The Brew House

Because sometimes you just want friends to tell you about cool things… the Brew House team offers up its weekly mix of author-supported goodness.

Movie: In Bruges

Colin Farrell has starred in some terrible and forgettable movies. We know his role. He plays the fast-talking punk who’s really not a punk because we KNOW he has a soft side. He endears himself to us because he’s Irish, and women think his body totally rocks. And there is a law, written in permanent ink on a massive steno pad somewhere in Hollywood (I’ve seen it), that posits anyone with a body deemed to totally rock cannot be a punk.

Back in 2008, Farrell actually proved why he deserves the attention and the dollar bills that follow when he starred in a movie most of us never heard about, and if we did, we probably shrugged our shoulders and then forgot. He starred in a movie called “In Bruges.” The name sounds art house. And despite featuring heavy gunfire, it kind of is. The best way to explain the movie is how I explained it in a text to a friend: “It’s a dark comedy/crime thriller set in Bruges. Somehow it worked.”

Actually, it more than worked. I would consider the movie a classic. I’m seriously going to buy it on DVD.* Farrell and his buddy Ken, played by Brendan Gleeson, are two hit men and have been forced by their boss to spend two weeks in Bruges after a hit gone wrong. Gleeson wants to tour the city. Farrell wants to get out of there, until he falls in love with a woman he meets on a movie set. We also meet a midget who likes to snort coke and witness a robbery get foiled after the robber gets blinded with a starter’s pistol. There is depth to all this. Lots of depth. I won’t say because it provides one of the more important plot twists.

*And who does that anymore? Seriously.

Maybe the best part of the movie, aside from Colin Farrell, is Bruges. The hilarity gets dispensed and the gunshots get fired in one of Europe’s best-preserved medieval cities. Not that Farrell’s character, Ray, cares. As he says, “Maybe that’s what hell is, the entire rest of eternity spent in fucking Bruges.” –Mark Dent

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Band: Wye Oak

The Baltimore-based duo known as Wye Oak opened for the Dirty Projectors at The Granada in Lawrence on Wednesday night. It was a sparse set; just two people, guitarist Jenn Wasner, and drummer/instrumentalist Andy Stack, no backdrop, and little chatter* between songs.

*We did learn that Wasner “loves” Lawrence, and that she heard earlier in the day that Lawrence was the hottest place in the country on Wednesday. “That’s a bitch,” she said.

In place of any extraneous colors or shapes, Wye Oak just blazed through an efficient and masterful set. And truthfully, Wye Oak came away looking better than the Dirty Projectors, a talented band that just always seems to be getting in its own way.

With only two instruments melding at once, the sound was a little empty at times… but it did compel me to put their latest album, 2011’s “Civilian, on repeat. One suggestion: Listen to “Dogs Eyes.” And then listen again. — Rustin Dodd

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NSFW Magazine Profile: GQ’s Wells Tower on James Deen

This story was buried inside of the Kate Upton issue of GQ earlier this summer. We can only assume that it was buried because headlines about adult film stars don’t go over well in places like drug stores and airport shops.

Still, it’s one of the most fascinating magazine pieces we’ve seen all summer — a revealing look at a life inside a bizarre industry. We won’t go any further (This is a family blog, after all.) But go read it right now…  — Rustin Dodd