COLUMN
Those Summer Movies Before Senior Year

All the best movies from the last few months hit the same kind of emotions. “Mud,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “This Is the End,” “Man of Steel,” “The Heat,” “The Way Way Back,” “The Spectacular Now” — these have been truly sentimental films that have in many ways forced us to look a little inward. Especially now, at the start of what is, for many of us, the last eight months of our Yale career.

September 20, 2013

First crush, first kiss, indie style: Movies that are more than just fetch

Every summer they appear: the popular girls, the dweebs, the best friends; the prom, the big game, the graduation; the first crush, the first kiss, the first love. Although “teen movies” could be defined in many a light, at their core they are films with adolescents as both their subject and a presumed audience. This summer, three teen flicks distinguished themselves as both box office and critical favorites.

September 13, 2013

A book writ in verse, an awesome achievement A sad, funny novel, a touching bereavement: “Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die Cherish, Perish,” a review by Scott Stern

Every review I’ve read so far has gotten the title wrong. The full title—as it was meant to be spoken, never read—is: “Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die,/Cherish, Perish, a novel by/David Rakoff.” You see? It has to rhyme. And isn’t that the point?

September 13, 2013

The art scene in your screen

Is social media an art? My first reaction would be, no. I’m not trying to say that I don’t appreciate the way you chose Valencia and that artful blur instead of the more expected X Pro II on your Instagram of Old Campus. I do it too—and I love it—but to me those manipulations of an iPhoto just aren’t art.

September 13, 2013

A Questionable Friend

The deaths at Electric Zoo were indicative of how the old music-and-drugs trope has evolved. The ever-increasing demand for stimulation that’s won hordes of fans for live dance music is also behind the new enthusiasm for Molly, which pairs well with the overwhelming stimulus of a dubstep set blasted through a weapons-grade speaker system. A new kind of music has found its new kind of drug.

September 6, 2013

Buddy Cops Face “The Heat”

I can count on one hand the number of new releases I saw this summer: “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “This Is the End” and “The Heat.” All wonderful films, all very different. “Star Trek” is an adventure and a half, and “The End” is astonishingly offensive and hilarious.

August 29, 2013

Class Warfare

Good lord, is there anything more depressing than applying to seminars?

August 29, 2013

Inedible Delights: A Review of “The Dinner” by Herman Koch

“All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

August 29, 2013

This year’s ten must-reads

In the last year, I have written 15 book reviews for Weekend. When I tell people that I write book reviews, they always ask me two opposing questions: (1) How do you possibly have time to read for pleasure? (2) What do you recommend?

April 26, 2013

Real-Talk: Good-bye.

Check your privilege. Take an ethnic studies class.

April 26, 2013

Anti-Fling, Against Itself

Despite a strong lineup, an evening of live music, and — maybe most importantly — a free open bar, Anti-Fling was decidedly off the beaten path.

April 19, 2013