Mark James

Leisure

Reel Talk: Quentin-ssential Tarantino

The path of a filmmaker’s career can often take twists and turns, at times making critics out of former fans. For Quentin Tarantino, such defectors are largely confounded by his most recent film’s compulsive dips into farcical comedy. How, they inquire, could the genius behind two ‘90s masterpieces create a movie as incoherent and painfully self-indulgent as Inglourious Basterds? Either the auteur is criminally misunderstood or his trademark obsession with violence and pop culture references has enervated audiences’ tolerance for the absurd. Tarantino apologists point to the former; the absurd is what they crave most. And they are right.

By December 6, 2012

Voices

If the Grinch can glorify Christmas, so can atheists

Last Christmas Eve, a rumor started making its way around the dinner table. “The atheists are trying to ruin Christmas again,” the more religious of the company proclaimed. The situation,... Read more

By December 6, 2012

Voices

Imagine all the people

Carl Sagan was not alone in thinking that “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were.  But without it we go nowhere.” Indeed, imagination’s undeniable connection to art,... Read more

By November 28, 2012

Voices

A History of Bro’s

Frederick Douglass once perspicaciously noted that “food to the indolent is poison, not sustenance.” Okay, now that I’ve gotten all the bros to stop reading, I’m going to explain how... Read more

By November 7, 2012

Voices

Et tu, Jim Belushi?

On Sunday morning, life was going incredibly well; my weekend included partying on a bus with my Danish friends, conversing with a British drug dealer about his problems getting laid,... Read more

By October 17, 2012

Voices

Carrying On: A Rose by any other name

Charlie Rose is the man. In my hierarchy of pleasures, there’s food at the bottom, movies and music in the middle, then masturbation, and at the top—by quite the margin—Charlie... Read more

By September 27, 2012

Voices

Carrying On: Believing in disbelief

Last semester, I found myself surrounded by waves of nonbelievers at the Reason Rally, a forum for secular thought held at the National Mall. As the virulent freethinkers indulged themselves... Read more

By September 5, 2012

Leisure

Mock horror fans get Cabin fever

Let’s meet the cast of The Cabin in the Woods: there’s Dana (Kristen Connolly), a moderately attractive college student waiting to be deflowered by the right guy, and her best friend Jules (Anna Hutchinson), a more experienced blonde who is being courted by football stud Curt Vaughan (Chris Hemsworth). Accompanied by conspiracy-theory pothead Marty (Franz Kranz) and not-so-stupid jock Holden (Jesse Williams), they go to Curt’s cousin’s cabin in a setting that looks straight out of a hick-infested History Channel. Sounds like a classic horror movie setup, right?

By April 18, 2012

Leisure

Box Office, Baby! Wes up with these films?

There’s nothing like a new Wes Anderson movie. For many fans, he has yet to release a poor film, and at his best, the acting, coolness, and sheer re-watchability of his films is unmatched among contemporary directors. Like his past achievements, Anderson’s upcoming feature Moonrise Kingdom will prove that Wes has maintained his status as a profoundly original director despite his allegedly homogenous filmography.

By April 18, 2012

Leisure

Box Office, Baby! Samuel L. vs. the shark

There are few things in this world scarier than sharks. If not for sharks, tropical beach resorts could be fully realized pieces of heaven on earth, instead of bastions of terror with bathers constantly on the lookout for dorsal fins. Since most of us haven’t had the personal experience of a shark attack, we are left to wonder how splashing one’s feet in the water came to immediately trigger the image of a shark bite. For most, it was Jaws. For this writer, it’s the 1999 shark thriller Deep Blue Sea.

By March 30, 2012