UT Arlington has announced the lineup for the 2013-14 Maverick Speakers Series, and if you're a big fan of CNN, you're in luck; Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta take up two slots in the five-person series.
Cooper will come to College Park Center on the UT Arlington campus on November 11, where he'll talk about his 12-year career at CNN, along with the myriad other positions he's held over the years. Here's hoping he takes at least a couple minutes to talk about his short tenure as host of The Mole.
Gupta is next in line at College Park Center after Cooper, but he won't arrive until March 18, 2014. The neurosurgeon has also been with CNN for 12 years, covering everything from 9/11 to the Iraq War to the 2011 Japan tsunami. He's gained recent notoriety for the reversal of his opinion on the medical benefits of marijuana.
Other speakers in the Maverick Speakers Series' sixth season will include immigration rights activist Jose Antonio Vargas on September 24, 2013; ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen on October 24, 2013; and NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg on April 8, 2014. Those three lectures will take place at Texas Hall on the UT Arlington campus.
All of the events are free and open to the public, but all attendees still require a ticket. Tickets become available two to three weeks prior to each event; check the UTA site for details. So-called "Preferred Packages" are also available for $25 per person.
Anderson Cooper will be the third of five speakers in the 2013-2014 UT Arlington Maverick Speakers Series.
Photo courtesy of CNN
Anderson Cooper will be the third of five speakers in the 2013-2014 UT Arlington Maverick Speakers Series.
Julia Garner, Matilda Firth, and Christopher Abbott in Wolf Man.
The title Wolf Man conjures up similarly titled movies throughout film history, going all the way back to The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney in 1941. And, of course, werewolves as a concept date back even further, with the idea having been used for horror, teen comedy, romance, and more throughout the years.
This Wolf Man, from Blumhouse Productions, has a straightforward horror vibe, if not always the results. A prologue informs us that Blake (Christopher Abbott) grew up with an ultra-stern father (Sam Jaeger) who was intent on hunting down a strange creature prowling the forest near their Oregon home. Thirty years later, Blake now lives in San Francisco with his wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), and daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth), when he’s called back home again by a notification stating that his long-lost father has been declared dead.
The three run into trouble almost as soon as they get close to his former home when they’re attacked by a wolf man on the road to the house. Seeking shelter in the house, Blake soon discovers that a scratch he received in the attack has infected him, bringing on many unusual changes. Terrified both by the wolf man outside and the transformation of Blake, Charlotte and Ginger are torn between their family love and survival.
Directed by Leigh Whannell and written by Whannell and Corbett Tuck, the film has about as slow of a build as you’ll find in a horror movie. In fact, for the first hour of the 100-minute film, the only significant action comes during the family’s arrival in Oregon. Whannell’s approach seems to work, though, as the suspense of not knowing what the creature is doing outside and how Blake’s body will continue to be altered keeps tensions high.
Things start to get a bit hairy, in both senses of the word, as the family makes multiple attempts to escape, and Whannell tosses in a few gnarly scenes that up the discomfort level considerably. But it becomes clear that the filmmakers skipped a few storytelling steps along the way, as elements are revealed that might have had a bigger impact if they had included just a little more information earlier in the film. Instead of a grand finish, the film peters out, giving little sense of resolution.
Whannell and his team also make some interesting choices with the makeup they use for the two wolf men. Instead of a full transformation, Blake’s features take on a slightly mutated look so that he’s still somewhat recognizable as himself. There are some parts that are more disturbing and gruesome than others, but the overall impact is much more subtle than expected.
Abbott and Garner have each had good careers so far, with Abbott having a key role in Poor Things and Garner shining in The Assistant. Abbott is required to do little more than grunt for half of the film, while Garner is tasked with reacting in horror to what has befallen her husband. Neither requires all that much from either actor, although each commits fully to their bits.
As the first horror film of the year, Wolf Man doesn’t fully deliver the goods, but it’s far from the worst viewing option out there. It’s a small film that perhaps holds a bit too much back, with the suspense side working much better than any of the gorier scenes.
