Irrelevant But Awesome

If you're subscribed to our YouTube channel, you've noticed that we've been posting a new gameplay video every day this past week of Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. It's really a simple game but it does that simple so well that it's astonishing. It's a game I've been putting off for months simply because I didn't know what it was and now that I do know, I find it hard to explain. But I finally went through it in one night last weekend and enjoyed the experience that I immediately played it again the next day to record it for the IBA YouTube. It's visually stunning which it would have to be considering it's almost exclusively landscapes with the light recordings taking a vague human shapes. The biggest MVP of this game has to be the audio, both the audio engineering as well as the breathtaking soundtrack (one of my better iTunes impulse buys, by the way).  Of course, be prepared for some slow moments between major plot points due to the g...

Alexa:  I’m just going to come right out and say it – I don’t love this movie. I like it, but I don’t regard it as highly as virtually everyone else I know who’s seen it. I grew up hearing famous quotes from it, as well as lots of high praise heralding it one of the best romances and best comedies ever made. But I didn’t actually see it until college, and I think by that time it had been hyped so greatly in popular culture that it was difficult for it to live up to the acclaim. I was happy to find a reason to watch it again in hopes that this time maybe I would appreciate what all the fuss is about, but it still didn’t really resonate with me. I found it to be a charming and romantic fairy tale adventure and I enjoyed watching it (plus it is delightful to see ice queen Claire Underwood as a doe-eyed fantasy heroine), but I don’t feel the pull to watch it over and over again. I don’t even have any particular critiques to give it other than that it didn’t live up to years of hi...

Alexa:  John Carney has carved out a nice little niche for himself writing and directing movies about music, and its capacity to inspire and connect people. While Once (one of my all-time favorite movies) and Begin Again centered on struggling artists trying to make it as professional musicians, Sing Street dwells on young love and the simple notion of starting a band to win a girl’s heart. It’s a familiar premise, but Carney refreshes it in part by implementing the same tactic that elevated his previous music films – the expert use of infectious songs. Sing Street feels much more akin to The Commitments, another great Irish music film, than to Carney’s other works thanks to its lighter tone and retro tunes. It’s wistfully nostalgic without being trite. But aside from memorable music, Sing Street succeeds because of its heart. The characters are charismatic and earnest, and watching them transports you back to a time when achieving big dreams didn’t seem impossible, but probab...

Let's face it. 2016 has been one shit year all-around. Well, for everything except for music, which has been phenomenal. And through all the amazing work that has come out this year, here are the 10 most must-listen-to albums as told through two articles and curated by me, Jonah Kue. Click here for Part One Bon Iver – “22, A Million” Frank Ocean did a complete 180 in his follow up to “Channel Orange”. The contemporary genius known as Bon Iver, however, took a more grounded approach, keeping to his signature sound with only enough of a deviation for the sake of distinction within his discography. The result? Another remarkably put together and brilliantly written string of songs that breaks its way into the company of best albums of the year. The lush beauty of the album is consistent but never uniform, as traits such as the pounding percussions of “10dEAThbREasT” and the crisp strings of “8(circle)” add just the right amount of nuance. One would be hard pressed to find...

Alexa:  I’m not sure if teen movies were actually better when I was their target audience or if I just look back on them through rose-tinted glasses out of nostalgic fondness. But when I watched Coin Heist, all I could think was, “Back in my day kids in these movies stole the SAT scores and it made way more sense.” (But seriously, the teen heist movie of my youth starred the future Captain America and Black Widow, so it wins by default.) Coin Heist follows four high school students who fit neatly in Breakfast Club-style silos – the movie’s synopsis calls them the hacker, the slacker, the athlete and the perfect student – whose prep school is on the brink of closing after the headmaster allegedly embezzles money from the school’s endowment. So the unlikely friends concoct a plan to break into the U.S. Mint, print a batch of rare coins, smuggle them out and sell them to coin collectors in a bid to earn the money back. With a premise that outlandish, the movie has to have some se...

Alexa:   Disney consistently has a knack for telling stories that resonate with children and adults alike, and Zootopia is perhaps the best example of that in Disney’s Revival Era. On its surface it’s a cute, heartwarming mystery story starring animals, a tale of following your dreams and working together despite our inherent differences – and it succeeds in that regard alone. But its deeper layers make it a truly exceptional film, and a timely one. Zootopia unapologetically explores how complex the adult world is compared to our childhood dreams, and how the ways we choose to deal with that reality affect our lives. I think most people have been both a Judy and a Nick at some point in our lives, either bouncing back in the face of obstacles or succumbing to our fears when setbacks arise. It’s an effective piece of advice for kids – and an important reminder for adults – that the complications life deals us shouldn’t preclude us from following our passions. Equally impactful...