Author: Steven Strauss
A Letter to the Editor
Amanda Chicago Lewis wrote an article worth reading for Rolling Stone about the vape pen phenomenon TAKING THE NATION BY STORM AND INFECTING POOR CHILDREN EVERYWHERE WITH LIFE-ENDING MARIJUANA RIGHT UNDER OUR VERY NOSES.
IT ME
Besides AAAAAAAll the obvious reasons, I’m so looking forward to Springsteen on Broadway because I’ll finally be able to read my beloved theatre critics writing about the Boss.
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Marvelous Documentaries vs. Marvel-ish Documentaries
Documentary filmmaking possesses a high floor in regards to the consistent quality of even its weakest offerings, largely because the subjects are almost always compelling enough to justify a feature-length examination. And yet, the genre simultaneously suffers from perhaps the most monotonous output as well due to most utilizing the same-old aesthetics.
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FIVE CAME BACK (Laurent Bouzereau)
Mark Harris’ Five Came Back is one of the best books ever written about the film industry. Unfortunately, the conventional Netflix documentary adapted from it bears none of the formal inventiveness so integral to the success of the source material.
The Judicial Juice of the Academy Awards
Ever since O.J.: Made in America won the Oscar for Best Documentary earlier this year, I’ve been contemplating whether it should’ve even been eligible.
KILLING GROUND, WOLF CREEK, & the Current State of Torture Porn
Comparing 2005’s Wolf Creek (the movie; not the newer TV adaptation) to the recently released Killing Ground acts as a sort of Australian lens through which to examine just how much the horror genre’s relationship to gruesome violence has changed over the last decade.
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All The World’s a Stage, and All the Men and Women Merely Selfish Audiences
My main problem with criticism today, both formal and informal, can be summarized in the phrase: “the selfish audience.”
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GOD OF VENGEANCE & RHINOCEROS at the New Yiddish Rep
In the endearingly-enigmatic climactic scene of Jim Jarmusch’s brilliantly-weird and weirdly-brilliant Paterson, a mysterious yet undeniably-wise member of the literati proclaims, “Hearing poetry translated is like taking a shower wearing a raincoat.” When the camera flashes to the opened book on his lap, the page contains a poem in both its original language and the reader’s native tongue.
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YEN at MCC Theater
If you’re looking for a normal review of last season’s Yen at MCC Theater, then keep looking.
