“44 Inch Chest”: secondhand embarrassment galore
Watching “44 Inch Chest” is like being stuck in a bad karaoke bar with a pissed up divorcee screeching through “Without You” before breaking down into a crumpled heap on stage. Imagine...
Martha Coakley’s failure is a symptom of a larger problem
There's plenty of blame to go around for Martha Coakley's defeat at Scott Brown’s hands in the Massachusetts Senate race. Let's start with Coakley herself. She ran a pathetic campaign. Starting out...
Paul Chambers: “privacy is dead, get over it” is not good enough
China's snooping on dissidents is unfortunate but unsurprising, but Western governments – and businesses – need to get out of our private communications, too. Last week a British man, Paul...
Ukraine election: Yulia Tymoshenko is NOT the Ukrainian Sarah Palin
When history is being made, you focus on the mundane details, such as the snow that swirled down on election day in Kyiv. At the local voting precinct, the first representatives of the electorate to...
After the earthquake, Haiti needs more than your latte money
Media images appear to be prime motivation this week in a collective, mobilized response underscored by Western guilt. Bombarded with dust-covered corpses, blood and broken bones, and bodies rotting...
“The Book of Eli”: Denzel Washington – still got it
Another day, another apocalypse. This time it’s the turn of that sporadic directing team, the Hughes Brothers, to unleash the fire and brimstone upon the good ol' US of A. The instrument of their...
From Google to “Free Tibet”: an image of big, bad, horrific China
The latest move by internet search behemoth Google is to pull the plug on its Chinese operations. The tech outfit had a hissy fit when it discovered the Chinese government had infiltrated its servers...
Response to Haiti’s earthquake: from urgent aid to “pacts with the devil”
Relief efforts throughout the globe are being organized to support Haiti as it recovers from the most severe earthquake disaster (7.0 magnitude) in over two centuries. Though official counts are...
“A Prophet”: is it too early to call Film of the Year?
Sometimes movie gets it so right you want grab the screen by its imaginary collars and drag it passionately toward you. For a fleeting, transitory moment, the film is yours and yours alone; it’s...
Mexican culture wars: abortion, same-sex marriage & the PRI’s confusion
With the all the newspaper ink dedicated to a historic economic decline and record-breaking figures for drug murders, there's not been a lot of leftover attention for polarizing social issues in...