It’s time to think about summer movies, and I humbly submit some (most of them smaller films that could get lost in the shuffle) films for you to consider… Most Anticipated… 10. “The East” and “Shadow Dancer”…Two smart, sleek looking indie-thrillers. “The East” is about corporate espionage, and “Shadow Dancer” stars Clive Owen as a…
TV Review: The Following’s Season Finale #thefollowing
The Following’s already been renewed for a second season, so there wasn’t much pressure on tonight’s episode. Still, I feel like every episode has been slightly worse than the one that came before it (it’s now more of an action-thriller show than a suspenseful/horror one), and the show has grown increasingly preposterous in how well-organized…
Movie Review: The Place Beyond the Pines
After weeks of duds, a movie I would actually recommend. The trailers are a little misleading (slight, vague spoilers from here) in that it makes it look like an indie-Heat with Bradley Cooper’s hot-shot beat cop chasing Ryan Gosling’s daredevil bank robber, but it’s really three different movies: Gosling’s traveling-circus-performer-turned-motorcycle-riding-bank-robber finds out he has a…
Movie Review: “Trance” Bad Movie, Great Rosario
A textbook example of a bad movie with a great performance buried inside. This time delivered by none other than where-have-you-been?/always-welcome Rosario Dawson. What Works: Trance jumps off from an appealing premise: the never-compelling James McAvoy, who always sucks and sucks here, plays an art auctioneer who’s working with some hooligans to steal an expensive…
TV Reviews: Season Finales of “The Good Wife” and “Vikings”
Tonight brought the season finales of two shows that——-for once——-don’t have to worry about tying everything up. Both shows have been renewed for another season, as The History Channel is impressed with Vikings ratings performance and CBS is thrilled that somebody besides paranoid shut-ins is watching one of their shows, hence The Good Wife remaining…
TV Reviews: Community’s Recent Episodes and the Yanked “Hannibal” Episode
It’s official, Community just isn’t the same now that Dan Harmon (Community’s singular creator) has been fired from the helm. The show’s fans are passionate and probably always will be, but even they have to admit that if the show were ever going to be cancelled, the end of this season would be an okay…
TV Reviews: The Sundance Channel’s New Series “Rectified”
Rectified may be more of a miniseries than a series but The Sundance Channel has promoted it so heavily, you’d be forgiven for thinking they have high hopes for its commercial prospects. It follows a man who has just recently been “freed” from death row (he’s not fully exonerated, just released from jail…the DA could…
Movie Review: Oblivion
Elegant, sleek, and more than a little generic. What Works: This may be the first post-apocalyptic movie to ever be called “cozy.” There’s a relaxed, leisurely rhythm that goes perfectly with the very hi-tech style (just wait until you see what the actual villains are…to call them non-terrifying would be understating it). Tom Cruise and…
TV Reviews: The Season Finales of Dallas, Go On, Archer
Dallas…My guilty pleasure show (I know, I know, it’s not quite up to the Shakespearean excellence of Toddlers in Tiaras, but still). A show I never thought I would like, but, against all odds, I really do. The season (and possible series) finale saw the Ewings scrambling to defeat their powerful enemies, most notably Harris…
Mom Jokes: Tax Day
WHEN NASA FIRST STARTED SENDING UP ASTRONAUTS, THEY QUICKLY DISCOVERED THAT BALL-POINT PENS WOULD NOT WORK IN ZERO GRAVITY. TO COMBAT THIS PROBLEM, NASA SCIENTISTS SPENT A DECADE AND $12 MILLION DEVELOPING A PEN THAT WRITES IN ZERO GRAVITY, UPSIDE DOWN, ON ALMOST ANY SURFACE INCLUDING GLASS AND AT TEMPERATURES RANGING FROM BELOW FREEZING TO OVER 300 C. THE…
Book Reviews: How to Get Filthy Rich in Fast-Rising Asia, We Live in Water
Note: Two books that experiment with narrative, both looking (on the surface) like something wildly different than novels… How to Get Filthy Rich in Fast-Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid…This clever novel takes the form of a self-help business book, a popular hybrid usually written by some rich-guy/scam-artist that promises to make people rich through…
Book Reviews: The Andalucian Friend, The Burn Palace
Two books, two thrillers, both of them better than average, and both with a snake on the cover… The Andalucian Friend by Alexander Soderbergh…An unassuming nurse treats (and falls for) a patient that just so happens to be the heir to a notorious Spanish crime family currently in a fight for its life against…
Book Reviews: The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, Bringing Up the Bodies
Note: Both of these books are from last year, so I won’t review them in-depth. Most people who will read them probably already have, BUT don’t worry, I’ll have reviews for several newer titles throughout the day… The Twelve Tribes of Hattie…Nearly perfect. It follows “the African-American experience” through Hattie and her children and…