DOWNSIZING. A sprawling sci-fi satire, ironically, Downsizing can’t seem to shrink its ambition into a manageable story. Alexander Payne’s (Election, Sideways) take on American ambition, class inequity, climate change, consumerism, predatory dream capitalism and the end of the world might’ve fit if its ostensible hero Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) wasn’t such a milquetoast. His struggle […]
Grant Scott-Goforth
Grant Scott-Goforth was an assistant editor and staff writer for The Journal from 2013 to 2017.
Posted inEat + Drink
Humboldt on Tap
I learned early on I don’t like drinking games. Competitive quaffing of the quantitative kind is rightfully the territory of stereotypes named Bluto. There are no winners. Drinking while playing games — be it poker, Settlers of Catan or softball — is noble but precarious if there’s money on the line. Perhaps the only good […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Pulling Back the Curtain
Redwood Curtain Brewing Co. is the best-known secret in town. Tucked in an unassuming business park on the outskirts of Arcata, it’s become a popular destination for Humboldt County beer enthusiasts and tourists alike. But, says beer pourer Chris Galleron on a bustling Sunday afternoon, locals still frequently visit the tasting room for the first […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Pulling Back the Curtain
Redwood Curtain Brewing Co. is the best-known secret in town. Tucked in an unassuming business park on the outskirts of Arcata, it’s become a popular destination for Humboldt County beer enthusiasts and tourists alike. But, says beer pourer Chris Galleron on a bustling Sunday afternoon, locals still frequently visit the tasting room for the first […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Farm to Glass
“You’re making this hard for me,” says a regular who’s sidled up to the standing-only bar that divides the small tasting room from the tap house at the Humboldt Regeneration Brewery. He came to get a growler filled, but with 28 unique beers on tap, and a small littering of empty tasters in front of […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Spidey Sense Tingling
Spider-Man: Homecoming A chorus, sweetened by the voices of multitudes, echoes brightly through the halls of mediadom; even the nerds have lent their breath. And they are not wrong: new Spider-Man‘s pretty good, guys. Having weathered now three — relatively — recent iterations of Spidey as cinematic tent-pole, and admittedly having enjoyed them all to […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Farm to Glass
“You’re making this hard for me,” says a regular who’s sidled up to the standing-only bar that divides the small tasting room from the tap house at the Humboldt Regeneration Brewery. He came to get a growler filled, but with 28 unique beers on tap, and a small littering of empty tasters in front of […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Boom
Reviews What makes a movie “American”? Is it patriotic or critical? Is it about identity, individualism, team spirit or oppression? Is it set in the Wild West or a modern metropolis? Does it even have to be made by an American? This is a big question and maybe even more subjective than whether a movie […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Girl Trouble
Reviews 47 METERS DOWN. I may have let out an audible groan when the title screen appeared: Johannes Roberts’ 47 Meters Down. If you’ve heard of Johannes Roberts, then you probably have a subscription to Fangoria, and I’m the asshole. While the director has more than a dozen credits to his name, there wasn’t a […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Big Girls, Big Brothers
THE CIRCLE. Where have all the techno-thrillers gone? I began to wonder this after my disappointing afternoon with The Circle. I claim to be no expert in the subgenre, but the ’80s and ’90s were rife with paranoid thought experiments about the cyberworld we were creating. Did we peak at The Matrix? Perhaps 9/11 brought […]
Posted inStories
Golden Age
To walk through the grand polished-wood and etched-glass doors of the Minor Theatre is to straddle the past and the future. Staircases descend into the small, warmly appointed lobby, filled with ornate items from a bygone era: historic photos, a grandfather clock and a typewriter on which customers peck out cheery thoughts and poems. The […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Cringeworthy
TONI ERDMANN. I pride myself on an appreciation of bizarre cinema, from camp to cult to psychedelic to oddball. It’s not that I’m steely — plenty of genre films leave me unnerved or nonplussed. I cannot claim to understand Mulholland Drive or have particularly liked Holy Motors; nor are the charms of a blockbuster or […]