Leisure

Reviews and think pieces on music, movies, art, and theater.

Leisure

Death, be not proud: The Book Thief illustrates Holocaust

Though Nazis burn thousands of novels in The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak’s tale itself is alive and well. An international bestseller for over two hundred weeks, the book sets a high bar for its cinematic interpretation. Director Brian Percival works through the plot of the novel well, but taming a 576-page tome about the power of the written word into a two-hour movie proves a difficult task at best.

By November 14, 2013

Leisure

Under the Covers: A View to Kill: Reading Bond

In a conversation about celebrity crushes this week, I guiltily admitted my lifelong infatuation with James Bond (Sean Connery being the pinnacle of all 007s, of course). While I’m a big fan of spy and political thriller movies, I hadn’t attempted the written versions of Bond’s glamorous trysts and travels. So I sat down with From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming’s seminal Bond classic. I expected a fun, quick read, but wasn’t expecting to get as swept up as I did. Just like the Bond films, the novel was fun, shallow, shiny and alluring, full of expensive alcohol, watches and cars, 60s misogyny and blatant sexuality, and scant political correctness—and, guiltily, I lapped it up.

By November 14, 2013

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Idiot Box: Let’s talk about sex, baby

It’s all in the title. Masters of Sex, a new series from Showtime that premiered in late September, is practically an invitation in itself. The ‘s’ sounds blend perfectly, rolling off your tongue as you say such an attention-grabbing phrase aloud. If you’re in a public place, heads might turn. Conscious of its obvious allure, however, the show does not rely on superficial appeal alone.

By November 14, 2013

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Critical Voices: Lady Gaga, Artpop

From her e.coli-flavored meat dress to her embryonic palanquin, Lady Gaga has always prided herself on big production and electrifying shock value. Her newest album, Artpop, is no exception.

By November 14, 2013

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Critical Voices: Eminem, The Marshal Mathers LP 2

Guess who’s back. Back again. Shady’s back, and there has been a lot of hype surrounding the release of his latest album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2. The first Marshall Mathers LP was one of Eminem’s most important and definitive releases, inflating apprehension and excitement in its shadow. Fortunately, the legend is back and even better than before. MMLP2 is cold hard proof—hell, Kendrick is even on the album.

By November 14, 2013

Leisure

Hamlet dubsteps with Ophelia in this modern Shakespeare

I’ll be the first to admit it: I had no idea what to expect when I learned the Theater and Performance Studies Department’s production of Hamlet was taking a modern guise. I’ve seen Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet set in present day, so I know very well that Shakespearean lore is capable of transcending time and space. But to take perhaps the greatest story ever told and refashion it with iPads and grating dubstep? It’s a risk, but director Professor Derek Goldman and his cast pull it off spectacularly.

By November 6, 2013

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Hemsworth pounds out solid sequel in Thor: The Dark World

Following The Avengers, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has returned home to Asgard. Similar to their past films, Marvel’s newest movie, Thor: The Dark World, includes plenty of action, comedy, and just the right amount of romance to make it entertaining popcorn fodder.

By November 6, 2013

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Plate of the Union: Meat: The flavor of love

I’ve been thinking a lot about meat lately. Maybe because two of my housemates are vegetarian, I get a sort of odd little twinge of guilt when I’m browning the ground beef for my chili or frying up some particularly fragrant chicken dumplings. Yet meat has always been a part of my diet, a nicely regulated quadrangle on the food pyramid.

By and November 6, 2013

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Critical Voices: Cut Copy, Free Your Mind

Although festival season has come to a close, Cut Copy’s fourth full-length release, Free Your Mind, is worthy of nothing less than the floral crowns and tank tops that listeners will don come springtime. The band is back with the same heavy dose of nostalgia that they have toted throughout their career, only this time their sound has been molded into what could be a 50-minute live set for thousands of eager fans.

By November 6, 2013

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Critical Voices: Sky Ferreira, Night Time, My Time

Sky Ferreira was almost Edie Sedgwick. Like Edie, Ferreira teased with her work, which never quite made it to the public’s eye, until now. Ferreira has been building an underground cult image—it’s Edie all over again with the drug arrest. Yet the distinction between these two beautiful superstars arises with Night Time, My Time.

By November 6, 2013

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Star-crossed lovers get steampunk at Folger Theatre

As the star-crossed lovers brood on opposite ends of the balcony, their families march on stage to stand beneath them. A man in black emerges to narrate the prologue, gesturing to backlit scenes of Verona, before donning his hat, announcing himself the prince, and stepping back to let violent sword-fighting begin in the Folger Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Aaron Posner.

By October 31, 2013

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Big names Pop at Spagnuolo Gallery

Some of the biggest names in the pop art movement, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, settled into Georgetown’s Spagnuolo Art Gallery this weekend. Located in the lobby of Walsh, the gallery is showcasing these artists in its newest exhibit, Pop Art Prints. In addition to displaying some of the most iconic pop art imagery, the exhibit also features works that, as curator and Georgetown museum studies fellow Carolanne Bonanno points out, “...are a little more alternative, so that [students] could compare them to the larger names.”

By October 31, 2013

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Love thine enemy: War games blast off in Ender’s Game

“Ender Wiggin isn’t a killer. He just wins—thoroughly.” Director Gavin Hood brings these words to life in his adaptation of the classic science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card. Visually and viscerally, he succeeds in creating a brutal movie about morals and ethics. Ender’s Game tells the story of Ender Wiggin as he moves from an Earth-based military academy to an extraterrestrial base called Battle School, where children are trained to be the military geniuses of tomorrow. The movie takes place after the Formic Wars, an alien invasion that almost destroyed Earth.

By October 31, 2013

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Under the Covers: Giving voice to poetry

I attended a reading by prolific contemporary poets C.K. Williams and Stanley Plumly at the Folger Shakespeare Library this Monday, and I was scared. I know nothing about poetry, and, aside from the very little I read in high school English class, I have never branched into the genre. I, like some other nervous readers comfortable in their familiar prose, have avoided meter for far too long.

By October 31, 2013

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Idiot Box: Smells like teen spirit

I was an awkward teenager. That hardly makes me an anomaly, but the levels of angst accompanying that particular state of being reached the kind of heights that every misfit seems to think is unique to them. Of course, the irony is that this is a fairly universal condition among people navigating new identities and social strata, even as the hierarchies of high school appear to be carved in stone. Everything seems inflated beyond belief, every interaction a subject to be endlessly analyzed, and every embarrassment a potential reason to leave the country.

By October 31, 2013

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Critical Voices: Kelly Clarkson, Wrapped in Red

Ah, Kelly Clarkson. She stole the show with American Idol, stole our hearts with Breakaway, and stole our praise with Stronger. No? Hyperbole aside, Kelly Clarkson has been around for a while, and there is no denying she’s got a hell of a voice. But as the name may suggest, Wrapped in Red is her first Christmas-themed album, and that’s always a dangerous body of water to tread into.

By October 31, 2013

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Critical Voices: Arcade Fire, Reflektor

Though it took them a trip to the Caribbean and some Disco lessons from LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Arcade Fire has finally learned how to have fun. The indie rock band’s fourth release, Reflektor, marks an intentional movement away from their definitive, Grammy-winning sound and ushers in a reenergized, playful one that is less saturated in heavy thematic content. This doesn’t mean that Reflektor is entirely free from William Butler’s didactic, preachy lyrics, but this time they are delivered in a more brightly lit way.

By October 31, 2013

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Nomadic brings Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to life

“Who are we when nobody is watching?” goes the director’s tagline for Nomadic Theater’s production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a post-absurdist play by Tom Stoppard. Director Kathleen Joyce (COL ‘15) notes that, “We live a fundamentally absurd existence with rules that don’t make sense. … Post-absurdism says ‘How can we live our lives under those assumptions? How can we be sane and happy given the chaotic universe that we live in?’”

By October 24, 2013

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Live fast, die young: Bad girls do it well in The Counselor

Drug cartels and decapitations have never been so sexy. Although his stunning A-list cast definitely helps, Ridley Scott infuses The Counselor with a ubiquitous sex appeal that seeps through every meticulous detail of the film. It’s difficult to imagine that such an attractive movie could successfully carry themes of grief and death, but Scott’s silver platter proves to be a successful vehicle for the ugliest of human experiences.

By October 24, 2013

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Van Gogh’s Repetitions: New each visit

Vincent van Gogh’s paintings are sculpture. Using a technique called impasto, his brush strokes are so thickly applied that they create peaks and canyons of paint. These mountains and caverns create an image of a furious flurry of activity in his paintings. Consistent throughout van Gogh’s oeuvre, his technical virtuosity appears improvised.

By October 24, 2013