You are here

Home » News

Columnists

Icon movie review: Memento

Nolan’s inventive style of telling the story reconfigures the film into something new entirely
Posted by Fred Steiner on Thursday, August 27, 2020

Review by Wilson
If you’ve been paying attention to worldwide theater re-openings, you know there is one movie whose release date seems to be tumbling perilously into the future, Christopher Nolan’s newest film TENET.

Nolan (INCEPTION, THE DARK KNIGHT) is known for his ability to turn seemingly-complex plots into high-caliber entertainment. In anticipation of his newest film, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit my favorite film of his: MEMENTO.

»

Icon music review: Such Pretty Forks in the Road - Alanis Morissette 

This Alanis Morissette album is a masterpiece, beautiful and surprising
Posted by Fred Steiner on Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Reviewed by Craig Hoffman
Such Pretty Forks in the Road is the ninth studio album by Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress Alanis Morissette. It is Morissette’s first studio album in eight years. Morissette had been working on the album since at least mid-2017. But it was worth the wait.

Morissette was scheduled to embark on a world tour for the 25th anniversary of her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill in 2020, during which she would perform songs from her entire career, including songs from Such Pretty Forks in the Road. 

»

Icon movie review: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

If you are looking for something out of the norm, this beautiful meditation on love and memory will satisfy
Posted by Fred Steiner on Thursday, August 13, 2020

Reviewed by Wilson
Oscar-winning oddball screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is set to debut his newest film I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS on Netflix in September, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to revisit what I believe is his best work: ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (also streaming on Netflix).

»

Icon book reviews: Arctic Rising, and Hurricane Fever

Local author author speculates dire nightmares
Posted by Fred Steiner on Tuesday, August 11, 2020

Reviewed by Robert McCool
It's Monday in a sunny August blur where the world is in full bloom, the weather fine. During the past two days, and in addition to my regular weekend chores, I managed to read two speculative fiction novels where the weather is most definitively not fine.

Those books, Arctic Rising (Tor, ISBN 978-0-7653-1921-0), and Hurricane Fever (Tor, ISBN 978-0-7653-1922-7) by Tobias S. Buckell – an author who lives in Bluffton – take place in a space where global warming is transforming our world with an undesirable outcome.

»

Icon music review: Taylor Swift's Folklore

While unlikely to go down as the artist’s best album, there is more than enough creativity, artistry, and variety to keep the Swifties happy
Posted by Fred Steiner on Friday, August 7, 2020

Folklore-Taylor Swift
Reviewed by Craig Hoffman
Country and pop-crossover megastar Taylor Swift dropped Folklore her eighth studio album in July. The indie-folk style record was written and recorded by Swift while in quarantine. The artist did her best to stay productive in 2020 despite chaos in the world.

“Most of the things I had planned this summer didn’t end up happening, but there is something I hadn’t planned on that DID happen…” Swift wrote. “And that thing is my 8th studio album, folklore [sic]. Surprise.”  

»

Icon book review: The Hollows

Journey back to 1926 Ohio, Bronwyn County, and solve a questionable death
Posted by Fred Steiner on Friday, July 31, 2020

Review by Robert McCool
Journey back to 1926 Ohio, Bronwyn County, and solve a questionable death.

Ah, summer. The visceral sun, the weight of humidity. Why not cozy up and chill out in 1926 in the rural Bronwyn County and the Appalachian time of coal country?

In her second book based  in this location, Jess Montgomery(The Widows) blesses us with a gem of a story in “The Hollows” (Minotaur Books, ISBN 978-1-250-18454-2).

»

Pages