GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY. What makes a movie a Christmas movie? I recently listened to a podcast in which a host floated the idea that the best holiday movies are ones that encourage reflection on the past year and prepare us for the year ahead. They were inspired by watching It’s a Wonderful […]
The Miniplex
Posted inArts + Scene
Exit Strategies
DECISION TO LEAVE. Park Chan-Wook’s Oldboy (2003) lives on the not-so-short list of movies a listicle might reference as impossible to watch a second time. It is, as a relatively unflappable friend intoned years ago, devastating. But, like all of Park’s work, it also bears the marks of a master: While sometimes hideously violent and […]
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Badass Santa
VIOLENT NIGHT. I set out, it my usual, aimless, addle-pated way, to construct a themed column welcoming anew the season of Christmas and, of course, Christmas movies. We have before us Spirited, the Christmas Carol musical comedy directed by Sean Anders (one of the handful of credited writers and directors allowed to make mainstream comedies) […]
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Young and Hungry
ARMAGEDDON TIME. James Gray does not live in the popular consciousness the way many of our cinematic luminaries — themselves refugees from an ongoing extinction-level event — do. This is likely as much due to geographical bias within the industry as to Gray’s refusal to cater to the whims of that industry, transitory culture or, […]
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Food, Music and Corruption
There is a theme at work here, whether by pure happenstance or more ominous cosmic coincidence, that seems unlikely at first blush. But, in this disparate collection — a quasi-verité examination of investigative journalism, a darkly comic satire of celebrity cookery and an impossibly precise character piece rendered as waking-life ghost story — there lurk […]
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Carries On
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. In this widely anticipated sequel, director Ryan Coogler faces the impossible task of honoring the legacy of recently deceased global hero Chadwick Boseman, while directing not only a cast of grieving actors, but also meeting expectations of Marvel movie fans. In this context, the movie becomes an enigmatic embodiment of grief […]
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Music Tonight: Wednesday, Nov. 16
Early-ish show over at the Miniplex (8 p.m.), which means if you have work, school, etc., you can still go without guilt and be abed by eight bells. Sgt. Papers is a Mexican rock band whose thrashy, pop-psychedelia will not fail to pick you up. Also appearing is Tuscon’s Anchorbaby, a tropicalia act performing soundtrack […]
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Music Tonight: Saturday, Nov. 12
The Arcata Theatre Lounge is hosting a Harvester’s Ball with EDM DJ acts, so I guess there must still be whisps and vapors left in the tank of our county’s flailing cannabis industry. At 9 p.m. and for $20 ($15 if you pay in advance), you will find David Starfire, Savaj, Akritza and Dissolv making […]
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Music Tonight: Friday, Nov. 11
Multi-instrumentalist, visionary, concept artist and all-around sonic magician Arrington de Dionyso returns to the Miniplex tonight for an 8 p.m. show. He will be joined by the rhythm section of White Manna, and members of Die Geister Beschwören and Medicine Baul, performing under the moniker The Uncredible Phin Band, named after the electric Thai lute […]
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Making it Weird
WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY. For many of us, there has always been Weird Al. Before we could formulate anything like a valid critical opinion, much less decide what, by our flaccid cultural barometer, could be called “good,” we could still appreciate (or at least enjoy) the overlaying of silly lyrics upon songs we could […]
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Mixed (Genre) Bag
I can’t pretend there is any cohesive theme — any connectivity, really — to the movies I will set out to briefly discuss here, except that they have all been backburnered in an uncharacteristic pursuit of the horror genre in the past month. Being a contrarian reactionary, I may willfully not watch horror movies when […]
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V/H/S/99 Hits Rewind
V/H/S/99. The year 1999 was a noisy, notable one for movies — it can be marked as the year the movie industry and probably the expectations of audiences at large changed forever, maybe not for the better. After an excruciatingly protracted, admittedly revolutionary advertising campaign, in July of that year, we were finally granted access […]