Author Archives: Makda Asrat

This article has been corrected. You may view this article’s correction here. “300” is one of the most problematic films in recent memory — both thematically and stylistically, Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel is rife with stereotypes and historical inaccuracies that will make any WGSS or postcolonial lit student cringe. Oddly »

As the seasons change from summer to winter, the weather from hot to cold, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s terse, artful and magnificently composed “Climates” observes the gradual disintegration of a relationship, from X to Y. Languorous, sensual and richly textured, “Climates” is a film of few words that is more concerned with the subtle interplay of »

Perhaps David Terry’s love life has taken a turn for the worse. The singer-songwriter and general front man of the indie-pop band Aqueduct has steered his sound away from the cheerful optimism of his first album, “I Sold Gold,” into a darker, more complex territory. Although both of Aqueduct’s albums are, more or less, ruminations »

“Factory Girl” is a film chiefly concerned with the tension between superficiality and authenticity, between surface and depth. And yet writer-director team Captain Mauzner and George Hickenlooper (who also worked together on “Wonderland”) were unable to see beyond the glittering surface of ’60s It Girl Edie Sedgwick. Then again, perhaps there is a more fundamental »

Although both are Irish and they were born a mere year apart, the two stars of “Seraphim Falls” couldn’t be more different — Liam Neeson remains as ruggedly attractive as ever, while time has unfortunately not been as kind to his (slightly) younger costar, Pierce Brosnan. A brooding, self-consciously weighty film, “Seraphim Falls” is an »

If film direction is a dance, then Sylvain White, director of the new stepping movie “Stomp the Yard,” has two left feet. White, a veteran music video director, could have succeeded if he had stuck to what he knows best — music and shooting complicated dance choreography. And to be fair, the movie’s soundtrack is »

Few students would turn down the Marshall Scholarship. Then again, few students have traipsed through the mountains of Afghanistan disarming rural warlords. And Whitney Haring-Smith ’07 isn’t most students. Having both founded a political action group on campus and traveled abroad to work with different United Nations commissions, Haring-Smith is actively working to affect meaningful »

Many Christian children grow up reading illustrated storybooks recounting the birth of Jesus — goofy and haloed (not to mention Caucasian) cartoon characters standing in for some of the most revered figures in the Christian testament. Catherine Hardwicke’s latest movie, “The Nativity Story,” undoubtedly aspires to more than these sentimentalized picture books, but her retelling »

Located in the basement of a building nestled between the Af-Am House and Pierson College, the Yale Cabaret is one of the most unique venues on campus. Audience members indulge in elegant meals and cocktails as they watch students from the School of Drama perform in experimental productions. This weekend, the Cabaret’s fall season culminates »

In Mayan mythology, immortality was achieved only through death — the First Father sacrificed himself to create the Tree of Life, which burst forth from his very stomach. This tension – the paradoxical relationships between life, death and ultimately rebirth – is at the very heart of Darren Aronofsky’s latest film “The Fountain.” Spanning 1,000 »

This article has been corrected. You may view this article’s correction here. In the Biblical tale of Babel, God punishes the human race for attempting to build a tower that will reach the heavens. He scatters humanity across the globe and creates different languages that make understanding impossible. The human race was left divided, confused »

Like the two roguish, turn-of-the-century London magicians who propel its plot, “The Prestige” knows that the secret behind a good trick isn’t nearly as important as the artifice in which the trick is wrapped. This precept is illustrated time and again as Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) engage in a chilling »