Reviews
If you've spent any time on this website, you know we love music. This got us thinking! Of the songs we love, which ones are the best. Instead of trying to decide among ourselves, we decided to open it up to our readers. So, watch the two videos below and let us know which one you like better in the comments below. You can also vote via our Facebook Page or Twitter.
Pearl Jam "All Those Yesterdays"
Pete Yorn "Waking Up"
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
If you've spent any time on this website, you know we love music. This got us thinking! Of the songs we love, which ones are the best. Instead of trying to decide among ourselves, we decided to open it up to our readers. So, watch the two videos below and let us know which one you like better in the comments below. You can also vote via our Facebook Page or Twitter.
Death Cab for Cutie "Little Wanderer"
Alabama Shakes "I Found You"
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
"Unsafe Space"
A Review of "Life" by Nathan H. Box
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds, Director: Daniel Espinosa, Writers: Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
The American movie going public has fallen in love with space movies once again. The affair has been effortless with smart, beautiful, and enthralling pictures such as: "Interstellar," "Gravity," and "The Martian." Thanks to the likes of Elon Musk and his Space X program, NASA is dreaming boldly. A manned mission to Mars seems likely within our lifetime. We are glued to social media as images are made public of Pluto, Saturn, and Jupiter. Earth-like planets are being discovered in distant galaxies allowing us to rediscover our pioneering spirit and once again look up to the heavens with wonder.
With that sense of awe, we are treated to art forms questioning our place in the galaxy, the very fabric of time and space, as well as our ability to survive in such hostile environments. "Life" asks us to question with a sense of curiosity what it would be like to encounter life from another planet. This is a question it poses in an almost flawless picture. Every scene in this movie is smart, devised with the viewer in mind, and devoted to asking the audience to no longer suspend disbelief. Instead, we are asked to consider the very real possibility that we are not alone and the beings we may encounter will have one guiding principle, survive.
This sense of survival makes for a thrilling, gasp-inducing, exhausting movie that will leave you on the edge of your seat. Plus it features one the best endings I have ever seen in a movie. As the credits rolled on this film, I was left with two thoughts: this is why we go to the movies and Earth doesn't seem so bad.
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
If you've spent any time on this website, you know we love music. This got us thinking! Of the songs we love, which ones are the best. Instead of trying to decide among ourselves, we decided to open it up to our readers. So, watch the two videos below and let us know which one you like better in the comments below. You can also vote via our Facebook Page or Twitter.
Pete Yorn "Waking Up"
Wilco "Sunloathe"
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
If you've spent any time on this website, you know we love music. This got us thinking! Of the songs we love, which ones are the best. Instead of trying to decide among ourselves, we decided to open it up to our readers. So, watch the two videos below and let us know which one you like better in the comments below. You can also vote via our Facebook Page or Twitter.
Kings of Leon "Last Mile Home"
Pearl Jam "All Those Yesterdays"
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
If you've spent any time on this website, you know we love music. This got us thinking! Of the songs we love, which ones are the best. Instead of trying to decide among ourselves, we decided to open it up to our readers. So, watch the two videos below and let us know which one you like better in the comments below. You can also vote via our Facebook Page or Twitter.
Death Cab for Cutie "Little Wanderer"
Alabama Shakes "I Found You"
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
If you've spent any time on this website, you know we love music. This got us thinking! Of the songs we love, which ones are the best. Instead of trying to decide among ourselves, we decided to open it up to our readers. So, watch the two videos below and let us know which one you like better in the comments below. You can also vote via our Facebook Page or Twitter.
Death Cab for Cutie "Little Wanderer"
Dave Matthews Band "Time Bomb"
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
"The Sins of the Past"
A Review of "The Sense of an Ending" by Nathan H. Box
Starring: Jim Broadbent and Michelle Dockery, Director: Ritesh Batra, Writer: Nick Payne (Adaption)
Roger Ebert, the film critic and one of my personal heroes, once wrote, "How can a movie review be written in the third person, as if it were an account of facts? If it isn't subjective, there's something false about it."
As I stared at a blank white page, hoping to write my review for "The Sense of an Ending," I needed his words. Why? Because I often come across books, poems, movies, or some other piece of art and think this isn't meant for me or I am not ready for this. Such is this case for this film.
At 33 years old, I am not ready to confront the sins of my past. Well into his 60's, Tony Webster, the focus of the movie, isn't ready to deal with his sins either. In fact, he has spent most of his life pretending they weren't there. Only when he is finally confronted with the death of a former girlfriend's mother does the past come back to haunt him. It is delivered in the form of a financial gift and a long-lost journal. Without spoiling anything, this is when the plot gets truly interesting. It's also when things get personal for me.
Like everyone else and much like the characters in this movie, at some point in time, all of us become old enough to face our regrets. For Tony Webster, it was a nasty letter he had written. For other's it may be our failings as parents, our lack of attention at work or our inability to get beyond our apathy. Whatever it is, we will have to face it. Then we may discover time does not heal all wounds.
Even though Tony moved on, married, and had a child, those he hurt didn't forgive and forget. Their wounds were too deep and all too real. Tony, like all of us, chose to close chapters of his life without consideration that someone else may still be writing their side of the story. This is the ultimate lesson from this movie. No matter how perfect we think we are, we, without a shadow of a doubt, have wronged others. What we decide to do next is our choice.
For me, this is why reviews must be subjective. I go to the movies to be entertained, but the truly good films having something to teach us. Not all of them do it effectively and this movie is one of those, but the lesson was recognized nonetheless.
Verdict: Stream
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
If you've spent any time on this website, you know we love music. This got us thinking! Of the songs we love, which ones are the best. Instead of trying to decide among ourselves, we decided to open it up to our readers. So, watch the two videos below and let us know which one you like better in the comments below. You can also vote via our Facebook Page or Twitter.
The Gaslight Anthem "Stay Vicious"
Wilco "Sunloathe"
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
If you've spent any time on this website, you know we love music. This got us thinking! Of the songs we love, which ones are the best. Instead of trying to decide among ourselves, we decided to open it up to our readers. So, watch the two videos below and let us know which one you like better in the comments below. You can also vote via our Facebook Page or Twitter.
Pete Yorn "Waking Up"
The Decemberists "Calvary Captain"
Be good to each other,
-Nathan
