This coming weekend, I’ll participate in the fifty-third staging of The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. For those of us who are most devoted to … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day — Marmalade
It is at once perfectly logical and utterly absurd to believe that there’s a movie to be made from Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game co-created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in the nineteen-seventies. Fundamentally, there is no story … Continue reading Now Playing — Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. I am tuned into the nerdier parts of the culture just enough that I was aware there … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Geeks Reunion for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Trial Is Her Best Role in Years by Naomi Fry My general stance is that courtroom proceedings involving celebrities consume far too much public attention, but Naomi Fry makes a good case for the value in the amusement … Continue reading Outside Reading — Justice Is Blonde edition
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. When moviegoers went to … Continue reading Laughing Matters — The Pink Phink
Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022). Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund’s initial inspiration for the film Triangle of Sadness was the world of fashion, as reflected by the title’s reference to the furrowed brow that earns a male model (Harris Dickinson) … Continue reading Then Playing — Triangle of Sadness; The Whale; Black Adam
In the summer of 1962, Boston newspapers started printing stories about a series of seemingly connected murders in the city. The victims were found strangled to death in their apartments. After trying out a few other monikers for the killer, … Continue reading Now Playing — Boston Strangler
Critic, Critique Thyself by A.O. Scott I think A.O. Scott is a good film critic. I also think he’s great at writing about being a film critic. Upon the announcement that he’s stepping down from the co-lead position assessing the … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Balcony Is Closed edition
These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. I’m sometimes nostalgic for the era when I could be surprised by a trailer the first time … Continue reading The Art of the Sell — Dirty Rotten Scoundrels teaser trailer
The last time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked Harrison Ford to present the award for Best Picture, they were clearly confident that the Steven Spielberg–director war picture Saving Private Ryan was bound for victory, and it … Continue reading Everything Everywhere All the Oscars
Coffee for Two 