Leisure

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

Leisure

Reel Talk: The hero Gotham deserves

About one week ago, Ben Affleck signed a contract to star as Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel. Citing Affleck’s role in creating the monsters that are Gigli and Pearl Harbor, the internet reacted with a mix of incredulity and sheer outrage. However, the impetuously crafted rants against Affleck have been far off the mark. Little do the haters know that Affleck may be the best Batman to date.

By August 29, 2013

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Critical Voices: Nine Inch Nails, Hesitation Marks

With Hesitation Marks, Nine Inch Nails isn’t just selling an album—they’re telling a story. Unlike the common LP, the concept album represents the careful crafting of a collection of songs into a single work, unified musically, lyrically, and aesthetically. Nine Inch Nails does just that with Hesitation Marks, adding another great entry to the genres canon.

By August 29, 2013

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Critical Voices: The Rides, Can’t Get Enough

When an all-star lineup gets together, expectations tend to become insurmountable. The Rides face this very obstacle with debut album Can’t Get Enough. After all, Stephen Stills, Barry Goldberg, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd make up the newly formed blues rock group. Fortunately, the three come together to produce a well-oiled machine nearly incapable of producing a single fault.

By August 29, 2013

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The World’s End: Not with a whimper, but with a bang

The summer movie list this year has certainly been a mixed bag. For every fun blockbuster (Star Trek Into Darkness) and compelling drama (Fruitvale Station), we’ve had our predictable romps (Man of Steel) and outright flops (The Lone Ranger). But fear not, for legendary comedic director Edgar Wright has come back with his newest genre-blending dark comedy.

By August 26, 2013

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New noms to beat the Leo’s blues

With summer over, Hoyas will descend on campus ready to figure out how best to avoid Leo’s while also avoiding starvation. Lucky, Georgetown restaurateurs provided a solution. M Street boasts an ample selection of Zagat-rated restaurants that you can explore, but, for those looking for a quick meal (and maybe some munchies), many new selections made their way in over the summer.

By August 26, 2013

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National Archives explores lost moments of the 1970s

One of the people marching with 300,000 others on that Wednesday in 1963 was Edith Lee-Payne, whose iconic photograph would forever be remembered. Only 12 years old at the time, it’s fair to say she could not have known the power her sad eyes and weary yet determined stare would have. The enduring image is on display at the National Archives until Sept. 9 as part of the celebration of the March on Washington punctuated by a reunion at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28.

By August 26, 2013

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Idiot Box: Women go to prison, too

There are a few things about Orange is the New Black that I’ve seen on TV before. The lead is a “nice blond lady,” gossipy cliques of women are the center of the drama, flashback sequences are dispensed more liberally than whiskey on Mad Men, and everyone’s stuck together in a Sartre-esque situation that just begs for chaos.

By August 26, 2013

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Under the Covers: Americanah, a dream deferred

If you didn’t read Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie this summer, you have no excuses—classes don’t start until Wednesday. Now is the perfect time to read Adichie’s novel, a story of cross-continental love, hair-braiding, and race in America. Aug. 28 in particular is an especially apt time to pick the book up because this Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

By August 26, 2013

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Critical Voices: Avenged Sevenfold, Hail to the King

Despite lead guitarist Synyster Gates’ insistence that Avenged Sevenfold’s sixth studio album “blasts your fucking head off,” it just doesn’t. The listener may contemplate the varied heavy riff selections or nod along politely to the more intense solos, but your dome remains largely intact between your headphones. Hail to the King stops short of decapitation as an unfortunate result of its derivative nature. The LP is simply too familiar and comforting to live up to any epic expectations.

By August 26, 2013

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Critical Voices: Black Sabbath, 13

All hail Black Sabbath, the progenitors and titans of heavy metal! With original frontman Ozzy Osbourne leading the band, the legends of rock just put out their most potent and malevolent work in decades.

By August 26, 2013

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Art majors make a promising Pit Stop in Spagnuolo Gallery

In a department whose graduating seniors are few enough to count on two hands, there’s bound to be a level of camaraderie and collaboration that’s difficult to find in more popular disciplines.

By April 25, 2013

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GU Hispanic Theater students take the quixotic route

Mischief and trickery may be the staples of any Cervantes play, but the amusing antics involved are always grounded by heavier social commentary. Organized by director and novelist Professor Barbara Mujica’s Hispanic Theater class, two of the Spanish playwright’s lesser known one-act plays, El retablo de las maravillas and La cueva de Salamanca, explore this dichotomy between comedy and something a little darker.

By April 25, 2013

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Critical Voices: Snoop Lion, Reincarnated

Artists at times choose to reinvent themselves—a procedure that pleases some fans and alienates others. Occasionally, however, the journey off the beaten path leads straight into a brick wall. Reincarnated after a cross-species evolution from Snoop Dogg, Snoop Lion makes a clearly marked wrong turn into reggae. “Love is the cure and courage is the weapon / You can use to overcome,” Snoop Lion moans on “Rebel Way,” the opening track. The same advice can be applied to attempting to successfully listen to the entire album in one sitting.

By April 25, 2013

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Critical Voices: Phoenix, Bankrupt!

In its first album since emerging into the forefront of the music scene with hit-filled Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix in 2009, Phoenix takes a slight gamble with Bankrupt! as the band attempts to achieve the delicate balance between pushing artistic boundaries and embracing its relatively recent surge into mainstream music. Despite the stark similarities in sound and structure, Bankrupt! diverges from its predecessor in that it exhibits less cohesion and more confusion, particularly in its lyrics. However, the musical veterans do not disappoint in this amalgamation of recognizable vocals and excedingly synthesized sounds.

By April 25, 2013

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Under the Covers: A chat with Josip Novakovich

Josip Novakovich is a writer of short stories, essays, and novels, with many published to popular acclaim. He was recently shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for “literary excellence… in a writer’s entire body of work.” Born in Yugoslavia in 1956, Novakovich grew up in Daruvar, in what is now central Croatia.

By April 25, 2013

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Georgetown student filmmakers search for their Muse

Spending a Saturday afternoon in the bioethics library isn’t atypical for Georgetown students, except if you have a camera and a crew of 10 people trying to turn it into a film set. Whispering directions to his two actors, Alex Waldon (COL ’15) and Taylor Mansmann (COL ’15), Andres Figueredo (COL ’13) is in the middle of shooting a scene for his Film & Media Studies thesis project, Muse, and attempting to avoid the wrath of the librarian in the process.

By April 17, 2013

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Company You Keep: Not what it seems

Terrorists aren’t oceans away; they are in our midst. The radical freedom fighters that were born out of ‘60s rebellion are on full display in The Company You Keep, an enthralling though not quite fully satisfying reminder that this term, which was still used only once in the film, is but a name for ideological fierceness and misguided passions that have a role in this country’s history as much as that of any foreign land.

By April 17, 2013

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Restless in Washington

The millennial generation has much more to offer artistically than a 22-year-old writing songs about never ever getting back together. With this mentality, theINcrowd founder and creative director Seun Oyewole (SFS ’14) launched The Young and the Restless hip-hop showcase in 2010 to promote “people our age who are trying to take their music to the next level,” a goal that resonates with the event name.

By April 17, 2013

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Newseum fondly remembers John F. Kennedy’s humanity

There are certain events in history we return to again and again, the controversy and the spectacle surrounding them driving our fascination and drawing us back to look for more. The assassination of John F. Kennedy is one of them, a catalyst of unrest and one of the omens that predicated what would be one of the most tumultuous decades in American history.

By April 17, 2013

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Critical Voices: Fall Out Boy, Save Rock and Roll

Bands returning from a long hiatus have a difficult choice to make. They can pay their oldest fans a service and return to their musical roots, or they can pursue a new sound. After ending a five-year break with the unexpected release of Save Rock and Roll, Fall Out Boy has proven that they’ve still got the creative spark needed to produce compelling, fresh material unlike anything they’ve done before.

By April 17, 2013