Author: Ian D.

The George Clooney – Coen brother combination has yielded wonderful results in the past. From their collaboration on O Brother, Where Art Thou? to Intolerable Cruelty to Burn After Reading to Hail, Caesar it’s a bevy of riches. The Coen’s have found unique ways to combine Clooney’s movie star charm and knack for physical comedy in a myriad of interesting and funny ways. So, it stands to reason that Clooney, working as Director, with a 30-year old script penned by the Coen’s starring many bankable stars would work just as well, right…RIGHT?

I suppose even still; Greek mythology is ripe for modern translation. Every few years we get earnest sword and sandal tales like Troy that attempt to tell a very literal version of the legends we all learned in grade school. But most often the best telling of these tales come from a modern setting. The mythology is ripe with symbolism that, when applied correctly, can be a Redditor’s goldmine. Enter Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer to happily (with the most terrifying grin) fill that void.

Since the disastrous (and retroactively hilarious) season 2 of True Detective I have been rooting for the Vince Vaughnaissance. Much like the McConaissance in season 1 of the show it was clear Vaughn was going for a similar career bump. It didn’t work unfortunately as season 2 was saddled with myriad of problems – many of which fell at the screenwriter’s feet who treated Vaughn’s character like a bizarre mix of Tony Soprano, Ari Gold and Vaughn in swingers. Since then, he has been in a movie called Term Life (holy shit look at his hair on the poster!!) and as Drill Sergeant Howell in the Mel Gibson joint (ugh) Hacksaw Ridge.

At the end of the screening of Blade Runner 2049 we were asked to wait through the end credits. As the house lights came up our wonderful public relations person read a lengthy message from Director Denis Villeneuve begging us to avoid spoilers. Not only that but to avoid basic plot, characters and other details as we gave our impressions. The funny thing is, 2049 doesn’t feel that spoilable – especially at its 2-hour and 45-minute runtime.

Tennis was my sport growing up.  From the moment I could hold up a racket my Dad had me out on the court chasing balls until my feet hurt.  In retrospect this was obviously an easy way to where out a tween boy who stayed up too late on the weekends but I still appreciated it.  I played all through high school and less so in college but always stayed a fan of the professional game.  Growing up with Sampras, Agassi, Federer (who is still doing it, showoff,) Graf, Seles then the Williams sisters I never had a shortage of favorite players.  One of the best things about the game is how it embraces its history and keeps legendary players around each modern iteration of the game.  It’s how I learned about Arthur Ashe, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and of course Billie Jean King.