Film & TV

[rating=8.00] N.W.A. hit the world like an atom bomb, exposing a side of life that existed unseen by the majority. Safe in suburban enclaves, much of America reacted to their debut record, Straight Outta Compton, with revulsion—its gritty depictions of life as a young, black male in California were too much for many to bear. […]

[rating=8.00] “eps1.7_wh1ter0se.m4v” After weeks of speculation, story building, and suspense, Robot finally gave us a clue into the mystery that is Elliot’s subconscious. This week’s episode was a reminder that everything you know to be true is probably wrong. Feeling vulnerable yet? Remember that time that Angela went ahead and allowed the Dark Army to hack […]

Strap yourself in. The trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s latest epic, The Hateful 8, is here, and it looks to be a doozy. Like his previous movie, Django Unchained (and to a certain extent, Kill Bill vol 2) The Hateful 8 has Tarantino exploring the western genre, as eight strangers come together to weather a blizzard […]

[rating=6.00] “Who’s Grover Cleveland?” Shit has finally hit the fan this week on The Brink, and with Raja dead there’s not much choice or wiggle room for the driving protagonists. As is the theme with much of HBO’s programming, the characters have been suffering from a severe inability to do anything right for themselves. After literally […]

[3.00] “Gaslighting” How appropriate that this week’s episode starts with a car wreck. To clarify, it’s a commercial within the show, and seemingly has nothing to do with the rest of what transpires over the next 28 minutes, but it seems to convey the direction of this show in general. After being worried about his test […]

[rating=8.00] “Omega Station” And so it ends. The long and twisting journey of True Detective’s second season came to a close last night, and chances are your opinions on the finale depend greatly on your opinions of this season as a whole. Speaking only for myself, I was satisfied. “Omega Station” ended the story of corruption […]

It was the kind of fallout that was an inevitability. After relative unknown auteur Nic Pizzolatto, along with director Cary Fukunaga and stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, managed to capture lightning in a bottle with the debut season of True Detective. Rumors of season two began before the first was even resolved, namely that […]

[rating=9.00] The following is a facsimile of the existential freak out had by our critic after screening The End of the Tour. What the fuck am I even doing with my life? I don’t even know anymore. I had goals once, man. I had dreams. I was going to take shit over, hit the world […]

[rating=2.00] Watching Irrational Man can be best described as watching a bunch of WASPs doing and saying a bunch of WASPy things amidst a sea of head-up-your-ass intellectualism that’s every bit as tedious and shallow as a conversation in an all-night coffee shop with an undergrad who’s taking introduction to philosophy. It’s a peek behind […]

[rating=1.00] To call Fantastic Four a monumental piece of shit would be to give it too much credit. For better or for worse, a piece of shit (monumental or otherwise) is something tangible. You could, if you so desired, hold it in your hands and it is the result of a lot of hard work […]

[rating=8.00] “eps1.5_br4ve-trave1er.asf” Last week’s tragedy was tough to absorb. After seemingly getting a hold on his life, Elliot’s long time casual lover, friend, and now girlfriend Shayla was brutally murdered. A series of events that transpired solely based on Elliot’s actions. Where can he go from here? What will the loss, and guilt associated with that […]

It’s been on the tip of everyone’s tongues for years now, his name that is. Jon Stewart did this. Jon Stewart said that. Mostly positive, sometimes negative, always on point, after 16 years of working as the primary host of The Daily Show Jon Stewart will sign off for the final time this evening, August […]

One of the most influential figures of the 20th century, John Lennon evolved from sharp-talking pop-rocker to cynical idealist in his time growing up in the public eye. With such a resonating presence, both with and without the Beatles, filmmakers have been portraying Lennon on screen since the late 1960s. We look at some of […]

[rating=4.00] “Ends” Starting off with an urn being delivered with all the delicate care of your average script for Ballers, “Ends” begins profoundly on the wrong foot, assuming that anyone in the audience would remember Roddney, one of two characters who died a couple minutes into the pilot. Appropriately, and what’s probably too clever to be […]

[rating=6.00] “Sticky Wicket” This week’s Brink was basically a set-up for America’s general buffoonery when it comes to big decisions. Serving in the form of a huge blunder by the President (and or Walter depending on how you look at it), though beginning with Alex as he tries his best to save the world from inside […]

[rating=9.00] “Black Maps and Motel Rooms” I know this isn’t really a popular internet opinion, but I’ve been absolutely rapt by this season of True Detective. While reading the opinions of commentators and other critics—all of whom seem to wonder where this season is going and what everything has to do with everything else—I’ve been sitting […]

[rating=8.00] I’ve got a bit of a bizarre relationship with the original Wet Hot American Summer; it’s a movie that had to grow on me. Usually, that’s not an easy feat for a movie to accomplish. Movies I hate rarely get the opportunity to redeem themselves and I positively loathed it the first time I […]

[rating=9.00] Typically, the longer a movie franchise goes the worse the series gets. I think this accounts for the rise of the trilogy as a cultural powerhouse over the last decade. Somewhere along the line, the studios figured out that the law of diminishing returns tends to kick in around entry number four as that’s […]

[rating=7.00] “eps1.5_br4ve-trave1er.asf” Robot was a little slower this week, mostly focusing on a single plot point that would ultimately lead to the biggest shocker of the season. Elliot’s put into a position he’s not sure he can get himself out of. Shayla has been kidnapped by Fernando’s people. The only way he’ll get Shayla to safety […]

[rating=4.00] Whatever bad I have to say about Vacation—and there’s a lot—I want to acknowledge that it sure did try its best. That may not count for much, overall, but it counts for something; they could have easily just not tried and relied on the same jokes and the same bits as its predecessors, but […]