Sex, violence, and groundbreaking cinematography are among the many, many things that The Booksellers is not selling. Sorry, but they just sell books. It’s right there in the title. Actually, because this is a documentary “exposing” the decidedly un-seedy underbelly of New York rare book collectors, purveyors, and auctioneers, it isn’t even really selling you […]
Film
Pauline Kael Wouldn’t Like Me
The Mount Rushmore of film criticism is arguably a quasi-Cerberus. The three heads would be Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, and Pauline Kael. Her chiseled dome should be much bigger, as the two thumby fellas didn’t invent modern film criticism, so much as they simply helped popularize it. Kael made the game, they just played it. […]
Alternate TV Realities Better Than Ours
“Whatcha watchin’?” was once a cutesy way of making small talk. Now it is asked with a slight whiff of desperation by those looking to use streaming entertainment like Flex Seal to patch the gaping holes punctured in normalcy. The question was once asked with a smile and is now posed like a thief asks […]
Suck It, Seth Rogen
In the nicest possible way, Saint Frances is a Lifetime TV movie that has a degree in feminist literary theory. If you added about 40 minutes and cast any of the Freaks and Geeks bros as the lead, you’d have yet another Judd Apatow dramedy redeeming manbabies. Luckily, writer and lead actress Kelly O’Sullivan and […]
Good Screen Time — Film Ideas
Can you think of something we missed? Share your tips! 1. Festival Faves. Dig through the Omaha Film Festival’s archives for links to dozens of films from past OFFs. It’s a curated collection available on Hulu, Netflix, TubiTV and Amazon. Two inspiring documentaries to start with: Pick of the Litter and Biggest Little Farm. Full […]
It Takes a Village to Raze the Vile
Like trying to describe a dream to a friend or a game of telephone played by stoners, every synopsis of Bacurau contains elements of truth but is mostly nonsense. That is wholly intentional. Writers/directors Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho have whipped up a witches’ brew of old cliches and multiple genres that defies easy […]
Great Omaha Things to Do During Quarantine
by The Reader Writers In 26 years of publication, this is a first; with no events to cover, The Reader’s cultural team thought long and hard how about how to keep you connected with local arts and culture as you while away your time at home. Shifting our crowd-sourcing skills into high gear, we […]
Bars Were Dangerous Even Before COVID-19
The true miracle of Road House is that Patrick Swayze is able to spin-kick above his head while wearing pants that come up to his nipples. All hairstyles here are basically crime scene footage of how we once murdered the ozone layer. Every shirt on every character is a billowy fabric stolen from the corpse […]
Jagged Little Pills
Although the trope is screaming “Don’t go in there!” or “Look behind you!” in a horror movie, at some point in Swallow, you will feel physically compelled to shout “Do not put that in your mouth!” For the second time inside of a month, a sleek flick written and directed by a dude dabbles in […]
Uneven Elves on a Questionable Quest
For proprietary reasons “Toasted Os” can’t taste exactly like Cheerios and “Hillbilly Holler” doesn’t quite have the kick of Mountain Dew. Onward tastes more like a knockoff of a brand name, rather than a true Pixar picture. Despite having a dead dad central to its plot, it barely even tries to make its audience cry. […]
