“The Half of It” distills the messy and reckless bits of teenage love into a heartfelt coming-of-age story, complemented by modern sensibilities and nuanced personas. Inspired by the French play “Cyrano de Bergerac,” Alice Wu wrote and directed the 2020 Netflix film, transposing the classic tale into the small fictional town of Squahamish. Read more...
Photo: (Courtesy of KC Bailey/Netflix)
Parks across the country are closed, but that didn’t stop the “Parks and Recreation” cast from reuniting. In “A Parks and Recreation Special,” the cast of the NBC sitcom, which ran from 2009 to 2015, participated in a new scripted episode to raise money for Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund. Read more...
Photo: (Courtesy of NBCUniversal)
This post was updated May 6 at 11:10 a.m. Drake’s “Toosie Slide” has millions of children posting their version of the famous dance on TikTok – all at the expense of the integrity and authenticity of rap music. Read more...
Photo: Rap music usually serves as an outlet for individual expression and to express society’s injustices. With a recent trend toward creating simple music to reach fame on the app TikTok, music from artists who pander to those audiences comes across as shallow and undeveloped. (Daily Bruin file photo)
Mental health is explored extensively in popular media, from unsettling character studies like “Joker” to lighthearted family flicks such as “Inside Out.” But while some portrayals successfully shine a light on mental health conditions, others merely perpetuate stigmas and stereotypes. Read more...
Photo: (Courtesy of John Bramley/Summit Entertainment)
Warning: spoilers ahead. Between camp and commotion, Carolyn Martens gave “Killing Eve” new life in this week’s episode. In “Meetings Have Biscuits,” Martens’ character development marks the shift of the show from the seemingly untouchable actor-driven vehicle into a more sophisticated examination of the human experience. Read more...
Photo: (Courtesy of Sid Gentle Films/BBC America)
Quibi is offering content that is less than half the length of a television show – at half the quality, too. Launched on April 6, brand-new streaming service Quibi – short for “Quick Bites” – boasts easily digestible content and features many original TV series with episodes shorter than 10 minutes in length. Read more...
Photo: The new streaming app Quibi offers a variety of short-form content and features creators such as Joe Jonas and Chrissy Teigen. (Tanmay Shankar/Assistant Photo editor)
When “Extraction” opens, it seems to prime viewers for an archetypal action movie – shallow characters paired with gratuitous violence. To be fair, the movie does have its share of the latter, but hidden among the gore and the gunshots are characters with surprising emotional depth and development. Read more...
Photo: (Courtesy of Jasin Boland/Netflix)
