Growing up is harder than expected in Paper Spiders, the latest from co-writer/director Inon Shampanier. Melanie has the usual teenage problems: getting through boring classes, deciding whether to take the not-so-great advice of her friends and navigating a budding romance. But on top of that, she’s also worried about her mother, who she has a close…
Coastal Peru, rich in gold, silver and culture, was central to a number of pre-Columbian civilizations. Most of us are familiar with the Incas, but only because they were the dominant empire in the area when the Spanish invaded. The Inca empire itself lasted a little less than a hundred years and was predated, in…
The city of Motya was a rich Phoenician colony located on a small island off the western coast of Sicily. It was one of the most important towns in the Mediterranean when it was controlled by Carthage during the 5th-century BCE. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonMotya was famously destroyed by troops…
In 1975, an injured broad-winged hawk found its way to Dr. Richard Brown, an ornithologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Along with several biology students, Brown helped the bird back to health and released it into the wild—it would be the first of many rehabilitations. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong…
Welcome to Horrorscope, a monthly column keeping horror nerds and initiates up to date on all the genre content coming to and leaving from your favorite streaming services. Here’s a guide to all the essential horror streaming in April 2021. Spring has sprung! Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonDead foliage has given…
★★★★ Directed by: #UmeshBist Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: #UmeshBist Starring: #SanyaMalhotra, #SayaniGupta, #AshutoshRana Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Film Review by: Emily Davison Widowed soon after marriage, a young woman grapples with quirky relatives and a startling discovery about her late husband…
Since its inception in 2013 with the release of Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel, the DC Extended Universe has stood as one of Warner Bros.’ flagship franchises over the past decade. Despite the DCEU’s varying highs and lows, 2017’s Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot, marked a new direction for the cinematic universe, providing…
In 1609, the flagship of the Virginia Company, Sea Venture, was blown miserably off course by a brutal summer hurricane that wrecked the ship near a tiny island, some 700 miles off the Virginia coast. Fortunately, no lives were lost. Unfortunately, the island offered not a drop of fresh water. Today, that island is among…
Another social media cautionary tale! This amusing, wacky animated short is a personal project from Berlin-based animation filmmaker Cornelius Joksch and it’s another fun story that’s criticizing the tragic lives of people obsessed with their social media presence. Cornelius makes his own short films and illustrations, but also works for brands and studios. Oh, Darling!…
Crossing the Streams is a series of columns spotlighting all the offerings hitting the big streaming services each month. This time we’re checking out the new Netflix arrivals for April 2021, including a new fantasy series, new movies with Idris Elba and Melissa McCarthy (not together), and more! Keep reading to see what’s new on…
It’s a timely release for a horror film like Agoraphobia, after most of the world has been confined to their homes for much of the last year. Written and directed by Lou Simon, this film tells the story of Faye (Cassandra Scerbo), an agoraphobic woman who is moving into her recently deceased father’s home to…
In good years, fall and winter thunderstorms drench the deserts east of the Mediterranean. In early spring, the soil cracks in some places, the swelling signs of desert truffles below. An age-old harvest begins. In the Middle East, humans have foraged these unique mushrooms for millennia, scanning broken earth for protein-rich knobs to eat, sell,…
Savvy readers long ago stopped trusting fact checking services, and for very good reasons. Sites like Snopes.com often go to comical lengths to either downplay Democrats who twist the truth or pretend Republicans actually lied when reality tells a different story. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonHere are two quick examples. The…
As someone who has visited the Arctic Circle city of Tromsø, Norway not once, but twice (it’s beautiful and charming, and they run a great Midnight Sun Marathon), I am not unfamiliar with Roald Amundsen. A statue of him stands in the middle of Tromsø just outside their Polar Museum, which chronicles the history of…
This bronze statue of the now-extinct great auk overlooks the impressive sea cliffs where these birds once nested. The statue in the Reykjanes peninsula was created by the artist Todd McGrain. It is one of several works that he has done as part of his Lost Bird Project. The series includes sculptures of several extinct…
The Lares hot springs in southern Peru are made up of outdoor pools surrounded by tall stone walls, grassy fields, and outdoor showers. The natural hot springs have been used by locals in practices that extend back to pre-Columbian civilizations. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonLares is a small town in the…
Night had fallen on Mahebourg, a bustling trade town on the southeast coast of Mauritius, when what would come to be called the “people’s factory zone” met for the first time. It was an enterprise born of necessity: A crisis was unfolding only a few miles offshore, in the pristine waters from which many of…
During the darkest parts of the winter, most locals dwell inside. But when the sun returns and the days get longer the ice road is a perfect spot to recharge the batteries. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonSweden’s Luleå archipelago formed during the last ice age, and is made up of a…
A man does what we all dream of doing in The Outside Story, the feature debut of writer/director Casimir Nozkowski. Okay, it’s literally just going outside and running into people, but how many of us can do that right now? Not many! Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonIn the before times, some people…
Ruiguang Pagoda, also known as the Auspicious Lustre Pagoda, is the earliest pagoda built in what is now known as the Panmen Scenic Area of Suzhou. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe pagoda was built in 247 CE during the reign of King Chiwu Sun Quan in honor of his mother. At…
The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum is a decidedly understated independent institution compared to the grand federal repositories of his successors. The quiet, one-room exhibition on the second floor of the Forbes Library is perhaps in line with the 30th president’s reputation as the reserved “Silent Cal.” Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong…