Haiku Review: Blancanieves

Blancanieves (2012) Director: Pablo Berger Starring: Rating: 4.5/5 Review: Maribel Verdú, Macarena García, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Sergio Dorado Black and white, silent, Snow White as a matador What's there not to lo...

Tribeca Film Festival Review: Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist

In Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, the fundamentalist of the title is Changez (Riz Ahmed), a young Pakistani man who moves to the U.S. to study business at Princeton. He eventually realizes the American dream—a Wall Street job, money, an attractive girlfriend (Kate Hudson)—but a variety of factors, among them America's prejudicial attitudes toward the Middle East post-9/11 and his feelings of responsibility to his family and home country,...

Tribeca Film Festival Review: Lil Bub & Friendz

Lil Bub & Friendz is a movie by, about, and for people who love cat videos. That's it. It's that simple. Alongside snippets of Grumpy Cat, Henri the existentialist cat, and, of course, Lil Bub, the movie shows the owners of Internet famous felines talking about merchandise, cat video enthusiasts following Bub around at the Internet Cat Video Film Festival, and (no joke) a "meme manager." Yes, that's an actual job that someone has...

Tribeca Film Festival Review: The Rocket

Audiences love an underdog story. But at times it seems like every variation of it has been told before. It's rare that a movie comes along that not only makes it feel effortless, but also new. The Rocket, directed by Kim Mordaunt is one of those movies. The movie takes place in Laos, where in the first scene a young woman, Mali (Alice Keohavong), gives birth to twins, one of whom is stillborn. In Mali's culture it is believed that one twin holds...

Haiku Review: Trance

Trance (2013) Director: Danny Boyle Starring: James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson Rating: 4/5 Review: Messy, but still fun Relax and enjoy it—Try Not to think too mu...

Review: Room 237

To properly enjoy Room 237, director Rodney Ascher's documentary exploration of oddball interpretations of Stanley Kubrick' The Shining, you have to understand one thing: It's not really about The Shining. Granted, Room 237's interviewees all have a lot to say about The Shining. One thinks it's a metaphor for the genocide of the Native Americans, another for the Holocaust. A third thinks it's all tied up in how Kubrick faked the moon landing...

Vikings Recap, Episode Five, "Raid"

The title of the episode is Raid, but I will refer to it as The One Where Shit Gets Real....