Published Jan. 7, 2018 at ZekeFilm.org. Or, 10 Movies That Aren't Pirates of the Caribbean If my calculations are correct, 2017 was a fantastic year for movies. Yes, yes—any time this writer claims she did “calculations” should be suspect, but how else do you explain that I could have written about the top 30 movies of …
Invites Each year I host an annual Oscars watch party and create digital invitations for the event. Designed with Adobe InDesign. Guess the Dress Games In 2016 and 2017, I designed Guess the Dress games for partygoers. If nominees were featured in the game, they were noted with an asterisk* in 2016 and an Academy …
Designed for Cyclical LA in California and revised as needed with updated information from 2019 through 2021. Included are several variations requested to provide Cyclical with options for their various uses of the map design.
Published April 8, 2022 at ZekeFilm.org. Michael Bay’s Latest Bit of Majestic Chaos is High on Speed DIRECTOR: MICHAEL BAY/2022 Bay is back, baby! Okay, it hasn’t technically been that long since a new installment of Michael Bay’s singular vision of mayhem was released, but it’s been at least a decade since one felt like an event—perhaps the …
Published February 3, 2022 at ZekeFilm.org. Comedy Meets Tragedy in Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker Biopic DIRECTOR: MICHAEL SHOWALTER/2021 “Because he created everything, nothing he has created could possibly be needful to him for his existence. If it were, then like him, it would have always existed. Our God is self-sufficient, needed by all, needful …
Published January 9, 2022 at ZekeFilm.org. Adam McKay, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence Return for Disaster Comedy DIRECTOR: ADAM MCKAY/2021 Don’t Look Up is too long, too loose, and too heavy-handed, but with a cast like this, even a messy film can find great moments. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence return to the screen for the first …
Published November 1, 2021 at ZekeFilm.org. Wes Anderson’s Latest is Feast of Flavor and Fun DIRECTOR: WES ANDERSON/2021 Upon leaving my screening of The French Dispatch, the first thing I did was stop by the grocery store. Never mind that it was after 9 p.m.—I wanted fresh bread. After reviewing what was left in the bakery …
Published October 4, 2021 at ZekeFilm.org. George Peppard and Mary Tyler Moore Spread a Pandemic Worth Catching DIRECTOR: GEORGE SEATON/1968 BLU-RAY STREET DATE: AUGUST 24, 2021/KL STUDIO CLASSICS I cannot imagine a weirder movie to watch in 2021. The premise: An airborne virus appears in New York City thanks to a flying animal traveling from …
Continue reading "BLU-RAY REVIEW // What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968)"
Published April 18, 2021 at ZekeFilm.org. A Promising Debut from Emerald Fennell DIRECTOR: EMERALD FENNELL/2020 Here’s the first thing we learn about Cassandra Thomas: She’s an actress. We meet her in a pulsing nightclub, her bangs falling into glassy eyes and her head drooping into a skirt suit. She can’t find her phone and hops …
Published March 15, 2021 at ZekeFilm.org. Inside Out Meets Mr. Holland’s Opus in Pixar’s Latest—And Greatest? DIRECTORS: PETE DOCTER AND KEMP POWERS (CO-DIRECTOR)/2020 Plenty of thought (and many a joke) has been put into Pixar’s standard “what if” plot engines: What if monsters and superheroes were real? What if toys and cars were alive? What if bugs or fish or rats had feelings? Heck, what if feelings had feelings? …
Published Jan. 4, 2021 at ZekeFilm.org. Wonder Woman Brings the ’80s Back on HBO Max DIRECTOR: PATTY JENKINS/2020 Wonder Woman 1984 is the kind of movie you’re taken with start-to-finish but doesn’t hold up entirely upon reflection. Not that this is a “he loved Big Brother” realization, if for no other reason than the ties to …
Published April 13, 2019 at ZekeFilm.org. A Small Miracle of a Documentary in a Large Refugee Crisis DIRECTOR: HASSAN FAZILI/2019 On paper, I can’t believe this documentary works. A three-year journey? Sounds like an editing nightmare. Shot on mobile phones? Sounds like a headache to watch. One of life’s most difficult journeys from a first-person …
Published December 13, 2018 at ZekeFilm.org. You’ve Already Read This Review Because You’ve Already Seen Mortal Engines DIRECTED BY CHRISTIAN RIVERS/2018 (Insert attention-grabbing opener here.) I usually try to open with a plot summary, a question, a quote, a Hollywood trend, perhaps a personal anecdote. But with Mortal Engines, what’s the point? I’ve already written this review—several …
SO IT’S A SHOW is a biweekly podcast I produce and co-host. In each episode, we examine a pop culture reference from an episode of Gilmore Girls. This episode was published June 11, 2021. Eve Harrington has arrived in your earbuds…and at Yale? Rory is hosting a Chilton student Paris is sure we need to watch out …
Continue reading "PODCAST // SO IT’S A SHOW ep. 103: Eve Harrington has arrived. (All About Eve)"
SO IT’S A SHOW is a biweekly podcast I produce and co-host. In each episode, we examine a pop culture reference from an episode of Gilmore Girls. This episode was published April 16, 2021. Welcome to our 100th episode! In honor of this huge milestone, we’re learning about Rory’s journalism heroes. Who learned about boxing by hopping …
SO IT’S A SHOW is a biweekly podcast I produce and co-host. In each episode, we examine a pop culture reference from an episode of Gilmore Girls. This episode was published. Sept. 4, 2020. We feel the need…the need for beach volleyball! We’re going back to the ‘80s again for a closer look at Top Gun, the fighter jet blockbuster …
Continue reading "PODCAST // SO IT’S A SHOW ep. 87: There’s a band of Huns re-enacting Top Gun."
Published May 20, 2018 at ZekeFilm.org. Summer Movies are a Dangerous Business, and No One Knows It Better than Ishtar Ah, summertime. The season of long days and short shorts, of cool ice cream cones and humid afternoons at the pool, and—for us movie junkies—of box office-crushing blockbusters and box office-crushed flops. Movies can earn the epithet …
Continue reading "FEATURE // Waiting for a Legacy: Summer Movie Flops & Ishtar 31 Years Later"
Published May 14, 2018 at ZekeFilm.org. Reverse Taken Thriller is Cliché Fun DIRECTOR: JAMES MCTEIGUE/2018 “You have no clue what I’m capable of.” Oh, Shaun, but we do. Shaun (Gabrielle Union) is spending the weekend packing up the house she grew up in after her father’s death. Since her husband (Jason George) is stuck at work, …
Published April 4, 2018 as the first entry in a monthly series I manage at ZekeFilm.org. 3 Film Podcasts to Add to Your Queue You love movies? What a coincidence! So do we, and there’s an explosion of awesomeness happening in the world of film. The twist? It’s not all on the screen. More and …
Continue reading "FEATURE // Podcasts You’ll Love – April 2018"
Published March 4, 2018 at ZekeFilm.org. Why Edgar Wright and James Gunn Made the Best Musicals of 2017 The Jazz Singer to La La Land, Singin’ in the Rain to Sing Street, Meet Me in St. Louis to Moulin Rouge! Oscar isn’t the only one celebrating a major birthday this weekend—2017 also celebrated the 90th …
Continue reading "FEATURE // Baby Driver, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Modern Musical"
Published Feb. 12, 2018 at ZekeFilm.org. J.J. Abrams's Surprise Sequel Has That Cloverfield Je Ne Sais Quoi DIRECTOR: JULIUS ONAH/2018 When I wrote about 10 Cloverfield Lane almost two years ago, I marveled at J.J. Abrams pulling off a plot twist in real life. Releasing a surprise sequel with just two months of advertising? How novel! …
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