The air is filled with smoke, summer is almost over and there are more people in the local hospital with COVID than ever before, but at least we’re not all still arguing about masks anymore. Wait, that’s still a thing too? OK, so maybe we’ve taken a few years’ long detour into the darkest timeline, […]
Film
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The Sunken City
"Reminiscence" only reminds us of better movies
Is there a word for when every element of a movie on its own seems like it should work but, when taken as a whole, the elements make for an experience that is hugely underwhelming and crappy? “Craptacular” is too dismissive and “Ridumbculous” doesn’t really get the point across, so I’m going to go with […]
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Little Night Music
“Annette” is a bold and baffling opera
Every once and a great while, a movie comes along that is so deeply weird, so profoundly and bafflingly strange, that your friendly neighborhood film critic is left staring at the closing credits at a total loss with how to proceed. Normally, if I know I’m going to write about a movie, something connected either […]
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Different Visions
"The Green Knight" is a Visual Stunner
If he wanted to, I think filmmaker David Lowery could be the next Steven Spielberg. Not in the style of their films or even the kinds of movies that they make, but in the realm of being an artist whose style becomes synonymous with their work. When you watch a Spielberg movie, the rise and […]
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Being There
Take a journey across existence in “Nine Days”
Obviously, this has been a bizarre year for movies so far, with some blockbusters going directly to streaming, some doing a hybrid of streaming and theatrical releasing and some just fizzling out right in the theater. Regardless of how they were released, most of the movies to come out this year have been pretty disappointing, […]
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May the Source Be With You
Podcasts, streams and shows, August edition
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. I’ve noticed things seem to be almost completely back to normal even though the Delta variant has started rearing its ugly head. But they’re not normal. I know it’s easier to think they are, but there are still many bare shelves at grocery stores and a lot of […]
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A Regal Double Feature
"Old" and "Snake Eyes," back to back
It’s been so long since I’ve seen a double feature in the theater that I just had to go for it. I couldn’t believe how much I missed running from one auditorium to the next with only a few minutes to spare for the bathroom and a refill of root beer. I hungered for filling […]
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The Florida Projects
Zola deconstructs social media and the modern moment
Every once in a while a movie comes out that makes a billion dollars and that critics and audiences both fall in love with, yet I end up hating it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. A few years ago, that movie was the J.Lo flick “Hustlers,” which I found to be a […]
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Spy Game
Marvel’s "Black Widow" is too little, too late
As an unapologetic Marvel fanboy, it has been too long since 2019’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” hit theaters. I think I got so used to the Pavlovian response of there being a new Marvel movie in the theater every few months, that when COVID hit and movies stopped coming out for a while, I missed […]
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May the Source Be With You
Your July Edition of what to watch and listen to includes a thought-provoking indigenous podcast, along with “Loki” and “Shadow and Bone”
I‘m sitting in a profoundly air-conditioned hotel room overlooking Pilot Butte, a few hours before the fireworks begin on the Fourth of July. Living next door to the starting location of the Freedom Ride means that every Independence Day my home becomes a breeding ground for drunken half-naked revelers looking for somewhere to pee, puke […]