Fantastic beasts without story are a fantastic bore

I saw the new Harry Potter universe movie over the weekend, and although I'm not a big Harry Potter fan, my wife is, and she was literally asleep next to me in the theater. The problem with this movie is a lack of consequence. The characters, though likable, are not in any danger for over …

Kindred: disturbing, embarrassing, eye opening

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler follows Dana, a black novelist who lives in California, 1978, and is unwillingly transported back to a pre-Civil War Maryland Plantation. This brief synopsis is already probably enough to make you squirm. I was unsure what I was in for going into this, but I'm glad I read it. The brutality …

Stranger Things: Not just 80’s nostalgia

Remember when the big movies coming out that everyone was excited about weren't remakes, or reboots, or based on a comic book or video game or brand name or fairy tale or popular book series? Well, maybe this is 80's nostalgia after all... Stranger Things not only has the refreshing attribute of being something new, despite …

Death’s End, by Cixin Liu: Mindblowing scope

The final book in the Three Body Trilogy, Death's End (Remembrance of Earth's Past) does not disappoint. Once again my mind is reeling from the barrage of amazing ideas and concepts that blasted me one after the other after the other as I listened to this book. I don't even know where to begin. If you've …

Inside Out: unsettling, sad, and damn good

It's been a long while since I watched a kids movie, and it seems they've improved quite a bit during that time. Not only was the animation amazing and lovely to look at, but the ideas were thought provoking, interesting, and somewhat unsettling, even for me seeing it as an adult. The story of Inside Out follows …