Muse House

'Off Label' too unclear, inconsistent to make point
By Max B. O'Connell
September 29, 2013 - 5:07pm
'Off Label,' which screened on Friday at the Syracuse University Human Rights Film Festival, follows no principles of effective storytelling and fails to draw connections between unrelated individuals.

Watching Off Label is like being in a conversation with a reasonably intelligent but digressive person. It starts on a broad topic and jumps from tangent to tangent, trying unsuccessfully to tie them all together until it’s not clear what point it’s trying to make at all. Maybe all of the points. Maybe none of them.

'Rafea: Solar Mama' uplifting, not naive
By Max B. O'Connell
September 27, 2013 - 3:59pm
The first film in the Syracuse University Human Rights Film Festival, documentary 'Rafea: Solar Mama,' finds something close to the truth despite human tendency to act for a camera.

There’s a tendency for people to start performing as soon as they’re aware there’s a camera on them.

That can be a problematic situation for a documentary filmmaker, especially one trying to stay out of his/her film’s story, and it makes documentaries that try to capture unmediated reality feel awkward, if not suspect.

The Orange Pop: "New Girl," Comedy Debuts and The Emmys Part 1 (Episode 2)
By Jack Thomas Williams
September 23, 2013 - 3:07pm
The guys discuss the return of one of their favorite shows, hope and despair regarding new comedies this fall, and general Emmy feelings before going into a more heavy analysis next week.

This week we focus on TV happenings.

We start with New Girl, a personal favorite of ours and one of the best comedies on television (1:50).

We then move on to comedies that will making their debut (or have already debuted) this fall including: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Trophy Wife, Dads, and many others (15:00).

We finish talking about general Emmy thoughts regarding the landscape of television (31:05), and give our pop culture recommendations for the week (38:10).

CRAVE brings avant garde to downtown Syracuse
By Ashley Branch
September 22, 2013 - 10:24am
Café Club Surreal offered live, interactive works of art on Saturday as part of the CRAVE arts festival.

CRAVE’s Café Club Surreal brought the crazy, quirky and cool to AXA Tower’s patio on Saturday in downtown Syracuse.

A mashup between a night club and Cirque du Soleil, the dimly lit space was packed as people posing as “live art” jumped, walked, ran and danced to house and electronic mixes around audience members, creating an environment of suspense, surprise and fun.

Audience members like Jessica Desalu, a clinical psychology PhD. student at SU, couldn’t peel their eyes away the walking works of art.

One Hello World turns voicemails into songs
By Kathleen Rubino
September 22, 2013 - 10:15am
The only online Crave festival event, One Hello World composes music to heartfelt, unique and authentic voicemails.

When someone doesn’t answer the phone, many people will leave a voicemail. Now imagine this voicemail as a song, part of a greater project to turn people’s stories into soundtracks.

This is One Hello World, a project that requests voicemails from participants to turn into song. The project has currently recorded 127 tracks and released an album, “The Listener,” in 2012.

The Orange Pop: Toronto International Film Fest (Episode 1)
By Jack Thomas Williams
September 17, 2013 - 3:09pm
The team behind our new pop culture podcast discusses the major fall-opening film festival where Oscar buzz already has started.

This week we focus on our experiences at the recent Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) at which more than 360 movies were screened and 146 debuted.

Some of the films we touch on include Around the Block, The Station, The Green Inferno, 12 Years a Slave, The F Word, and Can a Song Save Your Life?

See video of TIFF and read reviews of select films.

University Union keeps surprise events coming
By Jessica Cabe
September 15, 2013 - 10:21pm
The student organization made another 10 p.m. announcement via Twitter, adding Vanessa Bayer and Kate McKinnon of 'Saturday Night Live' to their already impressive lineup of fall events.

University Union isn't all about the music.

At 10 p.m., the student group made an annoucement via Twitter saying two female comedians of Saturday Night Live fame will be at SU in October.

"LIVE FROM NEW YORK (Syracuse, NY...) IT'S THE #GIRLSOFSNL! Join Vanessa Bayer & Kate McKinnon on 10.16 for non-stop laughs in Goldtein Aud." Comedy Central's Nick Vatterott will open the show, which starts at 8 p.m. Doors will open at 7:30 p.m.

'The Green Inferno' offers gore, commentary on youth culture
By Max B. O'Connell
September 13, 2013 - 10:21pm
Eli Roth's 'The Green Inferno,' which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, uses cannibalism to make a point about the naivete of young people.

In an early scene in Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno, college student Justine (Lorenza Izzo) sarcastically questions activist Alejandro’s (Ariel Levy) ludicrous plan to save Peruvian natives from a construction company. Alejandro calls her insolent.

Not 'The F Word' you're thinking of
By Nick Schmiedicker
September 13, 2013 - 10:17pm
Michael Dowse's 'The F Word,' starring Daniel Radcliffe, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The romantic comedy doesn't transform the genre, but it offers a good time.

The F Word, directed by Michael Dowse, is a teenage romantic comedy set in Toronto starring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan. An amalgamation of earlier films in the genre, The F Word is a love letter to romance and the city. What it lacks in innovation it makes up for in wit and charm.

'Prisoners' keeps knuckles white from start to finish
By Alejandra Acuna
September 13, 2013 - 10:13pm
Denis Villeneuve's 'Prisoners' changes the meaning of child abduction movies and pushes the detective genre. The film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Prisoners is a perfect film for drama-loving masochists. Grief and injustice dominate the plot as a crude reminder that bad things happen to good people, but the film does so in a way where you cannot blink, let alone go to the bathroom, until the end.

The trailer was an unfortunate false advertisement of the film. It gives little justice to the intellectual thriller of fist-clenching tension, which kept the theater jumping at every unexpected turn.

In other words, be prepared to flinch.