Julia Lloyd-George
Critical Voices: Autre Ne Veut, Anxiety
There’s something unsettling about Autre Ne Veut, a.k.a. Arthur Ashin, and it’s not his inscrutable French. The formerly anonymous indie rock artist known for distorting 1980s R&B on his 2010 self-titled debut has a way of getting under your skin, his superb sophomore effort undeniably stronger proof of this ability to draw from a variety of influences to create an ethereal and dissonant sound. True to its name, Anxiety is marked by a perpetual state of instability, yet it disturbs in the best possible way.
By Julia Lloyd-George February 28, 2013
Wanderland takes student theater down the rabbit hole
It’s unusual that falling down a rabbit hole and traveling to a new country for college are thrust alongside each other in the same theater, yet Wanderland pairs these experiences in two pieces that complement, rather than contradict, each other in their themes of exploration. The senior thesis projects for Theater & Performance Studies majors, individually titled Golden Shards and Chiaroscuro, take stories familiar to all and muddle the formula to create hybrid narratives. The result is a conglomerate of fairy tale and memoir that blurs the line between fantasy and reality, nationality and identity.
By Julia Lloyd-George February 14, 2013
Zero Dark Thirty includes total of zero dull moments
Arguably the most incendiary scenes in Zero Dark Thirty, the remarkable new film from Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, are in the very opening shots. The image of a political prisoner suspended from the ceiling by chains and subjected to waterboarding has incited a flurry of controversy across a range of both media and political platforms, establishing itself as a lightning rod for the discussion of torture’s role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the ethics of using such methods at all.
By Julia Lloyd-George January 17, 2013
Tolstoy’s Karenina remastered as modern day romcom
Tragedies have a habit of giving themselves away; in many cases, the victim’s name flashes in the title like a morbid neon sign. Whatever fate befalls these characters lingers in the shadowy background, progressively coming into focus as the story unfolds. Anna Karenina is no exception, a tale of a woman whose own tragic flaw is a violent passion for a man, which consumes her entirely.
By Julia Lloyd-George November 29, 2012
Hipster hysteria! Much maligned epithet must ironically die
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact moment, but at some time early on in my freshman year, my fellow floor residents decided to collectively brand me as a hipster. Perhaps... Read more
By Julia Lloyd-George November 28, 2012
Farmers Fishers Bakers hooks diners at the waterfront
“I’m sorry, but it might be a few minutes—our filtering system is backed up,” my inhumanly smiley waitress at Farmers Fishers Bakers informed me when I asked for some water. An in-house water filtering system is one of the many ways the new Washington Harbor eatery, which opened last week, is endeavoring to keep up a program of sustainability in line with its mission to honor the sources of everything in the restaurant.
By Julia Lloyd-George November 15, 2012
Daniel Craig proves he’s a tux-worthy Bond in Skyfall
Bond is back. After a rather torturous hiatus of four years, the famous franchise is up on its feet and has hit the ground running with Skyfall. American Beauty director Sam Mendes has managed to breathe life into a series that many considered to be on a downward spiral, and though the original material of the Ian Fleming spy novels has dried up, the writers have managed to come up with an entertaining storyline that doesn’t stray too far from the films’ roots.
By Julia Lloyd-George November 8, 2012
A melodramatic Late Quartet hits all the wrong notes
The pursuit of perfection in art has its pitfalls; the pursuit of an audience’s emotional reaction through strained and overwrought soap-opera drama, however, should be avoided at all costs. In A Late Quartet, filmmaker Yaron Zilberman falls into this trap in spite of his unique subject matter and star-studded cast.
By Julia Lloyd-George October 31, 2012
Cloud Atlas passes by audiences without a silver lining
It seems Hollywood has taken the concept of past and future lives beyond the context of New Age spiritual beliefs and transferred it onto the big screen. In the overly ambitious Cloud Atlas, an epic conglomerate of stories spans 500 years and involves more characters than any reasonable person would care to count. Based on the acclaimed novel by David Mitchell, the genre-bending film involves six different plot lines that intertwine over centuries, which include a post-apocalyptic era and an Orwellian future-scape.
By Julia Lloyd-George October 25, 2012
The horror! British-style austerity looms over USA
It was in the throes of the civil rights movement during the ‘60s that Bob Dylan first sang “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” but things haven’t exactly gone static since... Read more
By Julia Lloyd-George October 24, 2012