Halftime Leisure

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

Halftime Leisure

Culture Brief: What’s feeding the Hunger Games renaissance?

The Hunger Games is experiencing a pop culture revival. Fifteen years after the publication of the first book and eleven years after the first movie’s premiere, the young adult (YA)... Read more

By May 8, 2023

Halftime Leisure

A Case for the Classics: But I’m a Cheerleader

When you think of the greatest rom-coms of the late 20th century, what do you think of? 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)? Clueless (1995)? When Harry Met Sally... Read more

By April 29, 2023

Halftime Leisure

Season 2 of Abbott Elementary is a masterclass in community storytelling

Season two of Abbott Elementary does not disappoint. Everything that garnered praise for the first season has held true for the second as it retains all the charm and humor... Read more

By April 29, 2023

Halftime Leisure

On “A&W,” Lana Del Rey Will Be An American Whore, Despite Your Objections

Content warning: This article includes references to sexual violence. “Do you really think I give a damn what I do after years of just hearing them talking?”  The question kicks... Read more

By April 19, 2023

Halftime Leisure

Love and Loss in the Apocalypse: The Last of Us Season Review

Content Warning: This article discusses self-harm and suicide. Since it began airing this past January, The Last of Us (TLOU) has truly become a juggernaut of the small screen. The... Read more

By April 19, 2023

Halftime Leisure

The enduring magic of Sex and the City, 25 years later

I started watching Sex and the City when my childhood best friend, Emily, came to visit. She arrived in the last breath of September, the end of the beginning of... Read more

By April 18, 2023

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Reflections from Shadow and Bone, and a love letter to the fantasy genre

A privateer, a Sun Summoner, and a gang leader walk onto a battlefield—it almost sounds like the beginning of a “walks into a bar” joke. Shadow and Bone returned to... Read more

By April 18, 2023

Halftime Leisure

If you go down, I’m goin’ down too

Solidarity—standing up for a group you do not belong to and putting your own comfort aside in the process—is the linchpin to social justice. Historically, however, celebrities have dropped the... Read more

By April 17, 2023

Halftime Leisure

Taylor Swift’s “All of the Girls You’ve Loved Before” is a love letter to her partner’s past loves

Most people probably wouldn’t thank their lover’s exes. But Taylor Swift does just that in, “All of the Girls You’ve Loved Before,” a new single released to kick off her... Read more

By April 3, 2023

Halftime Leisure

The completely objective, undeniable list of the top 10 films of all time

Since the dawn of cinema, critics have time and again tried and failed (miserably) to come to a consensus on what truly makes a brilliant film. From timeless storytelling to... Read more

By April 1, 2023

Halftime Leisure

MILF Manor is the diabolical intersection of trash television and a Freudian nightmare

As an avid fan of trashy reality TV, I pressed play on MILF Manor knowing what to expect: an overdramatized, unorganized piece of junk that I would consume gluttonously. Despite... Read more

By March 25, 2023

Halftime Leisure

“KNIGHT CRAWLER”: your next hauntingly genius listen

“She do white like Home Alone.” “KNIGHT CRAWLER” by Trippie Redd featuring Juice WRLD, a dynamic rap hit from Redd’s latest album MANSION MUSIK (2023), has been topping international charts... Read more

By March 15, 2023

Halftime Leisure

Strange World: the most realistic Disney animation you’ve never heard of

The eerie silence surrounding the release of Disney’s latest animated film Strange World (2022) underscores the studio’s hesitancy to publicly support diverse representation in children’s media. Starkly contrasting the overwhelming... Read more

By March 13, 2023

Halftime Leisure

I watched all the 2023 Best Picture Nominees so you don’t have to

Content Warning: This article includes references to Sexual Violence. Listen, I get it. Who cares about the Oscars anymore? This year’s nominations saw several great pictures snubbed. Babylon (2022) and... Read more

By March 12, 2023

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Homer’s Odyssey takes center stage in EPIC

Greek mythology is, quite literally, timeless. Dating back to Ancient Greece, the stories’ motifs are historically present in media, from Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” to the 1950 French film... Read more

By March 4, 2023

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Harry and Meghan and a clash of cultures

The six-part docuseries tells the story of two cultures we don’t tend to think of as very different: the US and the UK. You probably know the story. In classrooms... Read more

By February 22, 2023

Halftime Leisure

What lies beyond Infinity: Lessons the MCU’s Phase 5 can learn from its shaky predecessor

This review contains spoilers for Phase Four of the MCU The year was 2019. After 11 years, 21 films, and several (retroactively canon) TV shows, each building upon a massive... Read more

By and February 17, 2023

Halftime Leisure

Fall Out Boy’s “Love From The Other Side” proves that they haven’t lost their emo touch

In the past six months, we have seen a throwback to the early 21st century, and for a moment it seemed like the Holy Emo Trinity was going to make... Read more

By February 16, 2023

Halftime Leisure

A Playlist of Anti-Valentine’s Day Songs

Because who’s actually celebrating anyway? I feel like most holidays (at least here in the United States) are commercialized to the point they don’t even seem real. Valentine’s Day is... Read more

By February 14, 2023

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Glass Onion adds a new layer to the conventional murder mystery

Director Rian Johnson was faced with an undeniable challenge this time around: how to make a satisfying sequel after such a strong first installment.

By February 8, 2023