Ready for a round-up of books that came out last year or a few months ago? No…well, too bad… Bringing Up the Bodies by Hillary Mantel…This book came out last year and pretty much everyone who was going to read it already has, but I thought I would weigh in briefly on this (slightly)…
Movie Review: “Mud,” a Quietly Triumphant, Romantic Film
A slow-building, completely charming indie about two boys in the waaaay rural South (think Mississippi Delta) who travel out to an island and discover a fugitive (Matthew McConaughey, continuing his career resurgence) who needs their help. One of the boys is having some personal problems (his parents are getting divorced…his “girlfriend” barely acknowledges him when…
Movie Review: Disconnect
This film wants to be “Traffic” for online crimes instead of drugs, but the impact is softened at every turn because of a faux-Crash vibe. The film keeps telling us that everyone is human, and that soft emotional center really undercuts the movie’s would-be grittiness. What Works: Three interconnected stories following a teenager who meets…
Mom Jokes: Hell of a Day
[Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!] There I was sitting at the bar staring at my drink when a large, trouble-making biker steps up next to me, grabs my drink and gulps it down in one swig. “Well, watcha gonna do about it?” he says, menacingly, as I burst into tears. “Come…
Bubba’s Sex Tips: Miley Cyrus is the World’s Hottest Woman?…I Demand a Recount
Maxim Magazine——a great read if you like seeing naked women…that are fully clothed and you haven’t heard about Playboy, Hustler, or something called “the internet”——-just proclaimed Miley Cyrus as the World’s Hottest Woman. My immediate reaction was “Isn’t Billy Ray too old to be the world’s hottest woman?” Then someone explained that the mulletted former…
Larger Editorial: The GOP’s New War On…Overtime Pay?
One of the big issues people aren’t even aware of (it’s not entirely their fault, it’s not getting nearly enough media coverage) is the GOP’s plan to radically change the way you receive Overtime Pay. They’ve proposed a bill that would give employees a choice (and anytime they want employees to have a choice…it’s between a…
TNT, Please Renew “Southland” (and grading all the seasons)
I know I’m weeks too late for this article to be relevant (Southland’s 5th season finale was on April 16th) but, in a way, that’s all the better to keep this terrific, criminally underrated show on people’s minds. If you haven’t been watching “Southland” when it was on NBC, then got cancelled, then got a second life…
Down and Out in Bumblefuck: Mark Sanford is Back…For Better or Worse
Mark Sanford is back. That’s both the good news and the bad news. South Carolina’s disgraced former Governor just won a congressional seat against no less than Stephen Colbert’s sister. [Sometimes truth is not only stranger than fiction but better than it.] Elizabeth Colbert Busch had the misfortune of running as a Democrat in a…
TV Reviews: “Red Widow”…Like The Sopranos Meets a Target Commercial
Cable and premium cable have produced a lot of anti-heroes over the years, but, so far, broadcast TV has preferred to keep their heroes/heroines unrealistically/squeaky clean and moral. ABC tried to push things a little more towards the dark side with their new drama, Red Widow, which concluded its first (and likely only) season last night….
Movie Review: Iron Man 3
This movie had the second highest weekend box office of all time (behind only The Avengers), far outpaced the first two films in the series, and is tearing up the international box office. And yet…does it matter that it’s just not very good? Or not only “not very good,” I would say arguably the weakest…
Petty Issues: Hotmail is Gone, Ice Cream Wars, and Disney Pulls Out
Angus T. Jones of Two-and-a-Half-Men infamy (although approximately no one was watching the show because they were such a fan of him…even fans of the show would probably say “Angus T. Who?”) was let go from the show and demoted to a possible recurring character instead of a series regular, most likely because he made…
TV Review: “Parks and Recreation” Proves It’s the Best Comedy on TV
Some give NBC’s excellent “Parks and Recreation” the slightly back-handed praise of “best comedy on broadcast TV,” as if broadcast is a short-bus of lowered expectations and cable is vastly superior. Well…actually, for dramas that’s 100 percent true, but that’s beside the point… Sure, FX has the critically beloved “Louie” (which I’ll admit is a damn good…
TV Review: “The Americans” Season Finale
A fine conclusion to a solid season. Sure, there may not have been any Earth-shattering cliffhangers for a show about spies, but this has always been a much more grounded, realistic show than, say, Alias. [I often describe it as an ultra-realistic “Alias,” made by people who actually understand spy craft.] If you aren’t watching…