will.i.am and blackstreet in blender

The new Blender with Kanye West on the cover has hit newsstands. I've got three pieces in there, but two are online currently: my interview with the Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am and my look back at the making of the great Blackstreet jam "No Diggity."

feast of love

Director Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer) returns with Feast of Love, a serio-comic look at relationships across age, race, and gender. Morgan Freeman and others do decent work, but it's all for naught.

trade

Just a reminder that a truly terrible movie can be made about a very important subject, Trade, a horrendous drama about underground sex trafficking, opens this weekend.

good luck chuck

Dane Cook looks uncomfortable, Jessica Alba is no comedienne. At least the penguins are cute.

in the shadow of the moon

The documentary about NASA's '60s adventure is worth seeing. So are a bunch of other goodies included in this week's Consumables, including Sunshine, 2 Days in Paris, and Deep Water.

moving mcallister

Some might say I was overly harsh in my review of Moving McAllister, a feeble road movie that represents all that's wrong with so-called "independent cinema." I think I was just being honest.

great world of sound

Great World of Sound, a smart sad little indie about con men trying to trick aspiring musicians into forking over their hard-earned money in hopes of a record deal, opens this weekend in New York. My review appears in The Village Voice.

the brothers solomon

Will Arnett, Will Forte and Kristen Wiig have all been funny in the past, and they'll be funny in the future. But in The Brothers Solomon, they're mostly just marking time.

earlimart

The duo Earlimart specialize in a studio-enhanced indie pop. Their latest album, Mentor Tormentor, evokes the dreary side of L.A.'s suburban sprawl in lovely ways.

ben affleck: director

Gone Baby Gone is the directorial debut of Ben Affleck. If you're someone who automatically dismisses him as a lightweight, you probably didn't see his underrated performance in Hollywoodland and you'll probably want to skip this crime drama as well. But while Gone Baby Gone has a strong feel for Boston's working poor, the film overall is a bit of a mixed bag.