‘Kimi’ shows the darker side of science fiction

February 12, 2022

BY ALISE CHAFFINS Science fiction has been asking us to look at the dark side of artificial intelligence for a long time. Isaac Asimov gave us “The Three Laws,” and those have been used by filmmakers to ask questions about how AI might impact our daily lives. As devices like Alexa and Siri become more commonplace, we are seeing more movies that look at how they might be abused by bad faith actors. Steven Soderbergh’s latest movie “Kimi,” streaming on HBO Max tackles this issue. Angela Childs (Zoe Kravitz) is an agoraphobic whose disorder is amplified by the COVID-19 ...

‘A Hero’ film offers an unflinching look at truth

February 5, 2022

BY ALISE CHAFFINS When we think of heroism, what often comes to mind are the big acts where countless lives are saved. In Asghar Farhadi’s latest film, “A Hero,” currently streaming on Amazon Prime, the hero is birthed, ruined, and born again from a number of seemingly small acts. Through the film, we follow Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi), a man imprisoned for failing to pay back a debt after his partner absconded with the money. He is out on a two-day leave and the woman he hopes to marry, Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldoust), comes to him with a handbag containing 17 gold coins that ...

A deep dive into the life of Moses Storm in new HBO Max special ‘Trash White’

January 29, 2022

Moses Storm tells the audience in his new HBO Max special “Trash White” that he is not trying to teach anything. This isn’t something that’s intended to be important in the vein of Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette,” but instead to be an actual comedy special. I would say that he half succeeds in this endeavor. Storm’s special is a deep dive into what it is like to grow up in poverty. He was one of five children his mom raised alone. A portion of his life was spent living on a bus, but when they had a home, they still struggled. He shares stories about how food stamps were ...

Nothing foul about Coen’s adaptation

January 22, 2022

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” A sinister sounding voice whispers this line to open Joel Coen’s latest film, “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” This adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is currently streaming on Apple TV+, and it is absolutely spectacular. The story of Macbeth is fairly straightforward. If you need a refresher from your high school reading of the play, here is a quick overview. Macbeth (Denzel Washington) receives a prophecy from three witches (Kathryn Hunter) that he is to become the king of Scotland. To achieve this goal, he must murder Duncan (Bendan Gleeson) ...

Bill lifting nuclear power ban gets first committee OK in Senate; bill to reinstate film tax credit also gets a nod

January 19, 2022

MORGANTOWN — The effort to repeal the state's ban on building nuclear power plants took its first step forward on Wednesday as the Senate Economic Development Committee passed SB 4 to lift the ban. The bill is only one sentence long and repeals the two sections of code passed in 1996 ...

Celebrate NYE in Morgantown

December 25, 2021

By Eva MaysNewsroom@DominionPost.com There is a new way to ring in the New Year in Mountaineer Country. The NYE Big Bash will be  from 8 p.m.-1 a.m. Dec. 31 at the Morgantown Event Center at Morgantown Marriott at Waterfront Place. The theme is “Denim, Diamonds and Dollars.” ...