Community: "Course Listing Unavailable" (3.18)
Community‘s third season has been interested in setting up long, serialized stories for the gang rather than allowing things to work as episodically as they did in previous seasons. And while this worked well for the somewhat brief feud between Abed and Troy, the much larger and intricate storylines of Chang’s attempt to take over the school and John Goodman wanting Troy for the air conditioning school are, well, rather stupid.... read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsPrototype 2 Review (Multi-Platform)
Maybe it’s just me, but these days it seems like a lot of video game protagonists have become — well, kind of a bunch of whiny d-bags. From Marcus Fenix’s incessant droning on about his old man, to Commander Shepard’s intergalactic handwringing, to Modern Warfare commandos waxing poetic on the horrors of war, you can’t shoot an alien/terrorist in the face without having some brooding anti-hero wallowing in their own existential angst about it afterwards.... read more
Found in: Games, ReviewsModern Family Review: "Planes, Trains and Cars" (Episode 3.21)
Modern Family is in a bit of a slump. After “The Last Walt” episode, which we thought would play tribute to the Dunphy’s late, grumpy neighbor, the show chose to focus on other things—like Luke’s lack of emotion and Claire’s weird smiley reaction to bad news. Unfortunately, that episode never got off the ground. read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsGoodbye First Love
Goodbye First Love is a small, sweet film that tells an old story with some new twists. While many films embrace the theme of young love, French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve takes an almost dispassionate approach; her characters are not especially precocious or quirky, or even exceptional. Instead, they really are “just” a couple of kids in love, making the story all the more relatable. With a gentle, hands-off approach, Hansen-Løve gives us a love story of modest (rather than epic) proportions.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsElles
In spite of an original storyline and the amazing talent of Juliette Binoche, Elles fails to deliver on a perceived promise to deconstruct, re-define, or re-imagine notions of female sexuality. Instead, Malgorzata Szumowska’s fourth feature film spends a good deal of time earning its NC-17 rating, beginning with an opening close-up sure to make most audience members squirm. Though, granted, the nude body in all its glory and sexual fury may be perfectly acceptable in a film about student prostitutes, it is the hand of the director—the appendage that appears most excessively—that makes the film vulgar. In attempting to proclaim... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsBernie
Let’s talk about Richard Linklater, the man who just doesn’t seem to care what you think. Or, to be more specific, what his critics think. And that’s a good thing. How else could an unknown director make a film like 1991’s Slacker (a radical experiment in form, with crazily eclectic subject matter), parlay it into the high school comedy Dazed and Confused (a much more conventional structure, though still concerned primarily with dialogue) and then tackle a beautifully sweet and sensitive love story in Before Sunrise (an audacious narrowing of focus to two people and one night)? The pattern in... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsNew Girl Review: "Backslide" (Episode 1.23)
The cast of New Girl feels like it has grown a great amount since the show premiered in September. Nick’s ex Caroline seems like forever ago and with the exception of a perfectly placed Happy Endings reference this episode, we’ve all but forgotten the old roommate Coach. While last week’s “Tomatoes” felt false with the main characters falling into old habits that didn’t seem true to their growth, this week’s “Backslide” has mistakes that feel more natural to who these characters are now. read more
Found in: TV, ReviewsLast Call at the Oasis
The production company that brought us An Inconvenient Truth, about global climate change, and Food, Inc., about the American food industry, now tackles the international water crisis with this thoroughly researched, cleverly presented, awfully depressing documentary by Jessica Yu. Since winning an Oscar for her documentary short Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien, Yu has carved out an eclectic career of esoteric documentaries (In the Realms of the Unreal, Protagonist) and popular television (The West Wing, Grey’s Anatomy). Here, she builds what she calls a “structured mosaic” of startling statistics and memorable personalities that leave a distressing... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsFirst Position
First Position takes a look behind the scenes as six young dancers prepare to compete in the Youth America Grand Prix in New York City, the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition. Directed by Bess Kargman, the documentary follows these performers as they tirelessly train all over the world in the hopes of winning awards, scholarships to prestigious dance schools, or even a chance to be placed in a professional ballet company.... read more
Found in: Movies, Reviews
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