The best theatre I've seen lately was a rambunctious KING LEAR presented by ARTS EMERSON and SHAKEPEARE's GLOBE ON TOUR over at the Paramount. Shakespeare's tragedy of a father who is blind to himself and the truth about his daughters-- twin vipers Goneril and Regan (wily performances by Gwendolen Chatfield and Shanaya Rafaat)-- and the true blue [...]
Bill Murray is the screen's funniest, most endearing curmudgeon. Here in ST. VINCENT as the title character, he's all pockmarked and rumply, biting the head off every cheerful do-gooder who has the nerve to make conversation. But that title is part of the problem, pretty much giving away the ending and any hope for subtlety. I had been lead to believe otherwise by the first two thirds [...]
RUSH to see TRACES--a vibrant gorgeous troupe of Canadian circus performers known as LES DOIGTS DE LA MAIN-- or "Seven fingers of the hand." It won't take you long to get a handle on them. Hanging by the slimmest of theatrical threads-- they're supposed to be locked in a shelter during what might be the apocalypse, trying to make the most of their [...]
It's the one film I have been dying to see all year. I'm talking GONE GIRL, based on the best seller by Gillian Flynn who also wrote the screenplay. I love a great thriller, love Ben Affleck and a beautiful woman, in this case a stunning Rosamund Pike who's riveting here. There's 145 minutes to get lost in, and [...]
WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO SCREENINGS OF "HISTORIC 'VIKINGS' AND 'POMPEII', EXHIBITIONS FROM THE BRITISH MUSEUM", EACH FOR ONLY ONE NIGHT IN OCTOBER Fathom Events and the U.K.’s More2Screen are partnering to present two extraordinary cinematic experiences from the British Museum in London that shine a bright light on two cultures – Viking and [...]
(Photo by Richard Hall/Silverline Images.) Really GOOD and less good--my assessment of two plays now onstage in Boston. Let's begin with the really "GOOD"-- in capital letters-- production of BENT at Zeitgeist Stage Company. It's a tremendously moving production, keenly directed by David Miller, and much more affecting than the original Broadway production which I saw starring Richard Gere as a [...]
Imagine Jane Fonda as a Jewish mother. If you can do that, you'll love THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU. Now imagine that Fonda's children are Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Adam Driver and Corey Stoll, siblings who all return home --with spouses, kids, girlfriends in tow--after their father has died, and sit shiva for seven [...]
Who could forget Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Hepburn's niece (I could forget her) in the landmark 1967 film about a rich white girl bringing her black upwardly mobile fiance home to meet her parents in the provocatively titled GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? I remember being completely intrigued-- couldn't wait to see [...]
We're the generation that went BOOM between 1946 and 1964-- and the noise hasn't stopped since. From Billy Joel to Maria Shriver, Samuel L. Jackson to Rosie O'Donnell and Deepak Chopra, the last of us is turning "50" and PBS is set to air a documentary highlighting 19 famous boomers who've shaped the world! AMERICAN [...]
The title is unwieldy--but in her day she wielded enough intellectual and sexual heat to amp up the already significant wattage of the Age of Enlightenment. Emilie du Chatelet should be a household name like Newton and Einstein but history has shoved her aside. Because of her gender, her brilliance has been overlooked, undermined, and [...]
