Film Reviews

[rating=8.00] According to some computer engineers and futurists, humanity is mere decades away from what many feel could be our greatest achievement: artificial intelligence. The concept of true AI elicits a wide-array of thoughts and opinions from the scientific community. Some, like Stephen Hawking, feel that AI has the potential to become the biggest threat […]

[rating=8.00] Early on in Going Clear, HBO’s shocking exposé on the hidden truths of Scientology, it’s posited that to work through Dianetics—“church” founder L. Ron Hubbard’s seminal work and cornerstone of the group’s philosophy—is to work through the mind of Hubbard himself. The line itself feels almost throw away at first; a simple observation serving […]

[rating=5.00] If there’s any system in America that deserves to be taken down by the sword of comedic insight, it’s the prison system. America, land of the free, boasts the highest number of citizens incarcerated in the developed world, and that number is growing all the time. With a system as blood-thirsty as the American […]

As the sun set in Austin, Texas last evening, another successful SXSW came to a close. The streets geared up for a final night of revelry before the boring nature of reality descended once more and we all woke up, hung over and exhausted from our week-and-a-half long bacchanal. While Neil Ferguson lurked the clubs […]

[rating=8.00] Looking at the slate for the coming year in movies, there are a lot of things to be excited about. 2015 is shaping up to be an incredible year for movie fans. The Avengers: Age of Ultron is right around the corner; Star Wars: The Force Awakens sits as a beacon guiding us towards […]

The historic Lobero theater in Santa Barbara was buzzing with excitement on during the world premiere of the rock documentary about the unlikely rise of the band Kansas to superstardom in the film – Kansas: Miracles Out of Nowhere.  Three members of the band, Phil Ehart (drums), Richard Williams (guitar) and Robby Steinhardt (violin) were […]

[rating=1.00] The whole phenomenon surrounding the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy has always  baffled me. I’ve seen it billed as “housewife porn,” a sort of refuge of sexual imagination and fantasy for the otherwise vanilla middle-American. I suppose that makes sense, given our attitudes regarding sex and sexuality in our country. We tend to repress […]

[rating=6.00] There’s a prevailing sense among many armchair critics and internet commenters that a movie—or really, anything—needs to be wholly original in order to be considered a valid entry into the world of art or entertainment. This isn’t necessarily a bad stance to take; as moviegoers, it’s nice to see things we’ve never seen before. […]

Hacking thriller ‘Blackhat’ may not be entirely terrible, but it’s certainly not worth the ten-buck admission

‘Unbroken’ is a decent way to kill a couple Christmas Day hours, but with its tentative and flat approach to its mesmerizing subject matter, the film won’t linger in your mind until the new year.