All Is Lost–Movie Review
All Is Lost (IMDB) is an artistic tour de force, a sailing adventure movie with only one actor and just a few spoken lines, which still manages to be gripping… Read more »
Dallas Buyers Club–Movie Review
Dallas Buyers Club (IMDB) is a powerful but somewhat tendentious movie based loosely on a true story. It features notably strong performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. In 1985… Read more »
Ender’s Game–Movie Review
Ender’s Game (IMDB) is a troubling morally-ambiguous movie based on a classic science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card (which is also troubling and morally ambiguous.) Decades ago Earth was… Read more »
Board of Education Inspection Report: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Via Slate comes a damning report on a school that obviously should be shut down at once. Behaviour of students is very poor indeed. Staff seem to maintain their grip… Read more »
An odd coincidence
This morning I woke up with an old song running though my head: The Ballad of Jesse James. Not the whole song, just the second verse: It was Robert Ford,… Read more »
Kyousougiga–Anime Early Impressions
I’m not sure what to think of Kyousougiga (“Capital Craze Comic”) (Crunchyroll). It’s definitely not boring. It’s intriguing and innovative. Whether it actually tells a good story remains to be… Read more »
Gingitsune–Anime Early Impressions
Gingitsune (“The Silver Fox”) (Crunchyroll) is not the most original anime series of the season but it has a certain appeal. It’s not exactly a “slice of life” series since… Read more »
Golden Time–Anime Early Impressions
Golden Time (Crunchyroll) is an amusing offbeat romantic comedy involving a group of law students. (Technically in American terms they are undergraduates in a pre-law program.) The story has a… Read more »
Nagi no Asukara–Anime Early Impressions
Nagi no Asukara (Crunchyroll) is one of the new season’s more interesting shows. This has a rather unusual fantasy setting. It takes place in Umimura (“Sea Village”), which of course… Read more »
Enough Said–Movie Review
Enough Said (IMDB) is an unusually smart and insightful romantic comedy. This does not mean that it is the sort of movie that will dazzle you with brilliant witty dialog…. Read more »