Avengers: Age of Ultron (9/10)

In a fastidiously chaotic movie, one of four new characters mutters, as if to himself, “Humans are odd. They think order and chaos are somehow opposites.” This question of order vs. chaos, war vs. peace, good vs. evil, is standard comic book fare, but what makes Age of Ultron so deft and satisfying is the way it ties up all sorts of threads from previous movies to create a nearly seamless whole – chaos and order, personified in one movie.

An Avengers Christmas

What does Christmas look like in Benin? Well, in the big cities, it is starting to become more Westernized. Zimidjans (motorcyle-taxis if you’ll recall) ride by, sporting Santa hats ; a restaurant by the beach displays a life-size Santa statue in the window, holding that classic Saint Nick instrument, the saxophone ; you’re far more likely to see a painting of a white Santa Claus in store windows, though the occasional black Satan does pop up ; those street merchants walk by hawking giant blow-up lawn ornaments, often in the shape of a snow globe, even though it’s doubtful most Beninese will ever see snow in their entire life.