Charles Bramesco

Late last night, a little after the midnight hour, Hell froze over. Reports of pigs and other assorted swine growing wings and taking flight started pouring in from all over the country. Dogs and cats were living together — it was mass hysteria, all because the Chicago Cubs had finally won the World Series after a 108-year drought.

In precisely the sort of absurdist mix-up that sounds like something Tom Green would come up with, a North Carolina man has been arrested for failing to return a VHS copy of the Tom Green comedy Freddy Got Fingered 14 years ago. The Wrap relays the odd tale of James Meyers, the unfortunate soul that checked out a tape of the widely reviled but cult-beloved surrealist comedy at a video store in Kan

China’s been ahead of the Western curve for some time now. The U.S. economy cowers before the might of Chinese manufacturing prowess, and some of Hollywood’s most popular blockbusters have catered to Eastern tastes. By 2025, we will all have a workable knowledge of Cantonese. But for now, China has made its latest leap forward in the field of etiquette, more specifically movie theater etiquette, and even more specifically, how to deal with a-holes who won’t stop using their cell phones during a movie. Polite whispered requests, chair-nudging, chair-kicking, and in-theater doxxing have all proven ineffective in the continuing war on America’s rudest audience members. China’s contrived a smarter, more futuristic mode of combatting these menaces.

British actress Charlotte Rampling was one of the lower-profile performers to secure a nomination at this year’s Academy Awards, impressing voters with her devastating and controlled performance in Andrew Haigh’s relationship drama 45 Years. Ms. Rampling is currently sixty-nine years old, which is to say she was born in 1946 and came of age during the ’50s and ’60s — a different time, to be sure. Like many individuals at a relatively older age, she reflects the social norms of her era, many of which society has since advanced past. Older folks sometimes express opinions that younger generations find objectionable, and while such comments ought not to be excused outright, they also must be considered within the cultural context from they originated.

The greatest outrage stirred by last week’s announcement of the Oscar nominees was not the Best Picture snub for Carol or the absurd exclusion of Todd Haynes from the Best Director category, but rather the troubling homogeneity of the twenty men and women nominated in the acting categories. Specifically, many have taken issue with the fact that this year’s Oscar slate looks about as white as a Whole Foods before noon on a Sunday. The social media hashtag OscarsSoWhite resurfaced within minutes after the nomination announcement had finished, and Spike Lee has even called for a boycott of the ceremony as a response to the blatant lack of diversity in this year’s picks.

It’s been one full day now since the news of Alan Rickman’s passing first surfaced, and while that may be the regulation time period for mourning, say, a casual work acquaintance or distant relative, many are still stinging over the loss of this esteemed actor...

The 70mm roadshow presentation of The Hateful Eight has been in theaters for a couple weeks now, and Quentin Tarantino’s newest film went into wide release back on New Year's Day. However, the Weinstein Company has no intention of letting up with their push of publicity for the distributors’ huge financial gamble, and in their constant preaching of the Hateful Eight gospel, they’ve released anothe