As fate would have it, I was prevented by a contentious Wednesday afternoon sell-out from seeing my first choice of films (the new Leonard Cohen biography) this afternoon in Manhattan; I am a better man for this blockade, for it led me to see what is likely a much richer, informative, and entertaining documentary: first-time [...]

Despite its many predictable mistakes, the new Hollywood summer comedy The Break-Up concludes its economically-told story by remaining faithful to the suggestion of its title. The choice of filmmakers to offer a non-Hollywood ending, in this age of studio-committee calculated crowd-pleasers, is to a small degree refreshing. The sour taste formed throughout the movie’s denouement [...]

Regardless of in what little esteem I hold The Academy, Oscar Week is nevertheless a meaningful time to reflect on what was made, what was made well, and what was made well enough to be remembered (for whatever reason). Unlike the collective known as The Academy, I have not seen all the nominated films; neither [...]

For an artist who once proclaimed (mid-career) that it’s “better to burn out/ than to fade away,” Neil Young has now successfully thrived as a singer-songwriter in five consecutive decades. Who else can boast such longevity? Never one to boast, he has cause: of McCartney, Wilson, Robertson, Mitchell, Diamond, Dylan (or even your own favorite), [...]

One of the novelties I brought back from two years growing up in South Central Alaska was a book titled Alaskan Bear Tales. From the gruesome to the amusing, the stories within captivated my pre-adolescent imagination; years of violent action films had desensitized me enough to be able to handle (and in fact relish in) [...]