Skip to content

Month: December 2015

Fear, Our Old Friend

Dear Readers, 2016 is upon us and that means 2015 is behind us. Last January, I set out to write a blog for a year. I’d become far too insulated during my college years. Time I would have spent reading and writing when I was a teenager, I started using…

Sam’s Top 7 Movies of 2015

7. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation Dir. Christopher McQuarrie (The Way of the Gun, Jack Reacher) Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Alec Baldwin, Simon McBurney, Tom Hollander Tom Cruise never fails to entertain and he takes home Sam Flynn’s Imaginary Award for Best…

The Revenant (2015) – Review

I find films succeed or fail on three factors: 1) story and characters 2) filmmaking 3) acting. The Revenant has two and three down, but it’s the film’s failure with one that makes me think the film will be forgotten soon after (or perhaps before?) Oscar night in February. Director…

The Hateful Eight (2015) – Review

The Hateful Eight, appropriately the eighth film from auteur Quentin Tarantino, dovetails his first film, fellow bad-guys-in-a-room thriller Reservoir Dogs with the Western genre with an added dash of Agatha Christie. Together, they combine for a surprisingly-sincere film with a powerful plea for racial tolerance. Like any auteur of Tarantino’s pedigree,…

Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) – Review

How do you review Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Nobody will read this review to judge whether it’s worth a look. Let’s be honest, if you’re reading this, you’re either a Star Wars fan or my mother. So by what metric do we measure this film, carrying the legacy of…

Dear Republicans, You Need to Evolve, Part 2

(UPDATED: December 8, 2015) Dear Grand Old Party, Hey. It’s me. Listen, I know we don’t get along. At all. The animosity has gotten out of hand at times but who hasn’t forced their roommate to invade another guy’s house based on lies or allowed the bank to short our mortgage knowing…