You have to hand it to Sean Penn. Okay, you don’t absolutely have to, and if you’re a Red Stater through-and-through, you certainly won’t want to, but give him some credit. After being pilloried in the press for visiting Iraq under Saddam’s reign, torn apart by housecats in a puppet…
Some people think they’re a new art form; others see them as adolescent time-killers. Whatever they are, video games don’t make good models for feature films (mostly because their interactive essence is lost), and their clumsy transfer to the big screen continues to invite all kinds of speculation — not…
Assault on Precinct 13, the sluggish remake of John Carpenter’s grungy 1976 movie of the same name, begins with a bang to which it never lives up. In a smoky den of all manner of iniquity, Ethan Hawke’s trying to close a drug deal. With his girl splayed out on…
If you can make it past the first 10 minutes or so of Hide and Seek without busting up laughing, chances are that you’ve never seen a horror movie before in your life. This hack-job of a “thriller” may steal from the best, but it does it so badly and…
What’s going on at Florida Stage? After establishing a reputation for presenting provocative, substantial new plays, the award-winning Manalapan company has recently swerved toward a series of pleasant but dramatically insipid works. The latest in this troubling trend is Hanging Fire, a low-wattage comedy whose title phrase refers to a…
Romeo and Juliet, the classic Shakespearean tragedy, comes to life as part of the Hollywood Shakespeare Festival. Two banners flank the stage designed with family crests — one bearing the name Capulet, the other Montague. The rest of the staging is simple and practical, a series of three wooden arches,…
If there are such things as safe bets in the South Florida art world, one of them has to be Clyde Butcher, the grandfatherly photographer whose majestic black-and-white nature imagery never fails to captivate. Butcher can thrive even in an environment as indifferent as ArtServe, where more than 60 of…
Wyeth keeps it real THU 1/27 When Andrew Wyeth’s parents pulled him from public school in the middle of the third grade (due to his whooping cough), the boy might have become one of those home-schooled weirdos who think the devil lurks around every corner of our flat Earth. Fortunately,…
You want me to do what? WED 2/2 So the legendary Second City comedy troupe chose to sit out this year’s Miami Improv Festival. A loss, no doubt, but hardly a deterrent; with six more troupes than last year’s festival (including the Groundlings, the alma mater of megastars like Will…
Clint Eastwood began digging into the third act of his career — the one that reveals the mature, deep-thinking artist… with a little jazz piano on the side — a dozen years ago, with the discomfiting antiwestern Unforgiven. Since then, he’s hardly come up for air or given himself a…
When was the last time you lost yourself in a Shakespeare film? It’s a testament to the success of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the sharp and brooding new version directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino), that we leave the theater without concern for the production. Instead, the response…
American poet Sylvia Plath has long been a hallowed, haunted figure in American literary culture. Dead at 30 in 1963, a presumed suicide, Plath had a short career, but her intense, dense poetry and harrowing private life have made her the ultimate poster girl for feminist rage against male oppression…
The Sounds of Simon cast light on master songsmith Paul Simon’s poignant words. Five players on a darkened stage make Simon’s music come alive through a mix of defiance and stillness. Songs like “I Am a Rock,” “Hazy Shade of Winter,” and “American Tune” show frustration at the world’s condition…
Necessity, so it goes, is the mother of invention. In the case of the Coral Springs Museum of Art, the need is to fill about 8,000 square feet of display space on a regular basis. Amazingly, director Barbara K. O’Keefe does it and does it well, continuing to work with…
If you visit Artists’ Haven, a tiny gallery that opened in a Fort Lauderdale strip mall in December, go directly to the sculptures of Miles Laventhal, whose work handily outshines what surrounds it. And to judge from the handful of pieces on display when Artbeat stopped by, Laventhal isn’t afraid…
Nice work, America. Our friends in tsunami-stricken Southeast Asia needed immediate relief, and we wasted no time opening our wallets, even if our president needed a little prodding (still want to cut taxes for your rich friends, Georgie?). However, the relief effort is an ongoing process. That much was obvious…
THU 27 Looking for an excuse to indulge your fast-food cravings? Here’s your chance, as the Krystal Corp. begins filming commercials at its Fort Lauderdale location (901 W. Sunrise Blvd.). The company is looking for 18- to 34-year-olds (preferably in groups) to relax, chow down, and talk about the new…
The Super Bowl of Wrestling goes down at the Bergeron Rodeo Grounds, 4271 Davie Rd., Davie, on Saturday, January 29. Bell time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $9 to $15. Call 813-417-4922, or visit www.nwaflorida.com.
Canadians baking SAT 1/29 Like the swallows of Capistrano, it’s that time of year again — when Canadians drag themselves from the drudgery of shoveling snow (and the occasional dog-sled race) to make their annual migration to South Florida. Go ahead and joke. Say something about their horrendous driving or…
Tournament a hit on and off court MON 1/31 Billed as the most globally recognized event in Palm Beach County (that was before Donald Trump’s wedding last week), the Millennium International Tennis Championships start on Monday and run through February 6 at the Delray Beach Tennis Center (201 W. Atlantic…
How’s this for fan loyalty? A week after the release of its first album in 15 years, Camper Van Beethoven was greeted last October at its Montreal gig by some conniving crooks who figured the band’s gear would look better in a pawn shop than on a stage. Great –…
THU 20 The category of IDM — or intelligent dance music — encompasses a wide range of artists, from old-school electro freak Aphex Twin (listen to the album drukQs) to the scary Otto von Schirach (who gave the world such gems as Global Speaker Fisting and Hermaphrodite Tampon Eaters) to…
