The town of Hakone has attracted visitors for centuries, serving as the entrance to Tokyo for those making their way from the cities of Kyoto or Nara. Naturally, Hakone had many inns and teahouses, which thrived by catering to travelers. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe Amazake-chaya Tea House is one such…
One of acclaimed French New Wave director Agnes Varda‘s lesser-known films documents the summer of 1968 in Oakland, California. Less than thirty minutes long, Black Panthers shows the resistance group through the words of its own members and the curious eyes of a visitor. Its directorial humility makes it a valuable firsthand source of the…
Castle Freak, directed by Tate Steinsiek and written by Kathy Charles, updates the story built from bits and pieces of Lovecraft‘s The Outsider and The Rats in the Walls for Stuart Gordon‘s 1995 film. This remake strives in its Lovecraftian lore, updates to the central story, and visual effects, but the film had the potential…
“Don’t act all poetic.” An excellent, intimate short film to feature just before 2020 ends. Yulia & Juliet is an 11-minute short film made by Dutch filmmaker Zara Dwinger. This originally premiered in 2018 and won tons of awards at festivals, now it’s finally online to watch. Yulia and Juliet, both 16, are locked up…
★★★ Directed by: #RosieWesthoff Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonWritten by: #AprilKelley Starring: #AprilKelley, #AriAnderson, #AlexParker, #JonathanMatthewWilson Read moreRobert Stack Finally Solves a Mystery in ‘The Strange and Deadly Occurrence’Short Film Review by: #TomWilmot The short film Treacle is directed by Rosie Westhoff and written by April Kelley, who also stars in…
We can all admit that 2020 has been one hell of a year. An unrelenting boxing match that seemed to never waver, each punch more gut-wrenching and strenuous than the last. Yet, as we look onto the hope of a new year, a vaccine that could return normalcy and a changed perspective, we can also…
Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather Part III” was the most anticipated film of 1990 and quickly became its most divisive. The dismissal of Coppola’s film was always a gross miscalculation, brought on by several factors: Its belated arrival (some 16 years after “The Godfather Part II”) Complaints about the casting of Sofia Coppola (more on…
This article is part of our 2020 Rewind. Follow along as we explore the best and most interesting movies, shows, performances, and more from this very strange year. In this entry, we’re listening to the best movie score soundtracks of 2020. I don’t need to tell you how tough 2020 has been for all of us, but one…
“It’s easier to risk your life when you know you’re supported by millions, even if they don’t the truth or understand…” Take a look at this! An English-dubbed trailer has debuted for a crazy insanely epic Russian sci-fi spectacle called Cosmoball, made by famed producer Dzhanik Fayzi. An enormous spaceship hovers over Earth – this…
Dedicated to the life and work of Don Antonio Blanco, this complex is a mansion turned art gallery. In 2004, the building also became a bird sanctuary after it gained legal permission from the government to act as a conservation area. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe Bali myna, also known as Rothschild’s…
“Cobra Kai” has become a pop culture hit not just because everyone loves “The Karate Kid,” but because this series has found a balance between easy-to-watch nostalgic entertainment and excellent dramatic plotting. Now in its third season, and still obsessed with every detail from “The Karate Kid,” the series owns its cheesiness while showing the…
Completed in 2011 after seven years of construction, this 144-foot tall statue presenting the hand gesture (or mudra) offering blessings of peace stands approximately 12 miles east of Kathmandu. Nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty (151 feet), Shiva is comprised of copper, zinc, concrete, and steel. It’s also the second tallest Hindu deity…
You’re not going to find jello cups on the menu at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska. Instead, patients and visitors choose between reindeer pot pie, smoked hooligan, birch sourdough biscuits with fireweed jelly, herring roe, salmon-belly or seal soup, and Eskimo ice cream (made with animal fat, fish oil, and berries). Depending on…
A family adjusts to a new life in Acasa, My Home, a documentary from first-time director Radu Ciorniciuc. The Bucharest delta is a natural haven within the bustling city. Or it’s a trap. Or it’s simply a park, and everything we ascribe to it is our own creation. Undoubtedly all of these possibilities will come up…
During the Meiji Restoration of the late 1800s, the Japanese government sent many students abroad to learn more about Western society to better modernize their home country. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonOne of the first American schools to accept Japanese students was Rutgers University in New Jersey. Rutgers is rooted in…
Philip K. Wrigley began the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) in 1943, as many male athletes were fighting in World War II. The AAGPBL was at the forefront of women’s professional sports. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonThe Rockford Peaches were one of the teams that operated during the first year of…
In a converted cattle shed in central Kenya, a mischief of rats is getting up to some. Bristling with energy, the salt-and-pepper animals—African crested rats, which look like skunks that tumbled around in a dryer—gnaw on the stalks and leaves of a poisonous plant. Raising the fur on their flanks, the rats use their tongues…
While speech itself has been identified by social media giants and the Left as ‘inciting’ violence — why won’t Twitter censor literal calls for violence? Trump Derangement Syndrome has caused Hollywood to do shameful things over the past four years. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonIn 2017, comedian Kathy Griffin tweeted a…
Christmas in Nazi Germany was as twisted as one might expect. German families ate swastika-shaped cookies, decorated fir trees with “traditional” Nordic runes, and sang hymns rewritten to avoid reference to God, Christ, and Christianity. Since Jesus is one of the most prominent Jews in history, the Nazi party went to war with the holiday…
In our Color Code column, Luke Hicks chooses a handful of shots from a favorite film in order to draw out the meaning behind certain colors and how they play into both the scene and the film as a whole. For his fifth entry, he digs into Todd Haynes’ Carol. Todd Haynes introduces us to…
Off a seemingly sleepy exit on Interstate 5 in Oregon sits a trippy theme park. Enchanted Forest, which has occupied 20 acres on a hill in the woods between Portland and Eugene for 49 years, is what Disneyland might look like if it had been designed by Ken Kesey and filled with 1960s-era sculptures and…