Author Archives: Justin Jannise

Justin: Why don’t we just get Best Picture out of the way? Of all the “major awards” this year, it’s the least exciting. Sam: I actually think we can predict Best Picture and Director in one fell swoop. Justin: Sure, because in both cases “Slumdog Millionaire,” directed by Danny Boyle, will win. Agreed ? Sam: »

Of all of this year’s Best Picture nominees, Ron Howards’s “Frost/Nixon” is the least sexy. Even Holocaust-themed “The Reader” features full-frontal male nudity and Kate Winslet’s bare breasts. Come to think of it, “Frost/Nixon” probably deserves the award for Un-sexiest Film of the Year, and not merely because it lacks R-rated content — though, perplexingly, »

The title of the Yale University Art Gallery’s “Picasso and the Allure of Language” has an off-putting 20th-century feel to it. It must be the way the word “language” is used (as a self-contained entity, rather than as a specification, like in “the language of politics”) that calls forth all those tiresome debates — ubiquitous »

Ten years ago, the Governing Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences met to discuss the addition of a new category for the Oscars: Best Casting. The proposition failed, presumably because of practical concerns (i.e. Who would accept the trophy? Is the award just another Best Picture?). Still, the questions raised by »

In his review of “Synecdoche, New York,” Roger Ebert called Charlie Kaufman “one of the few truly important writers to make screenplays his medium.” I agree with Ebert on the basis of Kaufman’s expansive imagination. Like the mythic Daedalus, Kaufman builds labyrinthine structures so complex and so dangerous that he himself can barely escape from »

This is a review of “Man=Man,” an early work by modernist German playwright Bertolt Brecht. I, the reviewer, am supposed to inform you, the reader, whether the Yale Drama School’s production, directed by Erik Pearson DRA ’09, is worth seeing. First, though, I’ve got to find the notes I scribbled down while viewing the show. »

If P!nk occupies a niche in the architecture of pop music, it’s the sardonic, pseudo-apathetic Shockwave feminist. Her latest single, “So What,” is the apotheosis of those, ahem, principles. Die-hard fans hailed it as “a comeback,” while perennial dissenters pooh-poohed it as mere noise. Regardless of one’s ideological or musical allegiances (and there is something »

Everyone at some point loses something — whether it’s a toothbrush, a box of cookies, a job, a spouse, one’s virginity, one’s sense of humor or one’s sanity in general. For Susan, a character in The Civilians’ “Gone Missing,” which played Wednesday night at the Whitney Humanities Center as part of The World Performance Project »

The biggest challenge in writing a review for “Mr. Woodcock” is deciding on a headline — too many possible puns: 1. “Mr.” Thornton’s “Wood” sucks “cock” 2. “Woodcock” too hard to swallow 3. Billy Bob heads “Woodcock” 4. “Woodcock” pulls out instead of putting in 5. “Woodcock” shy of being good 6. “Woodcock”: Block it »

Middle age never looked so fashionable: Rouged cheeks, high-heel leather boots, fabulous hats — and these are just the costumes for the male characters of “An Evening of Cabaret,” a two-night event taking place at the Yale Cabaret Friday and Saturday to commemorate the institution’s 40th year. An assortment of musical and burlesque acts performed »

“Because I want to die,” responds Paddy Duncombe GRD ’13, like a true British wit, to the question of why he smokes. Hurrying out the Phelps Hall elevator into the open air, Duncombe, a graduate student in classics, immediately takes a pack of Marlboro Lights from his pocket and, while offering one to all present, »

Wand-wielding wizards could not reverse the curse of Summer Blockbusterdom. Know what happens to the handful of low-budget films that dare brave the pirate-filled summer waters? They die … hard. Whether annihilated by giant toys, crushed by Homer Simpson’s four-fingered fist or shoved between a rock and a hard place by the demands of Matt »