Muse House

'Can a Song Save Your Life?' doesn't live up to expectations
By Olivia Yang
September 13, 2013 - 10:07pm
'Once' director John Carney attempts to create another movie about music, but he can't live up to his own legacy. 'Can a Song Save Your Life?' screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

John Carney, director of the acclaimed music film Once, attempts to make a comeback with Can A Song Save Your Life?

As the title suggests, Carney’s new movie follows Once in genre but is less gripping and more disappointing.

Greta (Keira Knightley), a heartbroken struggling musician, and Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a recently fired music producer, predictably bond through music and overcome their difficulties in life during the process. 

'12 Years a Slave' uses subtlety, preserves history
By Nick Reichert
September 13, 2013 - 9:55pm
Steve McQueen’s '12 Years a Slave,' screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, showcases brilliant performances and beautifully tells the true story of freeman Solomon Northup.

Billie Holiday’s haunting and passionate voice echoes over the song “Strange Fruit.” The 1939 blues standard is a harsh cry and protest against the brutal racism and lynchings that were an everyday occurrence in the United States.

Steve McQueen’s film 12 Years a Slave, depicting the true story of the enslavement of freeman Solomon Northup, echoes Holiday’s seminal song. It is a rapturous meditation upon America’s original sin and, like “Strange Fruit,” is brutally honest and yet tinged with a sorrow so personal and vivid that the film is transcendent.

Pulse offers $10 student tickets for touring Broadway performances
By Jessica Cabe
September 12, 2013 - 1:38pm
Students can purchase tickets for Hello, Dolly!, 50 Shades! The Musical, War Horse, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, Memphis, American Idiot and Rock of Ages for $10 on Monday.

Students interested in seeing touring Broadway performances this year will not have to break open their piggy banks to do so.

On Monday, the Schine Student Center Box Office will have reduced-price tickets on sale for performances of Hello, Dolly!, 50 Shades! The Musical, War Horse, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, Memphis, American Idiot and Rock of Ages.

Locally-shot film to make Syracuse premiere
By Max B. O'Connell
September 4, 2013 - 6:22pm
"Adult World," the independent movie shot in Syracuse last year, will make its local premiere at the Landmark Theatre as part of the annual Syracuse International Film Festival.

 

Syracuse movie lovers will soon be able to see a film shot in their town, starring Emma Roberts and John Cusack.


Review: Juniot Díaz's "This Is How You Lose Her"
By Lucia Camargo Rojas
March 28, 2013 - 2:36pm
In his latest publication, Díaz returns to a familiar character and once again explores loneliness with his trademark style and humor.

Junot Díaz’s latest book explores the loneliness that comes after losing a beloved person. Yunior, the author’s well-known character in Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, returns in This is How You Lose Her. His girlfriend has broken up with him after she discovers he was unfaithful to her. He makes efforts to keep her, but every attempt is a failure, and he knows it.

The Art of Love
By NewsHouse Staff
February 13, 2013 - 12:46pm
Arts Journalists pick some of their favorite art representing notions of romantic love.

Kartography by Kamila Shamsie

Happy Valentine's Day from TheNewsHouse.com

NYC Immersion Roundup : "Inventing Abstraction" at the MoMA
By Zach Marschall
February 10, 2013 - 10:54am
Review: The recent exhibition "Inventing Abstraction" at the Museum of Modern Art foreshadows the tumult of World War II.

“Inventing Abstraction 1910-1925,” currently at the Museum of Modern Art, leaves discussion on abstract art incomplete by ending its exhibition eight years before the demise of the Weimar Republic. It addresses the genre’s ascension and zenith without understanding the collapse of the 20th century’s would-be new social order.

Review: Stone Canoe annual exhibition
By Greg Cwik
February 4, 2013 - 1:15pm
Visual arts exhibit at the Community Folk Art Center is full of complex thoughts and expressive images.

On January 26th, the Community Folk Art Center opened the Stone Canoe annual exhibition, featuring work from 29 artists with connections to the Upstate New York region. The show is curated by Amy Cheng, professor of art at S.U.N.Y. New Paltz and visual arts editor for the 7th issue of Stone Canoe, a journal of arts, literature and social commentary, published annually by University College of Syracuse University.

NYC Immersion Roundup : "Candid” at the Rubin Museum
By Eesha Patkar
January 24, 2013 - 11:21pm
Review: Photography exhibit showcases legendary photojournalist Homai Vyarawalla's career, and her intersection with India's formative years.

In a time where pioneering photographer Margaret Bourke-White jumped right into the horrifying aftermath of the Partition of India into two nations in 1947, her contemporary Homai Vyarawalla’s pristine photographs of pre- and post-independent India appear passive and privileged in contrast. 

Ghostbusters 2: The most overlooked holiday film
By Joseph DiDomizio
December 12, 2012 - 2:51pm
Review: The ghost-hunting comedy hits all the right notes to make it an unlikely yuletide classic.

There comes a time when all the Christmas movies have been watched, and while it would be awesome to watch Scrooged for the fifth time, it might be nice to unearth a different film for a change of pace.