Zombies and vampires, zombies and vampires -- sure, we're entering Dias de los Muertos, but the undead are crawling all over popular culture these nights. "Twilight" to "Tru-Blood," "Zombieland" to "Fox News," the undead are back with a vengeance. But,…
This "Illegal Alien" costume has been pulled from a number of stores because, in the words of one immigration rights activist, it is "distasteful, mean-spirited, and ignorant of social stigmas and current debate on immigration reform." I don't know what…
Here's a wickedly perceptive analysis from John Scalzi at Whatever about how the Obama administration is playing Fox News. Scalzi says that the White House is "delighted" that Fox has skewed so far to the right, and knows that by…
A scholarly study finds it was the 43rd president's personality, not brain capacity, that limited his functional abilities. This is an important distinction. It is not that the former chief executive was incapable of learning (the "Bush is dumb" meme),…
The big news is that TLRHB (That Little Round-Headed Boy) is back! And here he is, asking some pertinent questions about the art and craft of acting in response to Hilary Swank's comment in the Los Angeles Times: "You can't…
Is there supposed to be a connection here? 1) Frank Rich, New York Times, "In Defense of the 'Balloon Boy' Dad" (October 24, 2009): There's also some poignancy in his determination to grab what he and many others see as…
Barron's reports, "This Dying Medium Has Plenty of Life": Recent hysteria over the imminent demise of daily newspapers is misplaced. As an economic matter, most newspapers still are far more profitable than other, higher-profile consumer media. As a policy matter,…
A series of connections: Director Mary Harron, on working with Christian Bale to develop the character of Patrick Bateman in "American Psycho": "We talked about how Martian-like Patrick Bateman was, how he was looking at the world like somebody from…
In his groovy new iPhone app movie guide, my friend Leonard Maltin writes that "Where the Wild Things Are" "puts me in an awkward situation as someone who is supposed to deliver a clear-cut opinion of a film: I didn't…
Two of the better fest trailers I've seen, from the 2009 Vancouver International Film Festival: Sex after the jump:
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