Dell’Arte and the Humboldt Circus are finally getting around to answering the age-old question: “How many clowns can you fit into one weekend?!” So, put your coulrophobia by the wayside, and be prepared to be dazzled by not one, but two red-nosed, slapstick-filled tributes to the art of clowning. Dell’Arte’s Who Ya Callin’ Bozo? is […]
Henry Ellis
Henry Ellis has been a freelancer with NCJ since 2011; he has never made a deadline.
Posted inArts + Scene
While Adults Play …
An eerie serenity has taken over the normally bustling Discovery Museum in Old Town Eureka. It’s after hours now, on the first Saturday night in February, and the lights in the lobby and gift shop have been turned off. Julia Grosby is shuffling through brightly colored paper, sorting it into piles and cutting out rectangles. […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Disney Girls Gone Wild
Reviews SPRING BREAKERS. I’ve never been tempted to watch a Harmony Korine film twice. He floored me with the raw teenage sexuality of 1995’s Kids, which he co-wrote, and disgusted me with sociopathic images in 1997’s Gummo. I can acknowledge the artistic expressions and powerful messages of his films, but then it’s time to […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Aliens Defeat Seniors
Reviews DARK SKIES. I can ruin a horror movie for pretty much anyone. I’ll sit next to you, basking in my jaded glory, ripping apart every delicately laid tidbit of foreshadowing. Years of sitting through formulaic spine-tinglers have left me numb to most attempts at thrills and chills. But every once in a great […]
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Dying the Harderest
Reviews A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD. There are very few ways a Die Hard film can let you down. When your expectations are so low, there’s really nowhere to go but up. The 25-year-old franchise is a comforting diversion at this point, coasting by on gratuitous explosions and groan-worthy one-liners. It is pure, […]
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Funny in the Head
Reviews SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. There are two ways to watch Silver Linings Playbook. You can view it with an open mind and generous concern for the human condition or you can have a background in psychology. I tried my damnedest to achieve the former, but eventually the latter could not be ignored. Despite brilliant performances […]
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An Abe for the Ages
Reviews LINCOLN. For Steven Spielberg, history is all about the details. Everyone knows the general textbook versions of the Holocaust, World War II and the American slave trade, but with films such as Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan and Amistad, Spielberg conjures the humanity and emotion behind history through details. Here he’s done it again. […]
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Take My Dead Dog … Please!
Reviews FRANKENWEENIE. Everything Tim Burton touches turns into Johnny Depp. Frankenweenie is Burton’s first film since Big Fish to not star Depp (and Burton’s ever-trusty sidekick, Helena Bonham Carter). Depp’s high cheekboned, creepy countenance is all over Frankenweenie, despite his absence from the cast. His visage is worn blaringly by the main character, Victor Frankenstein […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Time Trials
Reviews LOOPER. Rian Johnson’s image of the future is a familiar one, riddled with immense poverty and constant, thoughtless violence. In Looper, Johnson, whose previous directorial efforts include Brick and The Brothers Bloom, focuses less on the details of his futuristic world and more on the abstract possibilities it offers. Set in Kansas (presumably […]