Arts & Culture

In The Hunger Games, tyrannical rulers of a future dystopia force children to fight to the death in an annual tournament as a means to suppress and control the population. Given the story’s gruesome subject matter, what explains the popularity of Suzanne Collins’s book and the new film based on…

After two weekends in theaters, the film Lorax earned more than $120 million, reports Bloomberg Businessweek. That’s an impressive haul for a film condemning capitalism. But the irony is apparently lost on the filmmakers. In the original Dr. Seuss story on which the film is based, a manufacturer chops down…

The charming 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins is among the best children’s movies ever produced, in large part because it features some of the best children’s songs ever written. Who can forget “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?” Robert B. Sherman, who cowrote memorable songs for the magical nanny and for numerous other Disney films,…

I enjoyed the story of the Oscar-winning film Hugo in its own right, but to me the most interesting aspect of the film is its exploration of the life and work of French film pioneer Georges Méliès. A fictionalized version of Méliès plays a central role in Hugo, and director…

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born March 2, 1904. He became Dr. Seuss with the publication of his 1937 children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. That’s a great story, as I’ve reviewed, but my favorite will always be Green Eggs and Ham. That’s the book…

Joseph Kellard reviews Obit: Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives, by Jim Sheeler.

Earl Parson reviews Eames: The Architect and the Painter, directed by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/33306702?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0 Sasha DiGiulian began rock climbing when she was 7 years old. At 18, she made the most difficult ascent by a woman in American climbing history. Now 19, and one of the top climbers in the world, she has deferred her acceptance to Columbia University for a year to…

“Dad always says to me, / ‘Marco, keep your eyelids up / And see what you can see.’” This advice remains as good now as it was in 1937, when it appeared in Dr. Seuss’s first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. The story is…

When more than 100 million Americans tune in to watch the game, advertisers pay up to $4 million for 30-second commercial spots, and a nation consumes food on a scale rivaling Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday can safely be declared a de facto national holiday. As Evan Weiner, a sports writer…