“Strange” is a hard adjective to earn in 2018. Whatever the content, the safe bet is that audiences have seen stranger. This poses a special challenge for nature documentaries, whose charter has often been illuminating the world in new, exciting ways. Via the magic of telephoto lenses, viewers have vicariously ridden fiber optic cables into […]
Under the cloak of a Mississippi night, Florence Jackson makes an admission to her eldest son. “I dreamt about you, too,” she says during a serene midpoint in Mudbound. Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) has safely returned from the Second World War, serving in George S. Patton’s 761st “Black Panthers” tank battalion. While he was gone, Florence—played […]
E3 2018 is wrapping up, which means that it's time for everyone in the videogame world to pull out their crystal balls. Is extrapolating from a few hours' worth of press briefings and demos to a cohesive analysis of the prospects of gaming at large isn't a foolproof venture? Of course not, but I've been […]
When Jason Walter first created the r/HighQualityGifs subreddit in September 2013, he did so simply as a way to aggregate the GIFs he made in his spare time. GIFs hadn't yet become the juggernaut they are today: Facebook had just enabled them the month before, and Twitter wouldn't do so until that November. Even if […]
The planet Kamino has always been one of my favorite Star Wars settings: moody, original, and striking. Now, as rain lashes down, the droids try to tear it apart. A perennially overcast ocean world pockmarked with high-tech research platforms, Kamino is the home of the Clone Troopers serving the Galactic Republic during the war. I'm […]
The battlefield is turning on a narrow point, and I am a whirlwind of swords, the center of a raucous, violent symphony. Nameless soldiers crowd around me in the hundreds; allies in blue, and enemies in red. Mounted cavalry charges a closed-off outpost as I cut through a nearby mage. Then I charge, my legendary […]
Q: I Catch Myself Peeking at Other People's Texts on the Subway. Am I the Worst? A: Imagine being eaten by a cave bear. Or a saber-toothed cat. Imagine, with that first gash of claw or incisor, instantaneously transitioning from being a person to being food. Imagine what it feels like, the first, dangling bits […]
Here's the truth: Comic book publishing—yes, just the business of selling printed comics—is a billion-dollar industry. This month, 1,194 new comic books and 391 new graphic novels and collections will hit shelves. That's a lot of titles for a single month, and those aren't uncommon numbers. Comics are everywhere; even your grandma knows who Thanos […]
It doesn’t take much for one to get lost in the illusion of a Miami winter, its promises, its hopes. In mid-January, I fled bone-frigid New York, spending a handful of days on South Beach, willfully prey to its neon revelry. Miami is similar to NYC in its lust for lavish, intemperate promotion. Among the […]
Much like Uncle Jay's belt after the last slice of Thanksgiving pie, the November news cycle groaned under the weight of one meaty story after another. In the last week of the month alone, the Senate marched toward advancing the GOP's tax bill, the Dow topped 24,000, Bitcoin leaped above $11,000, President Trump retweeted anti-Muslim […]