Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise.
WATCH: Zombie holiday flicks
Anna and the Apocalypse is a Christmas zombie musical, which on genre alone wins the year. The critic who called it “Shaun of the Dead meets La La Land” pretty much nailed it. (Nov. 30) If you prefer your zombies as one-time living Nazis getting their undead butts handed to them by Americans during World War II, try the J.J. Abrams-produced Overlord (Nov. 9).
READ: The Current: New Wheels for the Post-Petrol Age
The future of the road isn’t gas-fueled or a post-apocalyptic Mad Max war zone — it’s quiet and electrified. Here, art publisher Gestalten highlights the best of the new breed of electric vehicles, from motorcycles to bicycles to strange new (and silent) hybrids. (Nov. 19)
WATCH: The Other Side of the Wind
Orson Welles had a notoriously difficult time getting his films made when he was alive. So consider his “new” movie a monumental achievement: 48 years after he started filming and 33 years after his passing, we’re finally going to witness the auteur’s last motion picture. A meta mockumentary about a late director’s final, unfinished film coming to light and starring legendary directors John Huston and Peter Bogdanovich, Wind was filmed at different times between 1970-76. It’s out with a documentary on Netflix. (Nov. 2)
PERUSE: Death Book
A photographic, occasionally NSFW exploration of death and how it’s portrayed in Western civilization, with contributions from Lars von Trier, Damien Hirst and Bill’s Playhouse, a crime scene simulator with an all-female cast. (Pre-orders available now)
LISTEN: The Beatles White Album 50th Anniversary
The most experimental and grandiose album of the Fab Four’s career gets the super-deluxe treatment, with 27 acoustic demos, 50 rare and previously unreleased recordings, a new stereo remix and, depending on which deluxe package you buy, a reproduction of the original album’s fold-out poster. (Nov. 9)
Note: Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland gets a similarly robust reissue for its 50th celebration. (Nov. 9)
LISTEN: Twain’s Feast
An expanded audio take on Andrew Beahrs’s 2011 nonfiction tome on Mark Twain’s unique eating habits, as narrated by Nick Offerman — who, along with an all-star cast of actors, comedians, professors and musicians, also dines on the Huck Finn author’s favorite, strange dishes (terrapin, raccoon, etc.). (Nov. 2)
For an interview and an exclusive excerpt from the audiobook, go here.
LISTEN: Our monthly Spotify playlist
All of the month’s best new tunes from artists old and new, including tracks by The 1975, Sharon Van Etten, Laura Jane Grace, Anderson Paak and more.
And don’t forget … If you’re a fan of Jason Mantzoukas (The League, How Did This Get Made?), you’ll certainly enjoy his antics on the road trip indie dramedy The Long Dumb Road (Nov. 9) … Can you and other players survive post-apocalyptic America? Think of the open-world RPG Fallout 76 as more training manual than game (Nov. 14) … Before Scorsese came along, Robert De Niro and Brian De Palma enjoyed a strong working relationship, one you can watch with the Blu-ray set De Palma & De Niro: The Early Films (Nov. 27) … The Coen Brothers try the western genre again, this time with a Netflix-released, six-part anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Nov. 16).
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