“Are these feelings even real, or are they just programming?” In “Her,” the latest effort from director and writer Spike Jonze (“Where the Wild Things Are,” “Being John Malkovich”), Jonze examines how love works with and around modern — or in this case, near-future — technology. A moving script, striking visuals and standout performances allow Jonze to take a...
Hidden in a basement below the brick building in downtown Riverside is a nifty hideaway known as Blood-Orange Infoshop. Last Wednesday night, music-goers from near and far slowly poured into the venue — commonly known as the BOIS — for the Family Life music show. They were ready for what the hosts called “a night of experimental radness.”
Downtown Riverside...
Ever since “Community” pulled out a mafia episode and a paintball episode at the end of season one, the show has been praised for its “high concept” episodes — ideas that can be easily summed up and will appeal to a number of people. For instance, you can describe “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” as the stop-motion animated episode, or “Intro...
If you watch “Community,” you probably know about the largely negative reaction to season four, written without the show’s creator, Dan Harmon. After the negative reaction, Harmon is back for season five with a premiere of two strong episodes, which bodes well for the show. Given the 13-episode lineup, it seems strange to air two of them on the...
It was the year we were all thankful to be alive. 2013 happened as a direct result of the world not ending on Dec. 21, 2012. Even after surviving the apocalypse, paranoia crept even higher. Whether it was the still-uncertain economy, or serious online privacy concerns raised by Edward Snowden’s NSA leak, 2013 marked a year in which the...
Beyonce Giselle Knowles has come an extremely long way since 90s R&B girl group, Destiny’s Child. After a 10-year solo career and 17 Grammys, and in the midst of the mid-December holiday craze, Beyonce surprised the world by dropping her self-titled fifth album, “Beyonce.” With absolutely no public promotion surrounding the album, Beyonce is a master at the humblebrag....
From haunted houses to witches, the creators of the “Paranormal Activity” series never know when to throw in the towel. Demonic presences in WASPy suburban neighborhoods get really old after four movies. However, in “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones,” Christopher Landon, the writer and director for the previous films, decided to introduce some diversity and change the setting to...
As we slog through the inevitable drag of week 10, a beautiful endgame lays not far from here: winter break. Though Riverside severely lacks anything resembling winter weather, our time of servitude to the university has earned us a short break that we should nonetheless be thankful for. Opportunities abound — if only for a few weeks. Time for...
Cover albums are always a tricky thing. It’s difficult for musicians to encapsulate the original artist while incorporating their own twists and originality. This is where things get complicated on “Foreverly,” as Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones leave their respective genres of music to cover The Everly Brothers’ 1958 album, “Songs Our Daddy Taught Us” — which is...
For a while now, Disney’s been aching to recapture that string of commercial success and universal acclaim that characterized the Disney Renaissance of the 90s. The entertainment powerhouse tried here and there, be it through live action flops of “John Carter” and “The Lone Ranger,” or through the commercially successful but critically panned “Planes.” Thankfully for us, “Frozen” quells...