Just about everything you might expect to be annoying about an animated, 19th-century film about dueling Parisian child ballerinas cripples "Leap!" It's essentially a Barbie movie with twice the budget, worse characters and even less plausibility (but better pop songs.)
Television, which was once condensed to weekly programs on three or four channels, has expanded so vastly in recent years that it's impossible for a person to watch every show of note. In such a diluted market, the TV series-as-a-cultural-event, where, for the course of an hour, a large swath of viewers has their eyes on the same program, has essentially died.
Film: "Mommy Dead and Dearest" (Kirby)
When Malory Owen was 4 years old, her parents lost sight of her at Hueston Woods. Like any good parents, they panicked, assuming the worst had happened on their guided tour.
The sun was beginning to set, the color from the sky fading and turning grey. The music from Mega Fair was still booming, but the event was dying down. People began to trickle into the area around the Sundial. Waiting.
I was scared to step into the new wing of Armstrong. That sounds a little silly, and maybe it's a bit of an exaggeration. But it's true that I avoided the new addition like the plague for the first two weeks that I was back in Oxford.
Abby Gromek can't remember the first time she stepped on a trampoline. However, she can remember the day it began to mean something more.
Jake Gold and Nick Froehlich, guest columnists
Harris closes, Maple Street changes, Armstrong and Bell Tower expands, and more
Welcome, welcome back, or hello again! Whether you're an upperclassman, the new kid in town, enjoying retirement, or somewhere in between, these events will help you find your place at Miami and around Oxford.
Film-wise, this was the best summer in recent memory (no thanks to "The Emoji Movie"). Here are the top five films worth watching if you didn't manage to catch them in the last few months, plus the ones you should steer clear of.
The self-explanatory new Netflix series, "The Standups," features six episodes with six comedians, one of whom is Miami alum Beth Stelling.
It's a good year to be a woman in film. Unless, of course, that film is directed by Michael Bay or stars Tom Cruise.
HELSINKI, Finland -- I stepped outside in my simple black two piece bathing suit, bare feet and hair tied up. The cold air hit my flushed skin and filled my desperate lungs. I could see my breath cloud in front of me. I walked along the deck, down the steps and to the ladder at the edge.
Just a short 25-minute drive from Miami's campus, metal sculptures dozens of feet tall dot the landscape of the Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. From the bright orange behemoth that is sculptor Alexander Liberman's abstract "Abracadabra" to the monumental bronze and steel of Michael Dunbar's "Euclid's Cross," a walk through this park makes it hard to believe you're just outside Hamilton, OH.
The airing of "Girls'" final episode on April 16 seemed to be an equal source of relief and distress for the American public -- maybe more relief.
When my brother and I were home for Easter, my mom welcomed us with bowls of Raisin Bran and big mugs of decaffeinated tea, long hugs that started with her telling us how good it was to have us home, even just for 24 hours, and that ended with a kiss on the cheek. She let my brother fall asleep in the recliner and let me take the last granola bar in the pantry. She bent the old rules and put our dishes in the dishwasher for us when we, so used to dining halls and drive-thrus, forgot. But she had one firm request of us before we headed back to Oxford: Stop by the house.
"Snatched"
When Abby Chafe received word that the cast list for Miami University's "The Wild Party" had been posted, she ducked out of her physics class early.
There's no way to unpack a Kendrick Lamar LP in one listen. From his major breakthrough "good kid, m.A.A.d city," presented as a time-jumping short film, to his ambitious, eclectic follow-up "To Pimp a Butterfly" which garnered 11 Grammy nominations -- one short of Michael Jackson's record for "Thriller" -- a Lamar record is guaranteed to come loaded with multi-narrative character arcs, history-spanning musical cues and some of the most stunning vocal acrobatics in hip-hop. Even last year's comparably small TPAB companion piece "untitled unmastered." was among the best rap releases of the year.