‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ puts humanity to the test By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Jason Clarke as Malcolm in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” Peter Singer, a modern philosopher who engages moral tenets head-on in practical living, penned a classic tome, “Animal Liberation” that has become a challenging examination of the ways […]
Adaptation of ‘Jackpot’ hangs out among the riff raff By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Henrik Mestad as Solør and Arthur Berning as Billy Utomjordet in “Jackpot”; Rating: R, Grade: B- I’ve spent the last few years investigating a specific niche subset of the criminal underworld: the seedy realm of Scandinavian crime fiction. It is much more distinct […]
Clint Eastwood favors words and motion without sacrificing the music By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: John Lloyd Young, Vincent Piazza, Erich Bergen and Michael Lomenda in “Jersey Boys”: Rating: PG-13; Grade: B Clint Eastwood, as both an actor and a director, has a no-nonsense approach that has served him well over the course of his career. He […]
New ‘love story’ update gambles by doubling down on the terminal illness angle By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Ansel Elgort as Gus and Shailene Woodley as Hazel in “The Fault in Our Stars”; Rating: PG-13, Grade: B- “The Fault in Our Stars” by young adult fiction author and Indianapolis, Ind. native John Green gets adapted here […]
How long before we see characters who happen to be black and gay on the regular? By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola in “Kinky Boots” The world needs more ensemble dramas or dramatic comedies like “The Family Stone” or bold cinematic kaleidoscopes like Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of “Romeo + Juliet” to showcase the […]
Multi-hyphenate Jon Favreau flees the Hollywood test kitchen By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Emjay Anthony, Jon Favreau and Sofia Vergara in “Chef”; Rating: R, Grade: A It doesn’t take long for a talented upstart to settle into a comfortable groove, right? Not many of us know about this from experience, but the stories abound across disciplines. […]
Comparing “Belle” to the black athletes of today By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dido Elizabeth Belle in “Belle” When is a story about slavery not a slave story? And how is it current media still finds itself mired in coverage of stories about slavery, the same old black and white dynamic, that everyone […]
The story of a neighborhood where everybody knows more than your name By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: John Turturro as “Bird” and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Mickey in “God’s Pocket”; Rating: R, Grade: B+ The first “read” of “God’s Pocket,” the feature-film directing debut of actor John Slattery (best known for his Emmy-nominated work on the television […]
How his short-film efforts offer insight into his new feature film By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Scarlett Johansson as Laura in “Under the Skin”; Rating: R, Grade: B There are a number of feature film directors who got their starts working on commercials and music videos. Jonathan Glazer, one such practitioner of the craft, exhibits a far […]
The story behind the greatest film never made By T.T. Stern-Enzi photo: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s, unscussessful attempt at adapting the science fiction novel, “Dune” is the focus of Director Frank Pavich’s The old adage goes that the greatest journeys begin with that single first step, but what about the epic odyssey you and a band of merry […]
Steal anything At a local auto-parts store, a car radio was shoplifted. The thief suspiciously perused through the aisles and […]
By Michelle Strauss Pissed off Just a few weeks ago, someone broke into a local residence. The trespasser-turned-burglar began his raid, […]
A game of telephone Last week, on a particularly scorching hot afternoon, a man was driving his ex-girlfriend home. The […]
By Michelle Strauss Music man In a local apartment complex, alarms went off and alerted the police that a robbery […]
What a mouthful Believe it or not, in a local residence, a boyfriend kept his girlfriend’s dentures hostage. Earlier […]
