EDITOR’S NOTE: This week we will be re-posting choice Q&As from the past year. We start with this still-timely interview with nat-sec reporter Tom Ricks, which originally posted on May 25th, 2017. Enjoy. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Under the darkening skies of the late 1930s, liberal democracy was on the ropes and fascism and totalitarianism was on the rise, reason and common sense were overwhelmed by racist entreaties, economic misery and nationalist fury, press freedoms were under attack and the facts had become a matter of opinion. Sound familiar? Two less than distinguished men rose to the occasion: a tarnished, […]
CINEMA: Violent Femme
I, TONYA (Directed by Craig Gillespie, 119 minutes, USA, 2017) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Much buzzed-about this Oscar season, I, Tonya is an unlikely prestige film about an unlikely Olympian starring Margot Robbie as the notorious Tonya Harding, the disgraced figure skater who conspired to have her rival maimed by her bodyguard right before the 1994 Olympics. This black comedy is constructed like a mockumentary, in the vein of The Big Short, where on-camera interviews with actors in character (“based on irony-free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews” with the actual people portrayed in the film) are supplemented by reenactments […]
EXCERPT: The Man Who Knew Too Much
PHILADELPIHA MAGAZINE: Even by the biblical standards of come-to-Jesus moments, the day Wendell Potter got woke was nothing short of miraculous, in the old-school, divine-intervention meaning of the word. The year was 2007, and Potter was the vice president of corporate communications for Cigna, the global health insurance behemoth then headquartered in Center City. As such, he was, in essence, a handsomely paid apologist in a for-profit health insurance system that — in the dark age that preceded the signing into law of the Affordable Care Act — routinely left more than 40 million Americans without coverage, resulting in […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR: Of all the moral subjects and ethical rules elaborated throughout the Bible and the history of Christianity, why have so many American Christians seemed disproportionately obsessed with sex? And how has that obsession divided America? These are the questions that led my guest, R. Marie Griffith, to write her new book, “Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians And Fractured American Politics.” She writes about the battles over women’s suffrage, birth control, interracial marriage, sex education, abortion, sexual harassment and marriage equality. The book ends with the Women’s March following Trump’s inauguration. Griffith grew up in a […]
Win Tix To See An Advanced Screening Of I, Tonya
The 2017 Oscar season continues with I, Tonya, an unlikely prestige film about a felonious but not entirely unsympathetic Olympian’s fall from grace, or something close to it, starring Margot Robbie as the notorious Tonya Harding and directed by Craig Gillespie. This much-buzzed-about black comedy is constructed like a mockumentary, in the style of The Big Short, where on camera interviews with actors in character — based on “irony free, wildly contradictory, totally true interviews” with the people portrayed in the film — are supplemented by reenactments with those same actors often breaking the fourth wall. Check out the […]
BEING THERE: Converge @ Union Transfer
Photo by MARK LIKOSKY As a Boston kid having come from the same early 90’s punk/hardcore scene that spawned Converge, it’s awe-inspiring to bear witness to a few suburban kids who made a demo back in 1991 slowly evolve into legends. Back then, having a demo, or better yet a split 7-inch, was a huge deal and hearing about local bands that got multi-album deals was not only unheard of but usually meant they would inevitably sell out and/or fail. This was also a time when the straight edge movement was resurgent and dark, metallic hardcore — Converge’s forte — […]
CINEMA: It Crawled From The Swamp
THE SHAPE OF WATER (Dir. by Guillermo del Toro, 123 min., 2017, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC Easily the strangest film this prestige season is Guillermo del Toro’s eccentric romantic masterpiece The Shape of Water. The film opens today at the Ritz Five and is a rather unique take on a love story that is an unlikely mash-up the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, Amélie) and the Universal Monsters. Shape has del Toro returning to his roots to give us a darkly fantastic fairy tale that has the director at his best and most unrestrained […]
CINEMA: The New Star Wars Is Really Great
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Directed by Rian Johnson, 152 minutes, 2017, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC With Thursday’s release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson picks up the reigns of the space opera mega-franchise left by J.J. Abrams. Given the bleakness of Looper and cleverness of Brick, I was more than a bit curious to see what Johnson would do in the Disney® sandbox. Surprisingly enough not only did Johnson make it through making the film without being fired — no small achievement, that — but he turned in a film that feels very much […]
CINEMA: The New Star Wars Is Not Great
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Directed by Rian Johnson, 152 minutes, 2017, USA) BY CHRISTOPHER MALENEY FILM CRITIC What do we like about Star Wars? We love the science fiction saga about the struggle between impoverished good guys and ultimate evil. A visually enthralling spectacle of sound and fury with one of the best scores in cinematic history. A timeless tale set in a fascinating other galaxy that mimics the politics and struggles of our own world. We love being assured that even at its most hopeless, good can triumph over evil. It’s that little-kid response, the joy of seeing […]
THE X-MAN COMETH: A Q&A With John Doe, Frontman Of The Legendary L.A. Punk Band X
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR VICE “The west is the best,” Jim Morrison sang in 1967. “Get here, and we’ll do the rest.” In 1976, John Doe took Mr. Mojo Risin’ up on the invitation. Fed up with the bleak fatalism, shitty weather and general played-out-ness of the East Coast scene, Doe loaded up the truck and headed to the City Of Angels, where he would soon meet fellow East Coast exile/aspiring punk poet Exene Cervenka. Together they would form the legendary X — arguably one of the few bands that could convincingly stake a claim to The Clash’s status […]
CINEMA: The Master Of Disaster
THE DISASTER ARTIST (Dir. by James Franco, 104 minutes, 2017, USA) BY DAN TABOR FILM CRITIC The best in “So Bad It’s Good” cinema usually has one thing in common. Invariably, the auteur at the helm — everyone from Ed Wood to Michael Bay — sincerely believed they were making the best film possible. You can’t fake that kind of sincere ineptitude and those that have tried usually fall short of the mark, with the ensuing film choking on its irony. The Room (2003), the subject of The Disaster Artist, is one of those rare films that was born of […]
CONTEST: Win Tix To A VIP Advanced Screening Of Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape Of Water
Easily the strangest film this prestige season is Guillermo del Toro’s eccentric romantic masterpiece The Shape of Water. The film opens in Philadelphia at the Ritz Five Friday, December 14th and is a rather unique love story involving a mute woman named Elisa and a mysterious creature trapped in a top-secret government lab. Heavily influenced by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, Amélie), the film has del Toro returning to his roots to give us a darkly fantastic fairy tale that has Elisa falling in love with the monster who feels like a hybrid of Abe Sapien from […]