Most Popular
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Kill Gus Boulis's Killer?
Paul Brandreth didn't want to murder anybody. Or did he?
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City Hall Stinks
There's a war on Dinner Key, and Marc Sarnoff is a bomb-thrower.
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Mayor of the Nude Beach
So he's naked and in his seventies. He's still the coolest guy you'll ever meet.
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I Have HIV
But I'm not telling you, babe. Happy Valentine's Day!
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Vamos a Cuba!
Join us as we try to hitch a ride to the island before the gold rush strikes.
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City Hall Stinks (58)
There's a war on Dinner Key, and Marc Sarnoff is a bomb-thrower.
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Sarnoff Turns His Back on Blacks (20)
Coconut Grove's other half feels left out.
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Sarnoff Shmarnoff (14)
Commissioner Marc's claim to a famous bloodline just might be fiction.
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Jumping the Snapper (5)
Brosia boards the Mediterranean bandwagon, with mixed results.
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Cyclists Court Death Daily (55)
It's dangerous, but Miami is getting friendlier to bikes.
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Reel Wrap
Our critics review a sampling from week one of the film fest.
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Movie Magic City
The Miami International Film Festival may have finally arrived on Hollywood's radar.
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Vlogged to Death
Status update: Romero and his zombies are back to attack the Facebook generation.
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The Truth Won't Set You Free
Multiperspective, mega-annoying Vantage Point.
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Reel Wrap Redux
Week two at the Miami International Film Festival.
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The Hobbit Has Gone North (And Other Crap)
11:40AM 03/10/08 -
Over The Weekend - Bikes, Blue Men, Teen Rock Idols and A Film Festival
08:57AM 03/10/08 -
The Little Film Festival That Could
08:04AM 03/10/08 -
The Roots Rip Up Langerado--Then Drop New Video
11:42AM 03/10/08 -
Langerado Loves Ben Folds
09:23AM 03/10/08 -
G. Love and the Special Sauce Hit Langerado
08:55PM 03/09/08
What we are writing about
- Art Basel
- Arturo Sandoval Jazz Club
- Carnival Center
- Coconut Grove
- Coral Gables
- downtown Miami
- Fillmore Miami Beach
- Fort Lauderdale
- Francisco Goya
- Freedom Tower
- Hugo Chávez
- In the Continuum
- John Timoney
- Julia Tuttle Causeway
- Karen Kilimnik
- Marc Sarnoff
- Miami-Dade County Library
- Miami-Dade County...
- Miami Beach
- Miami local art
- Miami local music
- Miami local theater
- Museum of Contemporary...
- Patrick Williams
- sex offenders
- South Beach
- South Miami
- Studio A
- Wii
- Xbox
Recent Articles By Scott Foundas
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The Truth Won't Set You Free
Multiperspective, mega-annoying Vantage Point.
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Pity the Fool
There is no gold at the end of this terrible Matthew McConaughey-Kate Hudson mashup.
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American Heroes and Zeroes at Sundance '08
Morgan Spurlock makes us look bad, plus (separate!) films on baseball and steroids shine.
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Best Movies of 2007
What? No Simpsons? Add your favorite picks to our comments.
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Legend Has It
That old last-man-on-Earth setup? It really works.
National Features
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Houston Press
"It Was Like an Armageddon Movie"
For days after Hurricane Rita, a Texas prison was hell on earth.
By Chris Vogel -
SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
Director’s Cut
Tim Burton’s gorgeously gruesome Sweeney Todd
By Scott Foundas
Published: December 27, 2007
Details:
Tim Burton has taken Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Grand Guignol operetta, hemmed in the narrative, cast confessed nonsingers in the principal roles, and somehow produced something magical — the only one of the new-millennium Hollywood musicals that succeeds both musically and cinematically. Burton breathes new life into the genre by dousing it in buckets of blood. Nothing about the world of Sweeney Todd will exactly surprise connoisseurs of Burtonia — the elaborate (and party CGI) sets could well have been constructed with odds and ends from Sleepy Hollow, and the casting has more than a touch of the familiar to it. As the lovelorn baker woman Mrs. Lovett, Helena Bonham Carter is so animated you'd be forgiven for mistaking her for her stop-motion surrogate from Burton's 2005 Corpse Bride. As for Johnny Depp as the eponymous, vengeance-seeking barber, well, it's not the first time he's played a social misfit with shiny metal at the ends of his upper extremities. But like the Coen brothers with No Country for Old Men, working with such inviolable source material seems to have renewed Burton. He shoots the movie almost entirely in closeup, and by doing so brings out an intimacy in the material that sometimes gets dwarfed on the stage. Put simply, it's a cause for celebration — a macabre holiday treat not everyone in the family is sure to enjoy.
