Chung’s last feature film, “Minari,” an autobiographical portrait of his immigrant family putting down roots on their Arkansas farm, cost $2 million to make, roughly what any single minute of “Twisters” cost.
Sam Eifling
Posted inArkansas Blog
From the Vault: Revisiting the Mayflower oil spill, 11 years later
The Arkansas Times turns 50 in 2024. To celebrate our golden anniversary, we’re looking back at the past half-century and sharing excerpts from some of our favorite pieces of reporting.
Posted inRock Candy
What are the odds? Eclipse reflections from Hot Springs
People gasped; then they laughed at their own sense of wonder; then they laughed at the sound of other people laughing. Cannabis smoke wafted. People murmured; people kissed. Someone howled like a wolf, and a few other folks howled like wolves in response, yet somehow the actual dogs on the field kept their composure.
Posted inRock Candy
‘Polite, boutique, manicured’: A review of the Walton-backed FORMAT Festival
You could ding the festival on a number of fronts: an almost total lack of hip-hop (or, hell, country for that matter), data deserts that made coordinating with friends (or tweeting, or anything else) impossible, camping options that ranged between $$$ and $$$$. But Sam’s millennial grandkids Steuart and Tom Walton, and their OZ Brands venture, pulled off an event that was at once completely novel, psychically unmoored from any known reality, and yet could have only existed in Northwest Arkansas, where middle-of-the-road curatorial tastes meet Mariana Trench-deep pockets. For about a hundred bucks a day, audiences got to see what sort of toys real money can buy.
Posted inRock Candy
Beast of a Time: A Q&A with Ayana Gray
Little Rock’s Ayana Gray weaves a love of history and power struggles into pan-African young adult fiction. We talk with Gray about man-eating lions, book sales during a pandemic, her dog Dolly, and the exotic land that is Arkansas, perpetually mystifying America at large.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Remembering Brent Renaud, a fearless journalist who focused his camera on vulnerable people around the world
The documentarian Brent Renaud, who along with his brother Craig defined nonfiction filmmaking for a generation of Arkansans, was shot and killed outside Kyiv on March 13 while reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The first American journalist to die covering the conflict, he left an inimitable legacy in his home state and far beyond.
Posted inEntertainment
‘Minari’ director Lee Isaac Chung talks Korean pears, growing up in rural Arkansas and reimagining the protagonist
We reached Chung in South Pasadena, Calif., via Zoom to compare notes on Ozarks living (“I don’t miss the ticks”), to discuss the merits of a family as a protagonist and to jinx him by invoking the work of noted Oscar hoarder Bong Joon-ho.
Posted inNews
Mitch and Elizabeth Breitweiser launch Allegiance Arts comics
For a pandemic moment, the duo’s startup was the only comic book distributor in the U.S.
Posted inEntertainment
Clark Duke’s “Arkansas” is a Southern neo-noir with a road trip vibe
We review Glenwood native Clark Duke’s directorial debut, “Arkansas,” which hits streaming services May 5.
Posted inEntertainment
Netflix’s “Night on Earth” is a nature doc/horror flick hybrid
The night vision gives certain scenes a sort of bedtime vulnerability, as when a lion exhausted by her fresh kill flomps her head down on the throat of the wildebeest she was clamping on moments before.