Journalist Jessica Bruder spent three years inside the belly of America’s economic beast for her 2017 book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. Wheeling around inside were the nomads, a group of largely older Americans who traded in, for one financial reason or another, their roofs for vans. They’re not homeless, as Bruder explains, they’re…
Just a few strides away from the snowmobile, Doug Chabot knew that something was off. His uphill-equipped skis sunk deep into the snow, deeper than they should have. Weak snow, he noted, as he followed the track left by his partner’s skis. The two figures ascended the slope of Lionhead Ridge, a popular backcountry skiing…
★★ Directed by: #EvanSchneider Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: #MarcPowers Starring: #MarcPowers, #JenDrummond, #JordanTofalo Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Film Review by: Patrick Foley I blame The Walking Dead for ruining the entire post-apocalyptic genre. Where the likes of The Road and Children…
It’s a new day in the workroom and there’s a shift in the universe that is season 13 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Tamisha Iman is gone and her departure has actually affected Kandy Muse, who not only has taken the criticism dealt to her by the judges, but also by Tamisha, whose proclamation that Kandy is…
In 1804, indigenous Tlingit people living near the Alaskan town of Sitka went to war with the Russians. Russian fur traders, actually, and their battle would have far reaching consequences, not just for the Tlingit, but also for the future of Alaska, by setting the stage for it to become part of the United States….
Kate DiCamillo’s Newbery Award-winning novel about a girl who prides herself on being a cynic has been adapted into an unabashedly un-cynical and utterly winning film for families about that most unsung of superpowers: hope. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonTen-year-old Flora (a very appealing Matilda Lawler) narrates her own story, and it…
The horror genre is one filled with an exorbitant amount of hits and misses – too often more misses than a hits. Unfortunately, The Night from writer and director Kourosh Ahari is a miss, a horror film lacking any investment in its central cast of characters and giving an intriguing idea the lackluster treatment. It…
Just across from Silver Lake Reservoir is the building Richard Neutra once called his home and workplace until his death in 1970. The first iteration of this house was constructed in 1932 with the financial backing of a wealthy Dutch industrialist named Cees H. Van der Leeuw, which is where the “VDL” initials come from. …
In 2005, Pascal Sombardier discovered the largest natural arch in the Alps, Tour Isabelle or Tour Percée, with a span well over 90 feet (30 meters). He revealed the find to the world a year later in a book entitled Chartreuse Insolite, with a cover photo that triggered a passion for arch hunting across the region….
Excavations on this site first began during the 1970s. A carpark was added much later, constructed to suspend over the ruins of the 1st-century CE baths. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonVisitors can view the ruins from two streets and the site can be visited on a series of elevated walkways. These allow…
It’s an underdog story (and then some) in Boogie, the feature debut of writer/director Eddie Huang. Boogie dreams of playing in the NBA, but as a Chinese-American, no one looks at him and sees a basketball player. He’s got the skills, though, and just needs the opportunities to open up. That’s not going to come easy…
During the early 20th-century, the Santa Clarita Valley was a favorite backdrop for numerous western films. Dozens of western actors could be seen chasing bandits or hunting for treasure amid the hillsides and valleys of the area. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonHarry Carey Sr. was a prolific western actor, starring in…
This old tram depot in the Berlin district Moabit has been transformed into a vintage car paradise. Aficionados, collectors, and professionals share their passion for classic cars in the workshops and garages throughout this historic building. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonClassic Remise is not a museum, but instead a place where collectors and…
Double Take is a series in which Anna Swanson and Meg Shields sit down and yell at each other about the controversial, uncomfortable, and contentious corners of cinema. In this edition, they consider whether the reputation of Constantine as a mediocre comic-book adaptation is deserved. With remakes and reboots engulfing Hollywood, it’s easy to get the…
The opening of David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” is a delirious jitterbug sequence, in which figures dance all over the screen. The dancers are superimposed in a kaleidoscopic manner, their movement appearing enthralling as well as manic. Only a few minutes in and the audience needs to pay close attention — even at this point, there…
“My girls are not the enemy…” IFC Films has also debuted a new US trailer for the UK thriller set just days before WWII began called Six Minutes to Midnight, the latest from director Andy Goddard (of Set Fire to the Stars, A Kind of Murder). We just featured the UK trailer for this yesterday,…
★★★ Directed by: #LeelaVarghese Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: #SeatonKaySmith Starring: #AkksheyCaplash, #EmmaHarvie, #SeatonKaySmith, #VeronicaClavijo Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Short Film Review by Taryll Baker When Matt accidentally shrinks himself and is captured by the ants whom he has unwittingly been squashing,…
A few decades ago, a team of scientists reported in Nature that life on land is possibly over a billion years older than previously demonstrated. Their evidence came in the form of a chunk of ancient soil, or paleosol, that contained what they believed were once “mats” of microbial life, maybe including photosynthetic cyanobacteria (sometimes…
A film could have been made on the production of Thomas Clay‘s The Delivered (originally Fanny Lyne Deliver’d) alone. Plagued by hassle – starting with the death of Clay‘s friend and longtime collaborator Joseph Lang, and later including several attacks from Mother Nature – the writer-director knew this one needed to be finished. After delays that plowed…
There is magic in the art of indie film. A journey of exploration whose defined boxes of storytelling give way, warping and bending, allowing for emotional explorations and narrative oddities to fill the screen. Outside the blockbuster realm, it’s where some of the best geniuses take root. And writer-director Mike Cahill’s Another Earth is the…
On September 6, 1970, four flights heading from Europe to New York were hijacked in a coordinated action by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP). Two of the aircraft wound up landing in Jordan on a desert airstrip called Dawson’s Field. Another was diverted to Cairo. Intense hostage negotiations followed….