All Authors > 
JASON OBRYAN
Latest Articles
    
    
    
    
    
      Whiskey drinks for people who don’t like whiskey. Yet.  
    
   If  Mad Men  has taught us anything, it's that we shouldn't go to a 1960s advertising executive for health advice.   
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
       Thinking about making the gnarly move from skiing to snowboarding? Think again, brah.   
    
   So, I heard that you want to trade in your skis for a snowboard this year. Maybe it'll be fun? Well, maybe, but there are a few things I'd like you to consider before you make that leap.   
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      John Krasinski takes on David Foster Wallace and succeeds  
    
 Bleeding admiration for the David Foster Wallace stories on which it’s based, John Krasinski’s directorial debut follows Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson) as she interviews men about their sexual proclivities for her master’s thesis. 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      Racism is bad  
    
   Arrested for a crime she didn't commit, Dee Roberts is enlisted by an ACLU lawyer (Tim Blake Nelson) to sue the county for racist intent and stop the DA from what is continually referred to as "terrorizing the black community."   
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      What passes for offbeat comedy these days  
    
   Like many of the bastard offspring of  American Beauty  and  Little Miss Sunshine , Derick Martini's quirky, frustrating directorial debut seems to believe that a dystopian view of suburbia will suffice for a film   
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      From Laos to Brooklyn, following a family's tragedy  
    
  As the subject, narrator, and director, with Ellen Kuras, of his own story, Thavisouk Phrasavath has created a film of meandering, almost accidental poignancy.  
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      Chillingly visceral  
    
   If you ignore the forgivable imprecision that rides with directoral debuts, Edward Anderson has made a surprisingly mature thriller.   
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      Don't watch it sober . 
    
   There is no level on which director Greg Marcks's film isn't spectacularly stupid.   
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      WFNX pumped to carry its strengths into the future  
    
   Radio, it's rumored, is a dying industry, falling behind the new-media Zeitgeist like an asthmatic jogger.   
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      How to go skiing in New England with no car and little money  
    
   Thrills, generally speaking, aren't cheap.   
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      A docudrama that overcomes it's obvious flaws  
    
 Like Paul Haggis’s  Crash , the film mistakes stereotypes for archetypes, staging absurd coincidences with timely epiphanies so everyone can learn a lesson. 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      A scattered yet effective documentary  
    
 Although it can mistake emotion for poignancy, the film teaches us to ask the right questions, and it makes clear the consequences if we don’t. 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      ESPN defends its AstroTurf  
    
 Monday is a hard sell. 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      A B-movie full of crowd-pleasing bullshit  
    
 Glistening torso Jensen Ames (the ubiquitous Jason Statham), is framed for the murder of his sweet wife in this loose remake of the 1975 cult favorite  Death Race 2000 . 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      Lovely,  anime  charm with a jarring third act  
    
 The novel written by Yasutaka Tsutsui in 1965 had been adapted some eight times before this, but never quite so  adorably . 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      Seven entertaining ways to finish off the summer  
    
 Make no mistake: these are naked comics, not joke-telling strippers, and the show never comes within 50 miles of what could be even loosely considered “sexy.” It is, though, a truly unique experience. 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
       How US terror policy is ruining your summer concert season   
    
 You, my young British friend, start a band. 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      Interview: Alicia Keys on first love, the White Stripes, and being a Bob Dylan muse  
    
 "I’ve never been someone that goes to the ‘it’ places and does the ‘it’ things and goes to the ‘it’ restaurant and go to the ‘it’ club. I like more off-the-beaten-path kind of things." 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      Hardship and hope  
    
 The “Iron Triangle,” in Queens, is a 25-block junkyard of auto-body shops and corrugated aluminum, where unpaved roads flood gray with rain. 
    
    
     
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
      Red gold for fans of the genre  
    
 There are no lunatics in the closet in Frontière(s), writer/director Xavier Gens’s NC-17 French-language gorefest. 
    
    
     
    
 
 
 
        
        
     
 
 
 
    
  
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
 
 
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
    Copyright © 2012 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group