The phrase used to go something like, “Never talk about politics or religion at the dinner table.” In 2018, talking about that shit is child’s play compared to the danger of discussing Star Wars. All the clichés of classic partisan hackery haven’t just infiltrated pop-culture discussion—they now dominate it. Ever since Disney gave George Lucas […]
Bobby Roberts
Bobby Roberts is one of the Portland Mercury's calendar editors, as well as one of its film and pop-culture critics. His past career choices included joining corporate broadcast radio just in time for its death, and leaving the world of independent podcasting just before it blew up, but luckily for him there is nothing more stable in the 21st century than a career in alternative print media.
Posted inMovies & TV
A Guide to Getting the Most Out of Solo
Load Up Your Queue with Silverado, Atlanta, Fleabag, and More!
Load up your queue with Silverado, Atlanta, Fleabag, and more!
Posted inMovies & TV
Solo: A Star Wars Story Review: This Movie Shouldn’t Work. It Does.
Now When Does Lando Get His Own Movie?
Now when does Lando get his own movie?
Posted inMovies & TV
The Mercury‘s Favorite Movies of 2017: Get Out
Although first-time writer/director Jordan Peele is known primarily as a sketch comedian, Get Out is not a comedy. After the film was nominated as one for a Golden Globe, film writers started a little Twitter brushfire over whether or not the nomination made sense (it doesn’t), prompting Peele to respond: “At the end of the […]
Posted inMovies & TV
A Good Film Score Has Focus, Flow, Rhythm, and Drive. Score: A Film Music Documentary Has None of Those Things.
Of all the pieces that must interlock just so for a film to have even a hope of working, the element that’s closest to pure magic isn’t the visual effects. Nor is it the cinematography or the editing. Hell, it’s not even the acting. Counterintuitive as it may seem, when you think of the most […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Alien: Covenant Is Less Ambitious Than Prometheus, But Also Less Pretentious and Stupid
When last we saw David, Michael Fassbender’s mad scientist android from Prometheus, he was a decapitated head in a bag, carried onto an alien spaceship by a woman he’d just helped impregnate with a squid monster. As Prometheus ended, this odd couple set off into space, seeking the grunting, black-eyed muscle gods responsible for seeding […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Beast Is Back in Alien: Covenant
Meet the New Alien, Same as the Old Alien
Meet the new Alien, same as the old Alien.
Posted inMovies & TV
Of Life, Loss, Princess Leia, and the Crushing Weight of 2016
Carrie Fisher died the morning of December 27. She had suffered cardiac arrest four days earlier on a plane taking her back to Los Angeles for the holidays. She was an advocate for women and for mental health issues. She was an acclaimed writer and she was a beloved actress. She was Princess Leia. She […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Rage Against the Machine
The Old Hope of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
The old hope of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Posted inElection 2016
No Faith in the Faithless: These “Heroic” Half-Measures are Doomed to Fail
iStock/Bill Oxford The Electoral College as designed by Alexander Hamilton is meant to be the last defense against a demagogue’s ascension to our country’s most powerful position. This scenario has never truly come into play before this year and as such its utility as a viable option has been almost unanimously derided as unrealistic, dangerous, […]
Posted inNews
A Quick List of Prominent Conservatives Who Have Spoken Out Against Neo-Nazis in the Republican Party
On November 21st, the Atlantic posted a video of neo-Nazi members of the National Policy Institute sieg heiling as “alt-right” figurehead Richard B. Spencer gave a speech questioning the humanity of Jewish people and describing America as a “white country designed for ourselves and our posterity.” One might think this would be a prime opportunity […]