I Am Writing Again!

A New Blog For My New Writing

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Hustle Review

Image
Everyone hustles to survive. Full, spoiler-free review by Isaac Handelman Watching the pieces of American Hustle fall into place is almost as smooth as watching the pieces of one of Irving Rosenfeld’s masterful cons come together to one glorious outcome. Rarely do I come across films that are so difficult to criticize. Remarkably acted, slickly directed, and chock full of smart drama and laughs, this is surely one of 2013’s finest cinematic offerings -- if not its very best. Though it positions Christian Bale as its star, American Hustle is, in truth, an ensemble act; incidentally, what’s arguably most impressive in this film (keeping in mind that’s it’s chock full of impressive elements) is its cast. The film centers on Irving Rosenfeld (Bale), a master con man, and his lover/partner-in-crime, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), who partner with a man named Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) to take down corrupt politicians. I won’t divulge the specifics of Hustle ’s narrative, be...
Read more

Music as a time machine

Image
By Isaac Handelman A few months ago, near the beginning of my time in college, in a fit of what might have been homesickness coupled with my unshakable sentimentality, I set to work compiling a Spotify playlist encapsulating my senior year in high school. I happened upon this idea because I’d been thinking a lot about the ability of certain songs, when played, to transport me back to the times in my life that I associate them with. My plan was to compile every song that had meant something to me over the course of my senior year (a collection that turned out to consist of about 120 distinct tracks) and order them chronologically by the specific time or event in my life for which they held meaning and/or significance. I soon found the task daunting -- after all, certain songs were associated with foggier feelings or memories than others, and were difficult to place in order -- and I gave up. But my reason for setting out on this endeavor still holds truth: music has a certai...
Read more

Frozen Review

Image
Thawed. Full review by Isaac Handelman Many parallels can be drawn between Disney's latest entry in their animated canon, Frozen , and the studio's 2010 offering, Tangled : both center on quirky female protagonists, both are fresh takes on classic fairy tales, both feature some sort of large four-legged mammal as comic relief; heck, the two films even both posses bi-syllabic, single-word adjectives for titles. Perhaps these similarities are by sheer coincidence, but they nonetheless caused me to hold Frozen up to the high standard of its predecessor -- a standard that the film ultimately fails to live up to. It's not a bad film per se, but Frozen too often feels as if it's missing that spark of ingenuity that made Tangled such an entertaining ride. In Frozen, Princess Anna takes center stage, voiced well by Kristen Bell. Anna sets out on a quest to find her runaway sister, Queen Elsa (Idina Menzel), whose mystical ice powers have covered the kingdom in an eternal...
Read more