New York City is in a war against rats, and its latest weapon is contraception. Mayor Eric Adams appointed a “rat czar” — Kathleen Corradi, officially known as the “director of rodent mitigation.”...

For native English speakers in the United States, the skill of learning foreign languages is growing in difficulty. According to University of Alabama Chinese program director Xiang Zhang, it isn’t...

I’ve long vested myself with a personality of being reserved. By no means would I be “shy” or “introverted”; rather, I’d say my interaction style was centered more around reaction than initiation....

“A Quiet Place: Day One” has the foundation of a rock-solid and even great prequel. It isn’t just that it brings the concept of sound-seeking monsters to a fresh and exciting urban setting. The...

“Inside Out 2” begins with a bit of an eye roll.  We open with the dreaded exposition monologue over a cliched scene of Riley playing hockey. The monologue, like with others that have appeared...

When asked about her work with the University of Alabama Natural Resource Conservation Lab, geography graduate student Jayla Blanke described a simple yet profound motivation.  “I enjoy trying to...

If the heightened prevalence of the transfer portal weren’t already evident, the 2024 Elite Eight made it crystal clear. This year’s fourth round of games featured only one team whose entire starting...

In Rotten Tomatoes’ “Critics Consensus” for “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” which encapsulates 187 professional reviews, the film is given the following appraisal:  “Come to Godzilla...

The festival circuit is one of the forces that makes the world of film go round.   Every year, exhibitions across various countries and categories offer filmmakers a unique avenue for exposure; for...

For the sake of avoiding redundant buildup, let us jump straight to the inevitable conclusion: “Imaginary” is a severely lacking film.  Like many of the idea-based horror properties to come out...

“Power over spice is power over all.”  So begins “Dune: Part Two,” which from onset continues its predecessor’s fascination with power and the destructive ends to which it drives. Denis Villeneuve’s...

Relatively little attention has been paid to recently dropped docudrama “Einstein and the Bomb.” Its solid 88% on Rotten Tomatoes comes from only eight reviews; it is nowhere to be found on Letterboxd’s...

After a thrilling 2023 campaign that saw Alabama baseball hit several long-missed benchmarks — 40 wins for the first time since 2010, a winning conference record for the first time since 2014, a regional...

In Rotten Tomatoes’ blurb summarizing the critical consensus and lending words to the Tomatometer, "Orion and the Dark" is described as “an uncommonly ambitious animated film” with a “screenplay...

Authors, directors and all other artists frequently find themselves on a journey — the pursuit of translating experience to content.   It is a noble quest. The infinite supply of human emotions,...

Soon after the news of Nick Saban’s retirement shook the foundations of Tuscaloosa, students at The University of Alabama flocked to Saban’s commemorative statue outside Bryant-Denny Stadium. A vigil...

In the Week 11 AP Top 25 poll for college basketball, the Alabama Crimson Tide is nowhere to be found. Head coach Nate Oats’ squad, which sits at 11-5 after an 82-74 win over Mississippi State on Saturday...

Visual art is home to a range of voices, a wide and ever-expanding cache of unique perspectives. It allows a colorful — or, sometimes, literally black and white — blend of creativity, emotional expression...

Another week has passed in the NBA, and former Alabama stars occupy a variety of positions along the spectrum of individual and team success.  Brandon Miller  The recap for this slate of games...

Upon first glance, it might be difficult to grasp the importance of the ECo Free Market clothing swap taking place Dec. 1. One might wonder, “Why carve out time to compile all the clothes I don’t wear?...

As players, coaches and media gradually left the field following Texas’ 34-24 upset victory of then-No.3 Alabama on Sept. 9, a fatalistic haze hung over Bryant-Denny Stadium. Fans weren’t stunned,...

The NBA regular season is moving out of its early stages and getting into full swing, an evolution marked by the new and unique NBA Cup. With each passing week, team and player identities continue to solidify.  Within...

For those who have long been fans of “Loki” or simply passed by Season 1 when traversing the Disney+ interface, the Season 2 finale, “Glorious Purpose,” should look familiar.  The fact that...

After the release and immediate explosion of “Five Nights at Freddy's,” a horror video game that prospered by capitalizing on the fear of animatronics instilled into the populace by chains such as...

There’s something undeniably familiar in this week’s episode of “Loki.”  After the climactic and expectation-shattering close to last week’s “The Heart of the TVA,” Episode 5 dives without...

“Ain’t nothing like ’em nowhere,” claims the slogan of Dreamland Bar-B-Que. It’s a bold assertion, yet if you ask a Southerner with an awareness of the region’s barbecue scene, or even just...

“Loki” Season 2 has entered its chaos stretch.  This season has been nothing but high-stakes fare since its opening moments; in Episode 4, however, with the fittingly grandiose title “Heart of...

The NBA regular season has finally arrived. The Crimson Tide currently has 11 representatives in the league, 10 of whom are actively rostered and one of whom remains in the free agent pool.  Ahead...

In the latest episode of “Loki,” there is zero time to waste. From the first frame to the last, urgency is the name of the game.  Titled “1893,” a tonal titular contrast to last week’s “Breaking...

When Asar Ahmad stepped onto the campus of The University of Alabama as a freshman in the fall of 2021, he soon dealt with the struggles many students face every year. The process of leaving home had proven...

On Thursday, fans were given the second episode of Loki Season 2, titled “Breaking Brad,” presumably a cheeky allusion to the immortalized AMC TV series.  After last week’s high stakes opening,...

Coming out of high school, wide receiver Jermaine Burton was a hot commodity.   A four-star and top 10 recruit at his position, he appeared to be on a direct path to stardom. Two years at Georgia marked...

Thursday marked the return of Marvel’s “Loki,” which, with a 90% critics’ approval on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.2/10 on IMDb, is among the more successful of the studio’s Disney+ television outputs.  Season...

However much one might fancy Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot and the trilogy of mystery movies he has been at the helm of, one cannot deny that they are all three unique. Each brings its own set of...

The idea of In-Yun is one that to American audiences will seem strange and exotic. It is essentially the notion that human interaction, whether intentional or accidental, operates on a basis of predetermination...

“Take it slow,” advises a well-meaning elderly woman as she passes Denzel Washington’s Robert McCall slowly trekking up one of the dauntingly steep flights of stairs in the seaside town of Altamonte,...

Thursday night’s NFL regular-season opener between the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs marks the return of professional football and autumnal Sunday afternoons spent watching the sport’s finest...

The A24 horror movie has become something of an icon in modern cinema. For a decade, the famed indie film haven has distributed some of the most experimental, auteuristic and often viscerally terrifying...

As the month of August dawns upon us, so does the intense anticipation of Alabama football.    It’s comical that an 11-win season punctuated with a dominant Sugar Bowl showing has left a sour taste...

For incoming freshmen, college life is going to be a culture shock like no other and there’s no getting around it. It isn’t simply doing homework and studying for tests. It’s managing time, maintaining...

“Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited gargantuan biopic, has been met with overwhelming adoration.   With a 94% Tomatometer and a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — an uncommon...

Walking into “Barbie” with the expectation of another intellectual-property-based blockbuster — something fun but superficial, in the vein of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” or “Detective Pikachu”...

Less than a week after “Insidious: The Red Door” hit theaters, the entertainment website Bloody Disgusting released an interview with director Patrick Wilson detailing the array of thought processes...

Before the release of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” on June 30, few movies had been as conflicting, as difficult to form a cohesive opinion of, or as demanding of several days to corral one’s...

The first two weeks of theatrical life for Pixar’s “Elemental” were rocky. It opened on June 16 to a domestic box office of $29.6 million, the studio’s lowest opening-weekend performance since...

DC’s “The Flash” is a film heavily inspired by its acclaimed genre counterparts.  Hollywood is driven by this practice of taking inspiration from a successful film and utilizing its styles and...

“Pandemonium” would be the word most aptly describing the world of film since the release of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” on June 2.   In 2018, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”...

There’s an odd dynamic to watching basketball being played at the NBA level. While one can objectively acknowledge the skill, speed and freakish athleticism on the floor, it is hard to truly conceptualize...

When “Shazam!” was released in 2019, filmgoers were in almost ubiquitous agreement. With a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, it was a hit, combining wit, charm and goofy superhero fun into one of the DC Extended...

Long and strong has been the anticipation for “Cocaine Bear,” which was arguably one of the most intriguing and delirious concepts of the 2023 movie landscape. According to the Google summary, “a...

"Phase Five" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has officially begun with “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which promises to push the universal narrative toward the next “big bad.” The new movie...

Thursday, Feb. 17 brought us the long-awaited “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which delivered intriguing new faces and yet another expansion of the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe. With this...

In terms of pure critical reception, “M3GAN” is an anomaly among January horror releases, which some believe are not the best movies on the market. Sitting with a surprising 94% on the Rotten Tomatoes...

Half a decade after the release of her 2017 drama “Killing Jesus,” Colombian director Laura Mora Ortega has graced the independent film scene once more, this time with “Los Reyes del Mundo,” or...

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is the sequel to the critically acclaimed “Black Panther,” which boasts a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and is one of the most widely beloved films in the Marvel Cinematic...

“Halloween Ends” is the long-awaited finale to the rebooted “Halloween” movie franchise, which began with 2018’s "Halloween” and continued with last year’s “Halloween Kills.” It is a...