My aspiration to be a critic took seed early on: as a teenager, I wrote movie reviews for my high school paper and launched my Front Row Seat column, which continues to this day in the Duluth News Tribune. Today, I write criticism covering a wide range of media. I’m an alumnus of the National Critics Institute, and a member of the National Book Critics Circle as well as the Minnesota Film Critics Association.
In July 2023, I was pleased to have my criticism honored with a first place Page One award from the Minnesota Pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Theater
- Tina gets Duluth on its feet (Duluth News Tribune, February 16, 2026). “The wildest swing involves deploying ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ as an emotional apotheosis after the death of Turner’s mother, even though that involves the grieving Tina repeatedly declaring, ‘All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome!'”
- The Shark is Broken tells Jaws backstory (Duluth News Tribune, October 17, 2025). “It’s in our parents that we perceive most clearly the unsolvable equation in the human personality, the point at which a person’s behavior can’t be explained and must simply be accepted.”
- Zeitgeist’s La Ronde celebrates joy of sex (Duluth News Tribune, September 26, 2025). “It seems to be no coincidence that the characters whose sexual relations are most openly transactional are also the two who are most authentic in their relationship.”
Books
- Chris Kraus explores Iron Range murder in new novel (Duluth News Tribune, November 12, 2025). “While Kraus’ novel includes a wealth of specific detail and evinces genuine curiosity about the Iron Range, the author still comes across as an anthropologist on Mars.”
- 501 Essential Albums of the ’80s (The Tangential, May 2, 2025). “A list like this — unless it’s truly cynical or soulless, neither of which applies here — serves the key functions of encouraging discovery and re-discovery.”
- Max Boot’s Reagan sees legendary legacy (The Tangential, October 30, 2024). “If Reagan’s triumph as President was to act the part superbly, Boot argues, the ways in which he let Americans down are related to his shortcomings as an actor.”
Movies
- Hockey Mom’s Revenge is Duluth’s ultimate Lifetime movie (Duluth News Tribune, January 8, 2026). “I won’t spoil the fun by explaining exactly how a sabotaged Zamboni figures into all this, but the moment when several thousand pounds of ice resurfacer go careening toward a Benders ad on the boards (‘our family serving yours’) is the Northland’s answer to gremlins driving Mr. Futterman’s Kentucky Harvester into his living room.”
- Explosive table tennis epic Marty Supreme (Duluth News Tribune, December 20, 2025). “Marty Supreme is ambitious, well-crafted and often enthralling. It is not subtle.”
- It Was Just an Accident examines moral responsibility (Duluth News Tribune, November 14, 2025). “The underground nature of the production informs the film’s tone, which balances prosaic realism with flashes of intense emotion.”
Music
- DSSO plays American rhapsodies in season opener (Duluth News Tribune, September 22, 2024). “The puppy-dog energy of Peter Boyer’s piece was a marked contrast to Jeffrey Biegel’s pricklier take on Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ drawing on the 1924 piano score rather than the more commonly heard edit from 1942.”
- The 9 types of horror movie soundtracks (Creepy Catalog, September 22, 2023). “The Suspiria score generally sounds like Goblin took Mike Oldfield’s tubular bells, put them in a shopping cart, and pushed it down the Exorcist steps.”
- “Folk piano” by way of John Cage: George Winston defies musical stereotypes (YourClassical, December 24, 2013). This concert review was quoted in the New York Times obituary for the artist upon his death in 2023.
Television
- Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy — Pieces of the Past (The Tangential, September 19, 2025). “If Rebuild the Galaxy is starting to take its own alternate canon a bit seriously, well, that’s only in keeping with the sprit of the overarching franchise.”
- Andor final season is heart-stopping, jaw-dropping (The Tangential, April 21, 2025). “One of the many remarkable things about what showrunner Tony Gilroy has achieved with Andor is that it leverages the cultural weight of that first film, which birthed a blockbuster franchise and has fired millions of imaginations, without relying on it as an engine of drama.”
- The Acolyte opens new era in Star Wars storytelling (Duluth News Tribune, June 4, 2024). “The fact that there are no Skywalkers, Palpatines, or Fetts running around frees the show from the kind of fan-service Easter egging that freighted The Book of Boba Fett.”
Visual art
- An Art of Changes brings a lifetime of Jasper Johns prints back to the Walker Art Center (The Tangential, Feb. 14, 2020). “The eye is immediately drawn to the work, trained to look for meaning and context, only to discover that the latter is detached and the the former is vacant.”
- With Assembly Hall at the Walker Art Center, Theaster Gates creates a space to contemplate culture (The Tangential, Sept. 6, 2019). “‘By saying I’m a potter, I’m actually a fucking philosopher.'”
- Guillermo del Toro is At Home with Monsters in new Mia exhibit (The Current, March 4, 2017). “The new exhibit [draws] you into del Toro’s wide-ranging, seductively creepy imagination — as well as into the imaginations of the underappreciated artists who inspired him.”
Dance
- Minnesota Ballet’s Nutcracker is a Duluth Tale with a fresh approach (Duluth News Tribune, December 11, 2023). “Letting go of some of the traditional trappings felt like a relief.”
- Minnesota Ballet dances with death in Poe (Duluth News Tribune, October 23, 2023). “Poe has a fairly high body count for a ballet, but the production is also teeming with life.”
Food
- Minnesota State Fair 2023: The five most intriguing new foods (Duluth News Tribune, Aug. 25, 2023). “Lutefisk isn’t really something you can review: It simply exists.”
- 10 new Minnesota State Fair foods: Hit or miss? (Duluth News Tribune, Aug. 26, 2022) “The problem with Pickle Pizza isn’t the pickle — it’s the pizza.”
