Email Author Alan Scherstuhl

Awards

• 2009 - Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards, published April 3, 2008

  "The Best Story of the Year"

• 2009 - Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards, published April 24, 2008

  "Desert Storm"

• 2009 - Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards, published September 11, 2008

  "Water Logged"

• 2009 - Kansas City Press Club Heart of America Awards, published November 13, 2008

  "What's At Stake"

More

2013 Stories by Alan Scherstuhl

• The Purge brings fight or flight to a new level

  published June 5, 2013

  Here's a category idea for bar trivia: Collect one-sentence plot summaries of young-adult novel series and R-rated horror films, and see who... More >>

• If George R. R. Martin Wrote Every TV Show Ever

  published June 5, 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 >>

• What Maisie Knew captures childhood

  published May 29, 2013

  There are times during the affecting tumult of What Maisie Knew when you may think, "At last, a first-rate American movie about what... More >>

• 

  In Omit the Logic, Richard Pryor Crucifies Himself, Again and Again

  published May 29, 2013

  “Least you got to see a motherfucker crucify himself,” Richard Pryor spits in the most surprising footage director Marina Zenovich... More >>

• 

  After Earth: Smith Family Robinson

  published May 29, 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 >>

• 

  Fast & Furious 6: Oh, This Is Why We Have Car Chases

  published May 22, 2013

  There’s one key truth that separates the tank-topped gearheads of the Fast and Furious movies from the rest of us. Every problem... More >>

• 

  Matthew McConaughey is excellent, again, in Mud

  published April 24, 2013

  Has anyone ever been so perfectly cast as Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused? Sculpted entirely of charisma and cheekbones yet still... More >>

• 42 retells the Jackie Robinson story

  published April 9, 2013

  A likable hagiography as nuanced as a plaque at the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, Brian Helgeland's Jackie Robinson bio 42 finds a politic... More >>

• The Host a heroine fights aliens with love

  published April 2, 2013

  Across America this week, wives and girlfriends will accompany their fellas to GI Joe: Retaliation, as boys-shooting-boys movies are... More >>

• 

  The Incredible Burt Wonderstone isn't so wonderful

  published March 13, 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 >>

• 

  In Top of the Lake, Peggy Olson Goes to Hell

  published March 13, 2013

  Top of the Lake, Jane Campion’s smart, bracing, hugely enjoyable mystery rural noir Top of the Lake, which premieres... More >>

• West of Memphis: A documentary that matters

  published March 6, 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 >>

• 

  Happy People celebrates simplicity

  published February 13, 2013

  Calling Happy People: A Year in the Taiga a Werner Herzog film is something like calling the dozen books released in 2012 with James... More >>

• 

  Beautiful Creatures, the ravishing chastity fantasy

  published February 13, 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 high... More >>

• Die Hard's latest breaks new ground in incoherence and stupidity

  published February 13, 2013

  Before anything else, here's how dumb things get in A Good Day to Die Hard–Related Media Product, which is being... More >>

• 

  Identity Thief steals Melissa McCarthy's charm

  published February 6, 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 >>

• Stand Up Guys is a blow to Al Pacino's legacy

  published January 30, 2013

  Please, for his own good, somebody clap Dustin Hoffman into a chastity belt. Based on what Al Pacino suffers in Stand Up Guys, and the... More >>

• Tchoupitoulas is a grand travelogue

  published January 16, 2013

  While they almost certainly have plans for striking new projects that expand our understanding of what documentaries can be, Bill and Turner... More >>