By Mark Leiren-Young It takes years to make a movie. It takes less than 48 hours to determine its fate. If the box office numbers from Friday and Saturday night aren’t impressive, a movie won’t be in theatres the following week. Samuel L. Jackson’s latest, The Samaritan, opens tonight and if you’re looking for a […]
Culture
Two words: Joss Whedon. Okay, four: Scarlett Johansson
By Mark Leiren-Young A few days before The Avengers debuted I was asked why I was so excited about seeing what’s looking like the most successful comic book movie of all time. This was my answer. I’m a lifelong comic book fan and the idea that it’s even possible to make The Avengers has my […]
“Bully” gets a bigger pulpit
By Montreal Simon It never made any sense. A movie where children kill each other gets a PG-13 rating, a documentary about children getting bullied gets rated R. So I’m glad to see that Bully has been reclassified. I’m happy that kids are going to be able to see it, and that the new rating […]
Joe Bodolai’s final hit
A BoB short: A last blog post by Joe Bodolai has gone viral today after the L.A. Police ruled the well-loved comedy writer’s death a suicide. Bodolai, who worked on both “Saturday Night Live” and the “Kids in the Hall” before helping to launch Canada’s Comedy Channel, apparently intended the post as a combination suicide […]
Potter too much
By Rachel Krueger As though the tenterhooks weren’t tight enough for Harry Potter 7.2: The One Where It Actually Ends, the Rowling megalith taunted its fans last week with the mysterious offer of . . . Pottermore. Pottermore, the powers promised, was a Thing That Was Not A Book But Was Still Very Great And […]
Young Adult fiction: the poison is the antidote
by Rachel Krueger Meghan Cox Gurdon’s Wall Street Journal article on the “explicit abuse, violence and depravity” grown rife in YA fiction must come either from a place of willful blindness or an actual dark rock, under which she has been living. Granted, YA fiction has gotten more sexually explicit since 1973 when Judy Blume’s […]
Farm This Way
By Rachel Krueger When it comes to pop cultural infections, the only thing worse than hearing “Born This Way” AGAIN (again from when I heard it this morning, but also again from when I heard it in 1989) is getting a facebook notification that Jodie just bought me a cow and would I like to […]
A Dance With Dragons: Worth the Wait?
By Rachel Krueger George R R Martin’s series A Song of Ice and Fire, while long a big deal in fantasy basements, is now officially a Big Deal™. The HBO series based on the first installation, A Game of Thrones, has both brought the series into the fantasy-abjuring eye and put a much-appreciated amount of pressure […]
Amusing videos to conquer sex-trafficking!
by Rachel Krueger I love youtube videos and am opposed to sex trafficking. I think it’s safe to say these two sentiments extend to a large percentage of the population. So why am I baffled by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore’s hilarious “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls’ videos?” They feature foxy mens! Who isn’t down […]
Rebecca Black: Voice of Today’s Youth
by Rachel Krueger Rebecca Black’s “Friday” has been making the internet rounds to guffaws and heaps of ridicule, and there’s no denying that it’s that bad. But is it not ALSO a scathingly accurate anthem for our disaffected youth? To wit: The opening lines of the song have taken heat for being needlessly and idiotically […]
