Media Matters Archive
A Most Violent Year
Instead of films that provide character studies of snipers who lose their humanity but are depicted as heroes, let’s watch character studies that make us think deeply about what it means to be an honorable person.
The Stray Birds
While The Stray Birds fit into the folk tradition, most of the songs don’t seem to cut into deep political ideas like those of former generations’ folk singers.
Not based on a true story
You just can’t include everything and every nuance. And directors of dramatic films are interested in a dramatic story that fits their larger vision.
MasterChef and Master Chef Junior
These are not kids making boxed mac and cheese with sliced hot dogs. They’re throwing out terms like chimmichurri, deconstructed, and branzino and cook restaurant-quality dishes with unique ingredients.
Selma
Selma brings the stakes of being black in the American South to life with horrific clarity.
Best Films of 2014
Three of our Media Matters reviewers offer their “Top Ten” lists for 2014, each in their own format.
Big Eyes
In an attempt to sell their paintings, Walter takes credit for Margaret’s work, which becomes phenomenally successful, to the chagrin of art critics who consider the paintings nothing but kitsch.
Two Intelligent Men
Two recent releases, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything, offer glimpses into the lives of two British geniuses, Alan Turing and Stephen Hawking. With the exposure of Turing’s homosexuality, I expected that narrative to have more emotional intensity and a more clearly articulated point of view. I was wrong. As Hawking says in one of the final scenes of the film when asked if he believes in God, which most of his research has seemed to open the possibility of, “To live is to have hope.” The Imitation Game, based on the story of Alan Turing, exposes the […]
Matthew’s 2014 Media Matters Mix Tape
In the spirit of my National Mid-Year Music Award Day in July, I made up fake awards for these 14 songs. The awards may be bogus but the songs are legitimate winners.
Antarctica: A Year on Ice
These are the people who choose alternative paths—people whose cold-nipped faces blaze with life and a self-deprecating sense of humor over their love affair with a place that, in winter time, brews the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane every week.
