Songs of Experience is a deeper look into U2's past albums.  It feels like a culmination of all of their previous works from Boy to The Joshua Tree to Songs of Innocence.  The first two songs reintroduce us to the band that has captured the hearts of millions.  "Love is All We Have Left" is a brilliant introduction to the album with swelling instrumentals, leading into the rock style that many fans thought U2 left behind in their recent discography.  

On Songs of Innocence, U2 took a pop route over a traditional rock route.  Personally, I liked Songs of Innocence even though it differed greatly from the band's past.  Luckily, U2 holds onto a bit of the pop genre with "You're The Best Thing About Me" and "Get Out Of Your Own Way".  The tunes are catchy and work as lead singles for the album's release.  Lately, it seems as though U2 has tried to blend in with modern music through experimentation.  These two singles are perfect for modern times and guide us stealthily into the more traditional rock song, "American Soul".  The Edge shows off his twang once more with this hit.

The rhythm is clearly still with the band as well.  The acoustic Latin-esque song, "Summer Of Love" is a relaxing and yet chilling song for listeners to bridge the songs together.  This track would make for a great interlude during a show.  Fittingly, "Summer Of Love" leads us into one of the most familiar songs for hardcore U2 fans to reminisce upon.  "Red Flag Day" gives us a lot of Bono's vocal range, with all the hard hitting high notes.  Unfortunately, the follow-up song is not great, but every album is bound to have a weak song here and there.

In May, I had the opportunity to see U2 live in Seattle on The Joshua Tree Tour 2017.  This was my first opportunity to see the band live and it was a blast.  I bought a general admission ticket, realizing later that hardcore U2 fans line up days before the concert to get a decent standing spot.  I lined up at 9AM the morning of the concert and was able to get a third row spot.  After they played the songs off of The Joshua Tree, the band gave us many more songs to enjoy.  One of the songs that we got to enjoy was a preview of "The Little Things That Give You Away".  The band did a great job, and I enjoyed the song live more than I do on the record.  However, I do like the completed version with the buildup and payoff that comes towards the end of the song.  This is definitely one of the highlights of the whole album.

"The Little Things That Give You Away" leads the audience into a darker and sadder portion of the album.  Dreamy guitars drift us into "Landlady", which is full of stories that may or may not relate to the band members.  I would like to learn the history behind the writing for this track.  The flow of this song is subtly catchy as it drags you into the next track.  To me, the next song ("The Blackout") is just another average U2 song.

Just as the album starts off strong, it closes even stronger.  Bono's straight-edge preaching brings us into "Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way".  The chorus is grand and I love the piano instrumentals throughout the track.  Eventually, the cymbals crash and a full choir of voices join in with Bono.  This is the modern U2 that some fans might hate, but I admit I enjoy it.  After the full sound from "Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way", Bono closes out the album with a reminder from the past U2 release.  "13 (There Is A Light)" is a clear reference to "Song For Someone" off of Songs of Innocence.  The track is isolated at first and leaves out the full chorus.  It takes a while for the track to really pick up, but it is a nice way to end the album and give us hope for more U2 releases.

Score: 7.5/10

Favorite Tracks: "Lights of Home", "You're The Best Thing About Me", "Get Out Of Your Own Way", "Get Out Of Your Own Way", "The Little Things That Give You Away", "Landlady", "Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way"

Least Favorite Tracks: "American Soul", "The Showman (Little More Better)"

Image credit: ​By The original uploader was Wikipedia brown at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons. Source: Zachary Gillman [1] (Image accessed, January 2010, at: [2]), CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2565984

When the Marvel team developed their cinematic universe, a lot of thought went into the order of the films and different phases for the storylines.  Five different solo hero films came out leading up to the release of Marvel's The Avengers.  Iron Man kicked off the cinematic universe with a fantastic storyline, setting up success for the future films.  The films following Iron Man were not all critically acclaimed, but the audience at least got to know each character before the mega team-up film that came out in 2012.  Unfortunately, the DC universe has only led us into a disorganized world of heroes that we hardly know anything about.

Before Justice League, the audience only got to connect with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.  That leaves out three crucial characters on the team.  Certain steps had to be executed in Justice League to introduce The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.  However, the runtime is too short to flesh out each of these new characters.  Sure we have comic books that we can read, but this universe hardly even relates to the comic books because of the liberties that the filmmakers have taken.

Another problem with the new film and its characters is that the only good DC film to be released for this universe was Wonder Woman.  Man of Steel showed us the potential that Superman has in the franchise, but the character was bogged down with a poor storyline.  I still believe that Henry Cavill (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and Ben Affleck (Argo, Good Will Hunting, Gone Girl, The Town) have potential in their superhero roles, but viewers have not been given a good movie to display their potential yet.  We can only hope that the franchise can pull itself together from here.

One of the standout newcomers has to be Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them).  Yet, it still feels as though Marvel beat DC to this character.  Miller's portrayal of The Flash is reminiscent to Tom Holland's Spider-Man.  He is goofy and brings light to the dark situations that Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) has dragged the heroes into.  Ray Fisher (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice) is also an interesting addition as Cyborg.  Personally, I do not know much about Cyborg (aside from my experience with Teen Titans), but I am intrigued to learn more about the character's origins and background. 

As a standalone film, Justice League is what I expected it to be after seeing the trailers and filmmakers involved.  It is slightly better that Batman v. Superman, a lot better than Suicide Squad, and a whole lot worse than Wonder Woman.  The storyline is dull, formulaic, and bogged down with CGI effects.  Anyone who has seen a recent DC film knows what to expect from the franchise at this point.  The heroes are interesting, but never fully explored.  One of my biggest problems with this film was the bad guy.  Steppenwolf was a pretty lame character to choose for the first real team-up film.  Hopefully the next DC team-up will give us something that makes the franchise worth it.

The Bottom Line:  Marvel still holds the upper-hand in the current superhero cinematic landscape, and Justice League shows us all of the reasons why.

Score: 5/10

Image credit: ​By Iphonedon890 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48706570

Your Name is one of the most beautiful movies I have seen in quite some time.  The story is touching, the visuals are awe-inspiring, and the music is catchy as heck.  Upon a first viewing, I understand the main idea without being able to fully place all of the details.  Your Name is a film that takes multiple viewings to comprehend the complexity of the storyline.  Without going into too much detail, the timeline is hard to follow right off the bat, but I am sure that there are very few flaws (if any) in this film.  There is a lot going on all at once, but the main storyline leaves room for discussion after viewing.  Every good film should leave room for discussion after the story is resolved, and Your Name leaves plenty of ideas hanging around in our minds.

Makoto Shinkai's (5 Centimeters Per Second) direction brings us beautiful visuals to guide us along the story's journey.  Every line drawn is thoughtful and concise.  The precision of animation in this film is reminiscent of Miyazaki's (Spirited Away) works.  In fact, Shinkai might be the next Miyazaki.  As someone who knows almost nothing about animation, it is still clear to me that the team behind this film spent long hours in its creation.  While there are plenty of Pixar and Disney films with good animation, nothing that I have seen from American studios can compare to this form.

I would go completely amiss without discussing the soundtrack for this film as well.  RADWIMPS's indie rock soundtrack brings the viewer back to their childhood with a punk edge added in.  Often times, the beauty of the film is complimented by the soundtrack's sweetness.  Some of the lyrics do not translate well into the subtitles, but I'll be damned if the sounds are not a perfect match to the visuals.  I have been waiting a long time to view this film after it's release because I missed it in theaters.  While I waited, I had to check out the soundtrack that all of my friends have been raving about.  At the very least, listen to the soundtrack as it pulls you into a foreign world, full of jaw-dropping inspiration and beauty.  For starters check out the song, "Sparkle".

The Bottom Line:  Shinkai's animated masterpiece will be cherished for a long time because of it's beauty and complexity.

Score: 10/10 (This is my first 10/10 since Swiss Army Man)

This film is truly special and unique to Martin McDonagh's (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) well-crafted genre.  McDonagh's films are hard to compare with others because they come with a full serving of drama and a good amount of comedic sides.  While it might be hard to digest everything going on upon a single screening of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, there is plenty left for our cinematic tastebuds to indulge in this film many more times.

It takes really smart writing to create such deeply dumb and interesting characters.  The trio of McDormand (Fargo, Almost Famous), Harrelson (No Country for Old Men, Zombieland), and Rockwell (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Green Mile) brings acting perfection with some of the most underrated actors of our time.  After Fargo, it seems as though McDormand had been forgotten for a while.  Yet, her portrayal of Mildred is spot-on with the dark tone of McDonagh's direction.  After the death of her daughter, Mildred has a hardened heart and is looking for her own definition of justice.  One of her targets is the police chief of the town, played by Woody Harrelson.  Harrelson brings the only respectable character to life with twists and turns that will surprise first-time McDonagh-ers.

While Harrelson and McDormand are great in their roles, my favorite part of the movie would have to be Officer Dixon (played by Sam Rockwell).  Rockwell is fantastic in his role as the dumb and conflicted officer.  His character is relevant to modern news stories, and is a portrait of many issues with America's police force.  Without going into too much detail, I will say that there are a lot of interesting aspects on this character's journey.

Of course, it wouldn't be a McDonagh movie without a thin balance between darkness and comedy.  While the script-writing is not quite as solid as In Bruges, it is damn-near close.  One-liners often dominate the film, creating an uncomfortable awkwardness in the theater.  Personally, I love when directors drag audiences into an uncomfortable tone.  Good filmmaking does not have to be happy and joyous, as long as the audience is able to ponder what they are watching and the message being sent through the medium.  

The Bottom Line:  So far, this is my favorite film of 2017 because of the solid screenwriting and intriguing tone portrayed by every single character.

Score: 9.8/10

Image credit: ​By Dixiekin - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49330101