Much Ado About Nothing

Directed by Joss Whedon. Starring Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, Fran Kranz
A modern retelling of Shakespeare's classic comedy about two pairs of lovers with different takes on romance and a way with words. Directed by Joss ‘He’s so hot right now’ Whedon and starring alumni of his cult TV shows, Much Ado is sure to be a highlight of JDIFF for many.

When did it become okay for horror to stop scaring us?

The genre’s trended toward forsaking the unknown for the familiar, embracing recognition that’s helped make Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees as identifiable as Mickey Mouse. Horror, pertaining mainly to America’s output, has become our weakest genre (minus a few notable exceptions) – subjected to franchise treatment time and again, with filmmakers opting to riff on what’s come before in opposition of building any mystique inherent with original material.

Tobe Hooper’s 1974 masterpiece, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, wasn’t scary for what lurked beneath the veil. It was the suggestion of awfulness that could’ve existed beneath. Why horror continues lifting that veil, peeling off the meat until it’s bone dry and making off with the naked skull to pawn it off for pittance is becoming a ritual of ever-increasing transparency.

Many drunks won’t be swayed by the symbolism of a turned calendar page. But each year, plenty of chronic drinkers and struggling alcoholics figure that January is a chance for a fresh start. To them, I say run. You’re already pre-programmed to chew up the pavement—even tackle a marathon. In fact, you’ve spent a good chunk of your bleary-eyed, morally dubious days and nights developing the perfect toolbox: single-minded focus; endurance; tolerance for mental and physical distress; prowess at spending time alone; aptitude at navigating embarrassment. You can use these tools to build a new house, rather than deepening the ditch. So for the newly sober, instead of fretting about how far you have to go, here are eight reasons why you should think, “look how far I’ve already come.”

1. Stamina

You know how to keep your eye on the prize. You’ve gutted out hangovers and sweated through anxiety-ridden mornings—all while trying to ignore the song of that first cool sip, the delicious sigh waiting in the cooler case or kitchen cabinet or bartender’s hand. Just get to noon, to 1 pm, to the somewhat respectable hour of 3 pm (that’s when the school day’s done, after all). On the other side of the coin, you’ve danced full-tilt boogie through weekend benders, uncapping and uncorking on waking, passing out and then hitting repeat, often on little food and water. This stick-to-itiveness will serve you well during the long miles of a marathon. You’ve run into doors, pavement and all manners of immovable objects and kept on going—so you’ll be ready when the marathon’s wall starts cracking its knuckles around mile 18.

Before many Pennsylvania movie-goers settle in for Matt Damon’s film about the fight over natural gas drilling, they will see a message from the energy industry offering “straightforward facts” about hydraulic fracturing.



The unorthodox, on-screen pre-buttal of “Promised Land,” which opens nationwide today, is part of an industry campaign aimed at heading off criticism about the process, also called fracking. Instead of direct attacks, which the industry used against the documentary “Gasland,” they are trying to paint Damon’s movie as derivative, condescending and cliched.



Taken together the industry campaigns -- at Pennsylvania movie theaters, on a website and using social media --underscore efforts to combat negative perceptions about the practice, deal with persistent questions about the risks of pollution and head- off calls for more oversight and regulation.