Making a movie is hard. Making a good movie? That’s really hard. Making a good mystery? These days that appears to be damn near impossible, given the relative scarcity of mysteries. Horror movies, superhero flicks, action, and dramas are all doing well in theaters and multiplexes. A good old whodunit? They’re a rare breed. But why? Is it because, as a society, we’re dumber? I imagine that some people of a certain age would sneeringly point to Millennials and the rise of social media and claim their attention spans have been irrevocably damaged.* Yet the average American reads somewhere in... Read More

Like all great romances, it began with a connection. He was raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, in an enthusiastically Catholic household. Was it the fixation on blood, death, and rebirth that steered his imagination in a certain direction? Perhaps, but who can say for sure? The only thing we do know is, starting from a very young age, Guillermo del Toro loved monsters. Looking at his filmography, it’s not hard to believe. Every film he’s made, from the vampire tale Cronos to the lush Pan’s Labyrinth to the mechs versus kaiju Pacific Rim, there’s been a focus of some kind on creatures. However,... Read More

How can you describe America? Ronald Reagan famously called our country a “shining city on a hill.” Ralph Waldo Emerson opined that “America is another name for opportunity.” What do I think? I think America is a seriously weird-ass place. Here, I’ll prove it to you. The Creation Museum, located in Petersburg, Kentucky, displays the skeleton of an Allosaurus fragilis, as proof of the Biblical account of creation. Seriously. At Dartmouth College, a sorority held an all-you-can-eat taco bar fundraiser during Cinco de Mayo, which was subsequently cancelled due to... Read More

When it comes to performers, we’re ridiculously inconsistent. We discover an actor we like, and we want them to deliver more of what attracted us in the first place. Then we either throw a fit if they take a chance on something new, or bitterly complain when they do “more of the same.” One example is poor Meg Ryan. Long known as a darling of fluffy rom-coms, she understandably grew tired of briefly being America’s sweetheart. As a result, she tried to stretch her range. She played a crumbling alcoholic in When A Man Loves A Woman, and a doomed Army helicopter pilot in Courage... Read More