To spot arrogance and pretension in others is easy because these traits are conspicuous in their ugliness. But when I see it in myself, my instinct is to deny that I have behaved with the same unpleasantness. Financial success, employment, creating, art-appreciation, religion, education, even exercise – almost every form of personal fulfillment can lead…
Dimitrovgrad is said to be the first socialist industrial town in Bulgaria. It started from scratch in 1947 when thousands of youth gathered at this spot and started a colossal building project to create a new city. The result was a utopian Socialist environment with straight streets, large squares, park areas, and districts that were…
Opened in 1930, the Metropolitan State Hospital (MSH) in Waltham, Massachusetts was once the largest, most sophisticated facility for treating the mentally ill in New England. At its peak, around 2,000 patients were residents at the hospital. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonConstruction on the complex began in 1926, a few years…
Film Feature by Lawrence Bennie With ongoing uncertainty over major theatrical releases, audiences can rest assured that their favourite film festivals will continue in the year ahead, albeit in a slightly different format for some. With Sundance and Göteborg already wrapping for another year, we look at the major film festivals that lay in wait…
Sam Pollard’s captivating “MLK/FBI” addresses how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a deeply secret side which the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation used to torment him. Pollard’s documentary begins in 1963, with Dr. King’s “March on Washington” speech (“Free at last, free at last…”). From there, we learn that Dr. King was…
This story originally appeared on The Public Domain Review, and is reproduced here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. The first European settlers arrived at Nantucket, an isolated island some 30 miles from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in 1659. They built homes, Quaker meeting houses, and cattle farms, swiftly and forcibly colonizing the island, which…
Welcome to Shot by Shot, our ongoing series of movie trailer breakdowns. We’re constantly scouring for perfect shots, and in this column, we share our favorites and discuss them. In this entry, we’re getting in the ring and goin’ shot by shot with the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer. In the red corner, we have the…
Queerly Ever After is a bi-monthly column where I take a look at LGBT+ films that gave their characters a romantic happily-ever-after. There will be spoilers. Also, don’t forget to buy your Queerly Ever After merch right here. Private Romeo is an adaptation of Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet that transposes the action from the streets of…
Sleek. Legendary. Huge. Extremely vulnerable. That is the picture emerging from new research on killer whales from California to British Columbia to Alaska. Revered by some indigenous cultures as guardians of the sea and reincarnations of chiefs, orcas are apex predators whose numbers have dwindled. The new study is one of the first in-depth examinations…
Every now and then there’s a horror movie that proves reboots aren’t an inherently craven concept. (I happen to think that the recent “Child’s Play” and “The Grudge” movies fit that description.) “Wrong Turn,” directed by Mike P. Nelson and written by Alan McElroy (of 2003’s “Wrong Turn”) is such a gem. And it’s not…
The television goes from an old tape of a gymnast graciously contorting her body to the raspy, instantly recognisable voice of Bob Dylan as he soulfully sings “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”. “To keep it in your mind and not forget, that it is not he, or she, or them, or it that you…
This often-overlooked monument was salvaged from obscurity and reconfigured to help celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977. The monument also has ties to one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and legendary directors, Stanely Kubrick. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe story of the monument begins when Kubrick decided to make a film…
John Hessing was a Dutch traveler turned army officer who served the Scindia Marathas in Agra at the turn of the 19th-century. He was eventually in charge of defending Agra Fort and during a battle with the British in 1803, he was killed. Just as the original Taj Mahal was built as a symbol of…
Blood is one of the most vital fluids necessary for the existence of many forms of life on the planet. It’s a quintessential key to life. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonBlood donations are essential across the globe and often save many lives. It’s always important to have a reminder of how…
The women behind Bridesmaids bring you another comedy about female friendship in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. The trailer cheekily doesn’t give too much away, not even the main characters’ faces. It’s a bit of a statement to say that the film doesn’t need those to sell and that the story of two middle-aged women…
Located next to a replica Apollo 11 suit in the Space gallery of the Connecticut Science Center is a small, humble-looking stone encased in a thick acrylic case. While it may look like any other rock found in a backyard, this particular rock is a small piece of “Great Scott,” a large lunar sample collected…
In Puebla, there is a legend that claims the city was once attacked by a strange animal, similar to a huge wolf, that came down from the hill of La Malinche. On one occasion, the beast killed Don Pedro Carvajal’s son. In an act of revenge, Carvajal offered the hand of his daughter to whoever…
Welcome to Previously On, a column that fills you in on our favorite returning TV shows. This week, Valerie Ettenhofer reviews Euphoria’s second special “bridge episode,” which is all about Jules. “Without, like, getting melodramatic, I’ve had a really hard six months.” This is what Jules (Hunter Schafer) tells her therapist partway through the second Euphoria special…
★★★★★ Directed by: #HarryBoulton, #GabrielGoss & #JudeWakeley Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonStarring: #LucyHunt, #OlliePalmer, #AfureMosesTaiga, #LilyAdams, #LivGodley Short Film Review by Taryll Baker Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’The story of Lost Bond is built upon the inherit complexity of human nature and our…
“Everything will be… all right.” Janus Films + Film at Lincoln Center have revealed a new trailer for the restored re-release of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1975 film Mirror, also known as The Mirror, originally Зеркало (Zerkalo) in Russian. Tarkovsky made this one right after finishing both Andrei Rublev and Solaris, but it got lost in time…
For Jimmy Fallon it was the hair tussle seen ’round the world. The “Tonight Show” host had the temerity to muss up guest Donald Trump’s hair deep into the 2016 presidential campaign. Fallon might well have pushed an elderly nun down the stairs judging by the media’s reaction. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong…