The day my father died began the same way as any other day. The Earth turned, the sun came up. At the time, I was a hilariously mediocre college student, blissfully pissing away my higher education. That evening, my brother called. He told me that our father was struck down by a combination heart attack and asthma attack as he was on the way to the mailbox. Dead within seconds. Within the seconds between my brother uttering the words, “Dad died,” over the phone line, and my stammered response, the world shattered. The world was considerate enough to put itself back together again,... Read More

Heat changed a lot of things. Released in 1995, it was a sprawling crime saga pitting obsessive cop Al Pacino against clever thief Robert De Niro. Watching it, you’ll have a lot to enjoy. A ridiculously talented cast. Highly precise action scenes. Existential musings found within a labyrinthine plot. It’s probably the best thing writer/director Michael Mann has ever done. In its DNA, you can see strands of Reservoir Dogs, The Getaway, and Charley Varrick, to name a few. But Heat is the platonic ideal of what the modern heist film should be. We see echoes of it in films like Sicario and... Read More