Overrated/Underrated: Goodbye, Warped Tour, and Adam Sandler steals ‘The Meyerowitz Stories’
UNDERRATED
Danny Janklow’s ‘Elevation’: Not yet in his 30s, this saxophonist has made a name for himself around L.A. as part of John Beasley’s revered MONK’estra, along with stints backing Kendrick Lamar and Aloe Blacc. His second album builds on that reputation with a soulful sense of swing on a set that includes standout originals such as the spacey funk of “Gemini Vibe†and a slow-burning cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.†The Tarzana-born Janklow celebrates his new album Nov. 29 at the Blue Whale backed by a band that includes pianist Eric Reed and vibraphonist Nick Mancini.
Adam Sandler in ‘The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)’: Every 15 years, evidently, the king of dumb big-screen comedies shifts into a collaboration with a revered writer-director and portrays an actual and relatable human being. As the sensitive and vaguely broken Danny of Noah Baumbach’s dysfunctional Meyerowitzes, Sandler carries some of the rage-prone traits of his character in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love,†but there’s a different kind of glum vulnerability here as he inhabits a character in a quietly desperate search for what’s next. He ultimately finds it, and maybe Sandler has too.
OVERRATED
The Warped Tour: Under the heading “all things must pass,†the ’90s-born festival that combines punk rock and sun-baked parking lots has announced that next year’s installment will be its last (to tour, anyway — at least until nostalgia inevitably spurs a revival). But with the pop-punk and hardcore that inspired the show’s skatepark-ready roots retreated into the underground and onetime tour favorites Brand New embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal, the Warped Tour’s time has passed. The good news? The music will one day grow stronger with a return to the dank all-ages clubs where it belongs.
Continuity in the DC universe: Looking for reliable narrative logic in superhero franchises is a hopeless pastime, but for all the money being raked in by the new “Justice League,†the movie really had no idea what to do with all that buzz from “Wonder Woman,†did it? Partly wiping the slate on her character to the point where that summer blockbuster feels like a decades-ago relic, “Justice League†forgets the traits that made her such a breath of fresh air while trying to balance its hero-packed conceit. Just to be on the safe side, why doesn’t DC just make Patty Jenkins its house director going forward?
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