Seafolk are a uniquely resilient bunch. Growing up in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the oldest seaport in the country, I learned prosperity and precarity can alternate like the tide for fishermen. The danger of commercial fishing also means coastal communities often bequeath a cultural inheritance of grief. These elements drew me with great curiosity to The Long […]
Reviews
Planet of the Humans and Climate Change: Muddled, Misinformed or Malevolent?
Planet of the Humans is a 2020 documentary directed by Jeff Gibbs, executive produced by Michael Moore and distributed by Films for Action. … Continue Reading
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Note: This review includes minor spoilers for Episode IX. It’s clear from the opening crawl that something is rotten in The Rise of … Continue Reading
Top Stories
“Oh Hai!” The Room, Cult Films and Togetherness
The first time I watched The Room, I couldn't stand it. A friend had recommended the movie, but it was riddled with cheesy dialogue, stilted acting and continuity errors. When it finally reached its conclusion, I … Continue Reading
London Film Festival 2020 Highlights
It wasn’t like the last time I’d visited the British Film Institute. The buildings were all the same, massive cubes of concrete sitting along the bank of the Thames. Their façades were aglow with pink and blue … Continue Reading
Hoopleheads: Episode 37 “Deadwood: The Movie” with Emily VanDerWerff
A beautiful thing about recording a podcast dedicated to a show as old as Deadwood is that we have the advantage of jumping more than a decade into the future to see its eventual finale. This is Deadwood: The Movie, … Continue Reading
Hoopleheads: Episode 36 “Tell Him Something Pretty” with Harry Edmundson-Cornell
Well, anyways: the "Tell Him Something Pretty," the Deadwood series finale. For thirteen years, this the sum total of what fans of the show have had to conclude a fantastic three-season run. Here to assist us in … Continue Reading
Hoopleheads: Episode 35 “The Catbird Seat” with Ben Siler
It's hard to know who's sitting in "The Catbird Seat" by the close of this episode. After last week's near miss, Hearst (Gerald McRaney) lands his attack on the townsfolk as he sics his Pinkerton goons on poor … Continue Reading
