In the rancid nightmare farce called Very Bad Things, Peter Berg, in his movie writing-directing debut, creates characters that you immediately want to see killed off. From the title to the ads to the Website (which features a Vegas stripper who will dance for you), Very Bad Things has been…
Given the vroom-vroom of their current go-round on stage, it’s possible that, even with the theatrical equivalent of a road map, you might not be able to keep track of Kander and Ebb these days. Critically acclaimed revivals of the songwriting team’s biggest hits, Cabaret (1966) and Chicago (1975), are…
The canvases of the American realist painter Janet Fish are so vibrant, so shimmering with light, energy, and bright, saturated colors, that to call them “still lifes” fails to do them justice. And yet Fish’s dominant subject matter is the stuff of traditional still-life painting: vases of flowers, bowls of…
Thursday November 19 Not one to let a good opportunity pass, Buehler Planetarium director Dr. David Menke has come up with an astronomy presentation tied to Thanksgiving. It’s not that much of a stretch, when you consider that, without astronomical know-how, the Mayflower’s navigators might never have gotten the Pilgrims…
Until he saw the work of surrealist master Salvador Dali, Jim Warren thought art was something only the critics — those who know the rules about good and bad art — could appreciate. “Dali said, ‘Hell with it, forget the rules,'” says Warren. “When I found out you could do…
Actor Dylan Walsh, best known for his role as a biologist in the 1995 film Congo, is huddled over a laptop computer at a beat-up card table surrounded by mismatched chairs. On location in Fort Lauderdale, he’s playing Adam Lazarus, a struggling writer who lives with his girlfriend, Jane (Laurel…
Even students of English history may have trouble sorting out the palace intrigues and intragovernmental conspiracies that fill Elizabeth, the handsome new production about Queen Elizabeth I’s ascension to the British throne in 1558. With the bewitching Australian actress Cate Blanchett (last year’s Oscar and Lucinda) in the title role,…
Holed up with his Sidney Bechet records, old flannel shirts, and dog-eared copy of War and Peace, Woody Allen has made a second career of shunning fad, fashion, and fame — and of ostensibly keeping to himself in the most populous city in the United States. No nouveau-grooveau glitz or…
When a play’s title is The Adjustment, chances are the playwright will be suggesting a monumental shift in attitude or perspective on the part of one or more characters. In Michael T. Folie’s new work, recently opened at the Florida Stage, tiny adjustments also occur. The play is set in…
At Chef’s Palette restaurant, staring is not rude. It’s part of the appeal. Across the street from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, in the center of its culinary-school annex, is a lovely little dining room with white linen on the tables and a panoramic view of tomorrow’s chefs learning…
At age 27, Pete Minger found himself back in the classroom. It was 1970, and the talented trumpet player had landed his first gig with a large jazz ensemble — none other than the Count Basie Orchestra. “For me it was like going to school,” Minger recalls. “That’s where I…
Thursday November 12 Spurned lovers these days might slash their ex’s tires or stalk him or her — at least until the restraining order comes through. But such petty revenge looks wimpy compared to what happens in the mythological story of Medea. Jason, the rightful heir to the throne of…
For filmmaker Todd Solondz, it’s always midnight in suburbia. Life is lonely, and the natives can be hostile. In his daring second film, Happiness, the darkness engulfs victims of all ages: a boy in the throes of impending adolescence, three New Jersey sisters tormented by sex and love, an obscene…
American History X, a hard-edged look at American neo-Nazis, arrives in theaters with a lot of behind-the-scenes baggage: First-time director Tony Kaye has engaged in a protracted, high-profile battle with producer-distributor New Line Cinema over the film’s final form. While Kaye may have a justified grievance, this is not as…
If you had a conventional grammar school education and watch a little Nick at Nite, chances are you don’t think of Sebastian Cabot as the discoverer of the New World. According to The Complete History of America (abridged), however, it was this Englishman — and not the Italian explorer with…
The human body has always fascinated David Cronenberg, the Canadian filmmaker who’s the inspiration and catalyst for “Spectacular Optical,” a group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. For Cronenberg the body is an alarmingly precarious, unstable thing, something not so much revolting as in revolt, often…
After a flurry of preliminary “minifest” activity over the past couple of weeks in Boca Raton, Hollywood, Coconut Grove, and Fort Lauderdale, the 13th annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival goes into full swing this weekend, beginning with Friday’s official opening night presentation. As I indicated last week, the festival…
Thursday November 5 The Broward County chapter of the Sierra Club gives new meaning to the concept of dining along the water. Forget about admiring the view from a patio or deck; the group’s Canoe Under the Full Moon outing is much more than a moonlight paddle — it’s also…
Evolutionary baggage is a bitch. According to biologists we have the equivalent of three brains — the reptilian, the mammalian, and the higher cortex — each of which developed during a different stage of evolution. Our reptilian chunk of gray matter, being the oldest, controls our most basic instinct –…
Lying face-down on a massage table, I listen to flute music and inhale the scent of fragrant oils permeating the air. I feel detached from my body, as if I’m floating. When Joe Gajnos, a licensed massage therapist, enters the room, he does nothing to break the spell. As he…
From the works of Edgar Allan Poe to Hollywood’s The Fly, classic American ghost stories indulge our fascination with the decay of the body. They’re overrun with maggoty cadavers, telltale hearts, and monsters that stalk us through dark alleys, graphic reflections of our fear of inexorable death. European tales, on…
Thursday October 29 When it’s bill-paying time, boat owners tend to see their boats as holes in the water into which they throw all their money. With that in mind, anyone visiting the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show today through Monday can see some of the biggest holes in the…
