Showcased yearly at UCR and on the road since 1994, Sister Spit visited our campus on Wednesday for an entire day’s worth of queer, outsider literature and performance. Showcasing the best poets, writers, advocates and performance artists, the picaresque group kicked things off with an intimate Q-and-A session and ended the night with a series of raucous, individualistic performances...
Have you ever wanted to know what was on the other side of a brick wall? Did you want to know so bad that you slammed face-first into that wall until either your face or the wall gave way? Did you love every second of it, knowing that it didn’t matter if your eyeball just popped out, because that...
“Furious 7,” directed by James Wan (The Conjuring), defies the stigma that racing films have to be devoid of heart and sentiment. This film provides ample amounts of style and substance, and pushes the envelope without trying to tackle on too much. Despite all the ostentatious set pieces and special effects, the film always stays human. In its basic...
As much as “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” emphasizes the fact that its characters are police officers, the show doesn’t often get into the fact that police work can be a dark and dangerous business. Only a handful of episodes deal with murders, and even more rarely do we get a look at the victims. This is not a downfall on the...
There were a lot of elements in the latest episode of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” that I should have liked, including French jokes, brainteasers, Bradley Whitford and use of all the members of the core cast. But “Captain Peralta” didn’t quite come together for me until the very end of the episode because too much of its focus is on humor....
Singer-songwriter Mat Kearney’s fifth album, “Just Kids,” is a sentimental evocation of childhood and youth. Although the tracks on the LP are all well-produced and masterfully layered, they suffer from being far too formulaic, with the musical arc similar in almost each song, which feels awkward on an album so production-heavy. Moreover, the lyrics feel contrived, and the desperate...
“The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is the aptly named sequel to the 2011 film, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” The first film tells the story of several elderly British people staying in an unimpressive but inviting hotel in India. This film builds on that by adding numerous romantic subplots and all the complications that go with them to...
I am a review obsessive.
New album coming out? What’s the Pitchfork score? New TV episode just aired? What does AV Club say? New movie? What percentage did it get on Rotten Tomatoes?
Some may call this not having your own opinion — I generally call it research, but the idea that sometimes opinions of critics seep into my own writing...
Director Neill Blomkamp is at it again, attempting to mix social commentary with science fiction in his latest movie “Chappie.” It seems very promising, as Blomkamp returns to South Africa, the location where he filmed the underdog hit, “District 9,” and this movie boasts the same extraordinary visuals, soundtrack and environment. Unfortunately, he is just too ambitious with the...
Having strummed his guitar and sang his heart out for the past 10 years, Taylor Locke is no stranger to the stage, since he played as lead guitarist and singer in Rooney and in the Roughs. With his new band, Locke steps back onto the LA music scene with “Time Stands Still” — his first solo album. Still inspired...