The not-so-great American pastime of serial killing has splattered pop culture in recent years, but from the biopics of America’s Most Unwanted to the nervy theatricality of Anthony Perkins or Kevin Spacey, only one legend stands definitive: that of Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter. Within the performance of that other eerie…
Brad Silberling’s instincts are right about half the time, which means that, depending upon your point of view, his films are either half empty or half full. His last picture, 1998’s City of Angels, an American remake of Wim Wenders’s poetic Wings of Desire, unsuccessfully tried to marry European art-house…
It’s not unusual for the Coral Springs Museum of Art to run three very different shows simultaneously. What is unusual is the way museum director Barbara O’Keefe manages to make the shows flow together so smoothly. On the surface, “Captain Honk and His Funky Florida Fish,” “Walford Campbell: Life Within…
Theater in South Florida was once the realm of musicals and light comedies, with dramas mighty scarce. Now the scene features theater of all kinds — fierce as well as frothy. But what remains rare are plays with immediate, topical subjects. Despite the disturbing real-life drama in contemporary America, most…
The term funky is perhaps overused to describe low-budget, independent theatrical endeavors, but in the case of the Sol Theatre Project in Fort Lauderdale, the word just fits. In its colorfully decorated warehouse, the troupe stages offbeat productions with quirky characters, and unlike at some fancier venues, fiddling with food…
If you’re sick of the tired old standup comedians who make you gag with their “what’s the deal with… (fill in witty observation here)” jokes or those guys who refuse to utter any word but “fuck,” here’s a fresh act for you. Brett Butler, who played Grace Kelly in the…
So there’s no confusion, the star of Sweet Home Alabama is Reese Witherspoon, who graces the film’s poster in full-body pout and appears on the press kit in closeup, mug-shot smirk; any closer and we’d shoot up her nostrils and exit through her pores. Of course, there’s a great deal…
Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is released from a mental institution the day of her older sister’s wedding. One afternoon with her dysfunctional family and she’s ready for rehab again. No such luck, however, so instead Lee returns to her favorite pastime: self-mutilation. Based on a short story by Mary Gaitskill…
The last time I dropped by the Mosaic Theatre in Plantation last season, the company was presenting Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, a three-man hostage drama, to an audience of six in a bare, uninviting auditorium. Flash-forward to this month as the Mosaic presents another three-person show, The Complete Works…
Africa is besieged by problems. Sheesh, a lot of those guys are poor. Damn, many of their governments are crooked. But, hey, most of the countries are new, and the continent has been regularly pillaged by more developed countries (read: France, England, and Holland. Thanks, guys). The raping of the…
KraCk!! Green Lantern has infiltrated Daniel Hirsh’s cell in Rikers Island House of Detention. The prisoner levitates upside down with his back against the wall and his face bloated with blood. Seeking justice for the vicious gay-bashing of his teenage assistant, Green Lantern uses his amazing will, desire for justice,…
Among the more preposterous rumors spread by Harry Knowles, whose Ain’t It Cool News movie-biz-gossip Website garners undue attention from studios too craven to do their own thinking, was one from year’s beginning: Terrence Malick, Knowles “reported,” was working on an adaptation of The Catcher in the Rye for Fox…
Although his name sounds like an inventory notebook for candy bars, Heath Ledger is overcoming this confusion — as well as the plight of the pretty boy — to become one of contemporary cinema’s more vital actors. In The Four Feathers — as in The Patriot, A Knight’s Tale and…
September is supposed to be the time when the teen-demographic action films give way to the “classier” stuff, but now all we have Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever arriving in theaters just in time to beat out Jackie Chan’s The Tuxedo and two Luc Besson-produced action films, Wasabi and The Transporter…
No doubt, Oscar Wilde would have hated Harmony Isle Gallery. The man who so famously declared that “all art is quite useless” would find much to be appalled at in this little Fort Lauderdale gallery, which intentionally blurs the line between form and function. Harmony Isle specializes in craft art…
With more than a quarter of a century behind them, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band has achieved a brassy brilliance rarely heard in the modern age. There was a time, many moons ago, when great herds of brass bands roamed the plains of America. They practiced arts long lost to…
Tim Bergling wants to know why some gay people act so gay. And he wants to know why anyone would care. “I think it’s pretty simple,” Bergling says. “In our society, we devalue femininity…. The idea that a man would surrender his place in the hierarchy and act like a…
For those with any kind of pop cultural memory, it’s more than a little surprising to see Ice Cube in a movie like Barbershop. Not because it’s a light comedy — Friday was too, and that was certainly in character. What’s odd about Barbershop is its seeming embrace of positions…
Director Neil LaBute (Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty) seems the unlikeliest candidate to direct the film version of British author A.S. Byatt’s Booker Award-winning bestseller Possession. LaBute’s earlier films were resolutely tied to American culture, and Byatt’s book couldn’t be more British if it drank tea at 4 and…
I know. Life is a struggle sometimes: You’re faced with traffic gridlock, work overload, relationship limbo. But cheer up: At least you’re not Baby Doll Gibbons. Not only is her on-again, off-again romance off again; her roommates are furious that she trashed their apartment in a fit of jealous pique…
For those grappling with how to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, we have a suggestion: Consider visiting Florida Atlantic University’s Ritter Gallery. Wednesday, the gallery unveils the South Florida premiere of “Here Is New York: A Democracy of Photographs,” a collection of 190 powerful and poignant…
If you’re looking for a horror film to revitalize the genre, keep looking. If you’re looking for a horror movie with believable characters… yes, you’re gonna have to keep looking. But if sudden loud noises, relentless strobe lights, digital hallucinations, and mutilated corpses make you jump and you feel that…
