Ahh, the dysfunctional family. We all have one or know one, and playwrights seem to know a lot of them. Feuding families have been with us at least as long as drama has existed. The Greeks had the house of Atreus. Shakespeare had King Lear and his daughters. Then there’s…
There’s no denying that U2 is awesome, nor that Phil Joanou is a snappy director, but the charming awkwardness of Sam Jones’s 16mm black-and-white rockumentary, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, makes one wanna murmur, “Rattle on? Humbug!” at the Irish Grammy-grabbers’ old-school cinematic self-celebration. As we turn our…
With Frida — the story of profoundly passionate and uncompromising Mexican-Jewish painter Frida Kahlo — it’s evident that a few folks in marketing know how to work the demographics (it’ll be extremely PC, possibly mandatory, to gush in adoration of it), but that’s the first and last cynical comment of…
While playwright Dan Goggin’s Nunsense nuns may have taken vows of celibacy, their creator has been birthing hilarious stories about the Little Sisters of Hoboken in biblical proportions. Goggin’s 1985 Nunsense mother ship, which copped a quartet of awards, begat 1992’s Nunsense II: The Second Coming, which, in turn, begat…
Although the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau may not know it, Miami is a Mecca of sorts for skateboarders. Each year aficionados from around the world arrive to catch subtropical air and ride the rails and smooth concrete around Biscayne Bay, according to native son and professional skate rat…
When you go to a Mad Cat show, ya rolls yer dice and ya takes yer chances. The risk-taking theater ensemble in downtown Miami makes sure that the audience takes some risk just to get in the door. Company policy establishes a “$12 plus the roll of one die” policy…
Anyone familiar with Kenny Scharf’s work won’t be surprised to learn that the Pop Surrealist, painter of Jetsons and Flintstones characters, psychedelic space adventures and cool mutant creatures, has created an animated cartoon. Scharf’s half-hour The Groovenians premieres November 10 on the Cartoon Network and will be previewed at a…
Listen up, retards: Killing time is over. Melt down your weapons, now, forever. Wouldn’t it be nice if that sentiment echoed around the world? Well, certainly it does, every day, but weapons have a nasty tendency of drowning out sensible words. For this reason — now more than ever –…
More than just a funky film about a callow couple held captive by a transvestite mad scientist, featuring a youthful Susan Sarandon cavorting in her underwear, The Rocky Horror Show, the 1975 cult classic, is a live show too. The musical was originally written for the stage, and that’s the…
“Who sent you here?” aerobics instructor/dominatrix Michelle demands to know after the hour-long workout called Whipped. The hard-bodied mistress recently began teaching the class and judging by her puzzled expression, I could tell I’m the first sweaty subject ever to show up in full S&M regalia: a studded leather thong,…
As any wine lover can tell you, an excellent vintage is really two wines in one. When first opened, it may have a lovely, fresh bouquet and a satisfying taste. But allowed to breathe, a great wine will develop subtle complexities, new depth, and lingering flavors. That’s an apt analogy…
There are some things that are worth seeing, or hearing, or tasting, and you are probably better for it. Then there are those few things that cannot be missed, and you are definitely better for it. One of those is Daniel Senise’s “Recent Works” at Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts. Senise,…
If you’re a fan of the baseball cap-wearin’, Nader-votin’, muckrakin’, best-sellin’, corporation-confrontin’ son of a gun known as Michael Moore, all you need to know about his latest film, Bowling for Columbine, is that it’s more of the same. You know, the mix of easy humor, attempts (some successful, most…
Punch-Drunk Love is a Paul Thomas Anderson film — Paul Thomas Anderson of Magnolia and Boogie Nights fame. It is also an Adam Sandler film — Adam Sandler of Little Nicky and Wedding Singer fame. In terms of story, it has far more in common with Sandler’s previous work than…
You ever notice those people? You know, the so-called “stand-up comedians”? Who are those people? What’s the deal with them? And what does that mean, anyway, “stand-up”? I mean, it’s not like we’re gonna think they’re sitting down unless they tell us otherwise!Yes, a decade or so later, it’s easy…
Believe it or not, long before Yoko Ono became Mrs. John Lennon, she did have a life and identity of her own. As an avant-garde artist over the past 40 years, she has produced a significant and influential body of work. Yes, we’re talking about that Yoko Ono. The one…
Some people are contortionists. Hugo and Ines — who make their fists, fingers, feet, and legs into saxophone players, magicians, ballerinas, and sad old men — could be considered body-part puppeteers. Their poignant and funny Short Stories, which they’ll perform this weekend courtesy of Miami-Dade Community College’s Cultura del Lobo…
I might as well just come out and say it: Spirited Away is the best movie I’ve seen all year. Though it would be a masterpiece in any language, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated spectacular (and Japan’s highest-grossing film ever) is being released by Disney simultaneously in two versions — one in…
Much like a psychic, a cinema critic must look through a movie and see the other side. In the case of the new thriller The Ring — a remake of the 1998 Japanese hit Ringu — the formative forces swim into focus without effort. There’s a DreamWorks boardroom, some executives…
Those aggressive Latin Americans. First they take over the town, and now they’re hogging public transportation. Okay, that’s just our Latin side, making us prone to exaggeration. Actually only a trio of Metrobuses are commandeered for three hours at a time on Saturdays in October (Hispanic Heritage Month to you…
Using a blank canvas and buckets of paint, Miami artist Jonas Gerard stands onstage and creates colorful works of art. He calls it “spontaneous performance-painting.” To expand the concept, he’s going to paint while interacting with others, perhaps a saxophonist, a poet, and a dancer. The ensemble’s improvisational piece called…
There has been a lot of talk lately about the so-called Law of Unintended Consequences: that any course of action will produce an array of surprise results. I can’t be certain exactly what the Actors Playhouse in Coral Gables was intending with its season-opener Comic Potential, but the results are…
