What is the value of a comforting lie? That’s the question at the heart of Last Flag Flying, Richard Linklater’s sort-of sequel to 1973’s The Last Detail, in which three Vietnam vets reunite after decades apart to bury a casualty of the Iraq War. None of them can quite agree on how much truth can […]
Ben Coleman
Hello! I am a freelancer for the paper. I cover movies mostly, but sometimes video games, comic books, and whatever else comes up.
Posted inMovies & TV
The Questions of Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying
A Film with No Easy Answers
A film with no easy answers.
Posted inMovies & TV
The Found Footage Festival: An Unpredictable Trip into the Weird World of Video
The Found Footage Festival has been around for well over a decade, touring the country with an analog aficionado’s selection of pan-and-scan VHS ephemera. Unlike a lot of underground/bootleg/nostalgia-based shows, which typically depend on raw enthusiasm and audience discomfort, FFF’s productions are clever, tightly edited montages without any distortion or remixing—think of them as a […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Discovering VHS Relics with the Found Footage Festival
An Unpredictable Trip into the Weird World of Video
An unpredictable trip into the weird world of video.
Posted inMovies & TV
Thank You for Your Service Deglamorizes Modern Warfare
A War Movie That Takes Place Off the Battlefield and Out of Uniform
A war movie that takes place off the battlefield and out of uniform.
Posted inMovies & TV
The Foreigner Review: God Bless You, Jackie Chan
Here’s what The Foreigner looks like: Taken, but with Jackie Chan. But if you walk into the theater expecting either a Taken knockoff or a typical Jackie Chan vehicle, you’re going to be disappointed. Which is a shame, because The Foreigner is really interesting—just not for the sort of reasons that fit into a trailer.
Posted inMovies & TV
The Foreigner: Jackie Chan Versus Pierce Brosnan!
God Bless you, Jackie Chan.
God bless you, Jackie Chan.
Posted inMovies & TV
The Mountain Between Us: It’s a Metaphor, and Also an Actual Mountain
How much time do you want to spend with Idris Elba and Kate Winslet on a mountain? That’s the only question you need to ask yourself here. “I’d listen to Morgan Freeman read the phone book!” is a common refrain, but would you? Would you really? I bet it’d be kinda boring. That was my […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Mountain Between Us: Stranded on a Mountain with Idris Elba and Kate Winslet
That Lady from Titanic Can’t Catch a Break!
That lady from Titanic can’t catch a break!
Posted inFashion
Woodshock: Fashion Designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy Attempt a Lynchian Neo-Noir
A poem isn’t a poem just because it rhymes, right? I’m not a poetry guy, but I feel like I learned that in school. A poem is a poem because the words used—and the words omitted—create an aesthetic and emotional quality beyond the words themselves. That’s a thought I kept coming back to while watching […]
Posted inFashion
A Fashionable, Hollow Woodshock
Empty Poetry and Instagram Aesthetics
Empty poetry and Instagram aesthetics.
Posted inScience!
The Laws of God and Man Are Suspended During an Eclipse. Plan Accordingly.
NASA Now, I’m not a big-city lawyer, or indeed, any kind of lawyer at all, or even the resident of a big city. But there’s nothing in any law book that says I can’t offer my fellow citizens a morsel of well-informed legal advice. Which is as follows: Buckle. The. Fuck. Up. Because the laws […]