The Lives of Others (Sony) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film, easily the best of last year, exists on many levels: as tragedy, dark comedy, and love story — not between a man and a woman, but between two seemingly opposite men bound by the same damnation. On the one hand…
Chicago, May of 1945. Two people, ages 27 and 21, are getting married. They are also deaf, as are most of their guests. The camera recording them has no sound, but we can see them signing to one another. At the reception, because no one can hear the music, couples…
Resurrecting the Champ is a great movie about journalism — maybe the best there ever was — because Resurrecting the Champ is mind-erasingly boring. It’s a solid story about the newspaper business — specifically about how a well-intentioned writer occasionally makes a mistake totally by accident, a mistake that is…
A smarmy score, some orgiastic farting from a herd of walruses, and a modicum of cutesy anthropomorphism from narrator Queen Latifah prove a small price to pay for this stunningly photographed narrative documentary about a year in the endangered life of Arctic ice floe. With 15 years of experience in…
The first worthwhile online-compatible game for the Wii has finally arrived. And in at least one way, Mario Strikers Charged is just like real soccer: Sometimes it scores, and sometimes it’s just a kick in the balls. The sequel to Super Mario Strikers, Mario Strikers Charged continues the Nintendo tradition…
So: last show of the Shakespeare Festival — now “Shakespeare & Friends” — at New Theatre. Crippling fear gripped this reviewer prior to the event. I had been studiously avoiding the place after a run of ghastly reviews, because you can publish horrible things about a person only so many…
Broken English (Magnolia) The Ex (Weinstein) Exorcism: Special Edition (BCI) The Far Side of Jericho (First Look) The Films of Michael Haneke (Kino) House of Games: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) House: Season Three (Universal) JAG: The Fourth Season (Paramount) Man About the House: The Complete First and Second Series (BCI)…
To create his installation Like Taking Sand to the Beach, Blue Curry carved a 16-by-12-foot section of Yamacraw Beach in the Bahamas into a grid, excavated a ton of sand, and separated it into 165 labeled plastic baggies for a 5000-mile trip to Germany. There the section of beach was…
2007 Cintas Fellowship Finalists: The show features the work of Alexandre Arrechea, María Martínez-Cañas, Gean Moreno, Wilfredo Prieto, and Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, the five finalists for the $15,000 Cintas visual arts fellowship for 2007. Martínez-Cañas is the standout amid a lot of inconsistent work and shoddy presentation. The artist, who snagged…
The 2008 presidential election is still more than a year away, but the campaign trail is already buzzing. Whether they love him or hate him, Americans want to know more about Barack Obama. He’s something like a rock star, gracing the covers of magazines and inspiring hot chicks to pen…
Strap on those helmets, boys — it’s dress rehearsal time for the Miami Dolphins. Today’s preseason matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will give football fans what they’ve been fiending for. The third game of the NFL preseason is typically when each team’s starters will see an increase in playing…
As we enter peak hurricane season, our restless surfer community happily anticipates the approaching storms. This kind of weather promises big waves, or “swells,” crashing against the shore. Miami is not exactly the wave capital of the world, but the city still has its share of surfers, many of whom…
In Western minds there is some odd connection between Buddha and ninjas. Uh, they’re both, um, not Western? Actually another connection is made this week through two way-cool events, one in the name of the seeker of all truth and the other deploying little plastic ass kickers in service of…
Shake it, sisters! This week’s edition of Siren, a weekly Saturday-night party for women who love women, should be a feast for your hips as well as your eyes and ears. Produced by Lynn Bové of Icandee, the rhythmic romp features a tribute to the Fania All-Stars, one of the…
Last Friday you spent the evening at Club BigBucks, paying $20 for watered-down cocktails, being trampled by Eurotrash tourists, and listening to a celebrity DJ scream over the tracks all night long. Don’t you feel like getting a little therapy? We prescribe a dose of Blue’s anniversary party. Tonight this…
Long before Gianni Versace turned a seaside tenement into the diamond-studded, velvet rope-strewn glamour parade that is South Beach, there was Coconut Grove. One of Miami’s oldest and most culture-rich neighborhoods, the Grove was once considered the East Village of the South. Poets, artists, beatniks, and hippies mingled under the…
During the Cold War era, baby boomers were weaned on stories of the rosy-cheeked duo Dick and Jane, their white-bread parents, and dog Spot. But earlier in the past century, kid lit wasn’t as wholesome, as both democratic and totalitarian countries sought to introduce their bouncing bambinos to political messages…
When you watch a pro basketball game, you’re seeing the results of hours of grueling practices, coaching strategies, and physical conditioning. But today and tomorrow when you go to Gulfstream Park for the South Florida leg of the 2007 Hoop It Up 3 on 3 National Basketball Tour, you’ll be…
What’s a better way to impress your date than pretending you have some culture? Take him/her to culture that is free! Then you can spend the extra money on drinks and dinner and such. Today you can save some bucks if you go for a stroll through the gorgeous, glamorous…
We see you in your car, thrusting your imaginary gun in the air, rapping furiously to Tupac’s “All Eyez on Me.” Yeah, we point and giggle at you, but deep down we relate because in our little studio apartment we become Lil’ Kim, Ghostface Killa, and Jay-Z on the regular…
To read an old diary is to painfully confront your former utter, abject dorkiness. Not only did New York-based writer Lesley Arfin save just about every diary she wrote, ever, but also she systematically — ouch — shared them with the worldwide cool-kid diaspora. Once a month, in her “Dear…
The Upper Eastside Garden is known and loved for being a laid-back outdoor oasis where you can while away an afternoon with a piña colada and a game of putt-putt. But the garden has made a subtle transformation. The verdant playground is also a hell of a place for a…
