Film
by Blaise Majkowski | Jun 25, 2019 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Featured, Film
Looks like Godzilla, king of the monsters is falling on hard times. Our reptilian friend’s new movie is having a hard time wooing audiences away from a flick about another prehistoric beast, sir Elton John. Even appearances by fellow cohorts Mothra, Rodan, and King...
by Jack Brown | Jun 10, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that the military mights of the world have long been concerned with what we’ve come to call “optics” — the way in which a given political action is perceived by a public that is surrounded on all sides by an endless media...
by Jack Brown | May 28, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
It was a scene straight out of a paranoid thriller: 1961, a Paris airport, the KGB circling ever closer around a famous Russian, bent on closing the net around their prey. A waiting plane destined for Moscow. At the last moment, a dash for freedom — with the help of...
by Jack Brown | May 20, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
All of us have our seasonal touchstones. As New Englanders, especially, we seem to have a compulsion to carve up our years (maple season, mud season, mosquito season) and mark the moment that one quarter melts into another. For many, the spring-to-summer transition...
by Jack Brown | May 13, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
Pride Day celebrations were just winding down in Northampton as I sat down to get to work on this column. Now in its 38th year, the event is still a powerful reminder of both the power of community and the necessity of equality and representation. But while the parade...
by Blaise Majkowski | May 7, 2019 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Featured, Film
On its opening weekend, Avengers: Endgame took in a staggering $1.2 billion. I’ve seen it and now I am caught up in the frenzy. I even scoured the area McDonald’s and got 12 of the 24 avengers happy meal toys. The clerks there cringe when I come strolling through the...
by Jack Brown | Apr 29, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
Much has been written, by better minds than mine, about the human penchant for horror. That impulse to indulge in our most deeply seated human fears and frailties is behind both traffic jams at accident scenes and modern gods-and-monsters tales about the undead (or...
by Jack Brown | Apr 15, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
Spring in the Pioneer Valley always brings with it the sweet reminder of how lucky we are to be surrounded by so many working farms. Drive down just about any road that leads into or out of one of our bigger towns, and you’re sure to coast by a few coolers with “Fresh...
by Jack Brown | Mar 18, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
Despite its proximity to the more famous haunts of Northampton, Franklin County has always had its own lively arts scene. The Green River Festival, celebrating 33 years in 2019, is perhaps the most recognizable name, but other area venues like the Montague Bookmill,...
by Jack Brown | Mar 4, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
If you’ve been around the interwebs for a bit, you’ve almost certainly run across Henri. Henri — or, to use his full title, Henri, le Chat Noir — is an ennui-soaked cat whose subtitled French musings call to mind old arthouse imports. “If my tail wags, it is a reflex...
