Sci-Fi
Rod Lott
Few monsters appear in “Monsters,” and that’s exactly why I love it. In fact, I think it could even use fewer of them.

Television series
Rod Lott
When I was a kid — the 1970s, for you historians and my eventual biographer — British shows airing on PBS creeped me out.

Restaurant Reviews
Jenny Coon Peterson

I have a hard time saying Cafe Kacao without accenting the end like a loud, exuberant toucan. (ka-KOW!) But it somehow seems appropriate for this restaurant, which focuses on the savory, spicy flavors of Guatemala and southern Mexico.

Drama
Rod Lott

Conceptually, Miss Bala shares much in common with 2004's Maria Full of Grace. In that film, a young Colombian girl became a drug mule in order to save her family. Here, a young Mexican woman becomes a criminal accessory in order to save her friend.

Comedy
Rod Lott
Even if you hate it — and plenty will — you have to admit Casa de Mi Padre is a unique slice of cinema. Will Ferrell stars in this spirited parody of the Mexican telenovela. Not only is the comedy set in Mexico, but performed almost entirely in Spanish. Name one other A-lister who would dare commit to such an audience-limiting undertaking, foreign language and all. For a star of his stature to spoof something his fan base likely knows nothing about is so ballsy, it bounces.

Comedy
Rod Lott
Don't call them "zombies" — call them "dissidents." That's one of a few well-aimed bits of political satire that populate the Spanish-language romp Juan of the Dead, but worry not: They're used sparingly and none come heavy-handed — a Castro polemic, this isn't.

News
Clifton Adcock
When federal agents raided a horse ranch in Lexington in early June, it wasn’t to take a dime-bag drug dealer off the street. It was to disrupt a money-laundering operation for one of Mexico’s most brutal drug cartels.

News
Peter Wright
Thousands of undocumented residents living in Oklahoma now can apply for a deportation protection program initiated by presidential order in June. For one group of undocumented students and their friends, the application is not only a reprieve, but also a call to help others who may be eligible.

Television series
Rod Lott
XXIV, VXI, XXX, IV, X — hell, it's all Greek Roman to me. All I know for sure is that each and every box set that has been or will be released of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is worth owning. Since the new Volume XXIV falls into that category, it, too, qualifies.