MAM’s “Ultrabaroque: Aspects of Post-Latin American Art,” an exhibit curated by Elizabeth Armstrong and Victor Zamudio-Taylor that landed here from San Diego, presents works by artists from Latin America who negotiate contemporary global trends within their own local traditions. But this is not a witty or humorous label. To categorize…
Think of it as Todd Solondz lite: loads of dysfunction but, thankfully, none of the perversion. In fact, despite deep-seated neuroses, occasionally inappropriate behavior, and a propensity for unhealthy relationships, the four females who are the Marks family are a fairly benevolent lot. As observed by writer-director Nicole Holofcener, the…
The first floor of the Boca Raton Museum of Art this summer is sort of like the South Florida weather lately: When it rains, it pours. I spent more than two hours in the museum one recent weekend and came away still uncertain if I’d absorbed everything there was to…
A pal asked last week, “Who you writing about?” Told him, “Art Linson,” which screwed his face into a big ol’ question mark. “He’s a movie producer. He made Heat, Fight Club, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Untouchables, Car Wash…” Said said friend upon hearing that last one, “Dude…
OK, nature lovers, you’ve all seen a mama sea turtle lay her eggs on Animal Planet, right? Didn’t you feel those pangs of sympathy when the voice-over told you that not only are the nests themselves vulnerable, but that very few of those cute little baby turtles even survive the…
Deep inside the history of every major beauty pageant lurks a defining, egg-on-the-face incident. For Miss USA, it occurred in the contest’s sixth year, 1957, when Miss Maryland, Leona Gage, snagged the crown. Back home, Gage’s proud mother-in-law, forgetting that loose lips sink ships, revealed that Leona was, in fact,…
Joe Versus the Volcano ran on cable last week. Contained within that misguided, unmemorable film was a small scene that only now resonates. Tom Hanks, who believes he has not long to live, emerges from a doctor’s office wearing a fedora too small for his head and a trench coat…
There are two kinds of people at New Times — those who hate Dave Matthews and those who like Dave Matthews but express ambivalence toward him for fear of those who hate Dave Matthews. (One of the haters is editing this very article; fans unhappy with its less-than-hagiographic tone should…
For one night, at least, “We’re doin’ it for the kids” will cease to be a hollow music-industry cliché. At the Dada All-Star Independence Jubilee, a generation of local musicians performs Sunday at a converted school in a benefit intended to put instruments into the little hands of their grade-school…
Like a Jawbreaker that changes color every few seconds that you suck it, MIIB: Men in Black II delivers a quick buzz, lots of stuff to look at, and a totally non-nutritious joy that can be attained only with the aid of artificial flavorings and yellow #5. In a nutshell,…
In her recent book Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, journalist Rachel Simmons hits a topical nail squarely on its sore head. Coining the term “relational aggression,” she employs several case studies to buttress the obvious but significant theory that modern girls are extremely angry but…
They stream in and out, all day and all night, one after the other: band members, producers, business associates, friends, family, strangers, hangers-on who stare at the familiar face made infamous long ago. The tour bus, this parked sanctuary where he can roll his joints and drink his bottled Starbucks…
Ancient festivals served as markers for human progress, celebrating the passing of time and the progression of the community. Although seasonal changes, harvests, and rites of passage are not the focus of today’s festivals, these celebrations still provide a forum for assessing a community’s evolution. Søren Kierkegaard wrote, “Life must…
It may look ridiculous, it may look odd, but eat it at the wrong time and you may as well kiss your life goodbye. This isn’t one of your usual suspects, such as a king-sized habanero pepper or a stale refried-bean burrito at a cheap Mexican restaurant. The lethal weapon…
Bernie Worrell measures up as one of the greatest sidemen of the 1970s and ’80s. Along with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, he is largely responsible for the psychedelic party sounds that made Parliament/Funkadelic arguably the greatest funk band in world history. As keyboardist for the P-Funk mob, Worrell’s sounds…
Talk about trading down: Adam Sandler now stands in for Gary Cooper, Winona Ryder for Jean Arthur, screenwriter Tim Herlihy (The Waterboy, Billy Madison) for Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night, Meet John Doe), and director Steven Brill (Little Nicky) for the immortal Frank Capra. The mind reels at the…
If it’s possible for a film to be simultaneously ambitious and banal, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is both. There’s little here we haven’t seen repeatedly in some form or another — growing up Catholic is popular fodder for filmmakers, as is growing up in the American South, usually…
Art has always had the potential to shock. Some artists shock inadvertently, while others shock by design. Pretty much the whole point of Dada — one of the most extreme (and influential) movements in art history — was to piss people off, to deliver a jolt to a world that,…
In dramaturgical terms, a play by a man about men is called theater — from Hamlet to Nixon’s Nixon, male playwrights, actors, and themes are not distinguished as “men’s theater” (and thankfully so). In contrast a play by a woman about women is frequently dubbed “women’s theater,” “touchy-feely,” “man hating,”…
The name Ellen DeGeneres has been stuck on the end of adjectives such as groundbreaking and pioneering so many times that she might as well change one of those to her first name. Of course, it wasn’t always like that. And it really isn’t quite that way anymore, now that…
Fans of The Howard Stern Show and everything it stands for — gratuitous T&A, sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, and so on — can have their fill this weekend. Although the King of All Media and his most recognizable sidekick, the redoubtable Robin Quivers, will both be absent, a group…
Steven Spielberg just might turn into a great director if only he’d stop sabotaging his movies. For the second time in as many films, he demolishes his product with a third act that renders void all that’s come before it. It’s as though Minority Report, set in a near future…
