We compiled this rec list on December 20th with the that hope the shutdown wouldn’t actually happen… It’s still up.
Continue readingTag Archives: timely things
See off the Obama presidency with Southside with You
Today is the last day of the Obama presidency, so we have a special recommendation from our latest batch of new titles. Southside with You is a pretty risky concept – a romantic drama based on Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date in Chicago. Casting the young Obamas while they’re still in the public eye […]
Continue readingWatch some cyberpunk movies for Cyber Monday
Today is the increasingly dated-sounding Cyber Monday, an online sales day commemorated when people still had to use their workplace computers to get online. For an event with a name as silly as Cyber Monday, the only appropriate film genre to watch today is cyberpunk. If you haven’t seen any such movies before, cyberpunk is […]
Continue readingWhat last night’s Emmys mean for diversity on screen
via Yahoo Last night’s Emmy Awards highlighted the diversity of the nominees and winners, especially in contrast to this year’s widely derided Oscars. The 2016 Emmys featured shows, stories, and artists from a wide spectrum of race, gender identity, and disability. Plus, we’re happy any time Key & Peele wins an award. Nooice! The Chicago […]
Continue readingIf you want to understand the Emmys, start with Mad Men
The Emmys are tonight! We love a celebration of the best of television as much as anyone, but as with any award show, remember that the nomination process is highly political and probably reflects the tastes and temperament of the voting body more than an objective measure of quality. It’s interesting to see what Emmy […]
Continue readingAlternative programming: Getting real about Rio
from Rio de Janeiro: Urban Future The 2016 Rio Olympics start tomorrow, and this year seems particularly fraught. Every Olympic event has some enormous, costly, potentially negative impact on its host – remember the broken hotels in Sochi and the wasted construction in Athens? – but Rio has it worst in recent memory. The Zika […]
Continue readingAn intro to double Palme d’Or winner Ken Loach
In a choice that shocked many critics, director Ken Loach won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for I, Daniel Blake, a drama about a carpenter fighting for disability benefits. This is Loach’s second Palme d’Or (a rare feat) after his 2006 Irish War of Independence film The Wind That Shakes the […]
Continue readingAfter People v. O. J., a closer look at the Trial of the Century
The People v. O. J. Simpson, the first season of FX’s American Crime Story, ended last night to thunderous reviews. For a generation that didn’t live through the Simpson murder trial and never had to endure a year of Jay Leno monologue jokes, American Crime Story was a sensationalist look at a period of history […]
Continue readingAlmost fifty years later, you can finally watch the original Batman
This Friday’s release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice marks the start of Ben Affleck’s new take on Gotham’s caped crusader. Batman’s nearly eighty-year history has allowed for adaptations of his stories with a wide thematic range. For every dark Batman story about justice, there’s another where Calendar Man appears (yes, that’s a real […]
Continue readingA rough early road for the Irish in film
Still from Whom the Gods Destroy via “Unsung Divas of the Silent Screen” While St. Patrick’s Day is now a generally beloved holiday (we’re going to grab Shamrock Shakes in a moment), it’s easy to forget that much of the world was inhospitable to the Irish a century ago. The hostile attitudes toward the Irish […]
Continue reading