Email Author Alan Scherstuhl
Awards
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2009 - Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards, published April 3, 2008
"The Best Story of the Year"
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2009 - Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards, published April 24, 2008
"Desert Storm"
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2009 - Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards, published September 11, 2008
"Water Logged"
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2009 - Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards, published November 13, 2008
"What's At Stake"
2013 Stories by Alan Scherstuhl
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Man of Steel: Making sense of all that Christ and death stufff
published June 20, 2013
Sometimes, there's just too damn much to say about a movie than can fit into any one review. (Even More >>
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In This Is the End, a funny prick becomes a funny man
published June 13, 2013
From the peak of Anchorman to the nadir of Burt Wonderstone, the formula for studio comedies of the past twenty years has been... More >>
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If George R. R. Martin wrote every TV show ever
published June 6, 2013
George R. R. Martin took a break from killing Starks today to send us this list of the notes he would send to the producers of TV shows... More >>
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In Omit the Logic, Richard Pryor crucifies himself, again and again
published May 30, 2013
“Least you got to see a motherfucker crucify himself,” Richard Pryor spits in the most surprising footage director Marina Zenovich... More >>
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After Earth: Smith Family Robinson
published May 30, 2013
The surprise twist in the new M. Night Shyamalan film is that the film is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, a fact that the movie—like the... More >>
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Black Rock's babes-in-the-woods horror is as unsettling as it is exciting
published May 16, 2013
Seemingly crafted to validate the fears of those conservatives who rage that the white man can't get respect on the big screen these days, the... More >>
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How to define a movie critic's job in the summer of comic books
published May 2, 2013
To: Stephanie Zacharek From: Alan Scherstuhl Hi, Stephanie, welcome again to the Voice! More >>
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Tom Cruise's alien Oblivion invokes an inhuman majesty
published April 18, 2013
The good news: Here's a lavish, serious science-fiction picture, one that on occasion transcends big-budget hitmaking convention to glance... More >>
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Now out on DVD, Django is still kicking up shit
published April 18, 2013
Half a year later, now on Blu-ray and DVD, Django Unchained is still kicking up shit, this time via cross-media trickle-down.... More >>
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The Sundance Channel's Rectify is often excellent TV
published April 18, 2013
At any prior point in TV history, Rectify, a six-part... More >>
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42's Jackie Robinson story is no baseball diamond in the rough
published April 11, 2013
A likable hagiography as nuanced as a plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame, Brian Helgeland's Jackie Robinson bio 42 finds a... More >>
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Thanks to a new dimension, Jurassic Park 3D is scarier than ever
published April 4, 2013
They do move in herds," Sam Neill marvels, purportedly gazing at his director's miracle dinosaurs but in reality directing his... More >>
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Only you can decide if the strange, sweet Wrong is right for you
published March 28, 2013
If real life were like Wrong, Quentin Dupieux's sweetly unnerving experiment in ambient fucked-uppedness, your phone would ring... More >>
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Detour is terrifyingly claustrophobic...in a good way
published March 28, 2013
Again and again, movies show you killing, but it's one in a thousand on-screen killings that might get you to feel something of what killing is... More >>
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Bruce Willis needs G.I. Joe more than it needs him
published March 28, 2013
What must Bruce Willis have felt when he discovered that his seven or so minutes of G.I. Joe: Retaliation screen time offer much... More >>
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The truth (maybe) behind The Shining
published March 21, 2013
Like the blood that gushes forth from the elevators of the Overlook Hotel, brilliant/ridiculous theories of what Stanley Kubrick's The... More >>
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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone has charm but no comedy magic
published March 14, 2013
Steve Carell's gift is for men who might drown in their own obliviousness. Like his Daily Show reporter, or The Office's Michael... More >>
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In Top of the Lake, Peggy Olson goes to hell
published March 14, 2013
Elisabeth Moss's face is far from the only reason to savor Top of the Lake, Jane Campion’s smart, bracing, hugely enjoyable... More >>
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Oz the Great and Powerful tilts toward the mawkish
published March 7, 2013
It's a bad omen when, early on in Oz the Great and Powerful, we learn that the full given name of its wizard is Oscar — also the... More >>
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Other Ozzes great and (mostly) terrible
published March 7, 2013
Twenty minutes into the first full-length movie based on L. Frank Baum's most beloved novel, a duck pukes into the face of Larry Semon, the... More >>
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West of Memphis is more a work of advocacy than of journalism
published February 28, 2013
The murder of the children should be the most disturbing thing. But for many viewers, that isn't the case in the four films chronicling the... More >>
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Happy People showcases the small, happy world of a Siberian trapper
published February 21, 2013
In the spare yet grand Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, co-director and tour guide Werner Herzog talks us through one season... More >>
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Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
published February 21, 2013
In the spare yet grand Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, co-director and tour guide Werner Herzog talks us through one season cycle in the... More >>
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The magical Beautiful Creatures is under the spell of abstinence
published February 14, 2013
Here's a question you can spit back next time someone complains that our popular culture is top-to-bottom depraved: "Then why are our... More >>
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The confused, shaggy Identity Thief is a comedic shambles
published February 7, 2013
Just a week or so after the Pentagon reversed its ban on allowing female soldiers into combat, here's another breakthrough, of a sort: The... More >>
