When Neil Burger’s debut as feature-film writer and director, Interview with the Assassin, was being shopped around more than a year ago, it had many intrigued but few interested enough to buy it for distribution. The theory goes that some distributors, among them Miramax, thought its subject matter felt a…
By a recent count, more than 300 theatrical productions are staged each year in South Florida — just about one new show a day. Of course, it doesn’t work out so neatly — most shows open on or near the weekends and go up against an array of competing openings…
Sure, football, baseball, and basketball have their thrilling moments, but, according to veteran equestrians, you ain’t seen nothin’ until you witness the excitement of a horse show. The last day of the Winter Equestrian Festival winds up seven weeks of competitions on Sunday, March 9, so get thee to the…
It’s hard to believe that the tango, a dance of grace, charm, and glamour, was born in the bordellos of Buenos Aires. The dance was originally a sensuous expression of the relationship between pimp and prostitute, in which sexuality was both celebrated and suppressed. Legs intertwine, hands caress, and eyes…
John Shaft went to Africa, so why shouldn’t Die Hard’s John McClane? In the new action romp Tears of the Sun, Bruce Willis undertakes a jungle-rescue operation on the Dark Continent, and for his part, it’s a McClane adventure in camouflage, minus all the sass and most of the spectacle…
You know Internet dating’s become totally mainstream when Disney cranks out a bland comedy featuring a randomly selected pair of mismatched stars to take on the subject. Bearing the unwieldy and meaningless title Bringing Down the House, said comedy is predicated on the biggest pitfall of cyber-flirting, the idea that…
For a long time, the notion of taking glass seriously as contemporary fine art made me a little nervous. It was at best decorative and at worst utilitarian. A heavy glass orb streaked with color or encasing dried flowers was something to spruce up a coffee table. A vase, however…
One of the maddening aspects of theater is how uncertainty plays havoc with the best-laid plans. Gather the best actors and directors to work on the best scripts and you still can end up with a misfire. That’s the result of The Countess, now in production at the Caldwell Theatre…
This is a story with a happy ending, because, so far, nothing bad has happened to indicate otherwise. There are no ratings to sweat over, no network executives to fight with, no cancellations to suffer through. The rough territories lie ahead, over the horizon of 8:30 p.m. this Sunday, when…
Thursday, March 6 If there’s one thing every home needs to spruce up the décor, it’s somebody naked. A print of My Naked Wife Watching Her Body by Salvador Dalí may be a good bet, if you like your nudes tastefully done and devoid of full-frontal nudity. But then, maybe…
Step right up, ladies and gentlemen! Witness the power of the Strongwoman Catgirl, the spectacle of the Lady Swordswallower! The carnival show is an almost lost form of entertainment. There’s still the parade of the socially challenged on Ricki Lake, but that gets old. Why not have a taste of…
Thursday, February 27 Sad to think that this generation may be the last to see a live orangutan. According to the Orangutan Foundation International, an estimated 20,000 orangutans remain in the world, about 13,000 on Borneo and 7,000 on Sumatra. But 80 percent of the lowland jungles they live in…
Headlines nowadays seem like some trite combination of action comics and Jerry Bruckheimer movies, and the dire happenings they talk about are usually presented by anchors who speak of death and destruction with a gleam in their eyes. Is it any wonder, then, that news satire has become a popular…
Uh… yo. The word on the street is that the ‘Drzej is back at the helm. “Who?” you rightfully ask. Why, cinematographer turned director Andrzej Bartkowiak, of course. He’s the… er… “dog” who, under the auspices of producer Joel Silver (Richie Rich, The Matrix) created the hip-hop bang-bang chop-socky flicks…
Why do people engaged in warfare always believe that God endorses their cause and not their opponent’s? The Civil War drama Gods and Generals is filled with so much religious righteousness — endless Bible readings, urgent recitation of prayer, and ardent supplications to the Lord, to say nothing of the…
Having ragged on Fort Lauderdale’s Museum of Art (MoA) a few times recently, I figured it was only fair to check in again to see how things have been going after a series of major staff changes and budget woes. The news is both good and bad. First, the bad…
In American theater, there’s a long hard road that most successful plays take. At its very start, a playwright gets a script produced somehow, and, with luck, it’s a hit. With some restaging and rewrites and more luck, it moves on to New York City. More luck, more rewrites, and…
This should really piss you off: What follows is a story about a very funny movie you will have absolutely no chance of seeing any time soon. The powers that be who distribute movies–who copy prints, print up posters, deliver them to theaters, collect receipts, split profits (well…)–do not want…
takes place at,
Thursday, February 20: Western acrobats are usually a shadow of their Eastern counterparts. After all, troupes such as the Peking Acrobats base their performances on several millennia of tradition. About the time Jesus was preaching love thy neighbor and indirectly touching off the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and Pat Robertson,…
Call Yoko Noge a Renaissance woman. By day, she works as a correspondent at a Japanese financial paper. When the sun goes down, she turns into a sultry vocal powerhouse with high heels and an attitude. Noge’s unique brand of Chicago blues and Japanese avant-garde jazz seamlessly blends eastern and…
With 65 features in this year’s Miami International Film Festival, as well as shorts and documentaries, you’d deserve a medal if you caught them all. Festival Director Nicole Guillemet promised to tilt heavily toward Spanish-language or Latin-themed productions, and she has delivered. Spain tops the contributors’ list, but there are…
