Most-Read Articles

These are my articles with the highest read counts, as of January 2026.

Movie Review: Guillermo Del Toro’s “Frankenstein” is not faithful to the novel, but that isn’t a bad thing

When someone says Frankenstein, the same, stereotypical image pops into people’s heads — a tall, green, stitched-up man with prominent neck bolts, a flat head and tired eyes.

For more than 200 years, the classic novel by Mary Shelley has entertained people all over the world, prompting multiple film and television adaptations, attractions and cementing itself into the lesson plans of high school English teachers across the country.

Now, a new adaptation has made its way into theaters, redefini...

UNO Night Club, previously embattled campus bar Bullwinkles, closes

The reign of Bullwinkles, which later became The Warehouse and most recently, UNO Night Club, has finally come to an end.

UNO suddenly shut down following an Oct. 30 Instagram post by the club, stating that their owner has retired and Nov. 1 would be their last day in operation. Their Instagram page has since been deactivated.

The Lantern reached out to UNO for comment but did not hear back by time of publication.

UNO replaced Bullwinkles — or Bulls, a campus bar notorious for its various con...

Old campus bar Too’s Spirits Under High to reopen as Twos Under High coming 2026

In 2017, the beloved campus dive bar Too’s Spirits Under High closed after Campus Partners, Ohio State’s development branch, cleared out tenants on 15th and High St. to make way for more apartments.

This wasn’t the end for the bar, however. With the loss of Too’s came the addition of Threes Above High, which continued to expand down the numerical system with Fours On High and Fives Up High.

It was announced Friday on the Threes Instagram that Too’s will be returning to campus in 2026 — now tit...

Personal Favorites

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Movie Review: Cherien Dabis shares the untold history of Palestinians in exile in “All That’s Left of You”

“I am the sea / In my depths all treasures dwell / Have the divers asked about my pearls?” — Hafiz Ibrahim.

This poem is echoed throughout the quietly devastating film that is “All That’s Left of You,” which premieres in Columbus at Gateway Film Center Thursday at 7:15 p.m. The film follows generations of a Palestinian family as they navigate the hardships they’ve faced under Israel’s occupation, beginning in 1948 with the Nakba and Israel’s establishment and ending in 2022.

It’s the latest fr...

Cartoonist Raina Telgemeier to return to Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for “Facing Feelings” book tour Saturday

Based on her 2023 exhibit at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, cartoonist Raina Telgemeier released her latest graphic novel, “Facing Feelings: Inside the World of Raina Telgemeier,” Oct. 21, which encompasses Telgemeier’s nearly 20-year-long career as an acclaimed cartoonist and how she got there, according to her website.

Telgemeier will be returning to the museum Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. for a conversation with Anne Drozd, senior museum coordinator and cartoonist, on her career an...

Drag legend Sasha Colby talks Stripped II tour coming to Columbus Tuesday

Season 15 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race and Miss Continental 2012, Sasha Kekauoha — best-known by her drag name, Sasha Colby — will stop at the Southern Theatre in downtown Columbus Tuesday at 8 p.m. as part of her Stripped II tour.

Following the success of the first leg of the Stripped tour, the drag queen has taken center stage again, expanding to 30 cities as opposed to the first leg’s 22. Colby said for this tour, she’s shifted the show’s content, drifting away from the original, more person...

Ohio State Professor to show documentary on Ohio’s longest-running lesbian bar Saturday

Ohio’s longest-running lesbian bar, Summit Station — originally called Jack’s A Go-Go — will be the focal point of an upcoming documentary, “Free Beer Tomorrow.”

The film honors the historical landmark that served as a safe haven for the queer community in Columbus for nearly four decades, featuring testimonials from its patrons and owner, Petie Brown. It officially closed in 2008 and is now home to the Summit Music Hall, which is northeast of campus.

While the film is still in the post-produc...

A look into the creation of Ohio State Fair’s Butter Cow display

In 1903, Ohio State and the Dairy Processors of Ohio hosted a butter sculpting contest with no restrictions on subject matter; the selected piece would be displayed at the Ohio State Fair.

There was one entry in particular that stood out from the rest — a life-sized cow and calf, submitted by A.T. Shelton & Company, a butter distributor. Little did they know, their winning entry would spark over a century of butter creations, becoming an iconic tradition at the fair.

Now, year after year, a gr...

Gore goes global in Wexner Center for the Arts’ International Horror series beginning Thursday

Films often evoke universal emotions, whether it’s tearing up at a dramatic scene or gasping at a villain’s reveal — and fear is no exception.

The Wexner Center for the Arts’ will show international horror films spanning a vast range of subgenres, mediums, time periods and countries on select dates through August 14. Four of the eight screenings will be introduced by local film buffs and critics, which all start at 7 p.m., according to the Wex’s website.

“Even for people who think horror is no...

Wexner Center’s 2025 Picture Lock series offers glimpse into creative process of film editing

The term “picture lock” refers to a stage in the post-production process filmmakers strive for — when editing is finalized and the narrative is “locked” in place.

For the past 35 years, the Wexner Center for the Arts’ Film/Video Studio Residency program has been helping artists of all kinds reach this major milestone.

From Thursday to Saturday, the center will host its Picture Lock series, a three-day film festival featuring recent and archival films post-produced through the residency program...

From the vault: Ohio State University Libraries’ restored historical short films to screen at Wexner Center for the Arts Thursday

There are tens of thousands of audiovisual works tucked away in the Ohio State University Libraries’ Special Collections vault, encompassing decades of unseen history.

Behind the scenes, Ohio State’s audiovisual preservation and digitization lab works with the university libraries’ special collections team to preserve these archival pieces for future generations. As part of the 11th annual Cinema Revival series, the Wexner Center for the Arts will screen a selection of historical short films st...

Reviews

These are some of my latest film and concert reviews, as of January 2026.

Movie Review: Cherien Dabis shares the untold history of Palestinians in exile in “All That’s Left of You”

“I am the sea / In my depths all treasures dwell / Have the divers asked about my pearls?” — Hafiz Ibrahim.

This poem is echoed throughout the quietly devastating film that is “All That’s Left of You,” which premieres in Columbus at Gateway Film Center Thursday at 7:15 p.m. The film follows generations of a Palestinian family as they navigate the hardships they’ve faced under Israel’s occupation, beginning in 1948 with the Nakba and Israel’s establishment and ending in 2022.

It’s the latest fr...

Movie Review: The unpredictability of “Marty Supreme” makes it one of 2025’s top films

Josh Safdie’s latest film, “Marty Supreme” is quite the wild ride.

Much like its massive marketing budget, the film is pursuing greatness — something it seamlessly achieves.

The highly anticipated film released Christmas Day in theaters nationwide. The day after Christmas, at the Marcus Crosswoods Cinema in Columbus, a packed house of film fanatics sat in recliners at Screen 13, anxiously waiting to see what all the fuss was about.

Set in 1950s New York, Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is a...

Movie Review: Guillermo Del Toro’s “Frankenstein” is not faithful to the novel, but that isn’t a bad thing

When someone says Frankenstein, the same, stereotypical image pops into people’s heads — a tall, green, stitched-up man with prominent neck bolts, a flat head and tired eyes.

For more than 200 years, the classic novel by Mary Shelley has entertained people all over the world, prompting multiple film and television adaptations, attractions and cementing itself into the lesson plans of high school English teachers across the country.

Now, a new adaptation has made its way into theaters, redefini...

Movie Review: “Sudan, Remember Us” is an unforgettable documentation of human resilience and community

Hind Meddeb’s “Sudan, Remember Us” will premiere in Columbus at Gateway Film Center Friday at 5:30 p.m. The documentary takes viewers into the Sudanese revolution against the country’s authoritarian regime and includes testimonies of activists involved in the protests.

Through the lens of her camera, Meddeb is able to capture and feature the humanity within those suffering. Beginning with the April 2019 sit-in at Sudan’s Army headquarters in Khartoum, which lasted 57 days, Meddeb offers a look...

Movie Review: “Weapons” blends grief, supernatural horror and trauma with an unconventional narrative structure

In the age of cash-grab spin-offs and long overdue prequels, Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” boasts what many of this year’s films lack — a brand-new, genuinely distinct and creative screenplay. The film released in theaters Friday.

The plot of the film is laid out in the beginning, leaving no room for misinterpretation. A young town girl (Scarlett Sher) narrates the scene for us; at 2:17 a.m., 17 elementary-age kids, all from the same class, got out of bed and ran off into the night, never to be seen...

Movie Review: “Together” cuts deep into the realities of codependency

People spend lifetimes searching for their soulmate, their better half — someone who “completes” them.

Finding your life partner is one thing, but keeping them in your life is another. What do you do when you’ve found the one and you just can’t let them go?

“Together” answers this question brilliantly. Following the long-term relationship of Tim and Millie — played by real-life married couple, Dave Franco and Alison Brie — writer-director Michael Shanks’ debut feature-length film tackles the c...

Movie Review: The raw, tragic reality of life in exile explored in “To a Land Unknown,” screening at Gateway Film Center Friday

“To a Land Unknown,” directed by Mahdi Fleifel (“A World Not Ours”), will make its Columbus premiere at Gateway Film Center Friday at 6:30 p.m. The opening scene of the film displays a quote from Edward Said, a well-known Palestinian American academic: “In a way, it’s sort of the fate for Palestinians not to end up where they started, but somewhere unexpected and far away.”

Cut to Athens, Greece, where we meet our main characters — cousins Chatila (Mahmoud Bakri) and Reda (Aram Sabbah), two Pal...

Concert Review: sombr’s sold-out Columbus show proves he’s more than just a TikTok trend

At first glance, it looked like a line to get in the bars — hundreds of people wrapping from Newport Music Hall around to 14th Ave. and back toward High St.

These were actually the fans of sombr — an up-and-coming indie rock artist from New York whose songs “back to friends” and “undressed” went viral on TikTok in March — ahead of his “Late Nights and Young Romance” tour stop at Newport Friday. Girls with back pockets painted white saying “I [love] sombr” and “77” — a nod to his album cover — f...

Concert review: Buckeye Country Superfest 2025 brings the heat to the ‘Shoe

Vincent Mason performs on stage at the 10th annual Buckeye Country Superfest Saturday. Credit: Ben Zetocha | Lantern Photographer
Riley Bria performs on stage at the 10th annual Buckeye Country Superfest Saturday. Credit: Ben Zetocha | Lantern Photographer
Vincent Mason performs on stage at the 10th annual Buckeye Country Superfest Saturday. Credit: Ben Zetocha | Lantern Photographer
Sam Canty of Treaty Oak Revival performs on stage at the 10th ann...