Throughout the 1960s and 70s, there were dozens of different groups undertaking their individually grand projects of mass transformation of this country. Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Fred Hampton of The Black Panthers mounted their respective battles for Civil Rights while our country waged war on a small nation in Southeast Asia under the guise […]
In 1994’s Hoop Dreams, we followed Arthur Agee and William Gates as they struggled to break free of their impoverished communities and broken pasts, seeking the opportunity to become professional basketball players. In the same spirit, Pressure Cooker follows three culinary art students at Frankford High School, an institution replete with metal detectors, thumbprint scanners, and students […]
In a November 12, 2010 article from The New York Times, Laurie Goodstein reports “The rite of exorcism […] has largely fallen out of favor with the Roman Catholic Church in the United States”; however, “American bishops are holding a conference […] to prepare more priests and bishops to respond to the demand [of those seeking an […]
Might as well keep up tradition here on Gladiators. The nominations for Best Picture were announced yesterday, and while The Town was a surprising omission, the ten nominees are at least worthy of a haiku — though I’m still skeptical about the validity of The Kids Are All Right. Just saying. Black Swan She transmogrifies to sultry insanity and sex […]
In Frozen, writer and director Adam Green pits three characters against nature, setting up a frightening, suspenseful tale that examines survival instinct in the face of imminent death. Unfortunately, it’s only a setup as the script can’t carry the film much farther than the initial idea, and the characters seem to exist only to move the plot, not […]
As I ponder what to do during my retirement, it often involves the usual sitting on a porch, yelling at kids to get off my lawn – whether they are there or not. In all honesty, I picture myself sitting in a very similar position to the one I am in now, a pile of books next […]
Natalie Portman, Annette Bening, and Julianne Moore have already established themselves as Best Actress contenders, but we can now add Jennifer Lawrence to the race as well for her performance in Winter’s Bone, a glimpse at how poverty not only constrains people economically, but also socially in a rural area where everyone’s struggle for survival is individualistic […]
Each year, a handful of people report that they have seen a vision of either the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ. These apparitions take a number of forms: watermarks on walls, streaks on windows, iron residue, cookware, or pita. The question to be posed here is not “why have Jesus and Mary come to us through these […]
In the third act of the Paul Rudd, Sean William Scott vehicle, Role Models, Danny and Wheeler (Rudd and Scott) accompany Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) to a medieval role play in order to overthrow King Argotron (Ken Jeong) and take control of his kingdom, winning the hand of Maiden Esplen (Alexandra Stamler). And initially, I saw this as […]