After all the cheap headlines and media celebrity stalking courtesy of Art Basel, Miami’s party town persona is the one most on everyone’s minds. Thankfully, Ovation was in town to capture some of the city’s meatier attributes with a new show, American Canvas, that sniffs out the most culturally unique…
Hospitals are depressing. Until recently, medical shows glossed over this basic fact of life by focusing on the most glamorous clique within them: doctors. For the past two decades, the upwardly mobile audience identification integral to most TV shows taught us to look away from the bedpans and sheaves of…
Flip open your Bibles to Numbers 12:3 to find the first inaccuracy in Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings. “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth,” sayeth the Good Book of our hero, played by Christian Bale, an…
The heavens dance. From the bottom of the world, where your eyes might freeze in your face, we see stars pulse against seams of luminous dust, all in slow and dizzying rotation. Then come the lights: Ribbons of green unspool and shimmer and whip across the sky, suggesting angels and…
The biggest laugh I heard from the audience at my screening of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies came from seven words in the end credits: “Based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien.” Just picture that tweedy Oxford philologist nodding in pleased approval at this adaptation of his…
Whatever it is Americans want out of life — and it’s not even something we can precisely define ourselves — it was nowhere in evidence on December 3, when a grand jury failed to indict the police officer whose chokehold killed Eric Garner in July. We all know we live…
We begin this week’s Voice Film Club podcast with a Thomas Pynchon story, before hosts Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek of the Village Voice, and Amy Nicholson of LA Weekly, move onto Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie adaption of his novel, Inherent Vice. It’s “in some ways a godawful mess, indulgent…
Following in the awesome footsteps of years past, films from the Miami-centric Borscht Film Festival are making national waves. Sundance announced today that two of Borscht’s featured short films for 2014 have been selected to screen at the illustrious Sundance Film Festival next year: Papa Machete and El Sol Como…
Hospitals are depressing. Until recently, medical shows glossed over this basic fact of life by focusing on the most glamorous clique within them: doctors. For the past two decades, the upwardly mobile audience identification integral to most TV shows taught us to look away from the bedpans and sheaves of…
There’s only a week left before Borscht opens it doors. Get psyched up by enjoying this teaser of their upcoming films. There are conjoined twins, bodybuilders, sandwich meat, and vomiting. What’s not to love? See more: Borscht Film Festival Announces 2014 Lineup…
As the year comes to a close and January makes its way into our lives — with both award season buzz and junk that studios want to dump — the Miami Jewish Film Festival is ready to launch. And it has plenty of gems in its lineup. Just over a…
Much like many Cubans in South Florida who longed for and spoke often of the pre-Castro Cuba of their memories, Miami-bred, Los Angeles based artist Stephanie Hutin is fixated on the pubescent period in her youth. It’s a place in time that is so unique, she says, “You cannot understand…
To outsiders, the tears of Penn State fans seem pretty far down the list of tragedies ramified by the Jerry Sandusky case, in which a celebrated assistant coach was convicted of molesting young boys. In Happy Valley, a rich and troubling documentary about the case and its fallout, we see…
When we’re little, the things we want so badly in our miniaturized here-and-now are often impossible for grownups to understand. That’s certainly the case with the 9-year-old boy at the center of Venezuelan writer-director Mariana Rondón’s Bad Hair: Junior (Samuel Lange), a kid growing up in a rough housing complex…
Tales of the Old West continue to make up a significant portion of our cultural narrative, mostly because we still like to comfort ourselves with stories showing that ours is a land of opportunity. Making the trek to the American frontier promised a new life, or at the very least…
Bill Cosby’s present is secure. Despite the 17 women (so far) who have publicly come forward with notably similar allegations of drug-enabled sexual assault, the comedian received standing ovations for his stand-up performances in the Bahamas and in Florida recently. His comeback tour will likely continue over the next few…
While AholSniffsGlue’s signature sleepy eyes are popping up all over town for Miami Art Week, the Borscht Film Festival is showcasing one of his more personal artistic stories for their December film line-up. Biscayne World, AholSniffsGlue’s film collaboration with Borscht, recounts when the artist was the victim of a hit-and-run…
The Borscht Corp. has been rolling out the announcements of late, including its commissioned short film line-up at this year’s Borscht 9. The annual film festival dedicated to all things Miami is boasting a bunch of new events amid the usual screening fun. In addition to the works by regional…
Garfield creator Jim Davis is well aware of the internet’s cat obsession. In fact, he’s got an upcoming strip about it. “But if I told you the joke, I’d have to kill you,” he deadpans, before cracking his paternal composure with a chuckle. (He did tell me, and I’ve chosen…
The third-greatest scourge of the Earth, right after online comments sections and bedbugs, is the unfunny comedy sequel, which might be why you think you should skip Horrible Bosses 2. The miraculous surprise is that Horrible Bosses 2 isn’t terrible at all. It’s looser, breezier, and more confident than its…
If we’re honest, most of us who relish a good horror film don’t actually hope to feel something like horror. The appeal is, instead, that of shock and surprise, all candied up, the crowd-pleasing bits staged with the kind of extended setup/payoff patience that the makers of comedies have long…
The experience of being eluded by Jean-Luc Godard has its consolations, foremost among them the 83-year-old director’s prerogative to elude. If a Godard film appears held together by random imagery, whispered non sequiturs, and a roll of duct tape, that’s exactly the point. To muddle through confusion, boredom, vaguely formed…
