a resource for students and teachers
From the category archives:
Scotland, P.A. is only loosely based on the play—there is not a word of Early Modern English uttered in it. But this “adaptation” takes place in the 1970’s, and instead of a kingdom, Joe McBeth, with the persistent urging of his wife, takes control of a local fast food establishment (with plans for [...]
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A Nightmare of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Reviewed by Shahrnaz Zarafshar
September 24th, 2007
Perhaps director Peter Hall was actually asleep when he made the low-budget movie version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and is therefore not liable for the nightmare result. But surely studio executives were wide awake when they authorized the DVD release, or maybe the [...]
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A while back I was recommending a movie to a friend, and after explaining all the movie’s merits—why it is unique and interesting and why he should see it, I remarked as a disclaimer, “Nothing really happens in it, though.” To which he replied, “It seems like that ‘happens’ in a lot of [...]
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Be sure to read this article from The New York Times by Friday in order to become well-prepared for the Socratic Seminar: “Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t.”
I have also included links concerning the movie Primer itself. First and foremost is the movie’s website, Primermovie.com. Please heed my advice and [...]
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Since we didn’t see the trailer in class, check out the NYtimes review of I’m Reed Fish, and you can see the “youtubbed” trailer here. The Tristram Shandy website (for the film), much like the movie, is an interesting–and at times maddening– experiment. I like the tagline: “He’s about to play [...]
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Very Long, Muddy, and Green Night’s Dream
Reviewed by Carissa Avalos
September 28th, 2007
Imagine a world where the youth speaks in Shakespearian iambic pentameter yet sports a pair of go-go boots. A world where fairies are most literally green with envy and blankets of random fog and quick cuts of arbitrary scenery are all too common. Add [...]
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A Dorky, Disillusioned Da Vinci Code
Reviewed by Brian Quale
June 27th, 2007
Experience life through the eyes of Tom Henderson: surviving in a high school full of, in his words, “psychotic normal people,” while trying to get his band together, and attempting to decipher cryptic clues he discovers in his deceased father’s stack of old books. [...]
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Hit the Road
Reviewed by Emily Farrell
May 29, 2007
Some people just cannot stay still. Although not the norm in the 1950s, these two main characters just loved taking trips across the country. While traveling, these young men experienced and lived the life of the Beats.
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The Civil Rights Story Never Told
Reviewed by Majel Baker
January 8, 2007
An autobiography written like a first-class novel, this classic in American literature is the story of a black soul’s struggle through a world that is against him, with hate, insult, and the KKK. This book goes beyond the genre of slave narratives that it [...]
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Monty Python is Lost in Space
Reviewed by Rachel Powell
May 28, 2007
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a hilariously zany quest through the infinite reaches of space and time for the meaning of life, and a good cup of tea.
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Corridors of Paranoia
Reviewed by Tania Jensen
January 9, 2007
A psychological thriller that breaks the boundaries of a normal book and throws the reader full-force into the twisted corridors of its plot, Danielewsky’s House of Leaves is a frightening tour-de force. Best for seasoned readers, House of Leaves is not for the faint of heart.
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There’s More to War Than Fighting
Reviewed by Alex Kwong
January 9th, 2007
This memoir of a Red Army soldier on the Western Front portrays the famous battles of Stalingrad and Kursk. But more importantly, Mansur Abdulin gives us the day to day struggles of the common soldiers outside the fighting, and shows us the human beings that [...]
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To Hell and Back
Reviewed by Tania Jensen
June 1st, 2007
An ancient classic, which is highly under-read in modern society, despite the fact that it is perfectly understandable.
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