nan Page 72 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Somehow, Kawhi Leonard Keeps Getting Better
What’s most remarkable about Kawhi Leonard’s improvement through the course of his five NBA seasons is how steady it’s been. He began his career as a defensive specialist who rarely shot, and only did so when it made sense within the flow of an offense built around Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, and Manu ...
<i>The Danish Girl</i> Makes Transgender Issues Safe For The Oscar Crowd
Of all the adjectives to describe a movie, “well-intentioned” is among the least scintillating and most wearying. It’s why a lot of people have an aversion to so-called Oscar-bait— they’re the kind of films that pop up around award season to address important subjects in a respectful way, with the h...
<i>Creed </i>Hits Harder The Further It Gets From Rocky Balboa's Shadow
1. Creed works better as an actual movie than it does as a Rocky movie, which is quite the compliment, considering that it’s an excellent Rocky movie, too. (I hadn’t seen it yet when Grierson and I did our Rocky movie rankings on Monday; I’m higher on it than he is.) More than a mere boxing film, it...
<i>The Good Dinosaur's</i> Visual Grandeur Makes Up For Its Lack Of Wit
One of the constant accolades Pixar receives about its movies is that they’re not made just for kids. This is meant as a compliment: While they’re animated and appeal to children, their emotional and thematic sophistication also makes them satisfying to grownups—maybe even more so. The downside to t...
The <i>Hunger Games</i> Are Over, But Jennifer Lawrence Is Only Getting Better
1. It seems insane to think about now, but there was a time when everyone was worried about whether or not Jennifer Lawrence could pull off the Hunger Games films. Cast as Katniss Everdeen just a year after her breakthrough in Winter’s Bone, Lawrence was considered by many an undeniable talent but a...
<i>Carol</i> Is A Beautiful Love Story, Starring A Terrific Cate Blanchett
In director Todd Haynes’ films, characters have to learn how to live in worlds that don’t suit them. In Safe, Far From Heaven and I’m Not There, his lonely protagonists often feel trapped by circumstance, unable to find any sort of real happiness because, deep down, no one around them sees things th...
<i>The Night Before </i>Is One Seth Rogen Bromance Too Many
A lot of comics have a shtick, and the trick is to give it enough flexibility so that it can be twisted and reshaped in myriad ways without breaking. Since Seth Rogen’s leading-man breakthrough in 2007’s Knocked Up, his has been impressively bendy, playing overgrown man-children who end up pulling t...
A Completely Attainable Guide To Getting Rich And Following Your Dreams
I was drawn to this ridiculous New York Times styles section profile by its accompanying tweet: “From finance guy to ceramicist.” It gets better when you read the first paragraph:...
The Jose Fernandez Trade Rumors Just Started And Reporters Are Fighting About Them
Oh yeah, it’s hot fucking stove season. The most interesting and most frighteningly plausible (given the franchise involved) blockbuster deal being bandied about would involve the Marlins trading away starter Jose Fernandez, an insanely talented 23-year-old under team control for the next three year...
<i>By The Sea</i> Makes Marriage Look Like A Beautiful, Painful Bore
About seven months after Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston got married, The Onion ran the brilliant headline “Brad Pitt Bored With Sight of Jennifer Aniston’s Naked Body.” It was a perfect joke on a couple of levels, but the element of truth that’s always stayed with me was the notion that even the mos...
Fed Up Spurs Color Commentator Draws Dick & Balls On Broadcast
Sean Elliott, a terrible color commentator for the Spurs, was fed up yesterday for a series of technical difficulties and took his revenge here in the fourth quarter. Perfect execution for the Spurs, as always....
Bond On The Run: A Close Look At Daniel Craig's Form
Spectre is dropping soon at a theatre near you, so it’s time to talk about Bond, James Bond. Since I don’t know good sprint form from a Moonraker, I brought in special agent Phoebe Wright for this assignment. An 800-meter professional, Wright has acted in some excellent chase scenes herself, knows w...
The Cheesy <i>Spectre </i>Suggests That James Bond's Darker, Grittier, Better Days Are Over
1. There was a time not so long ago when the very notion of James Bond seemed ridiculous—as anachronistic as making a movie about Betamax players or pay phones. There were actual thinkpieces 10 years back about whether James Bond could exist in a post-Austin Powers world. Even Daniel Craig worried a...
<i>The Peanuts Movie </i>Is Faithful To Charles Schulz's Creation, But Still Gets It Wrong
Back in 1997, when L.A. Weekly critic Manohla Dargis gave a negative review to The Lost World, the hotly-anticipated sequel to Jurassic Park, she noted that not liking the movie was the equivalent of announcing that Christmas had been canceled to its fans. In kind, giving a thumbs-down to The Peanut...
The Superb Investigative-Journalism Drama <i>Spotlight </i>Makes Competence Riveting
Inspirational true stories trumpet lots of commendable human traits—heroism, perseverance, compassion—but Spotlight may be the first to celebrate competence. Based on the 2001 Boston Globe investigation that revealed the depth of the Catholic Church’s coverup of clergy sexual misconduct, this straig...
Don't Do That: A Harrowing "Ask A Lawyer" Lightning Round
Welcome back to Ask a Lawyer, wherein I, a lawyer, respond to your questions. Got a vexing legal issue? Send it over, or drop it in the comments below. Today, we’re tackling the weirdest emails we’ve gotten so far, all at once. Let’s hit it. ...
Reports: Keenan Allen Could Miss Rest Of Season With Lacerated Kidney
Chargers star wide receiver Keenan Allen suffered a kidney injury during his team’s loss to the Ravens, and has been in the hospital since Sunday night. Now it looks like he might miss the rest of the season....
Raiders Owner Mark Davis Cheered By Fans He Wants To Abandon Or Steal From
The NFL held its third and final town hall meeting on relocation last night. After giving fans in San Diego and St. Louis a chance to vent and make a case for why their football teams shouldn’t be relocated to Los Angeles, a group of NFL execs trudged into the Paramount Theater in Oakland to hear it...
You Should See the 3D Sex Drama <i>Love</i>, Even If You Hate Gaspar Noé
There are two very understandable reasons why people hate Gaspar Noé’s films: He’s a pompous tool, and his movies are often little more than showy provocations filled with vapid ciphers. If anything, Love finds the 51-year-old director doubling down on his self-appointed enfant terrible persona, and...