Director and Co-writer of the latest Iron Man installment Shane Black was handed an unenviable task: after a massive critical and financial success in the Marvel-verse, he got to follow it up. His smartest move was in creating an entire movie based on answering a question posed by Captain America in that expectation-busting flick, “Big […]
Vampires in the Lemon Grove is Karen Russell’s second collection of short stories. Her first, St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, and her first novel, Swamplandia!, received quite a bit of critical acclaim. Award nominations and whatnot. I didn’t actually get a chance to read Swamplandia! when it first came out, so I […]
Derek Cianfrance, director of Blue Valentine and his debut film- the unreleased/unseen Brother Tied- has just released his third film, The Place Beyond the Pines. After the phenomenal performance of Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine, the two teamed up again to take audiences to the place beyond the pines, where issues of morality are ever present […]
I haven’t had a whole bunch of exposure to Jamaica Kincaid. I read Girl (which fairly blew my mind, GO READ THAT!), so there’s that, I guess. But I’m no expert. I’d never read one of her novels before See Now Then. I don’t know much about her life—I mean, I’ve heard that this particular […]
“I will not be a failure!” The entire point of advertising is to convince people that they want things, even if they don’t know why. This episode of Mad Men deals with all of its characters working towards their own desires, even when those desires are harmful. Don and Pete are both chasing after a […]
Every once in a while, you find a show that moves you; the show inspires you to lead a more purposeful life. For me, I knew that Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead was the kind of show that begged to be seen. I directed the show in college and I will forever […]
This year, Monkeyman Productions’ annual 4-play showcase of new, geek-oriented works takes a darker tenor than years past. The shift doesn’t feel like a deliberate one so much as a coincidence of tone amongst the best of this year’s script submissions but it has two pronounced effects. The first is the sad elimination of geek-music […]
Since Bill Watterson coined the term “Calvinball” it has acted as a remarkable reference point for chaotic games where the rules constantly change and the players are kept on their toes. I have played a handful of games where planning was impossible and flexibility was the key to victory although the victory itself seemed so […]