Lessons From ‘Sonic Highways’
I’ve always had kind of a soft spot for the Foo Fighters. They catch a lot of flak, but I can’t think of another band since the Chili Peppers that has managed to commercialize hard rock while maintaining an authentic identity that resonates globally. So thus I’ve been pretty intrigued… [Read More]
Actors Who Should Star in Food Network Biopics
Food Network chefs are an interesting kind of celebrity. The shows they appear on, star in, and host are reality shows, and yet they’re much more compelling than Snooki or whoever’s on The Real World these days because they have actual creative talent. Before I go further, I should mention… [Read More]
An Eventual Swan Song for ‘The Daily Show’
“Good satire comes from anger. It comes from a sense of injustice, that there are wrongs in the world that need to be fixed. And what better place to get that well of venom and outrage boiling than a newsroom, because you’re on the front lines.” –Carl Hiaasen The seventies… [Read More]
Social Media Killed the Movie Star
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of someone we never really knew, and maybe never really loved. But, as the old adage goes, we either wanted to be them – or be with them. They were glamorous. They were mysterious. They made cigarettes look cool… [Read More]
Fall Movies and Their NFL Counterparts
The fall movie season has always been an intriguing one to me. Often, this is when the best films of the year are released, but then they all get shoehorned into a commercial and artistic rat race, trying to hold their own at the box office while earning their directors… [Read More]
Drunk Movie Review: ‘Interstellar’
Back in February, I wrote about Matthew McConaughey’s recent string of good decisions, and the article ended with speculation on whether or not his latest project, Interstellar, would continue the trend. The movie has finally been released, and naturally, I longed to sate my curiosity. There was one hiccup. I… [Read More]
Grumpy Cat Won’t Steal Christmas (or Your Heart)
Remember 2012? I almost do. It was the year of the London Olympics, Facebook’s IPO, Gangnam style, Obama Part 2, and most importantly, the year the world met a sour-faced little Siamese Snowshoe cat named Tardar Sauce. The internet knows her, affectionately, as Grumpy Cat. The meme exploded during April… [Read More]
High Art: Weird is the New Good
I’ve always been a fan of the absurd. I spent most of my high school Saturday evenings sprawled across living room floors with friends watching terrible ’80s horror movies like House IV and kids movies like Going Bananas. Whether it was a woman fighting a demon-posessed talking pizza or a… [Read More]
Watching ‘The Wire’ Ten Years Too Late: A True Struggle
When the first season of The Wire hit TV in 2002, I was a doe-eyed high school sophomore who cared a lot about glitter eyeshadow and the Luke/Lorelai dynamic on Gilmore Girls. (Exactly one thing has changed since then — I’m not telling you which). I didn’t even become aware… [Read More]
‘The Skeleton Twins’ and Luke Wilson’s Lovable, Sincere Dudebro
The Skeleton Twins, a relatively low-key 2014 film festival favorite carried by amazing performances from Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader as estranged twins, is a film that uses sensitive family dynamics to explore heavy themes of failure and depression. It’s hilarious at times, crushingly sad in others, and ultimately a… [Read More]
