Marvel continues to domineer the super-hero movie market with this year’s autumn release, “Thor: Ragnarok.” Since Anthony and Joe Russo’s treacherous “Captain America: Civil War,” Marvel fans have itched to learn the fate of that movie’s missing characters, Thor and the Hulk. This movie satisfies those super-cravings. “Ragnarok” kicks off humorously and, like most other Marvel movies, that humor reemerges throughout the plot (think Captain … Continue reading Thor: Ragnarok
A woman devours an entire pie in a five-minute sequence that is divided by only a single cut. A deceased man lies on a hospital bed, a white sheet covering his corpse. The shot lingers for thirty seconds, the camera static and the frame unchanging, until the body sits up, the sheet still draped over his figure. He turns his head. Where his eyes would … Continue reading A Ghost Story—4.5/5 Stars
Woody Harrelson might be the best contemporary actor at playing an alcoholic. Naomi Watts and Brie Larson star alongside Harrelson in The Glass Castle, the third feature film (and first under a major studio) from writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton. With so much talent and so many resources, a film like this shouldn’t go wrong. It does. Harrelson plays Rex Walls, husband and father of four. … Continue reading The Glass Castle—2.5/5 stars
In a world where feminism and femininity often seem at odds, Wonder Woman presents an alternative: a woman too secure in her own purpose to bother with such labels at all. Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is raised by the Amazons, a tribe of warrior women dedicated to defending the world against Ares, the god of war. When British soldier Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crash-lands near … Continue reading Wonder Woman
In Summer 2017, Hollywood reached peak block-buster ad-nauseum. “Baby Driver” looked like it was going to be more of the same – another cliched action film riddled with car chases and explosions. Going to the theater, I was prepared to be thoroughly bored. Yet, within minutes of the film starting, “Baby Driver” had my complete attention and wouldn’t let go. “Baby Driver” – Edgar Wright’s … Continue reading Baby Driver
Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk treats the miracle of the 1940 evacuation with a refreshing solemnity. Nolan chooses progression of time rather than exchange of words as his medium of communication, but even that time is warped as the plotlines transition between land, sea, and air, each frame lasting the space of a week, a day, and an hour, respectively. Minimal, deliberately stilted dialogue leaves us looking … Continue reading Dunkirk
By Hannah Niemeier Poet Peter Gizzi doesn’t like language any more than a geologist likes dirt; sometimes it gets in the way of his meaning. But what he finds beneath the dust of worn-out words is always precious: It was a language to eat the sky a language to say goodbye standing with others standing in the dust. The old language continues its … Continue reading Death Declared, Life Questioned: Peter Gizzi Resurrects the Lyric Poem
DISC 1 by Forester McClatchey The album begins with a swirl of static, disorienting. Screwed-down vocals say, “This is a test.” A test of sound, yes, but also a test for hip-hop, a test for newcomers (like Killer Mike), and fundamentally a test for ‘Kast: a split album, combining twice the creative energy with twice the risk of failure. After Stankonia dropped in 2000, it … Continue reading Music Review: Speakerboxxx | The Love Below
by Emily Lehman I watched the new Cinderella movie tentatively, waiting for vulgar humor, a sudden flamboyant display of CGI, or a swipe at traditional gender roles. Accustomed to the endless litany of remakes, sequels, and parodies, I expected that this movie would attempt to wink knowingly at the audience in one way or another, and waited for the jarring, if expected, blow. To my … Continue reading Movie Review: Cinderella
by Timothy Troutner When Stanley Kubrick released his classic film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union troubled the world. The Cold War and the possibility of nuclear apocalypse dwelt constantly in public consciousness. America had spent nearly the past two decades building up its weapons, shoring up … Continue reading Movie Review: Dr. Strangelove
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