Likely, that film opens with an unspeakable act that calls for retribution, and ends with said retribution being achieved. And in the middle are cat-and-mouse games and close calls and rounds of table-turning to keep conflict chugging. Cherry Tree Lane, however, removes that midsection, condensing the story to assumedly real time. In between its bookends, […]
sex
Posted inArts & Culture
The Thompsons
Personally, I went in to The Thompsons relatively cold, having heard of its big brother, but never having caught up with it. In doing so, I felt like I had jumped onto a sitcom in its second or third week: I could immediately get into its groove without knowing the backgrounds of the players. All […]
Posted inMusic
Ex marks the hot
Photo: Renate Winter Conventional isn’t really Ex-Cult’s thing. The Memphis punk outfit, which is set to perform Monday at The Conservatory, inked a deal with a hometown label within a remarkably short time frame and played its first show mere months after formation. In the time since, an unwavering deluge of momentum has hurled these […]
Posted inNews
Defining rape
Tyrone Nash Tyrone Nash was charged in September 2011 with five counts of second-degree rape and five counts of forcible oral sodomy for having an alleged sexual relationship with a student at Western Heights High School, where Nash was the physical education teacher and a coach. According to an affidavit in the case, the 33-year-old […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hope Springs
Not without extreme difficulty, she somehow persuades Arnold to visit a marriage counselor (a misused Steve Carell, Crazy, Stupid, Love.) in another town for a week of intensive therapy — good for their relationship, bad for the viewer, for whom it feels like sitting in sessions in real time. At nights, in their room at […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Inbetweeners Movie
Freshly graduated from high school and donning custom-made “Pussay Patrol” T-shirts, the four venture to the coastal Crete town of Malia for two weeks of constant drinking and, with luck, shagging. As uninspired as that setup is, it allows England to prove it can make teen comedies as unfunny as we Americans. As one expects, […]
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Sleep Tight
His only joy in life is waking up next to the beautiful, young Clara (Marta Etura, The Impossible). Too bad she’s not conscious of such a relationship — and quite literally. He abuses his access to apartments by hiding under her bed and waiting for her to fall asleep, whereupon he dons a surgical mask, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dredd
In this case, Dredd succeeds where the 1995 Sylvester Stallone vehicle Judge Dredd did not: ringing true to the roots and spirit of the UK-based comic — an anarchic, dystopian world. In doing so — you’re not missed, Rob Schneider — the action’s just way better, too. Set in a future U.S., some 800 million […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Looper
In Looper, writer/director Rian Johnson crams in so many, it initially looks as if this sci-fi actioner might collapse under the weight of them all. Dystopian society, time travel, telekinesis, gangland killings — there are a lot of ground rules to keep track of here, much of them conveyed through the wobbly device of a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Good Doctor
Now, he’s fallen in love with one of his patients, Diane (Riley Keough, Magic Mike), a young woman with infected kidneys. He so wants to be near her that he starts taking steps to keep her sick — and therefore, in his care at the hospital — like replacing the goods in her medication with sugar […]