Eight-millimeter home movies and statist hymns from the Soviet past haunt Robin Hessman’s documentary of a contemporary Russia pocked with international logos in which five Muscovites recall their lives and, in the process, 40 years of national history. A married couple, teachers Borya and Lyuba Meyerson, testify for the camera…
This latest blast of unwavering miserablism from Denis Villeneuve, Oscar-nominated and everything, reaches for something deeper than mere stroppy melodrama. Adapted from a 2003 play by Wajdi Mouawad, Incendies (“Scorched”) obliquely chronicles the adult life of Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal), an Arab woman living in Canada whose sudden death sends…
Just ask anyone who rode the subway home donning a New York Mets jersey following the 2000 World Series — just because two sports teams spawn from the same region, yeah, that doesn’t guarantee any amorous feelings between the fans. In fact, sometimes the fans’ proximity to one another can…
We’ve been at war in Afghanistan for ten years. Yet with no draft, rations, or war bond drives, the battlefield might as well as be happening on Mars. Sebastian Junger brings the fight back into our consciousness with War, his visceral account of a soldier’s life in battle. On assignment…
There is an aspect of porn that has very real roots in male chauvinism — a large part based purely on female objectification. It has its foundation in the most basic, primal horndoggery. But, hot damn, it sure can be fun and arousing. It’s worth a trip to Miami just…
“Don’t consider yourself too hip to see me.” That was Bill Cosby’s confident message in a promo for his current standup comedy tour. In response, it would be a funny move for all attendees to rock their ugliest/hippest Cosby sweaters to the show. He will be at Seminole Hard Rock…
Beautiful, barely clothed women with bodacious bodies are a dime a dozen in these parts. They’re so common, in fact, one might almost get bored of bared female flesh. Almost. Luckily, the “Pretty Things Peepshow” is on its way to add a little variety to the hot-bod parade that is…
A seven trey Chevrolet walks up to a ’66 Bonneville, spits on its windshield, kicks it in the rims, rips off its spoiler, breaks an axle, and smashes dents in the doors. The Bonneville strikes back, chucking spark plugs through the windows, cutting off the break lines, snatching out the…
Wanderlust: a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about. A word that defines a feeling most of us hold deep in our souls but can’t act upon. Life responsibilities may hold us back, but nothing says we can’t dream. So for one night, escape from reality to get lost…
To employ the cliché, you have been living under a rock if you haven’t heard of Lewis Black. He’s particularly necessary in these trying times, when his role as pleasantly bitter pundit is not just supremely funny — it’s needed. Comic relief from the alternate universe our world has become…
So it’s not the Tour de France, but the bike race snarling traffic and electrifying crowds this Sunday in downtown Fort Lauderdale will be worth checking out. The event, “Bike and Wellness Day,” is part of the $100,000 Bill Bone Pro-Am Race Series, which feeds into the national cycling ranking…
The human species is hardly unique for using tools. Herons fish with bait; veined octopuses build homes out of coconut shells; seagulls drop oysters onto roads to be cracked apart by cars; and elephants dig wells, then plug them with balls of bark to prevent evaporation. On one score, though,…
Apparently the only thing missing from all those great journalistic exposés of the Afghanistan war is a little surrealist whimsy, some precious comic relief from all that torture and Islamophobia. How about injecting a quirky, wisecracking Afghan-American taxi driver or, better yet, an artificial heart that gives anyone who holds…
For more than two decades now, the South Florida Cultural Consortium has served as sort of a trend guru, recognizing artists from Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties who are leaving deep footprints across the region. Each year, the alliance of local arts agencies representing all points from…
Tenacious indie Kelly Reichardt has specialized in quirky, minimalist quasi-road movies in which loners come unmoored in some great American space. Meek’s Cutoff is that and more — one great leap into the 19th-century unknown. The members of a small wagon train crossing the Oregon Trail in 1845 follow their…
Built around the talents of cowriter/lead actress Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids is the first female-fronted comedy produced by Hollywood kingpin Judd Apatow, who has weathered criticism in the past for his brand’s dudecentric point of view. Bridesmaids’ core relationship is between Annie (Wiig) and her best friend of 30-plus years, Lillian…
Looking to documentaries to learn how to live could easily become a life-consuming occupation in itself. I’m waiting on the documentary about watching too many documentaries; it’s killing us, if you haven’t heard. Though in the cautionary doc mold, the opening of Forks Over Knives hardly whets the polemical appetite:…
The eight gentle Trappist monks depicted in Of Gods and Men uphold the faith that brought them from France to Algeria, only to be abducted and massacred, presumably by fanatics of a rival religious persuasion. The movie, based on a 1996 event that continues to resonate in France, opens on…
After chambermaid Hélène (Sandrine Bonnaire) glimpses an American couple (Jennifer Beals and Dominic Gould) playing chess in the upscale Corsican resort where she works, she becomes obsessed with the game and what it represents to her. The couple’s casually sexy interplay and wealth are in stark contrast to the hand-to-mouth…
Our newest car models come with built-in GPS, DVD players, automatic parallel parking, and little alarms that wake up sleeping drivers. But for all those gizmos and gadgets, undoubtedly a certain grandeur has been lost in car design since the Buick Y-Job — the world’s first concept car, an art-deco-styled…
Maybe it’s the white dress. Or maybe it’s the veil, fluttering delicately around the, ahem, maiden’s face. Whatever it is, blushing brides have garnered a reputation for innocence and sweetness, but anyone who’s ever had to deal directly with one of these precious princesses can tell you otherwise. Mess with…
Long-haired, Birkenstock-wearing hippies are not the target demographic at “Earth Day Fest,” an ongoing art show at an artists’ loft in Fort Lauderdale. The organizers say they’re taking Earth Day upscale. To raise environmental awareness, they’re offering free rubdowns, courtesy of the massage therapists of the American Institute School of…
