Reflections on Demi Lovato’s Relapse
As we reported in Culture Clips on Wednesday, singer and actress Demi Lovato was hospitalized after reportedly overdosing this week. It’s another deeply sad moment in the career of a young woman—Lovato is just 25—who has been in similarly desperate places before. Lovato has long been open about her struggles, serving as a role model […]
Equalizer 2 Takes out Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
Movie audiences preferred visceral vigilante violence to ABBA-themed sentimentality over the weekend. Denzel Washington’s R-rated sequel The Equalizer 2 knocked off Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in a bit of a surprise finish. Specifically, The Equalizer 2 pulled in an estimated $35.8 million compared to Mamma’s $34.4 million. (Both of those figures, for the […]
Vodcast: How Does Parenthood Change Our View of the Media?
Parenthood is full of surprises, no matter how much we try to prepare for everything before the arrival of our firstborn. One of those surprises may be the ways becoming a parent changes how we see the world. And that includes entertainment and media. In this week’s Plugged In Vodcast, Kristin Smith, Bob Hoose and […]
Culture Clips: State of the Teens, Summer 2018 Edition
Are the kids alright? It’s a question that many in our culture return to again and again. Rightly so: Today’s children represent the future of our society. But while the question itself seems a simple one, answers almost never are. And so it is today. The news about what’s happening with young people—mostly teens, but […]
Hotel Transylvania 3 Takes a Bite out of the Box Office
Vampires never seem to get old. That’s true of the immortal undead creatures themselves. (Well, mostly.) And it seems to be true of movies starring them as well. Drac’s back again this week, taking a bite out of the box office (though, thankfully, nothing else) in Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. Sony’s surprisingly family-focused threequel […]
Pokémon … Still Go-ing, Two Years, $2 Billion Later
Like the Energizer Bunny, Pokémon Go is still going. Now, you may think, Wasn’t that that thing people were all abuzz about like, three years ago? Close. It was two years ago, actually. And, yes, this pioneering augmented reality mobile game did generate a lot of headlines … for about a month. Like most apparent […]
Culture Clips: The Most Unlikely Superhero: Fred Rogers
In a world where superhero movies rake in hundreds of millions at the box office, a film that’s made $12.7 million so far might not seem like news. But when that movie is a documentary about the late Fred Rogers, it’s news indeed. Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor? has become one of the […]
Vodcast: Incredibles 2 and Everyday Supers
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom might be poised to take a big bite out of the box office this weekend. But we’re guessing that plenty of families who didn’t see Pixar’s Incredibles 2 on opening night might well be making plans to do so this weekend. I took my three kiddos earlier this week. In some […]
Culture Clips: The Chris Pratt Talks About God on MTV Edition
Awards shows on MTV have often offered celebrities big stages for bad behavior. (We could start with Miley Cyrus and work backwards from there.) But perhaps the biggest story at this year’s MTV Movie & TV Awards is something Monty Python might have introduced with the disclaimer, “And now for something completely different.” Really different. […]
Hey, Where Did the Plugs Go?
If you’ve checked out any of Plugged In’s movie reviews today, you probably noticed that something’s changed: Our family-friendly movie rating, represented by those familiar green “plugs,” is no longer at the top of our reviews. So what happened to it? The fact is, our team has been debating the possibility of removing the rating […]