Talk about the creative struggle. This weekend, Miami will play host to a group of dancers, known as Ayikodans, who have overcome obstacles more challenging than what most of us can imagine. The company, led by choreographer Jeanguy Saintus, is based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Their facility was partially destroyed in…
An earnest, intermittently droll dramedy about a manic-depressive toy manufacturer and his bewildered family, The Beaver is a parable that’s not easily parsed. While director Jodie Foster fails to maintain a consistent tone–could there be such a thing as inspirational satire?–the movie’s lopsided wobble is undeniably enhanced by her star…
Led by Cuban-born and trained stars of international repute hailing from top-tier companies including the San Francisco Ballet and the English National Ballet, the Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami (CCBM) presents traditional ballet at its most grandiose. The Cuban-flavored classical ballet takes the stage at the Fillmore Miami Beach at…
Bridesmaids, which opens this weekend, is a high-profile test case. Directed by Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks creator), it’s the first female-fronted comedy produced by Hollywood kingpin Judd Apatow, who has weathered criticism in the past for his brand’s dude-centric point of view. It’s also built around the talents of…
Building a DJ rep on the back of remixes isn’t a new career strategy. But Dragan Roganovic has had a particularly prosperous go at it. Born in Serbia, raised in Australia, and now based out of California, the electro-house head known as Dirty South has been banging around the scene…
One of the few justifiable recent excursions into 3-D, Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, which opens at Coral Gables Art Cinema, documents a secret wonder of the world, the Chauvet cave–a subterranean gallery of 300 animal images discovered in 1994 in the South of France.Twice as old as the…
Last night’s Asesinos por una Noche was an intensely dark, multimedia performance presented by local artists Alexey Taran, Carla Forte, and the Bistoury Physical Theater. It’s a good guess that each person in the audience last night felt about the show they way they feel about conflict in their lives:…
After more than a decade of high-profile Hollywood reboots, the shelves at Marvel and DC are starting to look empty. First came the obvious candidates: comic book vigilantes like Batman and Daredevil transformed seamlessly into action/crime anti-heroes. Then came teen idol Spider-Man, social-pariah supergroup the X-Men, righteous rageaholic Hulk, and…
Local choreographer Alexey Taran, filmmaker Carla Forte, and the Bistoury Physical Theater Company want us to confront our demons. Their new and extravagantly multimedia project Asesinos por una Noche (Assassins for One Night), performed on Friday, revolves around a simple principle: “as above, so below.” More specifically, brutal government regimes…
“The circus is tough and beautiful,” says a talking head in Aaron Schock’s documentary on the small, struggling, family-owned Circo Mexico. It’s an apt description of the film itself, which opens tomorrow at O Cinema. It’s a riveting patchwork of interconnected dramas that include difficult in-laws, arguments about money and…
Genital insertion on video is a multi-billion dollar industry. If you want your piece of the pie, you’re probably going to need some help navigating your way around the sketchy-ass world of fluffers, strap-ons, and overacting. Luckily for you, I’m just the guy to teach you a thing or two…
If nothing else, “Nine Nation Animation,” which opens at Coral Gables Art Cinema this weekend, proves that there’s a lot more to the animator’s art than either the cutting-edge ultra-realism of Pixar or the flat functionality of sitcoms like The Simpsons. The nonet of brief films on display in the…
Diavolo translates to “day” and “I fly,” so the spanking new South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center hopes this Los Angeles-based performance troupe will help the center take off. With their outrageously surrealistic and large-scale interdisciplinary performances — think larger than life-size everyday items such as doors, chairs, and stairways –…
Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy opens at Miami Beach Cinematheque and Cosford this weekend. The Iranian modernist’s first feature to be shot in the West is a flawless riff on our indigenous art cinema. It’s a romantic, sun-dappled Voyage to Italy with a Before Sunset structure and Marienbad backbeat, not to…
Consider this our public service announcement of the day. You’re welcome.You know you’re spending too much time on Facebook if:1. You recognize total strangers on the street because you saw them on your friend’s page.2. Your Facebook friends know you’re pregnant before your family does.3. You choreograph your picture-taking according…
Five months after showing how bad he could do all by himself in adapting Ntozake Shange, Tyler Perry returns to transferring his own stage work to the screen, donning once again the Lane Bryant floral prints that have made his millions. Like its predecessors, Madea’s Big Happy Family features a…
Ah, Easter. A religious celebration to many, an excuse to overindulge on candies, ham, and Peeps to others. It’s a celebration of spring; a time when pastels override dark colors, a holiday that serves as the gateway into summer. Between Easter egg hunts, leaving carrots for the Easter bunny, and…
In Argentina, the only thing more dangerous than the rampant auto accidents and understaffed hospitals is the ambulance-chasing attorneys who prey upon the injured and grieving. Carancho, Pablo Trapero’s social exposé-cum-thriller, concentrates on one such “carancho” (translation: vulture), Sosa (Ricardo Darín), and his budding relationship with junkie doctor Luján (Martina…
Water for Elephants falls in the grand line of star vehicles designed to pull back the curtain on the Hollywood sausage-making process just enough to remind audiences that stars–particularly the fresh, young, fuckable variety–are totally awesome. This story of “pretty much the most famous circus disaster in history” features Robert…
Norm Macdonald is admittedly a seemingly bizarre choice to host Sports Show. Nearing age 50, he hasn’t been nationally relevant since he hosted Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live in the mid-’90s — a gig that ended when then-NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer fired him. What followed was Dirty Work, a…
A toast to the next steps! Miami City Ballet (MCB) offers its hometown public another weekend to celebrate its 25th anniversary before honeymooning in Paris. This Friday and Saturday at MCB’s Wolfson studio theater in South Beach, the company performs excerpts from George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments and Twyla Tharp’s…
In Super, which opens this weekend, when a local crime boss (Kevin Bacon) lures away his wife (Liv Tyler), lifelong pushover Frank (Rainn Wilson)–under the influence of a bizarre Christian kids’ TV show and a sci-fi-style encounter with something like God–starts to make himself over into a real-life superhero. On…
