Jim Norton Goodnights Comedy Club Tickets start at $22 one set Thursday night and two sets Friday and Saturday When you’re an unfiltered comedian/morning radio personality like Jim Norton, being a free-speech advocate also comes with the territory. We’re talking about a man with no qualms talking about his fondness for prostitutes, transsexuals, golden showers […]
Craig D. Lindsey
Bio: Craig Lindsey writes about pop culture for INDY Week. He lives in Raleigh.Link: http://unclecrizzle.tumblr.comTwitter: http://twitter.com/unclecrizzle
Posted inFilm & Television
Spike Jonze’s Her is dazzling
Her Opens Friday Her, the latest from Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) features Joaquin Phoenix at his most nebbishy. Playing a recently heartbroken man who develops an intimate relationship with his very human computer operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson, ironically giving her most compassionate performance). While the premise seems absurd, especially once Phoenix’s protagonist […]
Posted inFilm & Television
In a year that saw several top directors warn of crisis, the hits kept coming
As seen in the illustration above, our critics’ consensus pick for the year’s best film was Gravity, which received mentions from four of our five contributing writers, just ahead of All Is Lost and 12 Years a Slave. To see our critics’ individual lists, click here. If you talk to certain auteurs, the current state […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a reverent, uncomplicated portrait
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Now playing Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is respectful. I’ll give it that. The nearly two-and-a-half-hour summation of the recently deceased South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician is conventional to the point of rudimentary, as it chronicles Mandela’s life from idealistic lawyer to political prisoner to world leader. British actor […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Chapel Hill’s Joy Goodwin discusses producing Black Nativity
While others spent their Thanksgiving Eve preparing for the turkey-and-stuffing consumption and an incoming onslaught of family and friends, Joy Goodwin spent the evening at the movies. Sitting in a screening room of the Carmike Wynnsong 15 in Durham, Goodwin was a spy among audience members who were unaware of her role in making the […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Cannes winner Blue Is the Warmest Color comes to town
Blue is the Warmest Color Opens Friday Blue is the Warmest Color also known as That Three-Hour Movie with the French Lesbiansis not some playful, titillating romp through Sapphic wonderland, where girls tenderly kiss and caress each other on a patch of land somewhere as the sun beams down on them with glowing incandescence. OK, […]
Posted inArt
John Oliver brings his British aspersion to Durham
John Oliver Durham Performing Arts Center Saturday, Nov. 9, 8 p.m. This Saturday, John Oliver returns to Durham Performing Arts Center. A lot has changed since his last appearance, two years ago. His star has risen considerably since his acclaimed two-month stint guest-hosting Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. And his appearance is […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Robert Redford goes solo in All Is Lost
All Is Lost Opens Friday Film critic Matt Zoller Seitz once wrote that Cast Away would’ve been a great film if it began with Tom Hanks getting washed ashore on the island after the plane crash and ended with him eventually getting picked up by that cargo ship. None of that before-and-after junk regarding lost […]
Posted inFilm & Television
The wrenching, brilliant 12 Years a Slave
12 Years a Slave opens Friday 12 Years a Slave, the latest from British filmmaker Steve McQueen, has been swimming in unanimous praise since it reduced people to tears at film festivals earlier this year. More than one writer on the film has declared the Oscar contest “over.” Still, the mainstream (white) media seems to […]
Posted inArt
Will the sale of Goodnights Comedy Club lead to more local opportunities?
After several months of rumors and rumblings, Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh’s long-running home for stand-up comedy, has been sold to the owner of Helium Comedy Club, a three-club chain that operates out of Philadelphia. “I love the city of Raleigh,” says Marc Grossman, the new owner of Goodnights. “It’s a growing city. It’s got a […]