All Authors >

JASON OBRYAN

Latest Articles

Drink like Don

Whiskey drinks for people who don’t like whiskey. Yet.
If Mad Men has taught us anything, it's that we shouldn't go to a 1960s advertising executive for health advice.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | December 08, 2009

Thinking about making the gnarly move from skiing to snowboarding? Think again, brah.
So, I heard that you want to trade in your skis for a snowboard this year. Maybe it'll be fun? Well, maybe, but there are a few things I'd like you to consider before you make that leap.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | November 17, 2009

Review: Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

John Krasinski takes on David Foster Wallace and succeeds
Bleeding admiration for the David Foster Wallace stories on which it’s based, John Krasinski’s directorial debut follows Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson) as she interviews men about their sexual proclivities for her master’s thesis.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | November 05, 2009

Review: American Violet

Racism is bad
Arrested for a crime she didn't commit, Dee Roberts is enlisted by an ACLU lawyer (Tim Blake Nelson) to sue the county for racist intent and stop the DA from what is continually referred to as "terrorizing the black community."

By: JASON O'BRYAN | April 28, 2009

Review: Lymelife

What passes for offbeat comedy these days
Like many of the bastard offspring of American Beauty and Little Miss Sunshine , Derick Martini's quirky, frustrating directorial debut seems to believe that a dystopian view of suburbia will suffice for a film

By: JASON O'BRYAN | April 21, 2009

Review: The Betrayal

From Laos to Brooklyn, following a family's tragedy
As the subject, narrator, and director, with Ellen Kuras, of his own story, Thavisouk Phrasavath has created a film of meandering, almost accidental poignancy.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | April 07, 2009

Review: Shuttle

Chillingly visceral
If you ignore the forgivable imprecision that rides with directoral debuts, Edward Anderson has made a surprisingly mature thriller.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | March 11, 2009

Review: Echelon Conspiracy

Don't watch it sober .
There is no level on which director Greg Marcks's film isn't spectacularly stupid.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | March 04, 2009

Live radio lives

WFNX pumped to carry its strengths into the future
Radio, it's rumored, is a dying industry, falling behind the new-media Zeitgeist like an asthmatic jogger.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | April 22, 2009

Downhill economy

How to go skiing in New England with no car and little money
Thrills, generally speaking, aren't cheap.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | November 18, 2008

Battle in Seattle

A docudrama that overcomes it's obvious flaws
Like Paul Haggis’s Crash , the film mistakes stereotypes for archetypes, staging absurd coincidences with timely epiphanies so everyone can learn a lesson.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | September 23, 2008

Secrecy

A scattered yet effective documentary
Although it can mistake emotion for poignancy, the film teaches us to ask the right questions, and it makes clear the consequences if we don’t.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | September 16, 2008

They do like Mondays

ESPN defends its AstroTurf
Monday is a hard sell.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | September 03, 2008

Death Race

A B-movie full of crowd-pleasing bullshit
Glistening torso Jensen Ames (the ubiquitous Jason Statham), is framed for the murder of his sweet wife in this loose remake of the 1975 cult favorite Death Race 2000 .

By: JASON O'BRYAN | August 27, 2008

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Lovely, anime charm with a jarring third act
The novel written by Yasutaka Tsutsui in 1965 had been adapted some eight times before this, but never quite so adorably .

By: JASON O'BRYAN | August 20, 2008

Late-season highlights

Seven entertaining ways to finish off the summer
Make no mistake: these are naked comics, not joke-telling strippers, and the show never comes within 50 miles of what could be even loosely considered “sexy.” It is, though, a truly unique experience.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | July 22, 2008

Immigrant song

How US terror policy is ruining your summer concert season
You, my young British friend, start a band.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | June 18, 2008

Keys to our hearts

Interview: Alicia Keys on first love, the White Stripes, and being a Bob Dylan muse
"I’ve never been someone that goes to the ‘it’ places and does the ‘it’ things and goes to the ‘it’ restaurant and go to the ‘it’ club. I like more off-the-beaten-path kind of things."

By: JASON O'BRYAN | June 06, 2008

Chop Shop

Hardship and hope
The “Iron Triangle,” in Queens, is a 25-block junkyard of auto-body shops and corrugated aluminum, where unpaved roads flood gray with rain.

By: JASON O'BRYAN | May 30, 2008