Art
"Challengers" Movie Review
Challengers is a triumphantly sexy cinematic rollercoaster ride, too incredulously fun not to watch. Tashi Duncan is played by Zendaya, the exceptionally emotive young movie star. Matched against her are two gorgeously nerdy-looking young players, Mike Faist as Art Donaldson and Josh O’Conner as Patrick Zweig. All three have the blessing of great chemistry whenever they spar across screen. Alongside their star qualities are bouncing timelines, demonstrating a lifetime of flagrantly competitive choices that create a trail of wasted potential and misguided lust. Director Luca Guadagnino really knows how to make a graceful yet scandalous picture. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's EDM score intensifies the thrill of tennis and prideful characters up to an eleven. After watching Challengers multiple times, I am forced to argue that all sporting events should henceforth take place at a fist-pumping rave. When first hearing about this movie, I thought the entire plot had been offered up within the two-minute trailer. Two friends like a tennis star. Tennis star has a career-ending injury. Tennis star picks blonde boy, and brunette boy is angry. Audience members think they have digested the full ingredients of the film before getting their soles sticky from the theatre floor. Yet, this new-age masterpiece is anything but a simple meal.
By Spider Blacka day ago in Critique
The Tainted Cup
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett I made this entire series to write this review. The 2024 Hugo Winner is a Holmes and Watson style whodunnit taking place in a fantasy world that blends Area X from the Southern Reach Trilogy and The Lost World–more on the setting later.
By Matthew J. Fromm2 days ago in Critique
Standing While Falling. Top Story - January 2026.
Quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche "He who wrestles long with monsters should beware lest he himself become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Man is not destroyed by suffering, but by the meaning he makes of it."
By LUCCIAN LAYTH2 days ago in Critique
The Lost City of Z
The Lost City of Z by David Grann Growing up I thought I wanted to be an archaeologist. Now that I’m a ripe 32, I realize what I really wanted to be was an adventurer–someone who dug deep into the dark and emerged with treasures unseen for millennia.
By Matthew J. Fromm3 days ago in Critique
Words of Radiance
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson And so we come to the yearly ovation for Mr. Sanderson. The man is a genius, his lecture series is one of the most important resources ever developed for writers, and I’m yet to pick up a Sando that’s scored below a 70. I have critiques that we’ll come to, but suffice to say I am a big supporter of Sanderson.
By Matthew J. Fromm4 days ago in Critique
The Blade Itself
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie Every once in a while, I pick up a book that reminds me fundamentally why I enjoy reading—a book that turns my brain off and sweeps me away to some far flung world that I can sit at any quiet moment and. . . disappear into.
By Matthew J. Fromm6 days ago in Critique
The Fall of Arthur
The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien/Chris Tolkien Naturally I’d start this series with my hardest evaluation of the year. I snagged this copy from Shakespeare & Co in Paris to appropriately cap off a trip that included seeing the Bayeux Tapestry (a lecture series for a different time, but it’s so important to the fantasy genre).
By Matthew J. Fromm8 days ago in Critique
Autotune Tears
Digital Tears and Ghosts in the Studio The script has become a seasonal awards-show classic: an established artist, face solemn and trophy in hand, uses their acceptance speech to denounce the latest technological heresy. Today, the monster is artificial intelligence (AI)—a soulless threat, a soul-less automaton poised to usurp human creativity and devalue artists’ livelihoods. Yet this moral panic is not new; it is merely the latest chapter in the music industry’s long, repetitive history of resisting progress—a predictable cycle of fear, rejection, and, inevitably, assimilation.
By Francisco Navarro18 days ago in Critique
More Christmas Art
Here is another from Valentin Ramon's Christmas movie coloring book. Again, I mainly used colored pencils. In using greens and yellows and black I am pretty sure you know which movie and cartoon this one pertains to. I bet you even know by heart when the Grinch even says this line in the movie, cartoon and even maybe what page of the Dr. Suess picture book this is written. It is a Christmas favorite for all, and some may even go a bit far in the like or even dislike of this particular live action or cartoon movie for all.
By Mark Graham24 days ago in Critique
My Christmas Colorings
The image chosen is one of my Christmas colorings that I just completed from an adult coloring book featuring illustrations done by Valentin Ramon entitled 'The Unofficial Christmas Movie coloring book'. This is a phrase that is used in 'The Santa Claus' I believe the first one. I u\sed colored pencils as the medium. The pajama top is Santa's, and I used multiple colors for the lights, and the cord I decided to make green since a lot of Christmas lights come on green cords nowadays. If you like this one there are going to be more from other movies.
By Mark Graham25 days ago in Critique
