Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia Never Finds Its Own Identity

Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia Never Finds Its Own Identity

It’s a good time to be the Netflix algorithm. With everyone sitting home, watching episode after episode of true crime docuseries and comfort food comedies, every day must be a veritable feast of data. From precisely whence “Ginny & Georgia” springs, this writer cannot say—it was created by newcomer Sarah Lampert, the showrunner is “Criminal…

Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism in Berlin, Germany

Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism in Berlin, Germany

This memorial is dedicated to the Sinti and Roma victims of Nazi Germany. It’s estimated that around 220,000 to 500,000 people were killed during the Porajmos, better known as the Romani Genocide. This mass murder was not recognized as genocide by the German government until 1982. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe memorial was…

MORTAL KOMBAT Trailer

MORTAL KOMBAT Trailer

It’s time to rip out some spines with Mortal Kombat, the feature debut of director Simon McQuoid. Yep, they’re taking another shot at adapting the infamous video game series to the big screen, and hey, at least it can’t be as bad as Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, right? Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonIf you’re…

Karja Church in Linnaka, Estonia

Karja Church in Linnaka, Estonia

On the island of Saaremaa, just off the west coast of continental Estonia, stands a white church that is well-known for its distinctive features. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonNot only does the Karja parish church boast some of the richest stone decorations of any Baltic rural church, but the ceiling also…

Gành Đá Dĩa in Phú Hòa, Vietnam

Gành Đá Dĩa in Phú Hòa, Vietnam

Gành Đá Dĩa translates to “The Sea Cliff of Stone Plates.” This beach contains basalt rock formations similar to those seen at Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThese rocks were formed the same way as their Irish twins. A volcanic eruption met the sea and the lava cooled in…

The Perfect Pastiche of TV Tropes and Trends in ‘WandaVision’

The Perfect Pastiche of TV Tropes and Trends in ‘WandaVision’

Who’s the big bad of WandaVision? Where is the series taking us in the grand scheme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? What plot twists will be revealed next week? These are all valid questions for viewers of the Disney+ show, particularly those who are primarily interested and invested in the program as content to be…

Around Films International Film Festival 2021

Around Films International Film Festival 2021

Around International Film Awards is a network-based film collective built around the ideas of community, creativity, and support for independent cinema which is celebrating its 8th anniversary in 2021, and has just wrapped up its 2020 edition. The festival, which started off online and has continued with in-person events for a few years, has decided…

Inside the Gently Competitive World of Giant Vegetable Growing

Inside the Gently Competitive World of Giant Vegetable Growing

For Peter Glazebrook, there was one bright spot to 2020. A leek he entered into last year’s Mansfield Grow Show, which judges declared to be a monstrous four feet long, won him a new world record. “That makes 16 world records I’ve held over the years,” Glazebrook wrote to me recently, via email. “However, it’s…

Disney’s ‘White Fang’ – No CGI, All Heart

Disney’s ‘White Fang’ – No CGI, All Heart

The Walt Disney Company has a history of making great films about animals, nature and the harsh realities of living in the wild. Near the top of that list is Randal Kleiser’s 1991 “White Fang,” a mid-sized hit in theaters that is probably best remembered as an early vehicle for its star, Ethan Hawke. The…

I CARE A LOT: Rosamund Pike Is Strikingly Salacious

I CARE A LOT: Rosamund Pike Is Strikingly Salacious

After her iconic turn as Amy Dunne in 2014’s Gone Girl, any movie starring Rosamund Pike as a badass yet sociopathic woman was sure to turn heads. Pike taps into some of that Amazing Amy energy for I Care A Lot, a dark comedy thriller about a legal guardian who profits off her elderly clients. Things turn dangerous when she…

Meet the King Cobra Rescue Team That Saves Both People and Snakes

Meet the King Cobra Rescue Team That Saves Both People and Snakes

Ajay Giri juggles an eight-foot king cobra in one hand and a snake hook in the other. The cobra’s forked tongue flicks. Its tail, coiled around Giri’s left arm, twitches restlessly. Hay, huts, fields, and farmers are all scorched under the afternoon sun at Heggodu, an agricultural village bordering the Agumbe Reserve Forest. Here, deep…

The Artist Who Celebrates Bavaria’s Rural Heritage With Elegant Cow-Dung Paintings

The Artist Who Celebrates Bavaria’s Rural Heritage With Elegant Cow-Dung Paintings

Werner Härtl’s works have the warm tones of Renaissance-era sepia drawings, the monochromatic beauty of early photographs, and a richness of detail that recalls prints by Albrecht Dürer. His preferred medium offers myriad expressive possibilities, is environmentally friendly, costs him nothing, and is abundantly available in the Alpine foothills the artist calls home. Härtl is…

The Dragon of Wantley in Deepcar, England

The Dragon of Wantley in Deepcar, England

According to legends, a bat-winged, scaley dragon terrorized the villagers who lived near the region of Wantley (modern-day Wharncliffe Crags). The beast was massive and could swallow trees and buildings. The dragon was nearly invincible to any weapons, save for one rather sensitive spot. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonA knight by…

THE VIGIL: Your Watch Has Begun

THE VIGIL: Your Watch Has Begun

Horror films for decades, and arguably since their induction, have found inspiration from real-life horrors that have surrounded their creators  – and real life in general. It is these horror films, born out of reality, that scare us the most; the thread of real-life woven into jump scares, gore and hauntings. The Vigil, from writer…

Millicent Milroy Memorial in Cambridge, Ontario

Millicent Milroy Memorial in Cambridge, Ontario

Nestled among the multifold memorials of Mount View Cemetery in historic Galt, now part of Cambridge in southern Ontario, the tombstone of Millicent Milroy stands out. It’s not for its imposing size or defining black granite construction. Rather, it is because Milroy was the onetime partner of Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, more…

Casa di Lorenzo Manilio in Rome, Italy

Casa di Lorenzo Manilio in Rome, Italy

Along the Via del Portico d’Ottavia resides a large inscription on a historical building that celebrates the former owner’s love for his city and its glorious classical past. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonLorenzo Manilio, a spice merchant who lived during the second half of the 15th-century, built himself a large mansion…

CRUELLA Trailer

CRUELLA Trailer

One of Disney’s greatest baddies gets the live-action treatment in Cruella, the latest from director Craig Gillespie. The daringly fashionable puppy killer from One Hundred and One Dalmatians is an instantly recognizable portrait of evil, so thoroughly bad that I’m not sure anyone has given a second thought to how she got so cruel. Most of us…

5 Fingers Observation Deck in Obertraun, Austria

5 Fingers Observation Deck in Obertraun, Austria

Although Hallstatt is the first thing that pops up on maps when viewing the Obertraun in the Austrian Alps, there is much more to the area than a quaint little town. Visitors to the Dachstein Mountains will find a free observation deck that offers astonishing views. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonNamed 5…

Why Moving On is the Best Korean Film of 2020

Why Moving On is the Best Korean Film of 2020

The South Korean independent film “Moving On,” which is set in Inchon (a port city near Seoul), mainly revolves around a young adolescent girl named Ok-joo (Choi Jung-woon) and her little younger brother Dong-joo (Park Seung-joo). The opening scene shows them on a bright summer day, moving out from their shabby apartment building along with…