Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1
Film review by: Witney Seibold
I have to qualify this review right up front by stating that I actually did have a good time with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1,” and think that the filmmaking is perfectly adequate; David Yates seems to be improving as a director. So all of my ranting and complaining below are more of a general complaint than a nitpick on this film in particular. (more…)
The Series Project: Rocky
Film article by: Witney Seibold
This article has been, much to my delight, been picked up by the website CraveOnline, and will appear in two installments on that site. Thanks for following it here, but it will have new life elsewhere. (more…)
127 Hours
Film review by: Witney Seibold
By the time you’ve read this, it’s likely you’ve already heard the story: Aron Ralston trekked alone into the mountains of Utah. While shimmying down into a crevice, a rock above him came loose, fell, and pinned his arm against the cliff face. (more…)
Fair Game (2010)
Film review by: Witney Seibold
Doug Liman‘s “Fair Game” tells the well-documented story of Valerie Plame, the undercover CIA agent who, in an act of petty vengeance by slighted politician “Scooter” Libby, was outed to the public, and blamed for a lot of the non-committal answers from Washington regarding the lack of WMDs in Iraq back in 2003. (more…)
The Top-10 Imaginary Sports
Article by: Witney Seibold
The sport of American football is baffling to me. I was never a very athletic kid (despite my participation in an organized judo team), and I rarely participated in any sort of playful backyard sport that had any rules. (more…)
The Top-10 Films that Should Have Been Franchises
Article by: Witney Seibold
Aside from the conversations that begins with “Who would win in a fight?,” geeks like me can spend countless hours dreaming about expanded sequels that never were. (more…)
The Social Network
Film review by: Witney Seibold
“You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.”
-Dialogue spoken to Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) in “The Social Network” (more…)
Inside Job
Film review by: Witney Seibold
Like his brilliant “No End in Sight,” Charles Ferguson‘s “Inside Job” (narrated by Matt Damon) takes a massively complicated and hotly contested piece of recent history – in this case the 2008 financial collapse – and makes it seem, for brief moments, kind of understandable. Of course, part of his point is that modern economics has become so forcefully and deliberately complex and oblique, that no one is supposed to be able to follow it, making sure that the CEOs and investment bilkers in charge of the whole mess can continue to give themselves huge millions-of-dollars bonuses. (more…)
Waste Land
Film review by: Witney Seibold
Vik Muniz is a Brazilian-born artist living in New York. His latest idea is to go to a place called Jardim Gramacho, a landfill just outside of Rio de Janeiro, and make art from the garbage found there.He intends to give all the money made from the art back to the locals in an attempt to “give back” to the people. (more…)
Gerrymandering
Film review by: Witney Seibold
In the 18th century, there was a Massachusetts politician named Eldrich Gerry (pronounced with a hard “g”), who was the first to redraw electoral district lines to suit his own political interests, and assure that he could win his district by making sure in contained all his supporters. (more…)
