If you like massive CGI fights, a touch of sci-fi and almost non-stop action, then you’ve come to the right place. And you might not be alone, either. In the first five days of the theatrical release of the hugely-anticipated blockbuster Godzilla vs. Kong, its box office hit a record-setting $48.5 million, making it the biggest opening for a film since the start of the pandemic.
The Benito Gonzalez Trio gave a live-streamed jazz performance at Keystone Korner Baltimore on April 3 to celebrate McCoy Tyner. The trio included pianist Benito Gonzalez, bassist Essiet Okon Essiet and drummer Billy Hart.
The High Zero Foundation, a Baltimore-based organization dedicated to promoting improvised and experimental music, held an online concert on March 25. The foundation hosted the event over the livestreaming service Twitch as part of its ongoing The Red Room in Your Room series. Despite the collapsing of geographic constraints afforded by online events, the series has continued to foreground the work of Baltimore-based artists, and the March 25 concert was no exception.
I never had particularly high hopes for Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the new series which debuted its first episode on Disney+ just this week. Every trailer, as far as I could tell, looked so... standard. I have seen a lifetime’s worth of jump-cut-filled action sequences and computer-generated explosions. For a long time, I loved them. Now, to be honest, I find them kind of boring. They just don’t inspire awe and fear in me the way that they once did.
Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan and pianist Armine Grigoryan performed a colorful program in the Shriver Hall Concert Series on March 14. Their performances were prerecorded at Aram Khachatryan Concert Hall in Yerevan, Armenia. The recording was available on demand through Sunday, March 21.
On March 13, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe hosted an Art Slam event over Zoom that combined visual art and poetry. I was delighted to attend this unique experience, which offered insight into how poetry could be interpreted.
The Stand-Up Comedy Club hosted its “Lockdown Anniversary Show” over YouTube Live on Saturday. The show featured colorful sets from veteran student comedians on topics ranging from the stock market to the finale of The Bachelor.
One of the first science fiction movies of the year, Chaos Walking (in theaters now) appears to show great promise. With its slick premise, enrapturing action and striking title, it has every look of a sci-fi fan’s dream come true. To top it off, its star-studded cast includes the likes of Tom Holland, Daisy Ridley and Mads Mikkelsen, and behind the camera is director Doug Liman, responsible for the critically acclaimed Edge of Tomorrow.
A little less than halfway through Netflix’s new movie Moxie, I texted my girlfriend, “This movie is making me feel conflicted. I can’t tell if it’s good or not.” And I couldn’t: The first half of this film oscillates greatly in quality. It takes a while to get going, and even once the main plot really starts to take centerstage, the stakes of the movie are still tremendously unclear. There are moments of brilliance sprinkled throughout the first half of the movie — it certainly wasn’t bad — but I was far from convinced.
Following the incredible commercial success of Avengers: Endgame, I, like many others, wondered how Marvel would ever surpass the film’s and its predecessors’ sheer scope and magnitude. Was it something that they would even be able to pull off? Was it even worth attempting to do so? WandaVision is a curious answer to these questions.
After a series of trailers, Raya and the Last Dragon finally premiered on March 5. The movie begins with an elaborate two-dimensional animation of Kumandra, a once-united land that now appears unrecognizable to the current inhabitants, who are divided into different territories.
Last week, Madison Beer released her debut album Life Support. This album was Beer’s response to years of turmoil: being dropped by her label and diagnosed with borderline personality disorder as many of her personal relationships suffered, all while facing constant scrutiny as a teenage star on social media.
On Feb. 25 I celebrated one of my favorite artist’s birthdays at the “Pierre-Auguste Renoir 180th Birthday — Livestream Art Program” hosted by Robert Kelleman, founder and director of non-profit organization Washington, D.C. History & Culture. As a participant of the virtual art gallery tour, I was fondly reminded of my previous tourist experiences in art galleries.
The 78th Golden Globe Awards kicked off the 2021 film and TV awards season on Sunday. As expected, it was a mostly virtual ceremony, with nominees tuning in through Zoom and presenters showing up in-person at their respective bicoastal locations. Hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler returned, and with already three hosting turns already under their belts, it promised to be an eventful, no-holds-barred kind of night.
“Story is not the only mode available to us in experiencing our lives.”
This past Sunday, the Shriver Hall Concert Series livestreamed Daniil Trifonov’s pre-recorded piano program from New York's 92nd Street Y. The virtually delivered event was a success, with over 200 live attendees from around the world — highlighting Trifonov’s international presence.
A 21-year-old woman disappears for three weeks in a Los Angeles hotel infamous for its history of crimes and murders. The last seen footage of her raises more questions than answers and becomes a viral sensation. What happens next?
The History of Art and East Asian Studies departments sponsored an event titled “Documenting Industry: Photography, Modernity and the Nation in India and China” on Feb. 19. Scholars from around the world joined the Zoom-recorded event, presenting original research on ways in which documentary photographers have explored the lives of industrial laborers in India and China.
Amazon’s latest film release, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, is not quite what you’d expect. Though it has the look of a typical coming-of-age comedy, or perhaps just an uninspired rendition of Groundhog Day, it turns out to be neither.
It is a fairly well-known fact that mainstream perceptions of historical Black leaders in America are understood through a largely cordoned-off, de-radicalized tone. The story goes that Martin Luther King Jr. and other Southern Christian leaders organized peacefully to end segregation, and that the U.S. government listened and responded in kind.
