party

29 Aug

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 21 Review: Revival Party

New DVD releaseacademia, episode, party, review, revival, season

This My Hero Academia review contains spoilers. “What is…a normal life?” “Normalcy” is often viewed like it’s some congenital defect in My Hero Academia and there are plenty of characters in the series who view a lack of special abilities as a confirmation of inferiority. Granted, My Hero Academia exists within such an exaggerated world that there’s a sliding scale of what qualifies as “normal,” especially when it comes to the context of society’s villains. Contrasting opinions are presented on which villains are acting “properly” and have the best vision for not only the state of villainy, but society itself. …

Read More

28 Jan

Will There Be a Search Party Season 5?

New DVD releaseparty, search, season, there

This article contains spoilers for Search Party season 4. At this point, Search Party has done just about everything a dark comedy can be asked to do. Through four seasons, the show has: captured a Nancy Drew-style mystery through a millennial aesthetic, maneuvered through an unnerving, at times violent paranoid thriller, and deftly executed a wonky legal drama. Season 4 was to be the “captive” genre a la Misery and The Silence of the Lambs. And it successfully was…until the season’s final episode goes way, way off the reservation. This final half-hour finds our hero Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat) unambiguously…

Read More

21 Jan

How Search Party Season 4 Revels in Character Specificity

New DVD releasecharacter, party, revels, search, season, specificity

This article contains spoilers for Search Party season 4 episodes 4 through 6. One of the most tried and true laws of the entertainment industry is: Ann Dowd makes everything better. The character actress livens up just about everything that she’s in, whether it’s as a shockingly charismatic cultist in Hereditary, a shockingly charismatic cultist in The Handmaid’s Tale, or a…shockingly charismatic cultist in The Leftovers. OK, so we might be boxing Anne in a bit here. When it came time to cast basically the exact opposite of a shockingly charismatic cultist in Search Party season 4, however, the show’s…

Read More

14 Jan

Search Party Season 4 Honors Misery and Other “Captive” Dramas

New DVD releasecaptive, honors, misery, other, party, search, season

This article contains spoilers for Search Party season 4 episodes 1-3. Through two seasons on TBS and one on HBO Max, Search Party has defied genre expectations. While ostensibly a comedy about young Brooklyn millennials, each new year of the show has brought another unexpected tone to the table.  Season 1 was a Nancy Drew-style mystery, with Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat) and her friends searching for  their old missing college acquaintance Chantal Witherbottom (Clare McNulty). When that search went…poorly, season 2 dealt with the life and death consequences and added “paranoid thriller” to its genre collection. Season 3 then took…

Read More

11 Jan

Search Party Season 4 Review (Spoiler-Free)

New DVD releaseparty, review, search, season, spoiler

This review is based on all ten half-hour episodes of Search Party season 4 and contains no spoilers. “But you told the truth, and the truth set you free…” Search Party debuted as a dark and provocative mystery and, even though each season has subscribed to that model, the show has evolved and become radically different each year. It’s not unusual for plot-heavy series to play chicken with their narrative in this way, but Search Party triumphs through each step of the progressively dark path that Dory heads down.  Search Party season 3 actively had the audience question if Dory…

Read More

18 Sep

Sony Says Adding New First-Party Games to PlayStation Now Isn’t “Sustainable”

New DVD releaseadding, first, Games, party, playstation, sustainable

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan noted that the PlayStation team does not currently intend to offer new game releases as a day one addition to their subscription services. “For us, having a catalogue of games is not something that defines a platform,” says Ryan. “Our pitch, as you’ve heard, is ‘new games, great games.’ We have had this conversation before — we are not going to go down the road of putting new releases titles into a subscription model. These games cost many millions of dollars, well over $100 million, to develop. We just…

Read More

01 Sep

PlayStation Intends to Bring More First-Party Games to PC

New DVD releasebring, first, Games, intends, party, playstation

In a recent corporate report about the 2020 year (which is typically as thrilling as it sounds), Sony revealed that they intend to bring more PlayStation games to PC. “SIE aims to achieve robust revenue growth by accelerating the virtuous cycle that has been established for the PlayStation Platform,” reads a section of the report. “Targeted outcomes include growth in active users, stronger retention, and a shorter cash conversion cycle, from which expanded cash flow can be expected. We will explore expanding our 1st party titles to the PC platform, in order to promote further growth in our profitability.” That…

Read More

04 Jul

Cassidy Diamond is Search Party Season 3’s Vocal Fry Queen

New DVD releasecassidy, diamond, party, queen, search, season, vocal

The following contains spoilers for Search Party season 3.  Search Party season 3 finds its core characters in a place they probably expected to be ever since the violent events of the show’s first season finale: on trial for their lives. Yes, after a tragic case of mistaken intentions winds up with Keith (Ron Livingston) dead, Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat) and Drew Gardner (John Reynolds) finally end up in court on murder charges. Dory, Drew, and their friends Elliott Goss (John Early) and Portia Davenport (Meredeith Hagner) need a legal savior. They need…Cassidy Diamond. As portrayed by Shalita Grant (Santa…

Read More

01 Jul

Search Party Season 3 and The Trial of the Millennial

New DVD releasemillennial, party, search, season, trial

The following contains spoilers for every season of Search Party. On December 17, 2017, the second season of TBS’s mystery comedy Search Party concluded with a full steam of momentum. Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat) had just committed a murder to cover up an accidental murder from season 1, and then is promptly arrested (for the first murder that is). As Dory is ushered into the back of a squad car while still wearing a shapely red dress from the night’s festivities, the future looks pretty bleak for her. For the show, however, the future couldn’t have looked brighter. Then that…

Read More

05 Dec

The Party’s Just Beginning

Max SchindlerMovie reviewsbeginning, party

Liusaidh (Karen Gillan) is a sharp-witted, foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking twenty-something who is still reeling from a recent loss. Living with her parents in the remote Scottish Highlands, she spends most nights boozing at the local pub and embarks on what she assumes?perhaps rightly?will be yet another short-term fling when she hooks up with an out-of-towner (Lee Pace) who is going through a midlife crisis. At the same time, a wrong number leads Liusaidh to an anonymous connection with an old man who is grappling with his own end-of-life questions and regrets. These three characters, each at their own crossroads, search for…

Read More

02 Nov

Monster Party

Max SchindlerMovie reviewsmonster, party

Three thieves plan a daring heist posing as waiters at a fancy Malibu mansion dinner party in hopes of paying off an urgent debt. When their plan goes horribly wrong, the trio realizes the dinner guests are not as innocent as they seem and their simple cash grab becomes a violent and desperate battle to get out of the house alive.Rated: NRRelease Date: Nov 02, 2018

Read More

10 May

Life of the Party

Max SchindlerMovie reviewsparty

When her husband suddenly dumps her, longtime dedicated housewife Deanna (Melissa McCarthy) turns regret into re-set by going back to college?landing in the same class and school as her daughter, who?s not entirely sold on the idea. Plunging headlong into the campus experience, the increasingly outspoken Deanna?now Dee Rock?embraces freedom, fun and frat boys on her own terms, finding her true self in a senior year no one ever expected. Rated: PG-13Release Date: May 11, 2018

Read More

14 Feb

The Party

Max SchindlerMovie reviewsparty

Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) is hosting an intimate gathering of friends in her London home to celebrate her political ascension, while her husband, Bill (Timothy Spall), seems preoccupied. Janet?s acerbic best friend, April (Patricia Clarkson), arrives and others follow, some with their own dramatic news to share, but an announcement by Bill provokes a series of revelations that gradually unravel the sophisticated soiree, and a night that began with champagne may end with gunplay.Rated: Not RatedRelease Date: Feb 16, 2018

Read More