Did your teachers ever give you shit for using the word “nice” in your written assignments? Well, Green Book is a nice movie, and I’m a professional writer now, so the joke’s on you, teachers! That’s really the only word for it: nice. Green Book tells the supposedly true story of a Black jazz pianist, […]
Ned Lannamann
Ned Lannamann is a writer and editor in Portland, Oregon. He writes about film, music, TV, books, travel, tech, food, drink, outdoors, and other things.
Posted inBooks
AMC’s The Little Drummer Girl Is Complicated, and So Are My Feelings About It
Jonathan Olley/AMC/Ink Factory I still can’t make up my mind about The Little Drummer Girl. In a few ways, I’m disappointed by it. But in others, I’m unsettled and intrigued—I can’t stop thinking about it, and this is a much better place to end up than the vast, empty chasms of pleasant indifference. I’m fascinated […]
Posted inMusic
The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Electric Ladyland Turns 50
’Tis the season for inflated, bonus-laden editions of incredibly familiar albums! (And tedious reviews of them, too—see here, here, here, here, and here.) With several formative works in the classic-rock canon reaching the half-century mark, record labels are squeezing the last drops out of physical media before it disappears completely, and while that’s generally good […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Today’s Must-Read Portland Food Story: How Too Much Acclaim Killed Stanich’s
Stanich’s, still closed. Google Maps An article about a Portland restaurant went up on Thrillist today and is already being shared far and wide. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s a fascinating and soul-searching piece about how the internet ruins everything and life is terrible and nothing gold can stay. But mostly, it’s about […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Front Runner Review: The Politics of the Past Can Teach Us Nothing
The Front Runner doesn’t really know what to make of Gary Hart. That’s to the movie’s credit, I think—the Colorado senator who made a bid for the presidency in 1987 is neither hailed as a mistreated, martyred political genius nor condemned as a sleazebag whom the press caught cheating on his wife. Played by Hugh […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Widows Review: Steve McQueen’s Heist Thriller Is a Full Meal of a Movie
Arriving a week before Thanksgiving, Widows is an overflowing plateful of entertainment, piled high with juicy plot, buttery performances, and plenty of sweet genre pie. It’s a mash-up of pulp and prestige that shouldn’t work well on paper, but plays out tremendously well onscreen. Director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) co-wrote the twisty script […]
Posted inNews
D.B. Cooper Is the Northwest Skyjacking Conspiracy That Keeps on Giving
A sketch of D.B. Cooper. dbcoopercon.com Oregon’s favorite skyjacking conspiracy—and the only unsolved airplane hijacking in US history—just got a shot of new life this morning through a longform piece by the Oregonian. Author and true crime journalist Douglas Perry breaks down a new theory about exactly who D.B. Cooper was, with unexamined evidence and […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Q&A with Writer/Director Joel Edgerton on Gay Conversion Drama Boy Erased
Joel Edgerton might not be the first person you’d expect to make a movie based on Boy Erased, Garrard Conley’s memoir of his experience in gay conversion therapy. The writer/director has steadily staked a claim as a reliably terrific actor in action- and suspense-oriented fare; see Warrior, Zero Dark Thirty, Midnight Special, and It Comes […]
Posted inMusic
The Beatles’ White Album Turns 50, and Now There’s a Lot More of It to Hear
© Apple Corps Ltd. Classic rock may be on the wane as a cultural force, but as the box-office success of Bohemian Rhapsody and the continuing deluge of deluxe reissues of old albums prove, it’s certainly not on the wane as a commercial one. Just in time, 1968’s two-ton beast, The Beatles (usually referred to […]
Posted inMusic
Iron Maiden Is Coming to Portland for the First Time in More Than Three Decades
Iron Maiden has announced the 2019 dates for their “Legacy of the Beast” tour, and devil be praised, one of those dates is Portland, Oregon. The British metal band will be playing Moda Center on Friday, September 6, 2019, so lock in those Labor Day weekend plans now. It’s their first time playing in the […]
Posted inPodcast
The Second Annual Portland Podcast Festival Hits Your Ears This Weekend
The Portland Podcast Festival kicks off tonight! Since you’re alive in the year 2018, you definitely listen to podcasts, so you owe it to yourself to check out the one made right here in your hometown. The two-night affair starts at the Landmark with six great Portland podcasts in front of a live audience, then […]
Posted inUncategorized
Writer/Director Joel Edgerton Talks About the Real-Life Gay Conversion Therapy Drama Boy Erased
A Q&A with Joel Edgerton about translating Garrard Conley’s memoir to the screen.