When do the judges tour?

Is Lee DeWyze already irrelevant? American Idol Live! begs the question

American Idols Live at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Saturday
Remember this guy? It's Lee ... um ... DeWyze, that's right.

It is a blessed and lucky life that has allowed me to spend the last 15 years immersing myself in pop culture and finding media outlets that will pay me to share my views on the "what's hot" and "what's not" in popular music.

Occasionally, however, there are rare moments when pouring over the latest craze is dreadful, horrifying, teeth-grinding work that makes adding columns of numbers to Excel spreadsheets ... in a cubicle ... under flickering florescent lights ... drinking bad coffee ... seems like nirvana by comparison.

Need proof?

Exhibit A:Ke$ha — She's sold over a million copies of that horrible album and had three top 10 singles. Are the people buying her synth-pop dreck taking crazy pills?

Exhibit B: Jersey Shore Season 2 has just started and all I can say is, "What the hell?"

We need to start treating the Snooki and the rest of these lunkheads like bears: If we pretend we're dead, maybe they'll go away.

Exhibit C:American Idol Season 9

As a reporter it would be irresponsible of me not to acknowledge that the budding talent from the most recently finished season of American Idol will be performing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Saturday night, covering songs by the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi and Katharine McPhee (Idols covering Idols. That's rich.).

As a casual viewer, however, my initial reaction to this news is, "Who cares."

Many of you feel the same because ratings for this last season were down, down, down.

Unlike last year when we marveled at Adam Lambert's fabulousness or Season 4 which unearthed the one true Idol-born superstar talent, Carrie Underwood, this year's cast was as anonymous as Justin Guarini's singing career.

How many of you even know the name of the Season 9 winner? How many remember what song he sang to win it?

My guess is not nearly as many of you as in the past.

Now, how many of you know which judge is allegedly getting canned and which two are leaving of their own accord before Season 10?

All of you know that Kara DioGuardi (the axe is hovering) Simon Cowell and Ellen Degeneres (both moving on to other projects) won't be back? I thought so.

And this is the problem.

From Cowell's obvious lack of interest, to Degeneres' dislike of hurting the contestant's feelings, American Idol is now less a singing competition and more of a reality show vehicle for a star-studded judging panel.

Few viewers or entertainment reporters have been talking about where tryouts for Season 10 are taking place, but entertainment talking heads can't stop talking about who next new year's judges might be.

J-Lo? Steven Tyler? Howard Stern?

Maybe a better American Idol concert would be to send all of these potential judges on tour together and let audiences decide who should win those coveted chairs once we see who can most thoroughly crush the dreams of an amateur singer.

(Hey, nobody steal that idea! I'm calling my agent right now to see if we can get a meeting with Fox.)

Until then we'll have to make do with this American Idol Live! Tour featuring the best of last season's contestants, including winner Lee DeWyze who sang U2's "Beautiful Day" to capture the title.

Now you know.

American Idol Live! Tour 2010, 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Tickets: $26-$76

P.S. Tryouts for season 10 of American Idol are being held on August 11 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. This is your chance to be the next contestant forgotten by the judge-obsessed fanbase. Yay for you!

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Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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When do the judges tour?

Is Lee DeWyze already irrelevant? American Idol Live! begs the question

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Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
Get Houston intel delivered daily.