This may be a day late and a (billion) dollar(s) short, but I was fortunate enough to be in New York on the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and I made special effort to check out Zuccotti Park, where they had staged their most notable protest in months. [I also went back…
Monday Morning Movie Reviewer: The Master…Less About Scientology Than Psychology
Any new Paul Thomas Anderson movie (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood) is an event in certain circles, the film critic equivalent of a new Marvel Comics movie. His latest follows a troubled WWII veteran (Joaquin Phoenix, sensationally animalistic yet nuanced) who feels adrift when he returns home, but…
TV Reviews: Boardwalk Empire, Revolution, SNL, Guys with Kids, and The New Normal
Fall TV is back, and so is cramming in a lot of reviews for new shows and season premieres alike… Boardwalk Empire’s Season Three Premiere: It’s funny the way we like some characters and not others, isn’t it? Breaking Bad’s Walter White is my absolute favorite character on TV, and I acknowledge that he’s a…
Entertainment Editorial: 10 Fall Movies To Be Excited About (and Five Not to Be)
It’s great to pretend that critics go into movies entirely neutral about them, but, honestly, they don’t. There are just always going to be some movies you look more forward to than others. It was true when I did a similar list in the summer, and especially true in the Fall…where Hollywood rolls out their…
Petty Issues: A Rogue’s Gallery of the Usual Assholes, Ryan, Romney, Chris Brown, and a Couple Kardashians
Ordinarily, there’s just one asshole of the week, but this has been an exceptionally busy week… Asshole of the Week 4th Runner-Up: “The Juice” O.J. Simpson. Earlier this week it was reported that O.J. Simpson believes Khloe Kardashian is his biological daughter (her mother, Mama Kardashian, had an affair with O.J. when her husband Robert…
Does 9/11 Still Matter? And, For That Matter, Do Islamic Terrorists?
By asking if 9/11 still matters, I don’t mean in the way a Civil War battle will always be historically noted nor in the way December 7th, 1941 will always live in infamy. I’m asking if it still matters in a major, organic way in people’s lives and the way they make decisions. Yesterday marked…
September’s Book of the Month Club Selection Is…Amy Waldman’s The Submission!
Usually, whenever I start the month I have no clue what that month’s pick will be. I run down a list of books I’ve read in the last six months (or am currently reading) and narrow down to one I think is the strongest for that month. None of that is true for Amy Waldman’s…
TV Reviews: Totally Biased, Web Therapy, and Episodes
As we gear up for the new Fall season (which, to be honest, doesn’t seem like a particularly strong crop this year), let’s take a look at some “in-between” shows that clean up during the low competition months. Totally Biased…This is W. Kamau Bell’s new show on FX, and if you don’t know who that…
Movie Review: “Obama 2016″…When Campaign Attack Ads Pretend To Be Movies
Speaking of negative movie portrayals of interracial couples (as per my Hit and Run review), now we get a “documentary” about Obama’s doomed childhood, heavily influenced by his white mother and African father’s tumultuous marriage, and his father’s belief system. This “documentary” (and, from what I understand, documentaries are supposed to be non-fiction films) is made…
Movie Review: Hit and Run
This is a movie that not many have seen (it tanked at the box office) and probably not many have even heard of it either. It stars Dax Shepard as a former getaway driver for bank robberies (a great “movie job” that may not exist in real life as most bank robbers would do their…
Mom Jokes: Will You Live to See 80?
An old woman was exhaustively tested by her new doctor. He told the 70-year-old that she was “Doing well for her age.” A little concerned about that comment, she asked him “Do you think I’ll live to see 80?” He asked her “Do you smoke tobacco or marijuana? Drink beer, wine, or hard liquor?” “Oh…
From Arthur Davis to Mia Love, the New (Black) Face of Republican’s Racial Politics
The title of this article has a pretty obvious double meaning. In the “good old days” that some of the GOP still lives in, it was considered a source of entertainment to have white people paint their faces black and say ridiculously racist things while “impersonating” black people, or, more accurately, a racist’s idea of a black…
Do the Most Divisive Presidential Candidates Usually Win? Recently, Yes
If there’s one thing that’s become painfully obvious about this race, it’s that people just don’t like Romney. I know, I know, “but you’re a Democrat! Of course you don’t like Romney!” Which may be technically true, but I’m actually pretty neutral on the man. He doesn’t seem like the devil incarnate (although I do think there…