Not so long ago, villagers across Turkey practiced an ancient tradition of horsemanship that stretches back centuries, to the days of the Mongol Empire. Work horses spent three seasons on the farm, pulling plows in the spring and carts laden with hay, corn, and other produce through summer and fall, before villagers turned them loose…
The debate regarding the actual name of this castle began during the 17th-century. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonCastell Dinas Bran is sometimes wrongly translated as “The City of Crows” because the word dinas in modern Welsh means “city,” while in Middle Welsh it means a defended enclosure. Brân meanwhile is Welsh for “crow,” suggesting that the castle’s…
Today, my friends, the Unloved is seven years old. I decided to celebrate with a big action movie that happens to be set in 2020 and be about the last survivors of the apocalypse. Couldn’t possibly be a little relevant or upsetting, could it? Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonAnyway, I just…
Visitors to the town of Gadheim will find a very unique geographical marker known as the center of the European Union. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonUnlike many central points located across various geographical regions, the honor of being the center of the EU is not very long-lived, as it shifts every…
On September 10, 1579, Doña María de Guzmán, a young, beautiful, and rich widow founded this monastery which only accepted young women from upper-class Spanish families. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonAt the time, it was a tradition for the second daughter of a wealthy family to enter a life of service…
Crossing the Streams is our monthly look at all the offerings hitting the big streaming services each month, and this time we’re checking out the new Netflix arrivals for December 2020. This month’s titles include new films directed by David Fincher and George Clooney, loads of new holiday originals, and more! Keep reading to see…
On a brisk autumn flight from San Diego to Portland, Oregon, cookbook author and chef Jenn Louis was suffering from a particularly bad cold. Achy and exhausted, she came home to find a giant pot of chicken soup on her porch, lovingly prepared by her sister Stacy. As she gulped down three bowls, Louis felt…
Back in 2010, you might have seen a movie called The Imperialists Are Still Alive! It starred Élodie Bouchez as an artist navigating the post-9/11 world of New York and was directed by Zeina Durra, a British born woman of Middle Eastern descent (her mother is Bosnian-Palestinian and her father is Lebanese-Jordanian). Reviews at the…
Every Saturday morning, around 8:30 a.m., Munaivar Muneeswaran, 37, head of the department of history at Saraswathy Narayanan College in Madurai in southern India, gathered his friends. They packed meals and essentials, and then set off on weekend-long archaeological expeditions. These jaunts began in 2002, when he chanced upon an ancient signpost near his home…
“Don’t ask those questions in public. You don’t know who’s listening.” Kino Lorber has unveiled an official US trailer for an indie mother drama from Mexico titled Identifying Features, also known as Sin Señas Particulares (No Particular Signs) in Spanish. And the German title is Was Geschah mit Bus 670?, which just translates to What…
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. At 25-years old, best friends Myles (Jack Turner) and Brody (Michael Adam Hamilton) make a deal. If, by…
★★★ Directed by #JustinGDyck Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by #KeithCooper Starring #SheilaMcCarthy #JulianRichings #KonstantinaMantelos Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’,,Film Review by ,,Hope Madden Writer Keith Cooper and director Justin G. Dyck collaborate often, but nothing either one of them has done will…
Inside this museum, visitors are afforded the opportunity to observe many items and common objects that hail from 1945-1989. Many were commonplace in Bulgarian households. The museum comprises about 4,000 square meters and gives visitors a realistic account of life in communist-era Bulgaria. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonIn addition to Bulgarian items,…
The word on the street continues to be that streaming is the future and physical media is on death’s door, but don’t tell that to the numerous home video labels and millions of consumers. Studios are still releasing their films to Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K UltraHD, and people are still buying them. 2020 has been…
In Zeina Durra‘s Luxor, nothing much happens. It is a poem of a movie, drifting patiently from moment to moment, allowing each scene to slowly unfold. It rewards both patience and focus in equal measure, although it doesn’t demand either. Instead, you feel almost like floating through the ether as you’re watching Andrea Riseborough‘s Hana…
Constructed in 1614 by funds donated by local benefactor Robert Smythe, this building was designed to house a school for impoverished children from the town. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonChildren that attended the all-boys school were provided with bibles and were taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Many of the students went…
The Tōshōgū Shrine complex of Nikkō, Japan, is famed for its architectural and sculptural beauty, most notably the Three Wise Monkeys and the “Sleeping Cat”. These are two of the so-called Three Sculptures of Nikkō. The final sculpture is the least known of them, commonly referred to as “Sōzō-no-Zō”, the “Imaginary Elephants.” Read moreA Guide to…
“When you love someone, you’ve gotta trust them. There’s no other way. You’ve got to give them the key to everything that’s yours. Otherwise, what’s the point? And for a while, I believed that’s the kind of love I had.” The opening lines from Martin Scorsese’s “Casino” immediately set it apart from other films about…
On the heels of garnering a nomination for Best Sports Documentary at the 5th Annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, Mary Mazzio’s acclaimed film “A Most Beautiful Thing” has now been honored with a limited-edition shoe from FILA. The signature FILA x “A Most Beautiful Thing” shoe was unveiled earlier this month on Instagram, with designs that honor…
Hiding in plain sight near Kathmandu’s government center is a giant mandala that has become a central location for political protest. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonEvery day, thousands of commuters drive past an outsized tribute to Nepal’s rich Buddhist heritage. Lying in a traffic circle near Singha Durbar, the Nepali government…
Two strangers must pair up to survive a strange world in Chaos Walking, the latest from director Doug Liman. That’s right, it’s here. Or at least the trailer is, which at this point is a miracle in and of itself after extended delays. Much like this year’s long if not optimistically awaited New Mutants, Chaos Walking has been…