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<i>The Nose Speed Record</i> Captures Alex Honnold And Tommy Caldwell's Fight Against El Capitan, Gravity, And TimeEl Capitan was first climbed by Warren Harding, Wayne Merry, and George Whitmore in 1958. They climbed The Nose route over the course of a year, and it took them 47 days of actual climbing to reach the summit using “siege” tactics. In the intervening six decades, The Nose has established itself as ...

A Non-Fanboy's Spoiler-Laden And Mostly Cranky Review Of <i>Avengers: Endgame</i>Avengers: Endgame is not a movie. Here is where some poor Ringer writer with Bill Simmons looming over their shoulder like Dennis Quaid in that The Intruder trailer would write “it is a Cultural Event” or “it is the End Of An Era” or “it is the high water mark of brand synergy in the IP marketplace”...

<i>Free Solo</i>, The Alex Honnold Documentary, Is The Year's Most Disturbing MovieOver the first 12,000 or so years after Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan wall was scoured out by glaciers, no human had ever climbed up it without a rope. Then, last year, Alex Honnold scaled the 3,000-foot monolith without assistance of any kind. It is an utterly elemental human achievement, and...

A Good Plant: <i>Ilex Opaca</i>, The American Holly

It has been a rough year for my five little holly trees, transplanted last spring from a nursery to the muddy, weedy slope of the western edge of my home property, along the stupidly long driveway. ...

Kim Jong-il Liked<i> Bend It Like Beckham </i>And So Should You

With apologies to anyone who was hoping my earlier two reviews were the result of being an all-around miserable person who is incapable of enjoyment: I really liked Bend It Like Beckham!...

<i>Annihilation</i> Will Creep You All The Way Out

If you saw the trailer for Annihilation and got hyped to watch Natalie Portman spend the movie kicking ass with a machine gun, mowing down monsters while dispensing action-movie cliches, you won’t get what you want. If you read Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, on which the movie is based, and expected a fa...

<i>Lady Bird</i> Is As Honest As Teen Movies Get<em></em>

What do you remember about growing up? Was your tenure in high school characterized by grandiose, dramatic blowups and public betrayals, the sort you’ll see in, say, Riverdale? Or was it marked by subtler moments of inner tumult—smoldering angst rather than a bleeding heart? The version of teenage l...

Belated Nintendo Switch Review: The Nintendo Switch Rules So Hard

This era of console gaming is a strange one, owing partially to the fact that about five years ago, many people in the industry feared consumers would reject bulky $300 consoles in favor of cheaper and nimbler competitors like the iPhone and the iPad. Why pay so much for games you can only play in f...