John Lichman claims he is a writer that lives in Brooklyn, but in fact was forced to adopt that title and a pair of black square glasses when he first moved to New York. Originally planning to become something or other at NYU, he became a by-product of the J-School and had the crazy notion one could combine reporting and film. This failed horribly. So interned at Cracked Magazine, MSNBC and has written for The Reeler, Stream Magazine, AM NY before winding up at The House Next Door where he co-hosts the HND@Grassroots podcast. He's convinced that anime is a viable art form and not just children's cartoons designed to push toys and merchandise (even though it is.) He's been cited as the Andy Kaufman of journalism, the Rorschach of party flirting and embodiment of Joseph Campbell's collective unconscious.
For most people, this week’s release of Dragonball Evolution means nothing more than a masculine counter-part to the madness that will be The Hannah Montana Movie. They may have a passing familiarity with the source material and a cursory knowledge that it’s “based off one of them Japanese cartoons” due to the spiky hair synonomous [...]
It’s strange to watch the transition of an actor from a bit part to burgeoning indie darling and whirling media-dervish. But it’s oddly appropriate for Paul Dano, the 24-year old who is well on his way to awkwardly smiling and shyly introducing himself into your life before brutally attacking your conceptions of what it means [...]
In a warped way, it’s now comforting to see our childhood heroes be every bit as deranged and disappointed as we are, as adults, with the real world. Like The Venture Brothers’ sense of a future gone horribly mundane, DERRICK Comedy’s debut feature Mystery Team turns childhood dreams into a darkly funny hypothetical: what if [...]
It certainly is a weird time to be a creative user of YouTube, as robotic programs troll user data in search of copyright materials, putting the users who submit it at risk of being banned or silenced. But over the course of nearly two years, Michael Agrusso has steadily picked up a die-hard geek following [...]
Comic conventions seem like the perfect place for nerdy debates that will end long-standing issues once and for all: The Juggernaut vs. The Blob, the Star Trek “Captain Debate” (Kirk vs. Picard vs. Sisqo vs. Janeway) or–randomly enough–who are the greatest bad-asses in modern cinema?
When MTV’s Movies Blog asked the question nearly a month ago, [...]
HEY EVERYONE!
GUESS WHAT!
THE TINY ASIAN SCHOOL GIRL CAN KICK REALLY HIGH! HOW HIGH? SO HIGH.
KAWAII HIGH.
Oh yes, I expect everyone to take this film so seriously. Even after reading the plot. Seriously, this is like someone actually made Cockpuncher.
Also, Dear Grady Hendrix and Subway Cinema crew:
Bring it to the 2009 New York Asian [...]
These days, it seems like everyone is going on and on about “IMAX this” and “3-D Special Release that.” Even the lede to this article is so utterly bored by it that it resorts to one of the laziest tricks in writing. Just like the current state of gimmick cinema that is desperate to recoup [...]
Ever have a moment where you, Gentle Reader, have seen a video and chuckled to yourself, “Wow. What a lame film. Who’d ever watch that?” But slowly it dawns on you that the film seems a bit too familiar. That you’ve laughed at this before–but can’t remember how or when. Like the frightening day after [...]
We know you can hardly wait until My Bloody Valentine decide to come back, but at least the tacky My Bloody Valentine 3D comes out in two weeks! (Send your friend a “bloody valentine” over the Internet! Or, you know, don’t.)
Luckily, this clip from the 3D “masterpiece” that detail just how subtle and scary a [...]
Out of all the cinematic staples, the so-called “magical negro” is the worst to define and discuss due to it being the mother of all loaded terms. A catch-all phrase used to describe how African-Americans in film tend to be superhuman physically, spiritually or both, it’s currently in the midst of the pop cultural [...]
Ramen is a tricky subject to most Americans. On one hand, it means “Cup Noodle,” 24 packages for $2 and ingesting more sodium than once thought humanly possible. On the other, it’s downright delicious when served properly and with things aside from the dried peas or “flavor packets” that come with the cheap versions. (If [...]
It is a crime in this day and age not to occasionally check in on Jeffrey Wells’ Hollywood Elsewhere, with topics ranging from billboard photos, blind item brunches and oddly angry political rants against apathetic teenagers.
Wells is a classic mix of online reactionary and keen insight, peppered with various “what the fuck” moments and the [...]
Man, New Year’s Eve was totally awesome. I made sandwiches, drank Holiday punch and then stumbled home calling up friends of mine in California to tell them they should come over for brunch. Yes, there is nothing quite as awesome as the sad, drunken spectacle that is New Year’s Eve.
Unless you’re Kathy Griffin — then [...]
Andy Warhol is responsible for a multitude of things: pop art resurgence, making the “Edie Sedgwick” a hipster Halloween costume and paving the way for the Club Kids in 1980s New York.
And here he is interviewing Steven Spielberg in an undisclosed hotel room as–oddly enough–Bianca Jagger interjects every so often. It’s a brief, weird 1:55 [...]
There really is no demand for a sequel to Street Fighter, the video game-to-film adaptation that had the sad distinction of being Raul Julia’s final film. And while the franchise is alive and well through parody (College Humor’s Street Fighter: The Later Years) and a fourth–technically 15th–videogame spin-off, one must stop and wonder: who [...]
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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