Matt James, the first Black man to lead the dating show “The Bachelor,” started the 25th season with a record number of contestant applications and love from the dedicated #BachelorNation. The fantasy was cut short, however, when pictures of contestant Rachael Kirkconnell at an “antebellum-themed ...
Since 2013’s “Frozen,” Disney has demonstrated a conscious attempt at steering toward material with greater socio-political significance, shedding the archetypal characters of Western medieval romances and diversifying their stories. Who says the damsel in distress needs a dashing knight-errant? ...
The artist documentary appears to be a deceptively simple concept. It’s all too easy to assume that if you follow a superstar around with a camera for long enough, you’ll stumble upon depth and greatness. Take Shawn Mendes’ “In Wonder” from earlier this year. What was marketed as a revealing ...
Earnest but often unrealistic, Amy Poehler’s “Moxie” misses the mark on its attempt to communicate revolutionary feminism within a modern high school. Based on the young adult novel by Jennifer Matheiu, the recent Netflix original film “Moxie,” released March 3, tells the story of Vivian ...
Written and directed by Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland'' is a simultaneously intimate and effusive meditation on the stratum of unsettled Americans. These nomads are often flippantly deemed the outcome of some sort of failure, be it economic dissolution or domestic upheaval. Zhao’s film challenges this ...
Why do we love to watch sociopaths? The ordinary couch potato would likely run for the hills if they were to knowingly pass by one on the street, and yet we can’t seem to look away from them on-screen. “I Care A Lot,” directed by J Blakeson, suspects our corporatized culture may have something ...
“Minari” opens with the American heartland flitting past the inquisitive faces of 6-year-old David (newcomer Alan S. Kim) and his older sister, Anne (Noel Kate Cho). The young boy eventually dozes off, but the mother, Monica (Yeri Han), wears an expression of growing unease as she drives the beat-up ...
Virginia Woolf wasn’t very online. Neither was Jane Austen, nor Joan Didion. Even Zadie Smith, who started writing after the internet’s inception, has sworn off Twitter. To be an author is to remove yourself from the Discourse — the chorus of opinions and commentary circulating throughout media ...
From the opening notes of Ignorance, the album is a culmination of Tamara Lindeman’s musical efforts. Using an avant-garde blend of jazz and folk, Toronto-based Lindeman has produced a piece of work that perfectly encapsulates the often harsh realities of present-age climate anxieties. Formed in ...
With no end in sight to COVID-19, K-pop luminaries are offering some long-awaited escapist relief from pandemic doldrums with two of the biggest female soloists in the industry, HyunA and IU, returning with a heartfelt embrace of selfhood and all its imperfections. HyunA’s seventh Mini-Album “I’m ...
In 1964, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart tried to define a legal threshold for detecting pornography: “I know it when I see it,” he wrote. Yet the average American television watcher these days doesn’t have the luxury of Justice Stewart’s discerning eye, and the border between intimate ...
Released on Feb. 5, South Korean girl group Aespa’s second single “Forever” is a sweet, polished rendition of SM Entertainment Songwriter and Producer Yoo Young-jin’s early 2000s original. The soft ballad’s late-winter feel is a distinct change from Aespa’s debut single “Black Mamba,” ...
In July 2020, Taylor Swift released her surprise album, “folklore,” which became the saving grace of an otherwise tragic year for many fans. Refreshingly different from her recent pop albums, “folklore” combined indie-folk with Swift’s trademark country narrative to form an enduring and authentic ...
Maggie Rogers appeared on the music scene seemingly overnight. Blink and you probably would have missed it. As the story goes, she got her big break in a master class session with Pharell Williams at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute where she played a recording of the now-hit song ‘Alaska’ ...
If you haven’t heard her on the radio or listened to her talk show, you’ve probably seen her picture online, crying, fainting or smirking. Wendy Williams, the radio shock jock turned daytime talk show host turned everlasting meme, reports on celebrities while being one herself. The weight those ...
Twenty-year-old Arlo Parks released her first full length album Jan. 27, “Collapsed in Sunbeams,” a beautiful series of reflections on love, hope and hopelessness. “I wanted to create an avalanche of imagery,” the British singer-songwriter said in an interview with Apple Music. “I’ve always ...
Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Ramin Bahrani (“Man Push Cart,” “Chop Shop,” “99 Homes”), “The White Tiger” is a darkly satirical rags-to-riches tale that reveals the ugliness behind India’s entrenched social hierarchy and explores the underdog’s retaliation against the inequitable ...
The 2021 return of Saturday Night Live featured first-time host John Krasinski ’01 and musical guest Machine Gun Kelly for a refreshing episode on Jan. 30. Krasinski was originally scheduled to host in March 2020 to coincide with the release of his film “A Quiet Place Part II,” but his hosting ...
Why do Americans worship at the altar of the tortured genius? “The Queen’s Gambit,” written and directed by Scott Frank and released last October, answers this question and more in a strikingly gripping fashion. Perhaps we demand an explanation — or better yet a sacrifice — for greatness, ...
On Feb. 25, 1964, the budding Cassius Clay (Eli Goree) defeated Sonny Liston to earn the title of heavyweight boxing champion in an upset victory. After Clay’s astounding win, NFL star fullback Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) envisioned that the two would go to a luxury hotel to celebrate the victory with ...
Solutions by The State News
