Arts

J&STAC: the Lingo

Leave a Comment

-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

As any industry or medium grows, it develops jargon — language that fans, practitioners, and others “in the know” understand, but can be an obstacle for new fans and practitioners. As someone who works in a comic shop, and who is an advocate for bringing in new fans, Steph wants to ensure that such technical terminology isn’t a barrier.

Here, then, are a few pieces of jargon that can help potential new fans and readers. [Read more…]

The Tired Nostalgia of ‘Jurassic World’

1 Comment

Image of Jurassic World poster

First of all, spoiler alert.

The Jurassic Park franchise has historically been a major draw. The original 1993 film was the largest grossing movie of all time until Titanic came along four years later. The second film, though largely sub-par when compared with the first, held the record for the largest opening weekend until 2001, when some movie about a little boy wizard came along and took over. These were original event pictures, massive draws that were required summer viewing for the young millennial generation. Dinosaurs are cool, and people love seeing dinosaurs.

That seems to be holding true for Jurassic World, the latest entry in the series. Originally forecast to make something in the vicinity of $125 million in its opening weekend, the movie made nearly that on Friday alone. Early reports have the movie taking in an opening weekend haul of $204 million, which puts it at the third best opening of all time. Meanwhile, across the world, the film took in a staggering $511 million dollars, an all time world record. People still love their dinosaurs.

[Read more…]

Unscripted Moments: KIDNAPPED

Leave a Comment

11182069_758283950936692_8770828860156475044_nThis week Unscripted Moments is covering Sketch Comedy with a brand new group on the Chicago scene – Adults! This is the first Sketch show that I’m covering and I am very excited to be able  to expand to a new genre in live theater. When I went to view the show, this time I was able to sit in on more of a rehearsal process…and let me tell you, it was so much fun watching this crew work and collaborate together.

[Read more…]

Mr. Rostan at the Movies: “When Marnie Was There” and the Studio Ghibli Legacy

Leave a Comment

Andrew Rostan was a film student before he realized that making comics was his horrible destiny, but he’s never shaken his love of cinema. Every two weeks, he’ll opine on current pictures or important movies from the past.

whenmarnieposter

Last August, one month after they released their twentieth feature film, Studio Ghibli announced they would be taking a hiatus in the wake of Hayao Miyazaki’s retirement. Miyazaki has insisted that the studio will go on without him helming features, but this did not stop many fans from fretting that one of the most exceptional production companies of all time is done for. I’m inclined to believe Miyazaki, but if Ghibli indeed shutters for good, that twentieth film, Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s When Marnie Was There, which Disney has now released in the United States, would be a beautiful and fitting finale.

[Read more…]

Our Month in Mad Max: Fury Road

Leave a Comment

We here at The Addison Recorder read stuff. We also watch stuff. And play stuff, even are sort of wild about Mad Max: Fury Road. Sometimes, that stuff is interesting. Sometimes we just need to talk about whatever pop culture ephemera occupies our time Mad Max: Fury Road. Here’s some of the staff of the Recorder talking about their favorite parts of what’s shaping up to be one of the best action movies of the decade. Chrome on. Our Month in Pop Culture Mad Max: Fury Road

[Read more…]

How Does This Hold Up?: 10 Things I Hate About You

Leave a Comment

REX_10_things_cast_jtm_141117_16x9_992

How Does This Hold Up? is a series where Alex and a guest check out a movie they haven’t seen in ages or that they’ve always been meaning to watch. They’ll compare the experience of watching these movies now to when they first saw or heard of them and explore the differences there-in. [Read more…]

Mr. Rostan at the Movies: Cannes and Canon

Leave a Comment

Andrew Rostan was a film student before he realized that making comics was his horrible destiny, but he’s never shaken his love of cinema. Every two weeks, he’ll opine on current pictures or important movies from the past.

Carol

Right now, one of the largest events in the movie world is happening across the ocean. The Cannes Film Festival is where lots of deals are made for lots of schlock, but also where the world’s greatest filmmakers have long chosen to showcase their newest work. The news filtering over to America has mostly been underwhelming: snippets of The Hateful Eight and Steve Jobs apparently made no one present start talking Oscar. But some films have been getting a memorable reaction, and I’d like to highlight five that we should pay attention to in the next few months.

[Read more…]

Costuming Mad Men from Beginning to End

Leave a Comment

mm_end_frame-0-1280-0-1024

As Mad Men comes to an end, there are thousands of articles being written about “The End of an Era.” I’ve always been drawn to the costuming work that Janie Bryant has done on the series, because it goes above and beyond anything that other television shows are doing. I could write for days on each and every costume created for the show, but I’d like to focus on the journey that each of our main characters made from the first episode to the last one. While the characters grow and change, we can still see bits and pieces of who they once were ten years ago. [Read more…]

The End of an Era: Reflections on the Mad Men Finale

3 Comments
A fitting end.

A fitting end.

Alex:

Mad Men is over. This is still a difficult idea to process. When Becky and I did our binging re-watch a few months ago I kept trying to remember where and when I was as each big episode queued up on Netflix. I originally watched the premiere on a friend’s couch, because that’s where 20-year-old Bean lived in the summer between his Sophomore and Junior years of college. I caught up on seasons two and three in my apartment in Hyde Park in between sessions of frenzied Master’s Thesis writing. Season 4 was in a crappy starter apartment. Season 5 was in a high rise I always sort of felt like a tourist in. I moved in the middle of both the 6th season and the first half of the 7th. On Sunday night, I watched the series finale from the living room of the grand condo that Becky and I bought six months ago. [Read more…]