Ryan Syrek

Omaha

Senior Contributing Editor at The Reader

Featured in: Favicon

thereader.com Favicon

medscape.com Favicon

boulderweekly.com Favicon

univadis.fr Favicon

obroncology.com Favicon

flipboard.com Favicon

newsbreak.com Favicon

medcentral.com Favicon

oncologynewscentral.com Favicon

patientpower.info

Articles

With Friends Like These, You Need Therapy

2 weeks ago | thereader.com | Ryan Syrek

Comedians these days can either accept that “funny” is an incredibly subjective term or blame their lack of talent on the “woke mafia.” So at least, there are options now. Tim Robinson is a prime example of the former option. A true Hawaiian pizza of a jokester, he is arguably too vehemently defended by those who find his humor delicious and remains baffling to a much wider majority. Having previously fallen into the latter group, I did not expect to enjoy Friendship.
Oopsie Doopsie: You’re Dead!

3 weeks ago | thereader.com | Ryan Syrek

I do not understand the Final Destination movies. I mean their appeal. I understand the movies themselves just fine. They are not very complicated. In all of them, death is some kind of sentient, unseen being with a Rube Goldberg fetish who gets his invisible jollies from decapitating young people with seemingly innocuous objects like bowling balls and such. Weirdly, everyone in the films automatically genders the formless “death” as a man.
An Airplane Ride Only Slightly Scarier Than Real Life

4 weeks ago | thereader.com | Ryan Syrek

So many production companies have their logos in front of Fight or Flight, it is almost certain one is just straight-up laundering money, right? No one has yet invented a better way to cleanse ill-gotten gains than financing a Josh Hartnett action movie. That is a joke, just in case any of those 10-20 companies have good lawyers. This is all to say that, from the jump, Fight or Flight feels dodgy and suspect.
Florence and the Marvel Machine

1 month ago | thereader.com | Ryan Syrek

Her character has no superpowers, but Florence Pugh is meta-human. Proof? She has survived acting opposite Timothée Chalamet twice and being directed as a woman by Christopher Nolan. Much will be made of how Thunderbolts* is some measure of a “return to form” for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) when it is simply further evidence that there is nothing that Pugh can’t improve. Make her the new National Security Advisor just to see what happens.
FDA Rejects Brain Cancer Drug

1 month ago | oncologynewscentral.com | Ryan Syrek

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected a new drug application (NDA) for TLX101-CDx (floretyrosine F18; Pixclara), an investigational imaging agent for glioma, according to an April 28 statement from the manufacturer, Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited.
Hillbilly Hellegy

1 month ago | thereader.com | Ryan Syrek

The “point” of Sinners, a rip-snorting vampire-centric music video, is not that “human beings are the real monsters.” The point of Sinners is a stake, driven through the heart of monsters of all-kinds, fanged or not. It is also that the most important thing in life is having a good time with the ones you love and also not summoning unholy hell-beasts by playing music that is simply too good. You are safest playing bad music.
Memories Don’t Have to Be About War to Hurt

1 month ago | thereader.com | Ryan Syrek

In the last week, I saw the movie Warfare, and I learned that someone who used to write here in the film section at The Reader died. Maddeningly, painfully, for the second time in less than a year, I find myself crafting something that is closer to a eulogy than it is a movie review. At least this one isn’t my hot take on an animated family film?
FDA Fully Approves Larotrectinib for NTRK-Positive Solid Tumors

1 month ago | oncologynewscentral.com | Ryan Syrek |Youssef Rddad

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to larotrectinib (Vitrakvi) for adults and children with NTRK fusion–positive solid tumors that are metastatic, unresectable, or have no other treatment options, drugmaker Bayer announced in an April 10 news release. Regulators based the latest decision on pooled data from the three single-group studies. These included results from the phase 1 LOXO-TRK-14001 trial, the phase 1/2 SCOUT trial, and the phase 2 NAVIGATE trial.
To Have and to Hold (at Gunpoint)

2 months ago | thereader.com | Ryan Syrek

Casting Michael Fassbender as a militant wife guy who hates liars is certainly a choice when the Wikipedia on his personal life is just right there. Ew.If it helps you endure that knowledge, Black Bag isn’t a sweet love song to marriage so much as a synth-jazz tune about loyalty.
FDA Approves Durvalumab (Imfinzi) for Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer

2 months ago | patientpower.info | Ryan Syrek

On March 28, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved neoadjuvant durvalumab (Imfinzi) plus gemcitabine and cisplatin, followed by single-agent adjuvant durvalumab after radical cystectomy, for adults with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). The FDA based the approval on results from the randomized, open-label, multicenter, phase 3 NIAGARA trial. The study enrolled 1,063 patients with MIBC who had not received prior systemic therapy and were eligible for radical cystectomy.