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Savage Love
by Dan Savage
How do I tell my girlfriend that I'm pregnant? /advice/
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The Five Sexiest Apocalypse Movies
by Phil Nugent
Perfect for curling up with the last man (or woman) on earth. /entertainment/
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Pop Culture We're Thankful For
by the Nerve Editors
Toasts from around the Nerve family table. /entertainment/
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Five TV Families to Avoid on Thanksgiving
by Scott Von Doviak
These clans will make you appreciate your own. /entertainment/
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My First Time
by You
"I remember the zip of the door, and our naked dash across the dark campground to his tent..."
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Things Drunk People Say
by Kathleen Go
"Get the duct tape. You have dropped your last beer."
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Culture Wars: Will James Cameron's Avatar live up to the hype?
by Andrew Osborne and Scott Von Doviak
Worthy successor to Aliens, or the world's most expensive Smurfs movie?
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Miss Information
by Erin Bradley
So many women, so few decision-making skills. /advice/
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Hosting Your Own Hedonistic Thanksgiving
by Ben Reininga
Drinking, smoking, and gorging with your friends: this can be the best holiday of the year.
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The Confessies
by You
The Robert Pattinson Award for Twilight Devotion
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Platinum Goddess
by Kim Weston
Forget gold: these women are striking in silver, and not much else.
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Sex Advice From . . . Dungeons and Dragons Players
by Eric Larnick
Q. What has D&D taught you about dating? A. Some days you're the knight, some days you're the dragon. /advice/
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Nerve Made Me Do It: New Moon Midnight Screening
by Jack Harrison
We send a professor of medieval literature to face 1,000 screaming Twilight fans.
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Mutual of Omaha
by Rachel Shukert
In my Jewish Nebraskan youth group, they taught more than Hebrew.
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Planet 51
by Scott Von Doviak
The premise is Pixar-caliber; the execution is strictly terrestrial. /entertainment/
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Everything I Know About Love I Learned From... Pedro Almodovar
by Phil Nugent
Five lessons on romance from Penelope Cruz's favorite director. /entertainment/
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Talking to Strangers
by Sean McGurn and Meghan Pleticha
Nerve asks deeply personal questions to people we just met.
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Awesome Advice, Way to Go!
by Erin Bradley
Always pepper your column with a healthy dose of slut-shaming. /advice/
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Celebrity Look-alikes
by Glenn Glasser
Who's that girl? We hit the streets to find famous doppelgangers.
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True Stories: Three-Year Drought
by Mia Agnello
Last time made me a mom. This time made me panic.
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Savage Love
by Dan Savage
Why do single women find married men such a turn-on? /advice/
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Review: Diary of a Mad Black Woman |
About halfway through Diary of a Mad Black Woman, you receive your first hint that this movie may not be what you thought you signed up for: Love-worn Helen lists her new boyfriend's perks via voiceover: "He's strong...he's kind...he's Christian..."
It's a subtle reference, but only the opening volley in what quickly accelerates into evangelistic nuclear meltdown. If you're unfamiliar with the play that it's based on — in which a woman learns on the eve of her eighteenth anniversary that her husband is kicking her out of their mansion — you're probably not expecting an onslaught of faith-based agitprop. For the unprepared, Diary feels a bit like trickery, warming you up with fun handgun-wielding senior citizens and alcohol-and-prescription-drugs hijinx, before it dives crucifix-first into redemption, prayer, a Jacuzzi baptismal, and a final scene ripped from the traditional-values playbook where, in the house of God before a howling choir, a heroin addict casts off her tourniquet and a cripple literally walks.
The script calls for overwrought performances, and Kimberly Elise and Steve Harris turn them in handily as the angelic wife and pure-evil husband. Writer Tyler Perry is formulaically amusing as fat grandma Madea, and Cicely Tyson oozes pious intimacy. But decent performances throughout can't squelch the overly simplistic good/evil paradigm that suffocates the film, and those viewers not comfortable with the Jesus Saves clusterfuck run the risk of feeling alienated — and lectured — with righteous indignation. — Will Doig |
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Date DVD #21: Nausicaa |
 Certain dates — ones I've ruined, anyway — will hum along, through drinks, through dinner, and handholding during the movie, only to have the romantic machinery grind to a halt as the credits roll. It's at that point that the anxiety attack sets in: Am I being tested? If I don't absolutely love Fellini's Satyricon does that mean I'm getting dumped? If I don't have a pithy observation to make about euthanasia and Hilary Swank, will I be judged?
Sometimes, there's nothing better than an argument over movies, but for the easily ratttled, it can be reassuring to pick a nice pocket of cinema on which almost anyone can agree: Catwoman, bad. Hayao Miyazaki, brilliant.
Miyazaki, the Japanese animator behind Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, is beloved by nearly all humans — and, by the looks of his holistic films, all beasts, too. His reputation will only be burnished by the DVD debut of three films (The Cat Returns, Porco Rosso, and Nausicaa) previously unavailable here in the States. The Cat Returns is a simple film about a girl who gets friendly with talking felines; it delivers a great girl-power kick at the end. Porco Rosso is more for the boys: it follows a talking pig fighter-pilot who cracks wry jokes and tromps from scene to scene, sniffing up the scenery. But Nausicaa, the story of a tough princess who saves the world from war and giant toxic beetles, is a brilliant piece of future fantasy. A predecessor to Princess Mononoke in theme and style, it's the kind of film that's so inarguably good, you and your date will both grin and gush and completely agree with each other. At least this once. — Logan Hill |
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©2005 Nerve.com.
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