Articles tagged: Movie

Leisure

Saw X brings you grotesque gore in 4k, but falls slightly flat 

Fan or not, Saw X will make you absolutely squirm in your seats, especially if you can handle it in 4K.

By October 25, 2023

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

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

You’ll never be the same after After

One cursed weekend last February, my friends and I made a life-altering decision: to marathon the After movies. What we witnessed was a plot disaster propped up by toxic masculinity... Read more

By February 5, 2023

Halftime Leisure

What’s next for the Conjuring Universe?

After the Conjuring storyline added another film this summer (The Devil Made Me Do It), the question for horror fanatics remains: what comes next for the series? The franchise already... Read more

By October 29, 2021

Movies

Cunning and Absurd: EMMA. Finds Meaning in Frivolity

“I would like to see Emma in love. And in some doubt of a return. It would do her good.” In one of his first on-screen appearances, Mr. Knightley (Johnny... Read more

By March 5, 2020

Podcasts

The Reel Pulpit: 2019 Recap, Oscar Nominations

In the first episode of the new decade, host Dajour is joined by leisure writers Steven, Abby, and Bella to discuss their best of the year, and the Oscar nominations.... Read more

By February 5, 2020

Movies

Inane and Insane, Lucy in the Sky Isn’t as Empathetic as It Thinks It Is

The year is 2007: between Lindsey Lohan’s 84-minute stint in a California jail and Britney Spears’ yearlong breakdown of shaved heads and smashed umbrellas, media sympathies for female celebrities and... Read more

By October 17, 2019

Halftime Leisure

The Weekly List: Songs From the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Movie of All Time: Almost Famous

I was going to write about the greatest songs from great scenes in movies. However, there are lots of movies circulating about in existence…like more than I can count. Given... Read more

By September 4, 2019

Leisure

With A Duo of Superb Performances, Green Book Warms Your Heart

Today’s films are often judged by how nuanced they are at presenting their central themes. They must be direct, but not overtly obvious; thought provoking, but not contradictory; open to... Read more

By November 30, 2018

Leisure

Trust and convenience in Hunter Killer

Hunter Killer starts underwater, outside of a hulking steel submarine. Inside of it, a human crew is briefly introduced. The men controlling the monitors talk and joke back and forth,... Read more

By October 26, 2018

Leisure

The Nun Probably Should Have Stayed in the Convent

The Conjuring universe is an anomaly when it comes to modern horror movie franchises. While horror movies usually go downhill from the second installment on, The Conjuring franchise has not... Read more

By September 14, 2018

Halftime Leisure

New Hendrix Biopic Emerges from the "Purple Haze"

  Music biopics have a tendency to rear toward hagiography, as the stars they depict often end up falling into the stereotype of tortured genius or underdog who bucked the... Read more

By October 3, 2014

Halftime Leisure

The Drop  is a Bucket of Mediocrity

The Drop is an emotionally manipulative crime drama that forcibly links multiple, supposedly character-driven plot threads in order to build to one of the most laughably-executed twists in recent memory.... Read more

By September 15, 2014

Halftime Leisure

Movie Monster Madness and the Bay

In 1949, longtime San Francisco-based journalist Herb Caen published a collection of essays about the city entitled Baghdad by the Bay. (If you’re interested, it’s available for purchase here.) The... Read more

By June 13, 2014

Halftime Leisure

A Million Ways to Force a Joke!

Love him or hate him, Seth MacFarlane has a knack for mocking society and pop-culture.  His first feature-length film, Ted, played out like an extended episode of Family Guy, was... Read more

By June 13, 2014

Halftime Leisure

Cannes Film Festival Spotlights Art Films

At the end of last month, the world watched as one of the most prestigious events in cinema unfolded in the south of France. The 68th Cannes Film Festival was... Read more

By June 5, 2014

Halftime Leisure

Only Lovers Left Alive  is "cool"

Pale-skinned, blood-sucking creatures of the night, spend their time listening to obscure music and traipsing around the ruins of Detroit. No, this isn’t a documentary about Midtown, but you can... Read more

By April 19, 2014