Mad men
By Noel Vera
Television
Star Trek
“Amok Time”
Directed by Joseph Pevney
FIFTY YEARS! Fifty years watching and re-watching and poring over the minutiae of this 1960s show by...
New talent to the fore in Man Booker Prize shortlist
LONDON — Judges for top British literary award the Man Booker Prize spurned big-name novelists in favor of experimental new talent as they announced...
Why luck plays a big role in making you rich
By Ben Steverman
Book Review
Success and Luck:
Good Fortune and
the Myth of Meritocracy
By Robert Frank
Princeton University Press
208 pages
ROBERT FRANK was playing tennis one cold Saturday morning...
The high life
By Noel Vera
Television
High-Rise
Directed by James Gunn
Netflix
BEN WHEATLEY’s screen version of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel High-Rise is, I suppose, as good an effort as any...
YA author gains fame through Wattpad
By Camille Anne M. Arcilla
ONLINE storytelling community Wattpad has grown in popularity not only in the Philippines but also in the international setting. Young...
Pete’s dragging
DVD REVIEW
Pete’s Dragon
Directed by David Lowery
By Noel Vera
Walt Disney Studios, in case you haven’t noticed, has been remaking its movies with mostly dire results....
Shellfishness
By Noel Vera
DVD Review
The Lobster
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
YORGOS LANTHIMOS’ The Lobster is his unique brand of bizarre deadpan humor translated into feature-length English. The...
Is there such a thing as too much love?
By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman
HER DEBUT NOVEL asks a simple question: What could go wrong when something is motivated by good intentions? A...
Eight is enough
Video Review
The Hateful Eight
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
QUENTIN TARANTINO’s The Hateful Eight (released on DVD earlier this year) is reportedly his most middling production yet,...
It’s not a tragedy that ‘tragedy’ is overused
By Stephen L. Carter
THE AMBUSHES of police officers in Baton Rouge and Dallas were still breaking news when my Twitter feed began filling up...
Punchline
By Noel Vera
(WARNING: story and plot twists discussed in detail)
Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke is generally considered the classic Joker comic book, Sam Liu’s...
Duper
By Noel Vera
Video
Super
Directed by James Gunn
Netflix
JAMES GUNN is better known for mixing quirky humor with standard-issue superhero shenanigans in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)....