Several months ago, Atlas Obscura invited you to come along with us as we journeyed—digitally—across all 50 U.S. states (and Washington, D.C.) in pursuit of the unsung wonders scattered across the country. That was July. The COVID-19 pandemic was raging, and we hoped that a virtual journey would sate readers’ hunger for travel while many…
The phrase “book burning” evokes dictators demanding certain thoughts be expunged from society. Literal book burnings date back centuries, but the invention of the printing press made the practice more commonplace in the modern era. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe Nazis embraced the concept in the 1930s, incinerating roughly 25,000 “un-German” books”…
It’s easy to bemoan the fact crime dramas can often feel by-the-book and unoriginal. If there’s not something comforting in them — specifically in the more intimate space of television — then they can be out and out monotonous. Part of the problem comes from a genre being so saturated due to popularity and commercial…
The little valley of the Côa River in northern Portugal is home to an amazing collection of Paleolithic rock art. Thousands of figures of horses, bovines, and other animals, along with human and abstract figures were created beginning perhaps 22,000 years ago. The tradition continued throughout the Stone Age and into the Bronze Age. Read…
Prior to 1914, Valour Road was known as Pine Street. The street was lined with small family homes in what was then the far western suburbs of Winnipeg. When World War I erupted, many of the young men from the area went off to fight. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonOn April…
Following the end of World War II until 1952, Japan was occupied by the United States. Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, however, continued to be under U.S. military control until 1972. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonDue to this situation, cars drove on the right in Okinawa in contrast to the main…
It’s a trial about way more than art in The Last Vermeer, the debut of director Dan Friedkin. Of all the terrible things the Nazis did, hoarding of art is pretty low on the list, but it had an unmistakable impact on the distribution and preservation of these invaluable pieces of culture. As with all things,…
Tucked in a nondescript corner of a beautiful cemetery in South Minneapolis, lies the final resting place of one of the most significant Democratic politicians of the mid-20th-century. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonHubert Horatio Humphrey was a politician from Minnesota who served as Mayor of Minneapolis, Senator from Minnesota, and Vice…
Don’t let the wide, creepy shots fool you—in Sean Durkin’s “The Nest,” there aren’t any supernatural forces haunting the O’Hara family. Running out of money, or perhaps his excesses, Rory (Jude Law) decides it’s time to pack up his wife and two children and move back to England. His spouse, Allison (Carrie Coon) isn’t exactly…
Watching “The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special” is like watching a puppet show organized by a major toy store chain (if such things still exist). The voice actors are enthusiastic, but don’t sound quite right—none of the featured characters are voiced by their original cast members, with the exception of Anthony Daniels, Kelly Marie Tran,…
★★★ Stars Directed by: #TerrieSamundra Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: #TerrieSamundra, #DavidWalterLech Starring: #ShabanaAzmi, #RivaArora, #SanjeedaSheikh, #HetviBhanushali, #SatyadeepMisra Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Film Review by: Alicia Moore Kaali Khuhi is a Netflix original horror film which follows Shivangi (Riva Arora,) a 10…
“I just don’t know who you are anymore… Does anybody trust you?” Soderbergh’s always up to something! HBO has released an official trailer for Let Them All Talk, a new film directed by Steven Soderbergh. It’s yet another of his low key dialogue-driven dramas, much like High Flying Bird before this. The film tells the…
Cynics mock hashtags as virtue signaling on steroids. They’re only partly right. Yes, efforts to free imprisoned Nigerian girls via the #BringBackOurGirls effort, championed by former First Lady Michelle Obama, failed miserably. So did Twitter campaigns to fire Stephen Colbert for telling Asian jokes and Tucker Carlson for … being a conservative on TV. Read moreA…
★★★★ Directed by: James Kibbey Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: James Kibbey, Kevin Mears Starring: Hugo Chegwin, Felicity Montagu, David Schaal Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’,,Film Review by: ,,Jason Knight Sometimes people need to reveal their secrets, in order to get things…
★★★★★ Directed by: #JonathanBlagrove Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: #LyndaWilliams Starring: #RobertWhitelock #JonnyPhillips #VickyMcClure Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Short Film Review by: #ChrisBuick Tommy (Whitelock), an out of work building contractor who finds himself turned onto a life of crime as a…
Have you ever wondered what Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” might have been like minus any supernatural angle? That’s what writer/director Sean Durkin’s “The Nest” feels like, or at least aspires to be. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho Marathon It stars Jude Law as Rory O’Hara, an ambitious businessman who left England behind…
Stan is very big, very old, and very popular. Roughly 65 million years young, Stan long ago retired from trampling, stalking, and gnawing across a steamy landscape of palms and gingkoes, and tussling with family. Like many other retirees, Stan now lives a life of quiet leisure. Stan hasn’t been lounging on the lido deck…
The city of London becomes a tech playground for gamers to hack in Ubisoft’s “Watch Dogs: Legion,” a third game in this franchise about destroying Big Brother, and one of the launch games for the PS5. Sprawling and ambitious, the game brings the entire city to life in a way that can sometimes feels a…
Upon the official release of David Freyne‘s coming-of-age hit currently taking the world by storm, Film Inquiry’s Marc Ricov spoke with the Belfast-born actress to talk about her experience on making the film, who went on to discuss her blooming friendship with co-star, Fionn O’Shea, and how playing a role like Amber was a somewhat…
“He will transcend this game…” HBO has unveiled the first teaser trailer for an epic biopic documentary titled Tiger, a monumental and definitive look at the life and times of golf legend Tiger Woods. The doc will be released as a two-part “series” premiering together in January 2021 – a look at the life, success…
Body swap movies have been with us for as long as we can remember. In the original Freaky Friday from 1977, Jodie Foster’s character switches places with her mom, played by Barbara Harris. In 18 Again!, it’s a grandfather and his grandson. The switch always differs. It can be because of a car accident, magical…