Arts
The Writer's charge isn't easy: Take two disparate movie characters and the Art at Work events calendar and blend them into a cohesive narrative. Such a task requires a certain psychedelic mentality achievable only with the aid of a sensory deprivation tank or psychotropic drug use rivaling that of Ozzy
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Can a climber do any better than reaching the summit of Mount Everest? There is literally no higher achievement than successfully scaling the "Roof of the World." It's not a feat to be taken lightly. Many die in the attempt, only to remain on the mountain as warnings to others.
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Being that Halloween is almost upon us, it's both fortunate and fitting that I'm able to start this week's review with a quote from a classic horror film. In 1931's Dracula, well before Van Helsing and Harker show up with crosses and stakes, the titular Count (Bela Lugosi) entertains an
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In today's economically tumultuous world, there are three main pecuniary/societal systems at play: capitalism, socialism and communism. Each of these economic models promises financial stability and prosperity, but none of them entirely deliver. Communism and socialism look great on paper, unless that paper happens to be the pages of a
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In today's tech-savvy world of smartphones, iPads, laptops and even the antiquated colossi known as desktop PCs, almost everyone over the age of 5 is at least a passable typist. If you were born in the mid-1990s, your typing skills are likely coded into your DNA, occupying space in your
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Biopics can be difficult even for an experienced filmmaker. The nature of the art form requires that a large part of the story, sometimes the subject's entire life, be severely truncated and other artistic liberties taken in order to create an interesting film with a sensible runtime. No matter how
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When it comes to the truly great horror films of Irish cinema, everyone knows the classics: Leprechaun, Leprechaun 4: In Space, Leprechaun 5: In the Hood. ... What you may not know, is that there are scary movies hailing from the Emerald Isle that don't feature Warwick Davis as a
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I hate Jane Austen. Yeah, I said it. It may shock some of you to hear this, but early 19th century romantic British literature just isn't my cup of tea. (Rimshot!) I don't think Jane Austen's a bad writer or that there's anything inherently wrong with her literary genre. It's
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Over the last few months, I've reviewed films about homicidal anarchists, arranged marriages, cancer survivors, suicide bombers, Somali pirates, bourgeois paintings and harrowing life-or-death expeditions across the Pacific Ocean. Every once in a while, it's nice to take a break from all of that and review something SERIOUS! In the hallowed
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Are you a good negotiator? Many people would likely rank their bargaining skills somewhere between "fair" and "excellent" if asked to make an honest assessment. After all, everyone has at least one harrowing tale of unequalled wheeling and dealing in their past. Maybe you channeled your
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Are you a good negotiator? Many people would likely rank their bargaining skills somewhere between "fair" and "excellent" if asked to make an honest assessment. After all, everyone has at least one harrowing tale of unequalled wheeling and dealing in their past. Maybe you channeled your inner Fonzie and, with
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The Attack is the latest film from Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri, adapted from the international best-selling novel of the same name by Algerian author Yasmina Khadra and, like many great films, the story behind the story sounds like the plot of a movie in its own right. Mohammed Moulessehoul, who
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There was so much potential, so much possibility for success and perhaps even greatness. Then one woman's inexplicably heinous act rent it all asunder. But that's enough about Miley Cyrus' performance at the VMAs. The Attack is the latest film from Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri, adapted from the international best-selling novel
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French filmmakers' influence in shaping the world of cinema can't be overstated, and any effort to adequately convey the fullness of that influence within the limits of this article would fall far short. You'll just have to trust me when I say that it is a treat
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In a series of commercials for Paul Masson champagne, (which you should definitely look up on YouTube, but I digress), the late, great Orson Welles once opined, "Ah, the French..." and while Welles then went on to extol the virtues of moderately priced champagne that was somehow French despite being
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Foreign films are a hard sell for some people. Many moviegoers are quick to dismiss them as pretentious, esoteric little things best reserved for only the hippest of hipsters. Unless the foreign film in question is dubbed over in English and features giant rubbery monsters moshing in the middle of
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I know that I may be revealing myself as a bit of a musical troglodyte if I tell you this, but when I first received word that I'd be reviewing the movie Ain't in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm, my first thought was, "Who the heck
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All you need is love, or so Lennon and McCartney would have you believe; and although the Beatles' 1967 ballad is nowhere to be found on the film's soundtrack, (Dean Martin's "That's Amore" does an excellent job serving as the film's leitmotif), it seems the Fab Four's sentiment remains intact
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Two wrongs don't make a right. Everyone's heard that old adage countless times from parents, teachers, clergy, Mister Rogers and other sage luminaries. It seems like perfectly sound, reasonable advice if one wants to lead a life on the right side of justice and in the service of good. Then,
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Film trilogies tend to follow this pattern: the first film draws its audience in and leaves them wanting more when the credits roll. The second film corrects the flaws while retaining and building upon the strengths of the first film, resulting in a sequel that outdoes the original and once
