Opinion

A waiting game of fate
Arts & Entertainment, Opinion, Reviews

A waiting game of fate

Story and image by JAVIER DOSAMANTESPima Post “The Card Counter”Directed by: Paul SchraderRating: RRun time: 1 hour, 51 minutesShowing at The Loft Cinema Redemption and fate have a unique relationship, although the latter is not always reciprocal to anyone or anything.  Paul Schrader continues to explore this in his new film "The Card Counter," a movie about a mysterious and disciplined lonely gambler who thinks he can outlast his fate by walking in circles. Leonardo da Vinci is best known for the Mona Lisa, the Detroit Lions for being proverbial losers and Schrader for writing about morally flawed and darkly complex antiheroes. William Tell (Oscar Isaac) is the latest Schrader protagonist. He continues a famed lineage of characters that includes Travis Bickle from "Tax...
‘Prisoners of the Ghostland’: a masterclass on how not to direct movies
Arts & Entertainment, Features, Opinion, Reviews

‘Prisoners of the Ghostland’: a masterclass on how not to direct movies

Story and image by Javier Dosamantes 'Prisoners of the Ghostland'Directed by: Sion SonoRating: NRRun time: 1 hour, 53 minutesShowing at The Loft Cinema Back in 2010, chicken franchise KFC launched the Double Down. It was a chicken sandwich that instead of having two pieces of bread to hold together the meat and fixings ... had two fried chicken fillets. The anatomy of the sandwich looked like this: a fried chicken fillet on the bottom, cheese, bacon and cheese in the middle, and topped off with another fried chicken fillet. It was a deliciously over-the-top and decadent idea. But without the bread to tie up the ingredients, the Double Down was incredibly messy and the flavors were too intense and chaotic instead of complementing each other.  It feels like good-tasting c...
Is STU 100 worth it?
News, Opinion

Is STU 100 worth it?

By TROY HUTCHISONPima Post   Most Pima Community College students looking to earn their associate degrees must take a one-credit class called “College Success/Career Planning," better known as STU 100. What is STU 100? It is a class that prepares new incoming students for what to expect during their college experience and helps them understand how to prepare for their classes and get help in those classes if needed. Depending on several factors, the class could be a valuable experience or a waste of time. From my experience, it is a good class for new students going to college. It makes the transition from high school to college a smoother one and will provide the student a better understanding of the expectations and what is needed to succeed at Pima.  “This class...
Newest ‘Spider-Man’ will be 2021’s biggest movie
Arts & Entertainment, Features, Opinion

Newest ‘Spider-Man’ will be 2021’s biggest movie

Wikimedia Commons: Gamer16 (License) By Carlos Miranda “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is bringing back old villains from previous Spider-Man movies.  All of the Spider-Man/Marvel fans have been waiting a long time for this trailer to drop. The trailer dropped on Aug. 22, and this trailer has shocked fans all over the world.  With more than 355.5 million views, this movie trailer was the most-watched movie trailer in a 24-hour period. The previous record was “Avengers: Endgame,” which had gotten 289 million views. The “Spider-Man: No Way Home” movie trailer was an awesome, crazy, mind-blowing, insane trailer to watch. This was the trailer people have been waiting all year to see. This preview showed us what to expect for this new movie, which will be released in Decem...
‘Donda’: Was the wait worth it?
Arts & Entertainment, Opinion

‘Donda’: Was the wait worth it?

By Nate Martinez It had felt like ages since Kanye West had released another big studio album.  That’s probably because his last release was 2016’s “The Life of Pablo.”  To be fair, West had dropped some albums, but not the long, complex and structured albums that fans expected. In 2018, West released a seven-song EP called “Ye,” which totaled 23 minutes of play. He then went on to drop “Jesus Is King” that same year.  Now, after three years, a couple of presidential tries, some album fakeouts, a very public split with Kim Kardashian and a handful of live breakdowns on national television, West himself managed to drop the long-awaited “Donda” Aug. 29.  This album, named after his late mother who died in 2007, wouldn't be a Kanye album without its share...
‘Princess Mononoke’ is a masterpiece
Arts & Entertainment, Features, Opinion, Reviews

‘Princess Mononoke’ is a masterpiece

Story and image by Javier Dosamantes "Princess Mononoke"Directed by: Hayao MiyazakiRating: PG-13Run time: 2 hours, 13 minutesStream on HBO Max with subscription or rent on Amazon Prime for $11.99 Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli's co-founder, has garnered a devoted following worldwide and is widely acclaimed across the anime and cinematic worlds.  I, however, was not part of the Academy Award - winning filmmaker's loyal fan base. Until now. Not because I didn't like his work. I just hadn't seen any of it. I know, I know, it seems like I'm the only film geek who doesn't revere Miyazaki's work. That all changed when I went to a screening of “Princess Mononoke” as part of The Loft Cinema's “Cult Classics” series.  “Princess Mononoke” — written and directed by Miyazaki...
Nomadland: A Clever Take on the Death of the American Dream
Arts & Entertainment, Opinion

Nomadland: A Clever Take on the Death of the American Dream

Francis McDormand appears in NOMADLAND. (Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures) By Kevin Murphy Fern (Frances McDormand) goes through a storage room on a cold winter day. She comes across a men’s denim jacket that, with tears in her eyes, she clutches to her chest before setting out on the road in her van. Not long after, she’s seen hustling through a busy work schedule at a bleak Amazon fulfilment warehouse.  These are the opening scenes to “Nomadland”. Directed by Chloé Zhao, the film is based on the 2017 non-fiction book of the same title written by Jessica Bruder. These early scenes epitomize an underlying theme of the film: corporate capitalism has shattered the American dream, and left many people searching for a home in the world that broke them.  Following th...
Columna: Las Mujeres en México Celebran Estar Vivas en el Día Internacional de la Mujer
Opinion

Columna: Las Mujeres en México Celebran Estar Vivas en el Día Internacional de la Mujer

By Mara Durán Domínguez Vivir bajo el aguijón de la violencia es el “status quo” de muchas mujeres alrededor del mundo y México no es la excepción. De acuerdo a la revista Forbes, “México es un lugar cada vez más hostil para ser mujer; con altos índices de violencia, inseguridad e inequidad de género, el país cayó al puesto 60 de 80 en el ranking de los mejores países para ser mujer el US News & World Report de 2019.” La gente se enfrenta a la violencia todos los días, aunque para algunos no es una forma normal de vivir, a veces las personas aceptan el abuso con naturalidad.  La violencia de género nace en los micro machismos, un ejemplo muy común son los actos en los que se devalúa a la mujer, este tipo de maltrato desapercibido cuando la mujer es ofendida por sus padres o por algui...
Column: Superfluous Man
Opinion

Column: Superfluous Man

By Kevin Hartung When did man become so nonessential in our society? It seems to me that an American way of thinking is to view our own beliefs or values through the prism of whether they are shared by others. This cult of personality ideology is, I believe, diametrically oppositional to the principles used by a free, democratic society. When an ideologue emerges, we should see the person as one formed by a cult of personality before we decide who or what he represents. Today. men let tribe mentality determine their values, their thinking, their actions, and their narrative. An individual lacks real power to make others sit up and take notice, so he uses the power of groupthink to get his message across. However, no matter how much control he has, another ideologue can convince the group ...
Opinion: Migrants Abandoned in Yuma
Opinion

Opinion: Migrants Abandoned in Yuma

Photo by Donald Giannatti By Kyler Van Vliet Custom and Border Protection holding facilities have been at maximum capacity since April of last year and now migrants are being released into Yuma County.  Due to a rise in border apprehensions combined with social distancing guidelines that don't allow for as many people to be held in one particular space, CBP has released a group of 20 people into the neighboring community of San Luis. Several more similarly sized groups were let out in subsequent days. Yuma County is not new to sheltering released migrants. Two years ago, Yuma saw the release of 5,700 migrants into the county of about 215,000 people over a three-month period. Two years ago however, there was a non-profit shelter for people to stay at. That sole temporary shelter in the ar...