Popcorn Zombies

By Michael Momper It's Halloween season, and that means it's time for some fresh new movies chock full of ghouls, ghosts, vampires and demons... as well as the occasional worn-out slasher re-tread. Halloween is a season with an infectious and catchy spirit, one that many aging and dull horror franchises can take advantage of by capitalizing on their reputation and the glee that comes with the festivities. It is the right atmosphere for the inevitable resurrection of countless old horror tropes, jump scares and all-too-familiar icons. Michael Meyers is one of these icons. He was, at first, an intriguing slasher creation- no verbal communication, seemingly no motives, no visible face, the weapon of choice being the close-quarter and intimate figure of cold, sharp steel. But as soon as his mystique began to take hold of viewers and translate into franchise-capability, his legacy was blunted by the incompetent hands of bad directors and writers, like Rob Zombie...

Graham Craycraft  Colter Wall comes back with his second full length album one year after his self titled piece in 2017. Colter Wall is a Canadian born singer-songwriter who holds onto the notion that western isn’t so much a direction, but a state of mind. Wall’s Songs of the Plains was produced by Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton) through Mary’s Record Co. and distributed through Thirty Tigers. Wall is only 23 years old, but carries a voice packed with as much scar and gruff of a late time Johnny Cash. Like Cash, he has come to be known for his stories of sin, redemption, and the harshness, but beauty, of the west. There are songs like Wild Bill Hickok and Tying Knots in the Devil’s Tail which are just fun. They make your head bob and foot tap and, in the case of Tying Knots in the Devil’s Tail, laugh out loud. Even though two of these songs are not original to Wall, he brings such an energy to this album that you just can’t help but smile and nod. This guy ha...

By Michael Momper The unknown. The ethereal beauty of space. Silence. Utter, unadulterated darkness. The unknown. Poetry in motion. When contemplating and witnessing the wonderfully captured expeditions of Neil Armstrong and his various crews in Damien Chazelle's latest masterpiece, First Man , these were some of the themes that continued to resurface in my head. I was completely mesmerized, feeling catapulted into the very shuttle that Neil was occupying at any given moment. Yet another smashing success from Chazelle, this movie further confirmed my feeling that the young writer/director knows exactly how to capture the landscape of the human soul, of relationships, and of the maniac and possessive drive of mankind to create or do things that are magnificent. The pace that Chazelle finds in his movies is eloquent, and always reminds me of the to-and-fro dance of a great Broadway play or a young romance. Neil is an extremely interesting subject, as he is not your ...

Graham Craycraft Better Call Saul. Where We are, and Where We Want to End. Better Call Saul (BCS) is the spin off of hit AMC television series Breaking Bad (BB). Showrunner and creator of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan, teams up with Saul Goodman, Bob Odenkirk, to create one of the most critically popular spin offs yet. BCS is in the fourth season paired with AMC in the United States and Netflix in the rest of the world. The show holds all the anticipation left over from Breaking Bad, but does not use it as a crutch. Gilligan knows that in order to create another successful show, he must make something fresh. The episodes follow James or Jimmy McGill in his struggles and hustle to become a respectable lawyer. Gilligan peppers episodes with scenes that take place after BB where Saul Goodman is kicked out into the world in the aftermath of Heisenberg’s wake. In the present of BCS Jimmy battles his own next-to-worthless law degree, his brother’s expectations, and Jimmy’s o...