There’s a reason why the ratings for the Oscars have kept going down over the last few years. A lot of that has to do with the fact that critics and audiences rarely agree on what constitutes a great film anymore. Just pick any movie on Rotten Tomatoes and compare the critics’ score with the […]
Jared Rasic
Film critic and author of food, arts and culture stories for the Source Weekly since 2010.
Posted inCulture
Nostalgia Buttons
Reynolds charms with "The Adam Project"
It feels like a lot of the movies I’ve been writing about lately have been really heavy. Not necessarily depressing, but intense enough to feel like a mix between homework and heavy lifting. So this week I decided I was going to try to watch something that pressed all of my nostalgia buttons; something that […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Coast to Coast
Sebastian’s Seafood and Specialty Market lives up to the hype
If there’s anything I miss from my childhood (other than my sweet, sweet innocence), it’s the crushing weight of choosing which place to eat at the mall food court after playing video games at the arcade but before heading to the movies. I obviously want an Orange Julius, but Sbarro and Hot Dog on a […]
Posted inCulture
The Bat, The Cat and Riddle Me That
The extremely Dark Knight rises again
“The Batman,” director Matt Reeves’ new reboot of the forever franchise (after Ben Affleck turned in the cape and cowl) answers a question many of us have had for years: what if Batman was super into The Cure? Imagine if a mix of Kurt Cobain and Howard Hughes and you’ll be close to Robert Pattinson’s […]
Posted inCulture
May the Source Be With You
March edition: Small towns, Always Sunny and family recipes
Here we are, in the midst of a lovely false spring and the skies are clear, the sun is warm and nothing could possibly go wrong. What’s that you say? Russia is acting squirrelly? Yeah, that makes sense, only in the roaring ’20s would we follow up a planet-wide pandemic with a possible world war. […]
Posted inCulture
Leaf of Life
“Faya Dayi” gives us much to chew on
There’s nothing I love more than an underlying current of melancholy floating beneath a film, giving the piece a tone and a texture unlike anything else. As great as a romance or a horror movie can be, if there’s a film that finds that balance of emotional realism and a sadness based in the everyday […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Birria Fest 2022
In search of the tastiest morsels of this trend, in Bend
I sometimes feel like an old man yelling at clouds when I consider why certain things are trending on Instagram. Some dances and memes make little to no sense to me—but when a food starts trending, with mouth-watering photos and an interesting back story, I get obsessed rather quickly. Enter one of the last big […]
Posted inCulture
A Refugee Song
“Flee” takes animation to the next level
Sometimes if a film has a lot on its mind, it can get buried under too much thematic weight. Look at something like “Don’t Look Up,” which I liked a lot more than most, but between the warring tones of comedy, drama, satire and science fiction, and the battle between the ideas of climate change, […]
Posted inCulture
Leaf of Life
“Faya Dayi” gives us much to chew on
There’s nothing I love more than an underlying current of melancholy floating beneath a film, giving the piece a tone and a texture unlike anything else. As great as a romance or a horror movie can be, if there’s a film that finds that balance of emotional realism and a sadness based in the everyday […]
Posted inCulture
It’s a Hard Knoxville Life
Hey COVID, welcome to "Jackass Forever"
Whenever something is just too beautiful to put into words, there’s a line from the 1997 Jodie Foster movie, “Contact,” I fall back on: “They should have sent a poet.” She says that line when laying eyes on extraterrestrial life for the first time because she just can’t explain to the people back in mission […]