Poverty breeds desperation. I’ve never been poor. Sure, money has been tight, and there have been times where I’ve had to, shall we say, get creative with my finances. But I’ve always occupied the middle-class strata, even if I’ve occasionally drifted down near the bottom rung of that particular ladder. But being straight-up poor is different. That’s […]

The sky is massive in West Texas. It seems to go on forever, stretching out as far as the eye can see, and eventually meeting the dusty landscape in a far off horizon. When you’re under that sky, there’s a sense of insignificance, a feeling that you matter about as much as the scrub brush. […]

First, a warning: If you’re the parent of young children, and you consider packing them into the family truckster to see the new animated film Sausage Party, purely based on the fact that it’s animated…don’t. As a parent, your job is to check out any media your kids consume before they consume it. Animation is not strictly for […]

Once in a while, a movie changes everything. 2012’s The Avengers is one of those movies. During its theatrical run, it made over $1.5 billion dollars, and it became one of the highest-grossing movies in the history of cinema. It was the culmination of 5 other films, beginning with Iron Man in 2008, and due to mostly careful* planning […]

During a press conference in 2007, Matt Damon figured that he was all done playing amnesiac badass Jason Bourne. He said, “So all of that internal propulsive mechanism that drives the character is not there, so if there was to be another one then it would have to be a complete reconfiguration, you know, where […]

We need Star Trek right now. Badly. The America of Stardate 2016 is fractured. Paranoid. Raging. We’re locked into a presidential election that rejects hope and embraces fear. The vast majority of us plan to vote against a particular candidate instead of being inspired by one. Our country is beset by problems and, when we should be coming […]

As moviegoers, we’re conditioned to sigh in resignation whenever we hear about a remake. “Oh, God, there are no original ideas in Hollywood anymore,” we say, as we roll our eyes so far back we can see our brains.  But remakes have been a part of American film since the beginning. Cecil B. DeMille made The […]

Most of us approach the summer movie season with a kind of resigned dread. We’re confronted with a vast wasteland of sequels, remakes, terrible comedies and cheap horror movies. It can feel like you’re getting punched in the face by CGI, or walloped by an obnoxiously loud kid’s movie. Worst of all is the feeling […]

24 years old isn’t far from childhood. It’s far enough that you have lingering memories, but you’re anxious to be a grown-up, particularly when everyone else seems more grown-up than you. It seems like everyone else knows what they’re doing, so you maybe have to fake it a little. It’s likely that these thoughts went […]

She’s on a secret beach in Mexico, and it is beautiful. As she looks out across the water, she sees a small island. Its contours remind her of a pregnant woman. Fitting, really, considering why she’s there. Her name is Nancy. She’s on her way to becoming a doctor. Well, she was, anyway. Her mother […]