Halftime Leisure

The Voice’s takes on all things media and culture.


Halftime Leisure

“I’m not a monster, I’m a mother”: Making villains of superhero women

Sam Raimi did Wanda Maximoff dirty. His early summer entrance into the MCU with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) ignored a season’s worth of character development written... Read more

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Tell Me Lies: Your next binge watch

If you’re looking for a drama-filled show that will keep you faithfully tuned in to every episode, look no further. Tell Me Lies (2022), a television series based on Carola... Read more

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A disappointing but nostalgic prequel: Rings of Power (2022) misses big

Warning: spoilers Full Disclosure: If you’re looking for a detailed analysis on how J.R.R. Tolkien’s world works or how his world-building is incorporated into the show, this is absolutely not... Read more

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Hellraiser (2022) is a twisted lesson in remaking a horror classic

  After a wait of more than 30 years, our favorite “explorers in the further regions of experience” have made their sinister return to the screen, just in time for... Read more

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“Out Of My System” is distinctly Louis Tomlinson and that’s why it works

Louis Tomlinson’s “Out Of My System” sounds like it belongs to an old One Direction album. Tomlinson’s latest single borrows from pop, rock, and punk sounds to collectively create one... Read more

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Protest through song: an ode to resistance in Hozier’s “Swan Upon Leda”

Content warning: this article discusses sexual assault. Reverence and rage do not often accompany each other, but to Hozier the two are notes on the same staff. Hozier is perhaps... Read more

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Under (the) Siege: Halle Bailey’s color-blind Ariel and the role of race in fairy tales

The upcoming live-action adaptation of yet another Disney Renaissance-era classic, The Little Mermaid (1989),  has sparked discussion about diversity and casting equity on the big screen. In light of the... Read more

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This time, it really is just a bunch of Hocus Pocus: Hocus Pocus 2 Movie Review

Well, it’s that time of year again: Hocus Pocus season. As Halloween approaches, Hocus Pocus (1993) related toil and trouble of all manner floods the internet and this year has... Read more

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Interracial casting in Hollywood isn’t as progressive as we think it is

Still making waves from its June release to Amazon Prime Video, The Summer I Turned Pretty checked off all the boxes for a quintessential summer drama: first love and subsequent... Read more

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The definitive Arctic Monkeys guide in preparation for The Car

On Oct. 21, Arctic Monkeys are releasing The Car, their seventh studio album, making this fall the perfect time to get into the staple alternative rock band. Here’s everything you... Read more

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Warping the mirror: Five haunting literary monsters

For as long as humans have told stories, we have told of monsters. The Bible spawned the Devil and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The first true English-language epic,... Read more

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“Unholy” is a hot and heavy single with a lukewarm reception

After teasing the world on TikTok for weeks with snippets of their latest single “Unholy”, Sam Smith released the full version on September 22, 2022, and it has left many... Read more

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There isn’t much to love about Love In The Villa

Romeo and Juliet is undeniably one of the world’s greatest love stories. But as any middle school English student will tell you, it is also one of the most devastating.... Read more

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Noah Kahan’s “Northern Attitude” prepares us for earlier sunsets

Just in time for the change in the weather, Noah Kahan thaws hardened hearts with his song “Northern Attitude.” With this new single, the singer-songwriter follows up the release of... Read more

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Why changing the structure of The Bachelorette during it’s 19th season was a power move

Any fan of Bachelor Nation is likely very familiar with the setup of each season: one eligible bachelor or bachelorette, and about 30 contestants swooning over them from day one.... Read more

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Halftime Leisure’s favorite summer reads

Fight Night by Miriam Toews (2021) Miriam Toews’ books all cover very similar thematic ground, but each novel finds a new emotional angle to explore her cultural history. Toews was... Read more

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A League of Their Own (2022) celebrates stories of Black and queer folks in baseball

The year is 1943. With most men off at war, one question remains on every American’s mind: Who will play baseball? Enter the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), recruiting... Read more

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Twelve Glee songs that are better than the original (and counting)

Glee, for all its many flaws, boasts one of the most extensive musical catalogs in television history. Since its debut in 2009, Glee quickly built a reputation for doing it... Read more

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A pop star in her element, Rina Sawayama dazzles at the Howard Theater

Rina Sawayama is an artist who belongs in stadiums. While the pandemic put a damper on her rise to stardom, Sawayama’s return to the stage comes at an exciting time... Read more

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Goodbye Hyper Scape. You were bad but I loved you.

My favorite battle royale is dead. It died, officially, on January 27th 2022, at 5:00 EST, when Ubisoft announced that it would be shut down on April 28th. It was... Read more