Reviews

DVD

Powder Blue * (1 star)

Starring Forest Whitaker, Ray Liotta, Jessica Biel. Directed by Timothy Linh Bui. Released by Image Entertainment. $27.98 (Blu-Ray $35.98).

An embittered newlywed, a cancer-stricken ex-con, a mortician and a stripper are having some incredibly bad days - and around Christmas, no less.

Powder Blue is the latest in the post-Crash genre of morbidly depressing ensemble movies in which a group of terrifically unhappy people all go through hell, and emerge ... well, pretty darn depressed, and that's if they're lucky. And they're all connected to one another, in ways they either don't realize or don't understand. It's all very poignant and deeply symbolic, not to mention stunning in its insight into the human condition.

What a crock. Despite some game efforts from the cast, especially Lisa Kudrow in a bit role as a lovelorn waitress, Powder Blue mistakes despair for profundity. This is a movie terribly impressed with itself, but it's probably the only one.

Also out today: : Land of the Lost: Complete Series (Universal, $59.98) The Marshall family gets thrown back in time, and is forced to live in a time where dinosaurs and cavemen walk the land. How cool is that? From Saturday-morning mainstays Sid and Marty Krofft, this 1970s classic is just cheesy enough for young kids, and just weird enough for adults.

- Chris Kaltenbach

Music

Veckatimest *** (3 stars)

Grizzly Bear, Warp

Edward Droste, singer and guitarist for Grizzly Bear, spent much of the spring writing to Snoop Dogg via Twitter, hoping to cajole the rapper into a collaboration. Snoop never replied, but no matter: Grizzly Bear's third full-length album turned out just fine without him.

The Brooklyn indie band clears away the sonic clutter of its earlier efforts on Veckatimest (named after an uninhabited island off Cape Cod), for a sound that's more focused, but no less eclectic. The quartet favors intricate songs with an experimental bent: layers of boxy guitars and dry bass mix with deep, rolling cymbal crashes, synthesizers alternate with piano and several tunes feature string arrangements and vocal contributions from the Brooklyn Youth Choir.

Droste and guitarist Daniel Rossen share vocals, singing in a tuneful murmur on "All We Ask," a stately, almost formal song anchored by distant, echoes of electric guitar, and lifts his voice into striking wordless harmonies with his band mates on "While You Wait for the Others" as a scraping, trebly guitar riff rakes across the vocals.