A little reggae dub, surf rock, Southeast Asian funk, and Middle Eastern soul thrown in for good nature, Houston trio Khruangbin has evolved from buzzy local act to global phenomenon.
The band was to play the buzzy Post Houston’s 713 Music Hall venue on New Year’s Eve; the show was canceled due to a surge in omicron cases.
Now, fans can catch the spacey soul act as they return to Houston for one night only. Khruangbin will perform on May 11 at 713 Music Hall as part of an extensive national tour and on the heels of a European trek where they’ll hit cities such as London, Amsterdam, Paris, and more.
The trio will also headline a two-night tour at Radio City Music Hall in New York (March 9 and March 10).
Tickets for the Houston tour stop, in which Toro Y Moi, are on sale now and are available here.
As fans may already know, Khruangbin and Texas star Leon Bridges will release their collaborative EP, Texas Moon, on February 18 on the Dead Oceans label. Texas Moon, an extension of the two’s chart-topping four-song Texas Sun journey, is an introspective examination of Texas’ musical perception and pays homage to the marriage of country and R&B that’s now synonymous with the Lone Star State.
A must-listen from the Khruangbin/Bridges collab is the recent single “Chocolate Hills,” a track that FADER notes could “easily sit next to Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ Barry White’s ‘Can't Get Enough of Your Love Baby,’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’ on your special bedroom playlist.”
In this Hollywood era of franchises, finding one to call their own is a priority for many movie stars. Over 30 years into his career, Ben Affleck had yet to find one; he did star as Batman in multiple movies, but that role has been interchangeable. He seemed to get a prime action hero role with 2016’s The Accountant, but somehow it’s taken nine years for The Accountant 2 to come out.
Affleck’s character of Christian Wolff is a high-functioning autistic man whose abilities to comb through mounds of data quickly and efficiently are matched only by his fighting skills. When Ray King (J.K. Simmons), a former Treasury agent who had previously hunted Christian, is murdered, King’s replacement, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), calls on Christian to help figure out what happened and track down his killer.
The search quickly finds multiple criminal conspiracies, including a hitman ring, a scheme to abduct migrants, and more. Naturally, Wolff claims to need help in the endeavor, so his mercenary brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) soon joins in on the quest. The two brothers work together to figure out the puzzle while also stopping to have some fun every now and then.
Directed by Gavin O’Connor and written by Bill Dubuque (both returning from the original), the film feels like it is missing many connective scenes. It often starts down one road and seems to be making good progress when it suddenly veers into another storytelling lane with no explanation. This happens multiple times throughout the film, to the point that it becomes almost impossible to tell what the main story is supposed to be.
In the first film, the oddity of having an autistic math genius also being a world-class marksman and fighter somehow made sense. This film leans much more into Christian’s physical skills, with the autistic side of things showing up in his (mostly) emotionless demeanor. While that works to a certain degree, the choppiness of the story undercuts the character traits that Affleck does his best to impart.
The best examples of the messiness of the film come in the multiple scenes that serve as nothing more than comic relief, with not even an attempt at connecting them to the main plot, such as it is. Two of them involve Christian proving himself to be a ladies man despite his lack of conversational skills, both of which fall flat as they seem to be making fun of his autism rather than highlighting positive aspects of it. Each of the comic scenes is so disparate in tone from the rest of the film that they essentially bring the story to a screeching halt.
Affleck is fine in the part, although he’s much better when Christian turns toward action hero mode than when he has to display the character’s autistic traits. Bernthal is great at being an over-the-top macho guy, and he gets to indulge that side of him throughout the film. Addai-Robinson is disserved by a role that doesn’t give her character any autonomy despite her high-powered position.
Affleck’s career has been one of the most up-and-down ones of any supposed A-list actor, and The Accountant 2 marks another down moment for him. He may have finally gotten his first sequel for a film in which he’s the main character, but don’t expect there to be a third installment.
