISTS Those Shocking, Shaking Days: Indonesia Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk (1970-1978) (rock and roll knows no borders)

42. VARIOUS ARTISTS The Book of Mormon Original Cast Album (religiously funny)

43. DRAKE Take Care (emo-rap)/ SHABAZZ PALACES Black Up

44. BRAD PAISLEY This Is Country Music (yes it is) /STEVE EARLE I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive (determined, focused country)

45. MEGAFAUN Megafaun ('70s-ish rock)

46. FATOUMATA DIAWARA Fatou (Malian guitar talent combined with impeccable vocals)/ KHAIRA ARBY Timbukto Traab (country to Diawara's city sound; not locale so much as the gritty, rawer feel)

47. HOUSTON PERSON So Nice (late period capper for understated jazz blower)

48. REAL ESTATE Days -- (shimmering indie pop)

49. EILEEEN JEWELL  Queen of the Minor Key (sneakily impressive)

50. FRANK OCEAN nostalgia/ultra (backward/forward looking moody pop)

***

EARLY 2012 FAVORITES

RUMER Seasons of My Soul

CHARLIE HADEN AND HANK JONES Come Sunday

DAMIEN JURADO Marqopa

LEONARD COHEN Old Ideas

BEN KWELLER Go Fly a Kite

KATHLEEN EDWARDS Voyageur



BEST ALBUMS OF 2011 -- THE EXPANDED LIST


1. FLEET FOXES Helplessness Blues (CSN rocks out) I really struggled with which album to put on top this year. Usually it's simply the album I played the most. But this year I was just crazy about all the album in my Top 5 (and Adele at #10 certainly didn't need more promotion from me). Finally, it was the pure sonic beauty of Fleet Foxes that sealed the deal. Every single time I put it on I got chills and the gorgeous vocals, stirring arrangements and wave of emotions they brought out in me. Are there albums just as good from 2011? Yes. But none were prettier.






2. KING CREOSOTE & JON HOPKINS Diamond Mine (quirky concept album, gorgeously done) Very few in the U.S. paid attention to this odd little album; in the U.K. it appeared on more lists but not with the fervor it deserves. it's a concept album about life in a fishing village, complete with muttered voices, people grabbing a bite in the local greasy spoon, various characters stepping forward to tell their story and so on. But what a gorgeous, fragile thing of beauty this is. It's just a little over half an hour long but the experience is so intense and enveloping, you'll feel like you've just sunk into another world and wake up slowly and reluctantly. I'm playing it again and feel tempted to put it on top all over again. People have heard of Fleet Foxes but this will surely be new to virtually everyone reading it. If you like Robert Wyatt (I don't know what else to compare this unique work to), jump. (Seriously, I've been writing this list while Diamond Mine plays and it's breaking my heart with the vulnerability and empathy on display. Great melodies. Simple but somehow perfect vocals with just the right sonic touches. A real keeper.)






3. TOM WAITS Bad As Me (bohemian troubadour in top form) Just one song kept the great Waits from the top. I've liked so much of what he's done over the years, including the industrial strength clamor of much of his work in the past decade. Here his sonics are more restrained so fans who haven't visited Waits in a long time should dive back in. This is one of his strongest works in years, from the typically clanging opener "Chicago" (it settles down soon enough) to the heart-breaking closer "New Year's Eve," the sort of drunken elegy Waits does so well we take it for granted. So what song spoiled it ever so slightly? "Last Leaf On The Tree," a fine little ditty that simply repeats itself to distraction. At two minutes this slight tune would go by quickly. At four minutes it's a bit of a distraction given the limited melody on display. Keep this in perspective: I was niggled by a few bars of one song on an otherwise marvelous work that shows Waits as deeply in command as ever. Like Neil Young and Bob Dylan and other greats, time is not dimming his talent in the least.






4. GILLIAN WELCH The Harrow and the Harvest (simple, straightforward, striking folk) Well, if Welch is gonna make us wait years and years for a new album, at least she delivers the goods and then some. This follow-up to Soul Journey is impeccable folk-rock. It could just as easily have been my Album of the Year.






5. TEDDY THOMPSON Bella / kd lang Sing It Loud /RON SEXSMITH -- Long Player, Late Bloomer (pure pop by pure pros) No, I'm not consistent. Sometimes I get annoyed when the music press genuflects in front of the latest offering from the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, et al in almost an unconscious reflex. On the other hand, when they ignore terrific new music by established acts that aren't at the superstar level, I want them to pay attention. Maybe these artists simply don't have heat. Teddy Thompson hasn't broken through commercially despite getting better and better with every album, so maybe the press has written him off as an act that can't sell magazines. kd lang hasn't come out in a while, so what new can you say about her? And we all know Sexsmith is an impeccable pop craftsman; didn't Elvis Costello tell us so for years? Nonetheless, all three have delivered absolutely top-notch pop albums. If you've ever been a fan, don't hesitate for a moment.












6. WYNTON MARSALIS AND ERIC CLAPTON  Play the Blues / BRANFORD MARSALIS AND JOEY CALDARAZZO  Songs of Mirth And Melancholy (trad jazz) Surely the Marsalis brothers hate having all their work linked. Oh well. Wynton has found new purpose and a sense of joy via collaborations with the likes of Willie Nelson and now Clapton. Their jam session brings out the best in both of them. (Who knew "Layla" would prove so malleable?) And does anyone in jazz have a more gorgeous tone that Branford? For sheer sonic beauty, it's the best since Getz. HIs album is also a collaboration and it leans more heavily on melancholy than mirth. Great stuff.









7. GLEN CAMPBELL  Ghost on the Canvas (haunting country pop) I have no strong affection for Glen Campbell and won't try and retroactively make his career more important than it deserves. I think a strong greatest hits album sums him up very well, which is hardly something to sneer at. Many artists never get even that. So his illness and late period Cash-like recording don't tug at my heartstrings for any reason other than the music. But what music. Campbell's voice -- his greatest weapon -- isn't remotely as good as in his heyday but now we can appreciate what a terrific singer he always was. Like Elvis Presley's album Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old), this combines terrific songs with spoken word passages to spooky, marvelous effect.






8. BOMBINO Agadez (Tuareg rocks!) / BOUBACAR TRAORE Mali Denhou (gentle African guitar) / LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO Songs From a Zulu Farm (ecstatic and playful children's music) Bombino is a guitarist par excellence,  a superstar in Africa who draws on traditional sounds along with rock and blues while delivering the seemingly endless pleas for peace and hope that Africa invariably needs but lacks. He surely acknowledges a debt to Traore, a fellow African who suffered not from repression but by seeming linked to oppressors and being out of favor for years because of it. Happily, they can find common ground in their music. Then there's Ladysmith Black Mambazo, an act you know and -- if you've seen them in concert -- love. This album of children's songs they learned as kids growing up in rural South Africa is one of their lightest and most sheerly entertaining in their entire discography.









9. VARIOUS ARTISTS This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African American Gospel on 45 RPM (1957-1982) (lo-fi, high flying gospel that's so good you'll convert) This followup to the excellent compilation Fire in My Bones is another revelation. Filled with well-known tunes and obscure songs performed generally by acts only the most devoted gospel listener has heard of (no Kirk Franklin or Mahalia here), it's a delight from beginning to end. The so-so sound quality of many of these rarities actually works to the album's benefit. You feel like you're listening to them via a transistor radio catching a far-away station or maybe down the block from a house of worship. The performances are joyous, foreboding, ecstatic and majestic.






10. ADELE 21 (unstoppable soul diva) A great album with a string of singles that get better and better the more you hear them -- that's about as great as pop music gets. Beyonce and Lady Gaga had some great singles, but they couldn't come within a mile of the genuine artistic statement of this album. Here's hoping Adele stays healthy vocally and unhealthy in her choice of men. Yep, it's Mary J. Blige all over again -- do we really want to risk Adele writing about how content she is? Don't worry; we'll be there to comfort you.






11. GROUPLOVE Never Trust a Happy Song (raucous L.A. pop-rock) Why this L.A. band isn't the toast of the town simply escapes me. Terrific stuff.






12. PANIC! AT THE DISCO Vices & Virtues (sterling but overlooked pop-rock) Am I a sucker for pure pop? Panic! can add or drop the exclamation point as many times as they want as long as they keep creating indelible melodies and stirring rock like they do here.






13. NICK LOWE The Old Magic (vintage wine, vintage bottle) I've never been deeply invested in Nick Lowe but boy is this a charmer. The only reason it isn't higher on my list is because I haven't listened to it enough yet. This video isn't from his current album. But it's recent and shows Lowe in excellent form.




14. WILD FLAG Wild Flag (giving super groups a good name) Sleater-Kinney lives in this new band composed of some of the talent from that group and their friends. Unruly fun.





15. BRAD MEHLDAU Modern Music (dependably adventurous jazz trio)/COLIN VALLON -- Rruger (bold EU trio following in Mehldau's wake) Mehldau is consistently great so the strength of his latest is no surprise. Now his influence is seeping out to the continent, not by the obvious tactic of covering unexpected pop songs but simply in their commitment to the piano-led jazz trio.







16. JAY-Z AND KANYE WEST  Watch the Throne (braggadocio taken to new heights) Neither is quite my cup of tea but they've delivered great works before. West's last album was the first one I truly loved. Together they indulge in the usual hip-hop obnoxiousness of boasting and putting down bitches, but somehow they're in such good spirits here it kind of won me over.





17. BON IVER Bon Iver (stares down success with quiet confidence) Bon Iver's intense publicity surrounding his last album didn't corner him into repeating himself. This album gently expands his sonic palette. I thought maybe he was the flavor of the week, but who knows? He might just be in it for the long haul.





18. BALLAKE SISSOKO AND VINCENT SEGAL Chamber Music (delicate instrumentals) I could look up all sorts of facts about who they are, where they come from, their instruments and the like. But the simple fact is that their album is lovely.





19. PAUL SIMON So Beautiful or So What (mortality, musically) I can't remember the last time I put a Paul Simon album on my best of the year last. (Probably Rhythm of the Saints.) And I love the guy! As one of the all-time greats, I hold him to a higher standard. And he meets it here on this pop gem about facing death with wit, resignation and some excellent melodies.





20. BETH HART & JOE BONAMASSA Don't Explain (the blues, thumpingly good) The blues make for a stomping good time when performed with such glee.





21. PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND AND DEL MCCOURY BAND American Legacies (an institution finds new life via collaboration) PHJB is an institution and as such, much of its best work was probably behind it. Until 2010 when it collaborated with an all-star cast to celebrate some anniversary or another and the band produced one of its most enjoyable albums in years. One of those collaborators proved so successful, they went and recorded an entire album. The results do not disappoint.





22. AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE When the Heart Emerges Glistening (quietly probing jazz) A sterling Blue Note debut by one of jazz's best young trumpeters. A clutch of strong originals, a great young quintet, focus,vision -- this is very exciting indeed. For a live performance from his new album, you must go to YouTube.





23. JAMES BLAKE James Blake (trippy pop) Not my thing usually, but Blake has enough snippets of emotion to keep me returning and every time I do it seems a little more cohesive and satisfying.





24. VARIOUS ARTISTS Live From the Old Town School (folk's beating heart) Sometimes you go out to track down history. Other times you can wait quietly and have it come to you. The Chicago center of folk Old Town School has seen countless legends pass through its doors. Apparently they knew it and recorded everyone who came to town. This 4 CD set contains a truckload of inspired performances from Taj Mahal and Mahalia Jackson to Jeff Tweedy and Peter Case. A fourth CD devoted to world music doesn't have quite the same impact but the overall level of quality and the mix of great and unexpected make this a genuine discovery. Here's a performance (not from the album) by Steve Dawson at the legendary venue.





25. GIRLS Father, Son, Holy Ghost (interesting identity crisis) I loved the first album by Girls but was slightly suspicious nonetheless. Now their proper followup has me even more nervous. Each song seems to come from an entirely different band. Do Girls even know what sort of sound they're going for, if any? It shouldn't work but the album holds together for me out of sheer perversity. You have no idea what to expect but it's all good. I hope they find more direction next time but for the moment the grab-bag approach is working just fine.





26. TINARIWEN Tassili (bluesy, distinctive, campfire sing-alongs) One of the strongest acts in world music for the past few years, Tinariwen don't disappoint with their latest. I always picture them performing around a campfire in the middle of the desert, the flames the only light for miles around? Am I romanticizing or fetishizing them? Maybe. But their music is bluesy and distinctive enough to travel around the globe so I'm sure it'll withstand my flight of fancy.





27. JOY FORMIDABLE The Big Roar (noisy pop) A child of Nirvana, they have its gift for making an unholy racket but keeping it reined in with a very strong pop sense. Very good stuff.





28. DARI0 MARINELLI WITH JACK LIEBECK Jane Eyre soundtrack (the year's best traditional score)/ MATTHEW COOPER Some Days Are Better Than Others (the year's best untraditional score) The score for the fine remake of Jane Eyre is the best orchestral score of the year. I haven't even seen the indie film Some Days Are Better Than Others, but the pop instrumental score by Matthew Cooper is so stirring and lovely it certainly makes me want to right away.







29. THE CORAL Butterfly House/THE MAGIC NUMBERS Runaway (pop, unimported, unrecognized) I kept waiting for both of these albums to be released in the U.S. but they never were. Both bands are more appreciated in the U.K. than they are here. The Coral live for nuggets-style garage rock while Magic Numbers savor the gorgeous vocals of Laurel Canyon. Multiple tracks should be big radio hits.








30. PISTOL ANNIES Pistol Annies / MIRANDA LAMBERT Four The Record (country's top gal and friends) Miranda Lambert -- the SECOND runner-up on the late, lamented (by me) talent show Nashville Star, just keeps growing. Her latest solo album isn't quite as good as her last. But it's good. And then she turns around and forms Pistol Annies with some friends to fill the gaping hole where the Dixie Chicks used to be. Combine her best work on both of these album and you've got a great work indeed.






31. THE LOW ANTHEM Smart Flesh (brainy Americana) Still waiting to break through to a wider audience a la Avett Brothers and Mumford & Sons. That good.





32. CHARLIE HADEN AND QUARTET WEST Sophisticated Ladies (female singers, jazz swingers) A great lover of classic jazz singers pairs with some of today's best vocalists and hits some standards out of the park. Melody Gardot, Cassandra Wilson and Diana Krall are along for the ride.





33. THE BLACK KEYS El Camino (rock, no fuss) I respected and admired and appreciated The Black Keys but never quite dug them until last week when I was walking down Fifth Avenue (one of the least Black Keys-appropriate streets in NYC) when it just clicked and I could groove on their music. Sometimes it just takes the right frame of (an open) mind.





34. M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming (ambient pop) Another act where I need the right setting. In their case, it usually involves a late night, an open highway and the perfect number, like "Raconte, Moi Une Historie."





35. ALISON KRAUSS AND UNION STATION Paper Airplanes/ JOHN HIATT Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns (old dogs, old tricks, happily so) Two veterans who stepped it up. I didn't appreciate the Krauss for a while because the CD came "burdened" with bonus tracks that made the CD too long and kept me from appreciating the album proper for quite a while. It took my friend Sal at Burning Wood to nudge me into giving the Hiatt a second chance and realizing he's strung together one of his best since that miracle heyday around Bring the Family.







36. BEASTIE BOYS Hot Sauce Committee, Part Two (feisty hip-hop from the old-timers) They've still got life in them yet.





37. BEN HOWARD Every Kingdom (gentle pop)/MIKE BLOOM King Of Circles (WARM singer-songwriter vibe for this solo debut) Two quiet works of solid tunes that get better with each listen.







38. VINICIUS CANTUARIA AND BILL FRISELL Lagrimas Mexicanas (two great guitars, one great voice equal haunting Latin music) A playful, delightful collaboration between the always adventurous Frisell and the Brazilian singer and instrumentalist Cantuaria. Really charming.





39. THE GOURDS Old Mad Joy (rootsy celebration) / MARC BROUSSARD Marc Broussard (bluesy rock) Americana from the front porch, for then Gourds, and from the juke joint for Broussard, who has it all to be a star except the touring and radio that once upon a time would have championed him.







40. SUZANNE VEGA Close-Up Volume 3: State Of Being (acoustic songs, electric songwriting) Vega has been recording her catalog over again so she can own the masters to these new versions and profit from them at least a little (is that asking so much for an artist?). Out of necessity has come fresh proof about her exceptional catalog of songs and Vega's gifts as a performer. After her debut, Vega quickly proved she was no folkie, thanks to an adventurous gift for sonic experimentation and great pop sense. But here she is stripping her songs down again mainly to a voice and a guitar. The results are gripping, mixing older and fresher tunes side by side till all you can see is the impressive breadth of her career. Plus each volume works beautifully on its own terms.





41. VARIOUS ARTISTS Those Shocking, Shaking Days: Indonesia Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk (1970-1978) (rock and roll knows no borders) Truly, rock and roll is everywhere and always has been. If there's a better example of world music than Indonesian acts pounding out these thumping originals back in the 1970s while singing lyrics like "I like the Rolling Stones," well I don't know it. Is there no end to the riches produced around the world we're barely aware of much less listened to? Apparently not.





42. VARIOUS ARTISTS The Book of Mormon Original Cast Album (religiously funny) I believe it's more fun to see the show in person and some of the weaker comic numbers truly do need the context of the show to work best. But the best numbers like "Hello," "Turn It Off" and "I Believe" are a blast to sing any time. (What a great moment for Andrew Rannells on the Tonys. He and the original cast is with The Book Of Mormon for another year so get to it if you can.)





43. DRAKE Take Care (emo-rap)/ SHABAZZ PALACES Black Up Not a banner year for me and hip-hop. But Drake kept compelling me to listen in  to his thoughts whereas Shabazz seemed to be pushing me away. Of course, nothing piques interest in feeling like you're not wanted.







44. BRAD PAISLEY This Is Country Music (yes it is) /STEVE EARLE I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (determined, focused country) Paisley does an amazing thing on his new album. The first track details all the things you shouldn't do in a country song (like say the word "cancer") in a song that's wonderfully catchy and a heartland statement of purpose. Then he spends the rest of the album doing a song about each and every "forbidden' scenario he mentioned. It's a quiet tour de force of songwriting, delivered with Paisley's typical understated charm. Earle, meanwhile, just pounds 'em out with righteous focus and energy, a modern day Woody Guthrie.







45. MEGAFAUN Megafaun ('70s-ish rock) Dreadful name and dreadful (truly dreadful) album cover make this exceptionally quirky album look like some anonymous Boston rip-off. They start boldly early on with a Seventies slice of AM radio heaven called "Get Right" that goes on for eight minutes. Before and after is a lot of great stuff that is anything but anonymous. You'd never know it from the packaging or that stupid name.





46. FATOUMATA DIAWARA Fatou (Malian guitar talent combined with impeccable vocals)/ KHAIRA ARBY Timbukto Traab (country to Diawara's city sound) I have no idea about the actual provenance of either act or the musical pedigree. But to my Western ear, Diawara's music sounds uptown and sweet whereas Arby's call and response feels more downtown or rather out of town in some rural area. Both are striking albums any fan of world music would do well to catch.







47. HOUSTON PERSON So Nice (late period capper for understated jazz blower) I trust Person isn't going anywhere, but this feels like a valedictory for a journeyman player given a chance to shine one more time and delivering in spades. Here's a recent performance in New York City featuring a standard not on his album.





48. REAL ESTATE Days -- (shimmering indie pop) Jersey lads delivering the pop goods with just a dash of fading beauty.





49. EILEEEN JEWELL  Queen of the Minor Key (sneakily impressive) Americana with a nod to 50s rock and torch songs that grow on you.





50. FRANK OCEAN nostalgia/ultra (backward/forward looking moody pop) A trendy, hyped act that then slipped from view for many. Like many I'm wary of hype but each dip into the water with this album was intriguing. The really positive sign is when you return to an album months later and the first track sounds exceptionally familiar, as if you've been playing it for weeks on end when in fact you haven't played a note. That's the sign of an album that could continue to deepen and reveal itself over time. Ocean seems like a patient artist, so we should be too in listening to his music before passing judgment.





Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available  for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and  gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.

The Best Albums Of 2011

Here's a link to my full feature on Huffington Post about the best albums of 2011.

And for those that just want the facts:

THE BEST ALBUMS OF 2011:


Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues (CSN rocks out) --

Tom Waits Bad As Me (bohemian troubadour in top form)

King Creosote and Jon Hopkins Diamond Mine (quirky concept album, gorgeously done)

Gillian Welch – The Harrow and the Harvest (simple, straightforward, striking folk)

Teddy Thompson – Bella / kd lang –Sing It Loud /Ron Sexsmith – Long Player, Late Bloomer (pure pop by pure pros)

Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton – Play The Blues / Branford Marsalis and Joey Caldarazzo – Songs Of Mirth And Melancholy (trad jazz)

Glen Campbell – Ghost On The Canvas (haunting country pop)

Bombino Agadez (Tuareg rocks!) / Boubacar Traore Mali Denhou (gentle African guitar) / Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Songs From A Zulu Farm (ecstatic and playful children’s music)

Various Artists – This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African American Gospel on 45 RPM (1957-1982) (gut bucket gospel so good you’ll convert)

Adele 21 (unstoppable soul diva)



Grouplove Never Trust A Happy Song (raucous LA pop-rock)

Panic! At The Disco – Vices & Virtues (sterling but overlooked pop-rock)

Nick Lowe – The Old Magic (vintage wine, vintage bottle)

Wild Flag Wild Flag (giving super groups a good name)

Brad Mehldau – Modern Music (focused jazz trio)/Colin Vallon – Rruger (bold EU trio following in Mehldau’s wake)

Jay-Z and Kanye West – Watch The Throne (braggadocio taken to new heights)

Bon Iver – Bon Iver (stares down success with quiet confidence)

Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal – Chamber Music (delicate instrumentals)

Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What (mortality, musically)

Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa – Don’t Explain (the blues, thumpingly good)



Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Del McCoury Band – American Legacies (jazz, bluegrass, Americana…music)

Ambrose Akinmusire – When The Heart Emerges Glistening (delicate jazz)

James Blake – James Blake (trippy pop)

Various Artists – Live From The Old Town School (folk’s beating heart)

Girls – Father, Son, Holy Ghost (split personalities, all of them interesting)

Tinariwen – Tassili (bluesy, distinctive, campfire sing-alongs)

Joy Formidable – The Big Roar (noisy pop)

Dario Marinelli – Jane Eyre soundtrack featuring Jack Liebeck (the year’s best score)/ Matthew Cooper Some Days Are Better Than Others (shimmering gauzy pop score to indie film)

The Coral – Butterfly House/The Magic Numbers – Runaway (pop, unimported, unrecognized)

Pistol Annies – Pistol Annies/Miranda Lambert – Four The Record (country’s top gal and friends)





The Low Anthem – Smart Flesh (brainy Americana)

Charlie Haden and Quartet West – Sophisticated Ladies (female singers, jazz swingers)

Black Keys – El Camino (rock, no fuss)

M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (ambient pop)

Alison Krauss and Union Station – Paper Airplanes/ John Hiatt – Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns (old dogs, old tricks, happily so)

Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee, Part Two (feisty hip-hop from the old-timers)

Ben Howard – Every Kingdom (gentle pop)/Mike Bloom King Of Circles (Seventies singer-songwriter vibe for this warm solo debut)

Vinicius Cantuaria and Bill Frisell – Lagrimas Mexicanas (two great guitars, one great voice equal haunting Latin music)/

The Gourds Old Mad Joy (rootsy celebration) / Marc Broussard – Marc Broussard (bluesy rock)

Suzanne Vega – Close-Up Volume 3: State Of Being (acoustic songs, electric songwriting)



Various Artists – Those Shocking Shaking Days: Indonesia Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock and Funk (1970-1978)

Original Cast Album – The Book Of Mormon (religiously funny)

Drake – Take Care (emo-rap)/ Shabazz Palaces Black Up

Brad Paisley – This Is Country Music (yes it is) /Steve Earle – I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive (determined, focused country)

Megafaun – Megafaun (seventies-ish rock)

Fatoumata Diawara Fatou (more Malian guitar talent combined with impeccable vocals)/ Khaira Arby Timbukto Traab (country to Diawara’s city sound; not locale so much as the gritty, rawer feel)

Houston Person – So Nice (late period capper for understated jazz blower)

Real Estate Days – (shimmering indie pop)

Eileen Jewell – Queen Of The Minor Key (sneakily impressive)

Frank Ocean – nostalgia/ultra (backward/forward looking moody pop)




EARLY 2012 FAVORITES

Rumer – Seasons Of My Soul

Charlie Haden and Hank Jones – Come Sunday

Damien Jurado -- Marqopa

Leonard Cohen – Old Ideas

Ben Kweller – Go Fly A Kite

Kathleen Edwards -- Voyageur

Music: Rumer -- 2012's Best New Artist

RUMER -- SEASONS OF MY SOUL **** out of ****

The US is finally catching up with Rumer. A critical and commercial success all over the world, Rumer's gorgeous debut album Seasons of My Soul is finally getting a proper release in North America. It's early days yet, but she's certain to be one of the best new acts of 2012 and the early buzz is proving it. The album hit #1 on the iTunes album chart and #3 on Amazon, thanks in part to a profile on CBS (the video is posted below).

With the pop smarts of Adele, the mellow vibe of Norah Jones, a voice and sound that echoes Karen Carpenter, and songcraft that follows in the footsteps of Burt Bacharach, Rumer's talent is built to last. With just one Top 20 hit in the UK (the gorgeous "Slow") Rumer sold out the Royal Albert Hall. When she performed a showcase in New York in 2011, the New York Daily News rightly named it one of the best live shows of the year. If you're in Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia, New York or Boston, make sure you catch her in the next week or so while she's still playing intimate clubs.

If success is making her head spin, it doesn't show. In concert and in person, Rumer is sweet, funny, self-effacing and nice, even as she's clearly navigating the terrain and dealing with new issues like giving a string of back to back interviews. The first question is what to call her -- does she go strictly by Rumer or do friends call her by Sarah, her given name?

"I'm kind of both," says Rumer, chatting by phone from the UK about a week ago.

"I don't mind if someone calls me Sarah. I just don't like it if people change it halfway through [a conversation]," she laughs. "I get confused."

Born in Pakistan to her English parents, Rumer spent her childhood there as the youngest of seven children. They always fell back on entertaining themselves so it was natural for Rumer to grab an instrument and sing or play. It was a sheltered, strange existence but also one that inspired a lot of creativity. When she was 11, Rumer discovered her biological father was their Pakistani cook. Her parents moved back to the UK and divorced. Later Rumer's mother suffered from depression (quietly alluded to in the second single "Aretha") and ultimately died from breast cancer.



Rumer wandered off into a commune based in a stately home and somehow wound up in the music business creating songs with a calm and sureness that belie the rather dramatic events of her early life. It's not so dramatic when you're living it, of course. That commune was more of a company than a cult, for example.

"It wasn't a cult, explains Rumer. "There's a man called Sir Richard Glyn. His family has owned thousands of acres of land since the 1400s. But he happens to be a hippie. He's this guy with long silver hair and he got married in Marrakech. It's like a hippie hotel. One week you get all these luminous people with yoga mats and then they leave and all these guys show up with giant gongs. Then they leave and you get the past life regression groups. And they're quite weird."

Things got even weirder when Rumer dove into music seriously.

"When I was about 18 I started to write a few songs where I thought, this is quite good," she remembers. "Later on I spent time learning structure and song writing. I've definitely done my apprenticeship. But I've done my apprenticeship part one. The first thing that you learn is that there's so much more to learn."

Obviously, she learned quickly. Rumer was in a couple of bands and even recorded a solo album under her given name of Sarah Joyce that was released in South Korea. But when she partnered up with Steve Brown, their collaboration proved magic. Brown is famous in the UK for writing songs for TV shows like Spitting Image and the massive West End hit musical Spend Spend Spend. Her record label thought Rumer was daft when she wanted to work with him, even though he's never produced an album before. The buzz surrounding their work was instantaneous.

Burt Bacharach flew Rumer out to his home so he could hear her sing and share some new songs. Elton John later invited her to be part of his annual charity show. And UK personality Jools Holland debuted her live on national television even before her album came out by giving Rumer a slot on his concert series where a string of musical acts all take turns playing music.

"It's quite interesting with live tv when you've never done anything like that before. Suddenly, it's 5, 4, 3, 2  1...live! It's like jumping off a building," says Rumer. "Especially because you have all these people from the record company saying, if she does a great job we'll jump up and down and decide she's the best thing ever. If she does a bad jump we'll go all quiet and moody. This position I'm in right now is kind of a conditional love nightmare."

Was the show itself intense? As a new artist whose album hadn't even been released yet, Rumer was surrounded by talented veterans.

"Nick Cave was on my right hand side and Brandon Flowers was on my left and Scissor Sisters was in front," she says. "It's lovely. There's a kind of folkiness to it because you've got all these other musicians there. It's a bit like doing an open mike night. If you watch the video of me singing "Slow" online, there's a point where I kind of look to my right, and that's me checking out Nick Cave because he's looking at me like, "Hmm." I caught him looking at me and thought, oh my god Nick Cave is looking at me!"



Clearly, things went well. The album is poised to go double platinum in the UK and now Rumer is set to introduce her music to America. If the songs you hear sound sturdy and well-crafted, it's no surprise. But these things take time.

"Each song for me is like a painting," explains Rumer. "It takes time. I try and let them emerge. I want them to have a soul; I want them to live forever. I let them grow naturally. I start with the sentiment, the emotion, the feeling and then gradually let the song emerge and structure it around that. I don't like to rush it. I definitely have some songs cooking but it takes as long as it takes."

So even though this music was recorded almost two years ago she's happy to keep living with these tunes. Rumer is in fact back in the studio, but she's recording an album of covers.

"I've always wanted to do this project," says Rumer about the album focused on Seventies songwriters, dubbed Boys Don't Cry and set for a spring UK release. "There's a part of me that admires people like Linda Ronstadt who can take songs and make them her own. They make great, great choices. I'm covering Leon Russell, Tim Hardin, Isaac Hayes, Richie Havens, Paul Williams, Jimmy Webb, P.F. Sloan. I love to learn and I love other people's work. If I were an actor I would never limit myself to just performing my own work."

And apparently she won't limit herself quite yet to just one man. Ask Rumer if she's dating anyone and she laughs.

"I've realized I'm the kind of girl who needs more than one man. I do! I realized that. I did the Albert Hall and about five of my ex-boyfriends were there...with some of their parents, which is quite hilarious. My friends were laughing about that. They said, 'Did you see Rumer's boyfriends all standing having a cigarette outside?' My little sister said, 'That's nothing. At her birthday picnic eight of them showed up and they all brought [mail].'

"I haven't got a boyfriend. I've decided that I'm not looking for a boyfriend anymore. I'm looking for a husband," she declares. "I'm 32. The next one's going to have to marry me. I'm going to find a nice American."

Here's the interview that aired on CBS:




Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.  Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available  for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and  gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.

Note: Michael Giltz was provided with the CD and free tickets to a Rumer concert with the understanding that he would be writing a feature.

DVDs: Should Steven Soderbergh Retire From Directing?

CONTAGION ($29.98 BluRay; Warner Bros.) -- Director Steven Soderbergh has insisted he'll stop directing movies soon, after a few more projects are finished up. He has Haywire out January 20 with a kick-ass female action hero; Magic Mike, a film about male strippers; and a Liberace biopic with Michael Douglas as the pianist and Matt Damon the down-low love interest. Why walk away from a profitable and interesting career? If Contagion is any indication, he might simply be bored. It's a fine rough draft for a smart contemporary drama/thriller about what would help if a pandemic truly broke out in the world, rather than just being a scare like the avian flu or other genuine health threats that don't follow a worst-case scenario. This film does follow that scenario and dutifully covers all the bases, from regular guy Matt Damon (whose wife Gwyneth Paltrow and son are dead in the blink of an eye) to CDC officials like Laurence Fishburne and Kate Winslet down to conspiracy theory bloggers like Jude Law. After a promising start, the only surprise here is how dull the movie turns out to be. In one typical subplot, Marion Cotillard is a health expert taken prisoner by villagers in China who want to ensure their children are given a vaccine as soon as possible after most of them drop dead. A fine, compelling set-up. Then she is promptly forgotten for most of the film until we pick up her story thread right near the end. The score by Cliff Martinez is not his best; the performances are fine as far as they go. But no one seems to have had their heart in it. This is not a frightening, unnerving film the way it should be. And it's all the more frustrating because all the elements were there. It seemed odd for Soderbergh to announce his retirement, and surely he'll make more movies some day. But perhaps a break isn't such a bad idea.

















BOARDWALK EMPIRE SEASON ONE ($59.99; HBO)
JUSTIFIED COMPLETE SECOND SEASON ($49.95 BluRay; Sony)
SHAMELESS COMPLETE FIRST SEASON ($49.99 BluRay; Warner Bros.)
ROYAL PAINS SEASON THREE VOLUME ONE ($26.98; Universal)

By and large, American television does a TERRIBLE job releasing their new shows on DVD. In the UK, TV shows and movies and miniseries come out on DVD the minute the current season of the show has ended, sometimes even before. In America, the studios rather idiotically have decided to wait until right before the new season has begun to release the previous season. This has two results: one, most people writing about TV write about the new season, rather than the old season coming out on DVD six months after it ended. Two, fans who might want to "join" a show by catching up can't do so because the previous season comes out so close to the new season. Even worse are kids shows, which often see a single season broken up into multi-DVD releases that make them expensive and annoying to collect. HBO has added a new wrinkle to this. They want to encourage people to subscribe to HBO and access their entire library via HBO To Go, so they delayed the DVD release of their high profile series Boardwalk Empire (with the pilot directed by executive producer Martin Scorsese) until one month after the finale of Season TWO! This is a lavish series with a top-notch cast and a very familiar story of gangsters and the feds during Prohibition. I can't speak to its quality yet since I'm still catching up with episodes that aired some 16 months ago and many people have said the show didn't catch fire until season two. But it's certainly well-acted and intelligent. But HBO has it wrong. The more people that watch their shows the more likely they will be to subscribe.

Hiding a show from DVD for a  year longer than necessary goes against everything we've learned about creative content: make it available to consumers any way they want, whether it's digital, on a tablet, on BluRay, on demand, or via their cable subscription. Keeping Boardwalk Empire from DVD doesn't make HBO more desirable. It keeps their shows less well-known and therefore less important. For 16 months, I haven't even been able to discuss Boardwalk Empire or read a single story to avoid spoilers. How is that a good idea? Season two debuted to lower numbers than the season one finale. On the bright side, it's only $60 retail on DVD, far lower than HBO's usual premium price.

No one else has gone as extreme as HBO but they don't do it right, either. Anyone wanting to catch up with one of the wittiest action dramas on TV -- Timothy Olyphant's Justified -- has one week to watch 13 hours before season three debuts on January 17 on FX. I can't quite get over the idea that Shameless is an unnecessary remake of a raunchy UK show. But it has a fun cast and I've been hearing good buzz. Maybe I would have caught up with it before season two debuted on Showtime last Sunday, and if I'd watched one episode a night since the DVD was released on December 27, I could have just barely done that. Imagine if it had come out right after the season one finale, just over nine months ago.

Finally, the USA network show Royal Pains is good junk food with a doctor catering to the filthy rich in the Hamptons. But now they've split up the season into two sets, releasing volume one now and volume two later. Fans don't care about scheduling. In this case, 10 episodes aired from June through August and another six will be broadcast starting January 18. Is that any reason to split the DVD release up? No. wait 'til February 22 and put it all out at once. As you can see, if they can screw up the DVD release of a TV show, they will. The major studios need to radically rethink their approach and understand that putting out the DVD in as timely a manner as possible in a reasonably priced package will increase the long-term value of the show.





MONEYBALL ($40.99 BluRay combo; Sony) -- I don't actually play fantasy baseball but that's about the only way this movie could be more up my alley. I love baseball (I have season tickets to the Yankees in the bleachers). I watch the off-season moves with alarm and interest. I appreciate the revolution that statistics have achieved in how players are measured (though it's gone too far and statistics can be just as misleading as your "gut".) And I loved director Bennett Miller's Capote. And yet this film left me cold on many levels. It never transmitted a love of the game. it never brought the players alive. And it certainly didn't help that Brad Pitt's character avoided the stadium during games. I have enjoyed Jonah Hill, who stars here as a geeky numbers guy feeding to Pitt ideas on who to value on the team and who to let go. But Hill spent the entire film frozen, as if someone were holding a gun to his head and telling him that this was a "real" film, not one of his dumb comedies and if he ever loosened up or got jokey by God they would let him have it. It's arid and unpersuasive emotionally and as a look at the changes roiling the game. I think perhaps the way to humanize the story would have been to focus on the players -- as hard as that is. Watching a catcher like Scott Hatteberg face the trial by fire of adjusting to first base and getting royally mocked by fans and the media while his bosses insist it'll all work out -- that's a sidebar in this film but maybe it's where the real drama lies. I suppose sabermetrics would tell you to focus on Brad Pitt's character, but sometimes you have to go with your gut.





GREATEST SUPER BOWL MOMENTS ($14.93 VIVENDI/NFL) -- Sports coverage provides endless amounts of packaging -- greatest touchdown passes, greatest goal line stands, greatest dunking of coach with water! But this modestly priced DVD contains more than two and a half hours of highlights from the first Super Bowl game to the most recent, including Joe Namath, Tom Brady, Marcus Allen and most every other highlight that springs to mind when you think of the Super Bowl. If you're an addict, this is a good fix and probably a lot more fun to watch than the pre-game shows that will go on and on and on this February 5.





MILDRED PIERCE($49.99 BluRay; HBO) -- This carefully crafted HBO miniseries by director Todd Haynes spared no expense in bringing the James M. Cain novel to life. But what director Michael Curtiz told so deftly in under two hours, this miniseries drags out interminably in over five. The adult cast is solid, with Kate Winslet winning the Emmy as the self-made, self-loathing career gal and Guy Pearce snagging a supporting actor Emmy for his work as a dissolute man about town. But the insufferable, poorly written role of the daughter Mildred sacrifices everything for is not well played by Morgan Turner for the first three, dragging episodes, while the excellent actress Evan Rachel Wood does a little better in the final two. But it doesn't matter: the miniseries includes a plot twist in the fourth episode that is so absurdly laughable that the entire miniseries goes off the rails for good. It's the sort of ludicrous detail that you might include in an old movie where audiences were more gullible but for a modern remake simply readjust at least a little. Seriously, couldn't the daughter have turned out to be a good pop singer, rather than a full-blown coloratura operatic superstar overnight when it's a skill that takes literally a lifetime to master? Plus, drawn out to this length just makes your impatience with Mildred grow and grow. After all, unless the child is a bad seed, it's her fault for raising such a spoiled brat.

THE GUARD ($35.99 BluRay; Sony Pictures Classics)
DR. WILLOUGHBY ($29.99; Acorn)
BLACKTHORN ($29.98 BluRay; Magnolia)
FILM SOCIALISME ($29.95; Kino Lorber)

Four DVDs to catch up on. Don Cheadle is enjoying some of the best reviews of his career for the new Showtime sitcom House Of Lies. Maybe that will bring renewed attention to The Guard, a seemingly standard odd couple paring of Cheadle as a tightly wound FBI agent and Brendan Gleeson as a shoot-from-the-hip Irish cop. I ignored it when it came out but have seen the movie popping up here and there on end of the year lists as unfairly overlooked. With AbFab back on the air (if briefly) Joanna Lumle fans who want to double down on their favorite acerbic actress can catch Doctor Willoughby, a 90s sitcom about a soap star desperate to maintain her position playing a brilliant surgeon on the sleaziest soap on telly. What if Butch and Sundance didn't die but retired to Bolivia? That's the premise for Blackthorn, a western starring Sam Shepard that went completely under my radar. But an online friend touted it as one of his favorite films of the year and I love westerns so it's on my to-do list. Finally, Jean-Luc Godard is one of the giants of cinema but I've let his prickly personality color my appreciation for his films. (I'm a Truffaut man all the way, always valuing story over intellectual ideas.) Yet, I find an increasing number of his classic films appealing to me and can't deny it when his latest work Film Socialisme ranks at #11 on Film Comment's survey of film critics about the best movies of the year. You simply can't talk about the best films of the year until you've checked it out. And that's one reason I haven't put out my list: Godard is waiting.

READERS: So tell me what you think. Should director Steven Soderbergh retire from directing? Or just take a break? And what's your favorite Soderbergh film?

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Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available  for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and  gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.

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