PhotosStingrays, of course, but scooter accidents, too
Lifeguard report, July 23-20
Daniel Powell 2:30 p.m., Aug. 14
Matthew Lickona
As an undergraduate at Thomas Aquinas College near Ojai, California, Matthew Lickona co-founded and ran The Hype, a college lit-mag printed on the school's copier and sold at a dollar a copy to pay off speeding tickets acquired while trying to make movie times in Los Angeles. This may or may not have helped him to land a job at the Reader upon graduation in 1995, but the paper did reprint some of his collegiate Easter Island-based cartoons, and later, his Mudflap Girls series. He has been at the paper ever since, in a variety of capacities: feature writer, wine columnist, church reviewer, restaurant critic, television columnist, editor at large, and now, film critic. Plus some other stuff under various pseudonyms.
He is the author of a couple of books (Swimming with Scapulars, Surfing with Mel), and his essays have appeared in places like The Awl, FirstThings.com, and Doublethink. In his spare time, he likes to write movie pitches and country songs.
Articles by Matthew Lickona
The Jack Ryan Experience experience
“These are getting more elaborate every year,” said my fellow media person Callie as we gazed up at the full-scale model helicopter above the two-story set intended to invoke a bombed-out Middle Eastern edifice. We ...
Mission: Impossible’s Modest pleasures
There’s a moment near the beginning of Mission: Impossible: Fallout — when can-do American agent Ethan Hunt is receiving the recorded details of his impossible mission via reel-to-reel video embedded in a copy of Homer’s ...
Comic-Con
It's that time of year again...
You don’t need no stinkin’ badges What’s a poor unlucky muggle to do now that Comic-Con passes have become more expensive than Batmobile rims, and harder to pick up than Thor’s hammer? Not to worry, ...
Cosplay is Mom’s thing
“I always joke that we need a smaller house and a bigger garage."
Sheila Szilagyi-Noseworthy is getting the upstairs bathroom remodeled in her pretty Poway home. “It’ll be nice,” she muses. “But I always joke that we need a smaller house and a bigger garage. That’s my dream, ...
Goodbye Adams Avenue Bookstore
Another temple gone
The Adams Avenue Bookstore in Normal Heights is closing after 53 years of operation. I stopped in at the Store Closing sale, and overheard one fellow tell another that he had 16,000 books in his ...
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
If you didn’t want to inspire comparison, maybe you shouldn’t have made a sequel
Needless to say, most people, critics and civilians alike, disagreed with my negative take on Incredibles 2. Biggest opening of all time for an animated film, 94% fresh rating at RottenTomatoes.com, A+ Cinemascore — plus ...
Unstuck via stick and poke
"When you etch something into flesh, it’s almost like a spell."
Sarah Kahn was stuck — “in a lot of areas in my life, but really in my career.” She’d gotten her doctorate in clinical psychology, but didn’t want to get licensed, because she “didn’t like ...
We have met the Underminer, and he is us
Alas, Incredibles 2 is not too incredible
I loved the first Incredibles movie. I especially loved the ending. Journey back with me to 2004, and mind the fourteen-year-old spoilers along the way. The super-powered Parr family has triumphed: in stopping the killer ...
Women in Hollywood
Ocean's 8, Hereditary and more "women's pictures" among this week's new movie releases
Well, director Colin Treverrow (Safety Not Guaranteed, Jurassic World, and um, The Book of Henry) went and gave a barn-burner of an interview to the good people at Uproxx that should have folks talking about ...
