Captain America: The Winter Soldier review: politics in our peanut butter
Stuns me with its scathing commentary on the real world today, wrapped up in what is some of the most delicious, most comic-booky fantasy ever.
Year: 2014
Divergent is a box office success: can there be any doubt that there is enormous hunger for stories about girls and women as heroes?
I’m sure Hollywood will find a way to spin the success of Divergent as something other than “Hey, movies about girls and women do make buckets of money!”
cool things you guys are up to: making a short film about a video rental store in 2014
Reader Patrick made a short documentary about his local video store, still operating in today’s unfriendly economic and entertainment environment…
cool things you guys are up to: building a balloon Jack and the Beanstalk
Reader and subscriber Lanna recently “spent [a week] in Rochester New York helping to build a a 5-story balloon beanstalk, just because!”
London photo: do you want a piece of cubism?
Somewhere in Spitalfields, I think…
Blood Ties review: same old New York groove
Excellent performances by Clive Owen and Billy Crudup can’t disguise the fact that there’s absolutely nothing here we haven’t seen too many times before.
Starred Up review: no feel-good redemption to be found
Could be the most realistic depiction of the horribleness and the ineffectiveness of institutional incarceration that I’ve ever seen.
The Machine review: brain underpower
The bleak chic of this SF drama is intriguing, but the script that starts out smart and elegant soon slips into the shoddy and familiar.
A Long Way Down review: you kill me
It shouldn’t work, but it does, as wonderfully sardonic British humor and as a reminder that you’re not alone in being messed up in this insane world.
Doctor Who thing: John Barrowman killed by littlest Dalek
Don’t worry: he’ll spring back to life again in a moment…
