The last time we saw Neill Blomkamp, he was fresh off the success of “District 9,” the 2009 summer sleeper hit that combined slick visuals and action with biting social commentary. Four years ago seems like an awfully long time. “Elysium” is a good movie the same way “Twilight” is Read More…
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, an annual event seeking to promote “awareness, appreciation and pride in the diversity of the Jewish people,” kicked off this past week with a variety of showings across the Bay, including the July 27 screening of Alex Karpovsky’s “Red Flag” at San Francisco’s Castro Read More…
Nicolas Winding Refn, the Danish director of “Drive” and “Valhalla Rising,” has produced his most complex and fascinating work yet in his new release “Only God Forgives,” in theaters Aug. 2. Starring Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas and Thai newcomers Vithaya Pansringarm and Yayaying Rhatha Phongam, the drama is a Read More…
While many are distrustful of tech giants like Google and Facebook because of their part in the recent NSA surveillance scandal, it would probably pass you by completely were you to shell out cash for “The Internship,” the new buddy comedy reuniting “Wedding Crashers” stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. Read More…
Editor’s note: Noah Kulwin is a member of J Street U at UC Berkeley. As word broke yesterday that ASUC President Connor Landgraf would not veto SB 160, the divestment bill targeting companies involved in Israeli human rights violations, which passed in the ASUC last week, I was not sure Read More…
News broke last week that in response to the United States’ ban on 18 Russian officials from entering the country, the Russian government announced a ban on 18 Americans from entering Russia. The grounds? The Russian government reportedly stated that these Americans were responsible for the “legalization of torture” during Read More…
Early twentieth century Russian filmmaker Dziga Vertov once observed that “everybody who cares for his art seeks the essence of his own technique.” Director Shane Carruth’s sophomore effort, the new film “Upstream Color,” strikes directly at this exploration; it is a sprawling, emotionally wrought movie whose abstract plot seems less Read More…
The Internet has been a fun place this week. Well, fun is relative. It was probably fun if you, like me, avoided the scores of CalSERVE, Student Action and SQUELCH! Facebook posts and messages that accumulated in the week before election day. If you lingered on Facebook with “Thrift Shop” Read More…
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, disgruntled high school senior Suzy Lee Weiss discusses how the college process is unfair. In the op-ed, Weiss connects how colleges tell applicants to “just be yourself” to how these three words break the backs of all college seniors who do not have Read More…
This week was a big one for advocates of marriage equality. On Friday, Ohio senator Rob Portman endorsed same-sex marriage, citing his own son’s coming out as the basis for his change of heart. Then on Monday, former Secretary of State and one-time Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton threw her Read More…
