Wasting oxygen since 1992, Sam thanks the gods he doesn't believe in everyday his parents didn't discard him as an infant. It would have been the sensible thing to do.
As indomitably towering in its director, star and writers, Bridges of Spies is stubbornly old-fashioned both in concept and in execution. Co-written by the Coen brothers, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks all add up, in theory and in practice (mostly) to be a winning combination. It’s simple…
Beautifully constructed television at its finest, the sixth season of The Walking Dead has come out firing on all cylinders. Whether it was the zombie-heavy hour last week that featured the A-Team characters or the Wolf attack on the B-Team back in Alexandria that defined this hour, the pace is…
Crimson Peak, for all director Guillermo del Toro’s earnest embrace of gothic romances and haunted house films, can’t help but avoid the modern meta-age of stories commenting on themselves. As heroine and aspiring novelist Edith Cushing (Mis Wasikowska) tells a prospective publisher about her novel, “It’s not so much a…
The journey of The Walking Dead is, inextricably, the journey of sheriff Rick Grimes. In past seasons, Rick’s character oscillations have been fairly clear from green Rick of Season 1 and 2 to the Ricktatorship of Season 3 to Farmer Rick in Season 4. That was when current showrunner Scott Gimple…
There are three kinds of films prolific and beloved director Ridley Scott, who will turn 78 next month, makes: tense dramas (Thelma & Louise, The Counselor) grandiose epics (Gladiator, Exodus: Gods and Kings), and sci-fi extravaganzas (Blade Runner, Prometheus, its upcoming sequel Alien: Paradise Lost). As the title plainly states,…
Jon Stewart acolyte Stephen Colbert began September by claiming the mantle of CBS’s The Late Show from David Letterman and now, it ends with the man himself replaced by another acolyte – 31 year-old South African stand-up Trevor Noah. As a relative unknown to American audiences (and to show itself…
Dear Readers, Back in June, prior to my Chautauquan sojourn, I asked you what features you wanted more of from the Slog. The poll revealed that the majority of this blog’s visitors favor my reviews over other content so for the future I will be focusing on keeping more up to…
It’s a pity what M. Night Shyamalan’s been reduced to. But it’s hard to defend a guy that has done all he could in the last decade to sully and degrade himself as a brand with movies like Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender and After Earth.…
Stephen Colbert is my spirit animal. He is a satirist without parallel. Like his mentor and forebear Jon Stewart, he presided over a double-whammy of political comedy for almost a decade at Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. Both hosts finally ran out of gas in proximity to each other, with…
I recorded this during a dark spot this summer. Maybe a few can relate to those hopeless moments and maybe I can help you remember how to get through them. It gets better, friends. Much love, SPF