Nothing curdles comedy more quickly than forced whimsy, which is what this would-be romantic comedy has in abundance. The story focuses on a handful of New Yorkers, none of them especially appealing, least of all the hapless immigrant who’s the default protagonist. Irwin Pelkalvski (played, according to the credits, by…
Monday, October 6 Pre Fest Membership Party • at Blue Martini 6 p.m. — Martinis and Movies Madness Membership Party Free with membership purchase or renewal Wednesday, October 15 • at Cinema Paradiso 5:30 p.m. — The Long, Hot Summer Prekickoff reception Thursday, October 16 • at Cinema Paradiso 5 p.m. —…
The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival opens officially on Friday, and it will close on November 11. In the intervening month, the festival will proceed much as it has for the past 22 years. Movies will play, celebrities will party, and a small coterie of extremely dedicated festival organizers will…
Murder, Spies, & Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story is an exhaustively (and exhaustingly) thorough investigation of the claims of Clint Curtis, the man who was allegedly approached by Florida Rep. Tom Feeney to design a software program to throw the 2004 presidential elections to George Bush. The film has…
Any distance you might feel between yourself and the result of cheap politicking depicted in Boogieman is obliterated within the first half-hour of Neshoba. Americans over 50 will likely remember the sudden disappearance of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi, on June 21, 1964. Their bodies were found…
The title transaction in this British comedy — a crime that’s carried out with about as much gusto as the reluctant murder swap in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train — involves a young London tube operator (Mackenzie Crook) and an all-around good-for-nothing (Colm Meany) who meet under chance circumstances. The…
It’s hard to find many teams that rose faster and fell further in the NBA than the Memphis Grizzlies, who won 50 games as recently as 2004 and 22 apiece the past couple of seasons. That kind of precipitous drop will make your ears pop, and… no, no, wait. There’s…
You might think of Hawthorne Heights as typical angst-ridden, screamo pop punksters. But lately, the angst pouring out of the Dayton, Ohio, quartet has grounds beyond teenaged sorrows. Nearly a year ago, Casey Calvert, the guitarist/vocalist/happy-go-lucky band member, died of drug intoxication while on tour. It was a tragic event,…
Conspiracies about smog, government cover-ups, and underaged gymnasts floated over this past summer’s Olympics. But most seem to agree that the games were a success for China, and not only for China’s dominant athletes but also for the artistic wonder of the opening and closing ceremonies. The Olympics widened the…
Your copy of The Handmaid’s Tale has been gathering dust since college, and the last art show you attended wound up focusing on outdated still lifes. It’s official: You’re starving both your artistic side and your feminist ideals. All of that will change tonight when you attend the art event…
Two weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Kimberly Roberts bought a video camera from a neighborhood street hustler. She planned to use it to record birthday parties, reunions, and family celebrations. Instead, she used it to capture a truly traumatic first-person account of one of the five deadliest hurricanes…
Whether it’s tuning in for the Vice Presidential debates (which boasted the second-highest ratings for a presidential or VP debate in history) or registering to vote in mass numbers, more folks are eager to become a part of the political process in 2008 than ever before. Take Rey Gutierrez, for…
Last year, the only team the Dolphins could manage to get on top of was the lowly Baltimore Ravens. This year, the Dolphins have already knocked off two of the AFC’s elite teams in back to back games. On paper, the change seems improbable. Many sports pundits have theorized that…
“There are two rules to remember if you wanna have a good time. Rule number one, never run out of Colt 45. Rule number two — never forget rule number one.” Damn you, Billy Dee Williams, for implanting such wisdom in our heads at such early ages. How could anyone…
Sex, drugs, and politics are the three taboos polite folk avoid. Artists, on the other hand, mustn’t be terribly concerned with social agendas, considering that they’ve traditionally tapped those very topics to produce great works. During an election cycle, we see an added injection of politics in subversive art. From…
Although the MLB playoffs have nearly been decided, we still don’t know one important bit of info: Which beers will be in the final four at Whole Food’s Annual World Series of Beer, taking place tonight at 6 at their Coral Springs location (810 University Dr.). Although baseball is often…
Nothing quite compares to that experience: You’re sitting in the doctor’s office, awkward paper apron askew, shivering, only to be treated like a car at a mechanic’s. “Replace this, tweak that, and you’ve got a leak in your stomach’s flux capacitor,” she says, before scribbling on a pad and scampering…
It’s 1962. JFK is fighting the Cuban Missile Crisis. America’s archetype of beauty, Marilyn Monroe, is found dead. Racial integration is on the minds of students and parents everywhere, and changes to stale cultural standards are fast-approaching. It is in this political climate that even a simple act of trying…
Coffee shops get a bad rap these days. It seems most people associate them with bad beat poetry and intellectual snobs endlessly talking about Ingmar Bergman films while looking down with contempt at pop culture. The Undergrounds Coffeehaus (2743 East Oakland Park Blvd, Fort Lauderdale) proves that shrines to caffeine…
The word Hell conjures images of insufferable pain and misery — unless, of course, it’s referring to the setting of Makeover, a new stage production by North Palm Beach playwright Mark Poncy. Touted as a contemporary fairy tale, Makeover is a darkly comedic musical that’s peppered with elements of camp…
Want to help cancer-stricken women and get a buzz at the same time? Try wrapping your lips around a sugar-rimmed pink cocktail. Any day throughout October, stop into a RA Sushi Bar Restaurant, demand some spicy lobster rolls, and then order up a few Blushing Geishas to cool the fire…
Talib Kweli is one of those hip-hop artists who gets tons of respect from other rappers but has somehow managed to fly slightly below the radar his whole career. His collaborations have been many, from his project with Mos Def (Black Star), to throwing down on tunes with Kanye West,…
