November may mean Thanksgiving to most of you, but in the film biz it means a rush of “serious” films trying to gouge an impression into the short memories of Oscar voters. This shouldn’t be a bad thing, but because the relationship between “Oscar” and “actual interesting filmmaking” is nearly…
The opening credits of Charlie’s Angels hint at a movie that never appears in the film’s expurgated 94 minutes; the tease is too soon rendered a disappointment. A Mission: Impossiblestyle prelude suggests a live-action cartoon as directed by Robert Altman; a camera stalks the aisles of a jumbo jet capturing…
In a dingy sixth-floor room, two lonely souls join hands to escape their solitude and isolation through the medium of dance. They shuffle across the floor, clumsily performing a waltz as they banter about the drama of their lives. If this scenario sounds as though it were penned by romance…
It’s hardly as appealing as ice cream, as addictive as chocolate, or as adaptable as seafood. So what were organizers of this weekend’s Second Annual Delray Beach Garlic Fest thinking when they chose a pungent collection of cloves as the theme for a food bash? Perhaps they were looking for…
“Aaaaiiiiieeeee!” a young girl yells as the roller coaster crests a 100-foot peak and hurtles down a steep incline. “Aaaaiiiieeeee!” echoes a man in a nearby car as it rockets around a sharply banked curve at 55 miles per hour. Shrieks of delight or screams of terror? It depends on…
Depending on how you look at it, the 15th Annual Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival is more than halfway over or just about to begin: “Officially” the festival opens November 3, although there have been screenings all over South Florida for more than two weeks now. Such incoherence may be…
Let’s get this out of the way right now, because so many of you will find this hard to believe: Yes, Mad magazine still exists. It is still being published 48 years after it was created by Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines, neither of whom lived long enough to see…
“Art is domination. It’s making people think, for one moment in time, there’s only one art, one voice, and that’s yours,” declares opera star Maria Callas (Rosemary Prinz) in Master Class. Callas was not simply a talented singer and a beautiful woman; she was a diva. It is the ability…
There are two ways to approach “The Male Form in Contemporary Art,” now at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood. Enter the door directly in front of the museum’s main entrance, and you’ll find the “Education Center,” a midsize gallery that’s meant to prepare you for what’s to come…
Before others could reject him, Michael Chabon had convinced himself no one wanted to read an epic novel about comic-book creators, mythical Jewish monsters called golems, New York in the 1930s, daring escapes from Lithuania, Nazis, and the Empire State Building’s elevator system. He wanted to write the book–desperately, one…
You’ve huddled under the newspaper, you’ve fired the squirt gun, you’ve thrown rice, toast, and toilet paper, you’ve done the pelvic thrust until it drives you insay-yay-yay-yay-yay-yane. Maybe you’ve even shouted, “Same room, different color!” with the unusual suspects at the Carefree Theatre in West Palm Beach. But until you’ve…
“A shade filled the door, and I knew him at once,” David Novak utters in his spookiest voice. “It was old, cold Mr. Grim. Death had entered the room. I motioned to him to join me….” Audiences expecting tales that begin with “once upon a time…” and end with “and…
It’s Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival time again: Time for more than a hundred movies from dozens of countries. Time for screenings at locations from southern Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade’s South Beach. Time for foreign and domestic features, documentaries, and short subjects, along with the affiliated parties and other…
We enjoy a classic whodunit in the same way we enjoy Christmas carolers — with a certain amused detachment. We are not seeking new insight into the human condition but instead are indulging in a bit of nostalgic escapism. Thus, if the revival of a genre piece like Ira Levin’s…
It has often been written of Chris Guest–or, if you prefer, Fifth Baron Christopher Haden-Guest, son of diplomat Peter Haden-Guest, who could once vote in Parliament–that he has the demeanor of cold stone and the temperament of the dead. He possesses, one often hears, an impenetrable façade, that of the…
Now that Fort Lauderdale has banished under-21 revelers from its nightclubs, what’s a fun-loving gay, lesbian, or bisexual youngster to do? Try strutting your stuff on stage at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Fort Lauderdale’s open-mic night. From attire to talent, anything goes, as long as you’re younger…
A naked woman with bright blue hair enters a long, narrow room from a doorway on the left. She crawls laboriously on her hands and knees over to what appear to be shiny red jewels scattered about on the splintered wood floor. The mystery stuff turns out to be Jell-O,…
Let’s be honest: As much as people may complain about Spike Lee’s public pontifications on race or his controversial stances or his being a rabble-rouser, that’s the way we like him. What first comes to mind when you hear his name mentioned? Certainly not Girl 6 or The Original Kings…
Much has changed for urban gays in the 20 years since William Friedkin’s Cruising. That controversial serial-killer thriller — set in the leather bars and after-hours sex clubs of New York’s West Village — was derided by gay-rights activists as a piece of cheapjack sensationalism, seemingly designed to exacerbate the…
When you walk into Miami Light Project’s theater space, you will find yourself momentarily on stage. The space is set up so the stage has its back to those entering; you have to walk through it to get to the chairs. There’s a sensation of getting lost backstage and accidentally…
is on display
A cold breeze blows through an open window, and a football game silently unfolds on the television screen. The old man sitting on the couch regards the game with mild interest, though not long ago, football was his passion, a way of pocketing a little scratch during those long stretches…
