Aquaman Escapes With Third No. 1
If DC superheroes were a high school football team, Aquaman would’ve been the perennial backup placekicker: He was part of the team, sure, but not likely to get nominated for the homecoming court. His superpowers just didn’t feel all that … well, super. Nifty, yes. But if Lex Luther’s creating havoc in, say, Nebraska, Aquaman’s […]
“Bandersnatch”: The Possibility—and Peril—of Story
Stories are never one-way streets. It’s not just what the story’s creator pours into them; we, the consumer, bring elements to the party as well—our experiences, our ideals, our moods. These elements inherently shape a given story we’re reading or viewing or playing. So even while watching the same movie, two people can have two […]
Culture Clips: New Year, New Fears
Happy New Year? Let’s be honest: Some people may be walking into 2019 with a sense of fear and trepidation. Some say that the greatest trigger for fear is uncertainty, and we’ve got 360-some days of uncertainty ahead of us. Why, when some people turn over the calendar year, they may have to stifle the […]
Aquaman Paddles to Number 1 … Again
Seems only appropriate that a superhero would close out 2018 at the top of the box office. For the second straight week, Aquaman swam to the weekend’s box-office title, finishing almost a full length ahead of the rest of the field. D.C.’s latest cinematic superhero earned an estimated $51.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo, […]
Pop Culture’s Top 10 Movers and Shakers (2018 Edition)
See ya, 2018. Wouldn’t want to be ya. Who would? The year was so crazy that even Vincent Van Gogh would have suggested it get a hold of itself. Terrible fires in California. Terrible cold out east. A Tesla Roadster is driving around in space. Certain eels are compulsively swimming into the noses of certain […]
Culture Clips: Old Year, New Tricks
The new year is nearly upon us. Forget running from it, forget hiding. Like a tiger, it’ll soon bound from the weeds and pounce on us all. Yes, the new year is a time for change. Take, for instance, Macaulay Culkin, who didn’t even wait for the Times Square ball to drop to announce a […]
Aquaman’s Box-Office Stocking Overflows
Nothing says Christmas like a soggy superhero with a big fork. So said the masses that scurried to their local theaters this weekend in advance of the holiday—plunking down whatever they had left over from their Christmas shopping for tickets to Aquaman. The DC superhero flick earned $67.4 million to take the box-office crown. That’s […]
Culture Clips: Gifts for Everyone!
Tis the season to hand out gifts. But in our harried culture, not everyone has time to write letters to Santa Claus these days. And since Kris Kringle doesn’t have a Twitter account (or does he?), we at Plugged In thought we’d ask for a few presents for some culture’s movers and shakers. So Santa—can […]
Social Animals Showcases the Inspiring, Terrifying World of Instagram
In Social Animals, a new documentary directed by Jonathan Ignatius Green, a teen laments the chaos that is Instagram: “You have to deal with the perverts, the disrespectful teenagers, the racist people, and family members,” she says. “That’s too much.” But is she going to delete her account? Probably not. Instagram may be “too much,” […]
Spider-Man: Into First Place
There are those who say that we live in an infinite number of universes. For some scientists who reject the idea of a Creator, it helps explain the outrageously outlandish improbability that life exists at all; and many a science-fiction and comic book writer has leveraged the theory to create wildly creative twists on well-worn […]