Each week, the fine folks at Windows Central get together and round up all the flicks, shows, tunes, and reads we're into. Below you'll find the latest collection.
If you don't find anything here that grabs ya, hit the link to our past picks, where we've got tons of other good stuff waiting for you.
More media recommendations from Windows Central
Movies
Sorry to Bother You
Recommended by Al Sacco, managing editor
Man, Sorry to Bother You is an odd flick. But odd in the best way. It's surreal and quirky and trippy and dystopian and poignant. And it's a memorable take on modern greed, capitalism, exploitation, and corporate success and hierarchy.Yeah, that sounds like a lot, and it is. But it really works. The movie is about a young American man located in some fictional version of Oakland, Calif., who's struggling to find any sort of reliable income and who eventually tries telemarketing, where he proves to be surprisingly effective. But the company he joins isn't just any ol' telemarketing firm, and with his unexpected success comes some very real challenges to his morals and vision of the world around him.The cast is amazing, the writing is sharp as a freshly-honed dagger, and the movie had me talking about it for days after I finished watching. Highly recommended.
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Sunshine
Recommended by Rich Edmonds, staff reviewer
Halloween may be well and truly over, but that doesn't mean there's no time for a stellar thriller experience and Sunshine offers exactly that. Starring Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, and Cliff Curtis, the movie follows a spacecraft full of intelligent humans with the sole purpose to deliver a nuclear device to our sun to reignite the massive ball of fire. You'll come away thinking about this movie for some time.
TV
Fargo (Season 3)
Recommended by Cale Hunt, staff writer
I'm a big fan of the first two seasons of the Fargo TV show. The first, which starred Billy Bob Thornton as an unforgettable protagonist, was, in my opinion, topped by the tense mafia turf war involving a criminal family in the second season. If you haven't watched Fargo and enjoy the true crime genre (or loved the original movie), do yourself a favor and watch these.Now that it's snowing where I live, I think it's suiting to jump back into Fargo for the third season. This time it's led by Ewan McGregor who plays the roles of two brothers (weird) that get caught up in something far bigger than either of them. If it's anything like the first two seasons, I'll no doubt not stop watching until finished the final episode.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Recommended by Dan Thorp-Lancaster, news writer
I finally managed to finish watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood after starting and stopping several times, and I was absolutely blown away.
Fullmetal Alchemist follows brother Edward and Alphonse Elric, both alchemists, who are on a mission to get their bodies back after a transmutation gone wrong. That's an incredibly simplified description of how the show kicks off, and it expands to touch on so much more throughout its run; homunculi, chimeras, a nation at war, and even god himself are all integral parts of the plot.
If you're not a fan of anime, it's unlikely Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood will win you over. The show definitely feels like watching a more action-packed soap opera at times. But the story of Ed and Al, along with their relationships with the rest of the cast, is full of such heart that it's hard not to become hooked.
Music
Immersion — Pendulum
Recommended by Rich Edmonds, staff reviewer
After digging out some older albums in one's collection, it's easy to overlook certain compilations that you haven't blasted out the speakers for many years. Pendulum's Immersion is one of these hidden gems in my collection. I forgot just how good of a mix this album is for rock, dance, bass and overall enjoyment. You'll find a bit of everything here and it deserves your best audio equipment.
An American Treasure — Tom Petty
Recommended by Al Sacco, managing editor
It's been a year since American rock legend Tom Petty tragically passed away. And I'm still totally bummed. The one good thing that came from Petty's death, at least for me, was that it made me seriously revisit his catalogue. I've been a Petty fan for decades, and I know his popular stuff inside and out. But some of his lesser-known albums and songs had evaded me. When he passed, I went back to try to find stuff that I'd missed.Another good thing that has since come of Petty's passing? A new collection of rare recordings and B sides, which was just released last month, called An American Treasure. It's an awesome assortment of live recordings and unreleased studio stuff, and it includes many of his most popular songs but also lots of great tunes that casual fans probably haven't heard. It's one of my favorite albums of the year. It also features 63 songs, so it'll keep you busy for a while.
Disturbed - Evolution
Recommended by Richard Devine, reviews editor
Disturbed is one of my all-time favorite bands, going right back to my teenage years and their popular debut, The Sickness. Evolution is the latest album and at times there's a definite change of pace to some of the ear-shredding metal sounds of old. It's not a bad thing, as the band's cover of "The Sound of Silence" already proved, since David Draiman's vocals are powerful whatever he attacks.
