I was on a couple of really long flights recently between Japan and the US, and having several hours worth of time to kill I ended up watching three animated movies that had come out within the last year – Moana, Sing, and Storks. The first two movies had a wide viewership and based on…
Logan is a movie 17 years in the making. Hugh Jackman has been playing Marvel’s clawed mutant Wolverine for nearly two decades, a tenure that’s remarkable for any movie series and only moreso when one takes into account that there have been two Batmen and three Spider-Men in that interval. Logan, Jackman’s last foray in the…
I know this is more of a belated love note, but I was sick with the flu the week of Valentine’s Day, and was unable to articulate my love for this cartoon short at that time. The idea behind this article came from A Bomb in the Lasagna‘s article on Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure…
When Will Arnett’s braggadocious Dark Knight grapple-lined into the spotlight in 2013’s perfect The Lego Movie, it was a refreshing contrast to the deadly serious Bats fresh off the heels of Christopher Nolan’s trilogy. In the same way that Adam West’s delightfully earnest and square caped crusader was the perfect parody of the Batman of…
Like many of your reading this, the new year has made me take stock of my life. These first cold and barren months of the year set the stage for introspection and for making change. For many, this means resolving to commit to a workout routine or trying one’s hand at a new activity. I resolved…
A Series of Unfortunate Events was a seminal book series in this critic’s childhood, a word which here means “integral in seeding the author’s longstanding interest in gothic literature and humor of a deadpan and pitch black variety”. The book series introduced this critic to an alluringly witty prose style and a singularly distinct world.…
I have been living in Japan for about three years and I am very much in love with this country’s culture. In my time here, I have tried to pick up various Japanese traditional crafts – one of them includes playing the shamisen, which is a three-stringed guitar-like instrument. I have been practicing the shamisen…
